《This project has no purpose》 Prologue: the dreams of childhood Prologue: the dreams of childhood ¡°Corentin, this way!¡± being tagged along by a cute, young girl as if nothing else in the world mattered. ¡°Quickly, quickly!¡± she uttered cheerfully as her smile painted the very picture of ¡®freedom¡¯. Freedom not in the sense of liberation and self-determination, but by the absence of responsibility and hopelessness of the world¡¯s problems; the kind of freedom that would suggest a king was not as free as the child of a peasant who knew not the woes of society. I gazed upon her glimmering azure eyes and sighed a breath of relief as though all the worries of the future and past were meaningless. My heart grew lighter and my legs ran faster while she continued to drag me off to somewhere. It felt like I had woken up from a long fever dream. The untainted air of the countryside rushed down my lungs, healing me from the inside. It was a symphony of nature: the crashing sound of a waterfall in the distance, the swaying of trees and their leaves like the echoes of a hundred cymbals, and the carefree laughter of the young girl who tugged me along.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. A dream or reality? It had become dangerously ambiguous as to which it was. Conventional attitudes would suggest such a tranquil perversion of freedom couldn¡¯t possibly exist in these woeful times. If it was a dream, I didn¡¯t want to wake up. Suddenly it happened. The world around me began to warp; all sound of which I had heard with clarity until now had become muffled and indistinct, the vibrant colours of the world became a jumbled mess of odd shapes and colours, and the firmness of the ground grew uncertain. It all happened so fast and placed a massive strain on my body. I heard the young girl¡¯s voice shouting at me desperately, yet I couldn¡¯t understand what she was trying to say. Then, everything became dark. A silence¡­ A lonely silence of which I had been familiar with for a long time¡­ The dream had ended, and I was confronted by reality. Chapter one: then the nightmares ceased Chapter one: then the nightmares ceased ¡°Uh?¡± I grunted as I was violently snapped back into reality. The scent of unwashed clothes and unventilated, mouldy air beckoned me back to my usual reality; no longer was this the picturesque country-scape of nature and happiness, but the dull reality I had lived in for almost thirty years. I knew it was all just a figment of my lonely imagination, but the sensation of that young girl¡¯s warmth and softness still lingered in the palm of my hands. ¡°Ugh, was it always this dark?¡± I wondered to myself as I navigated over to the unused light-switch in the corner of my room. Yet, something stopped me as I reached out to flip the switch. It just didn¡¯t feel right. My home wasn¡¯t dark because I enjoyed living such a dreary life. No, it was because I didn¡¯t want to see it. To turn on these lights would mean confronting the wretched life I had been leading. The only semblance of luminosity in this room came from the flashing lights of my computer screen. ¡°Yeah,¡± I shrugged. ¡°This is¡­ ¡®home¡¯,¡± I suppose I didn¡¯t hate it as much as I thought I did. I certainly didn¡¯t enjoy it; however, I had grown accustomed over the years and found a sense of content in it. I moved over and picked up my phone resting upon the dusty mattress I had used in place of a proper bed. It was past 4 in the afternoon which would make me almost eight hours late for work. I scrolled past almost a hundred missed calls from my boss and just tapped ¡®clear all¡¯. ¡°Yeah no,¡± I shook my head. Calling him back at this time would just be a death sentence and it was probably wiser on me to look for a new job. Besides, even after wasting away four years at that workplace I never grew to like it. The manager was a dick, the customers were worse, and every day I just felt like I was slowly killing myself over a place I never gave a shit about. It wasn¡¯t even a good job. Just your everyday, rundown and ill maintained fast food joint. After washing my face in the sink, I fully woke myself up and headed over to the computer. I clicked around to remember what I had been doing before that strange fever dream. What sprawled across my screen was an online game I had been particularly enamoured with for the past few years. It wasn¡¯t anything grand or popular, but I found it thoroughly enjoyable ¨C at least enough so that I sank literal thousands of dollars into it without a second thought. My character was boosted to such absurd levels of strength and skill that most other players found it hard to even compare me to them, which wasn¡¯t anything to brag about. A lot of modern games have become like this; it was all about the free premium model and stuffing the game with microtransactions until your wallet bled. I guess I was just one of those idiots giving this shitty game company money to continue this horrendous business. ¡°Whatever.¡±The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. None of that was important anymore. I had already spent the money, and to be honest I enjoyed my miserable time fuelling my ego by making my character almost untouchable. It was my pride. It was my ¡®only¡¯ pride. ¡°Is this how you want to spend your life?¡± a sudden voice called out to me. A very ¡®familiar¡¯ and deeply personal voice. ¡°Huh?¡± I froze for a second before mustering up the courage to turn my chair around. The one to greet me here in this dark, crowded room was, ¡°me?¡± Standing there with a dead, depressing stare was a lanky fellow with unkempt hair and a mean look in his eyes. Perhaps it was his unhealthy, pale complexion, or the way he hunched over, or the dark rings under his eyes, either way there was a general sense of unpleasantness emanating from him ¨C from ¡®me¡¯. ¡°What the hell?¡± It freaked me the hell out. You¡¯d be hard-pressed to find anyone who wouldn¡¯t be perturbed by this strange and perplexing scenario. My doppelganger sighed in a manner reminiscent of a parent who was disappointed at their child. ¡°What¡¯s wrong with you? Even after death you still return here. Is this some sort of a curse?¡± ¡°After death? What the hell are you talking about?¡± ¡°You¡­ don¡¯t remember?¡± he asked with a confused look about him. ¡°Uhh, no? I think I¡¯d remember something that extreme.¡± ¡°Evidently not. I can even give you the exact time of our death. August 23rd, 2023. It was exactly 11:43. Do you want to know how you died?¡± ¡°Wait,¡± I stopped him. ¡°Wait just a second,¡± I felt a powerful headache stinging at the back of my head. His words jogged a particular memory, but I couldn¡¯t properly recall what it was. No, it wasn¡¯t as if I had forgotten, more like a different part of me was actively sealing off that memory. That date and time repeated in my head over and over. ¡°No, no, it can¡¯t be. No, but I¡¯m still here. If I¡¯m supposed to be dead, then why am I still here?¡± He stared intently at me for a few seconds before opening his mouth again. ¡°I see. I think I¡¯m understanding the situation here.¡± If he understood it then I¡¯d be delighted to hear about it, or so I wanted to say. ¡°It might be a sort of negative feedback from remembering too much,¡± he continued whilst I still had no clue. ¡°Tell me, is there anything else you remember before arriving at this¡­ ¡®place¡¯?¡± ¡°Well,¡± there was one thing in my recent memory. ¡°I¡­ umm, saw a dream. About running around carefree in some sort of countryside with a young girl. I¡¯m not sure if it has anything to do with what¡¯s going on here, but that¡¯s the only thing that comes to mind.¡± When I told him that he let out a small chuckle. It was honestly quite creepy to see myself laughing like that. ¡°Well, if god does exist, he certainly has a merciful side to him. I guess your next life will be quite the improvement to this mess. Good luck out there, though I get the feeling you¡¯ll probably come back here sometime down the line.¡± ¡°What do you mean? Explain, dammit. Just what¡¯s going on?¡± cutting off my thoughts, the ground suddenly trembled beneath my feet. ¡°An earthquake?¡± ¡°Not quite. It just means you¡¯re waking up.¡± ¡°Waking up?¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine. Everything will be fine. Oh, but before you go there¡¯s one thing I need you to remember. You have to --.¡± Chapter two: do these chapter subtitles even matter? Chapter two: do these chapter subtitles even matter? You ever get a sense of d¨¦j¨¤ vu? It happened to me as I opened my eyes for what seemed like the second time in a row of similar experiences. The thought occurred to me ¡®could this be a dream too?¡¯ but if I questioned it here, I probably would never be able to get it out of my head, so I decided to just roll with it. That didn¡¯t stop me from pinching myself a couple of time just to be a little surer. If there was one positive aspect to any of this, it would be that my nausea had disappeared since leaving that darkened room. ¡°Corentin?! Have you finally awoken?!¡± following that sentiment, I was suddenly embraced from the side by an adult woman. The sweet aroma of a grown woman was strangely tantalizing; her shampoo smelt of fresh flowers and honey and her skin rubbing against mine was as smooth as a baby¡¯s bottom. The word ¡®motherly¡¯ instantly came to mind. ¡°My poor baby, thank goodness you¡¯re woken up.¡± ¡°Ah¡­ eh?¡± I was taken aback, thought thinking about it calmly I could understand the gist of the situation. Following the sequence of events, this was most likely the outcome of my death in my previous world and subsequent reintroduction in a new life; right, I¡­ ¡®died¡¯. ¡®Small hands¡¯, I couldn¡¯t help but let out a silent chuckle at seeing my own limbs. They definitely weren¡¯t the same ones I had used for almost thirty years, yet for some reason I felt I could really get used to this. It was as though a huge burden had been lifted from my chest. What was that expression again? ¡®To cut one¡¯s coat according to the cloth¡¯ or something along those lines. In any case the person who had been clinging onto me for a while was most likely¡­ nah, I didn¡¯t even need to think about it. The answer immediately popped into my head, ¡°mother you¡¯re making it a little hard to breathe,¡± I lightly tapped on her back to surrender. ¡®Marie de Helvetius¡¯, or so told me the memories inside my head. Sounded French, though I wasn¡¯t sure if that country existed in this world too. ¡°Oh! Sorry, sorry. I was just relieved that you finally regained consciousness,¡± she apologized while wiping the tear from the corner of her eyes. She pat me gently on my head, ¡°thank goodness.¡± It felt a little odd being on the receiving end of this trope, but it felt kind of good. ¡°Your fever also seems to have come down, but just to be sure you should rest up a little more.¡± ¡°Mama, has Corentin woken up yet?¡± a mischievous young girl barged into the room without so much as a knock. She appeared around seven or eight years old, straight black hair and a playful demeanour. She made a straight line to the side of my bed and greeted me with a cheerful but also concerned smile. ¡°Corentin, you¡¯re better now! I was so worried,¡± she grabbed onto my hand tightly and rubbed it against her face.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°Ah,¡± I instantly recognized this warm and soft sensation. She was the girl from my dream¡­ I mean, my dream inside of a dream¡­ I, err¡­ Digging through the memories of this body identified this girl as my ¡®older sister¡¯: ¡®Maybelle de Helvetius¡¯. ¡°I¡¯m doing a lot better now. I¡¯m sorry to have worried you, sis.¡± ¡°Geez, seriously. You suddenly just fell over with an intense fever. I was worried what would happen if you died like that¡­ I¡¯d never forgive you, you know?¡± she pouted. ¡°That bad, huh? How¡­ exactly how long was I out for?¡± ¡°Hmm,¡± she pondered to herself while putting her hand over her chin. ¡°About three days?¡± she glanced over to mother who nodded in agreement. Three days? I was astonished myself. I had been under the impression it was just for a few hours or something. That¡¯s a heck of a long time; am I actually going to be okay? ¡°Oh, that¡¯s¡­ what did the doctor say?¡± I kind of figured a doctor oversaw me since this room looked like a modern hospital room. ¡°They couldn¡¯t find anything wrong with you aside from the sudden fever. There were no signs of a flu or any other viruses,¡± my mother began to explain. ¡°The hospital ran some more in-depth tests, but nothing ever came out. Luckily it doesn¡¯t seem like there¡¯s anything wrong with you now, but we¡¯ll have to run a few more tests just to be safe.¡± ¡°Okay,¡± I agreed. That being said, it¡¯s very likely my sudden onset of a high fever was caused by the massive influx of memories of my previous life. This young body most likely couldn¡¯t handle all the information being jammed in so quickly and passed out. I let out a sigh and decided to do as mother suggested earlier and lied down. ¡°Then, I¡¯ll do as you said, mother, and rest for a little longer.¡± ¡°Of course, that¡¯s a good idea. Since you¡¯re fine now I¡¯ll go have a talk with the doctors.¡± ¡°Mama, I¡¯ll stay with Corentin a little longer,¡± Maybelle interjected. ¡°Then make sure you don¡¯t bother your brother to much, okay?¡± she said and silently left the room. Honestly, I had no interests in actually sleeping and really just wanted some time to myself to consolidate the memories of these two lives. ¡°Umm, sis, it¡¯s a bit hard to sleep if you¡¯re staring at me so intently.¡± Her big blue eyes looking at me like that was a little¡­ creepy. It reminded me of those old Japanese horror movies with the child or female ghosts. I got the shivers just thinking about it. ¡°Oh, is that so? Okay,¡± she turned her head to the side but continued to steal glances at me awkwardly. ¡°Sis, actually, I¡¯d feel a lot better if you just found some way to occupy yourself while you sit near me.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a good idea. Be right back!¡± she rushed out the room and came back almost instantly with a book. ¡°Then, I¡¯ll read this while you go to sleep.¡± ¡°Okay, you do that. Enjoy,¡± I told her and let out a sigh of relief. Chapter three: it happened because I thought it was cool Chapter three: it happened because I thought it was cool I had finally gotten a moment to myself, or so I thought. The moment I closed my eyes for quiet contemplation, something else popped up. It was a very peculiar and very familiar looking¡­ ¡®interface¡¯. [Corentin de Helvetius] Level: 200 Race: Human (Human Aspect) Health: 27894/27894 Mana: Infinite Stamina: Infinite Physical Attack: 5324 Magic Attack: 4991 Critical hit Chance: 87.92% Critical Damage: 4.4x Physical Defence Pierce: 239 Magic Defence Pierce: 218 Physical Defence: 652 Magic Defence: 614 Magic: 2199 Wisdom: 1951 Dexterity: 2720 Strength: 2982 Agility: 2467 ¡°What?!¡± I jumped out of my bed screaming. ¡°Huh? What¡¯s wrong Corentin?! Does it hurt somewhere?!¡± Maybelle almost fell out of her chair and followed in the shouting. ¡°Huh? Oh, erm¡­ sorry, I just¡­¡± the status screen hadn¡¯t disappeared even when I opened my eyes. It floated around my vision whilst staying just translucent enough not to majorly obstruct anything. I tried touching it, but my hand phased through it as though nothing was there. ¡°This is¡­ no, it couldn¡¯t be,¡± I thought. This was the status menu for my character in the online game I had been playing in my previous life, down to the exact digits. ¡°What does this mean? Did my skills also¡­?¡± I mumbled under my breath. ¡°C- Corentin? Are you okay?¡± Maybelle reached out and touched my forehead to measure my fever. ¡°Mmm, I can¡¯t tell¡­¡± ¡°Sorry sis, I didn¡¯t mean to shout like that,¡± then a thought came to me. ¡°Actually, can you take a look at my hand?¡± I reached forward. ¡°Your hand? Does it hurt?¡± ¡®Click¡¯ The moment she heard that sound, Maybelle¡¯s body fell limp onto my bed. I nudged her around a little and called out to her a few times to see if she would respond; nothing. With the sound of her soft breathing I could tell she had fallen into a deep sleep. ¡°It¡­ it actually works.¡± [Hypnosis]: Temporarily places targets to sleep. Targets will be woken up when attacked; while under the ¡®sleep¡¯ condition, the target will receive 50% extra damage. Cannot be used against certain targets. ¡°I¡­ didn¡¯t expect it to actually work,¡± which would also mean these stats were real. I felt an intense urge to test out these abilities right away, unfortunately there wasn¡¯t anything appropriate I could test on. Speaking of which, I took a closer examination around the room and my suspicions were correct: this room resembled a ¡®modern¡¯ hospital room. It was white everywhere with curtains that couldn¡¯t be made in a fantasy world, but the most damning piece of evidence was the tall buildings outside my window. High-rise apartment buildings and skyscrapers, down below I could faintly hear the sounds of cars coming and going. ¡°Yeah, hmm¡­ doesn¡¯t seem like any kind of fantasy world.¡± On the ceiling were lightbulbs and in the corner of there was what looked like a security camera. ¡°Then what¡¯s the point of these stats?¡± I felt a little irritated. A modern setting and superpowers, well, I suppose if you mix them together you certainly can get some kind of interesting stories, but I wasn¡¯t the biggest fan of the ¡®superhero¡¯ genre. ¡°Haaaa¡­¡± I let out a long sigh. It all felt like a massive waste of potential; a grand treasure that couldn¡¯t be utilized. ¡°Well, I guess I can have some fun with it,¡± I dragged myself off the bed and stood in front of one of the mirrors attached to the wall. Actually, I was quite curious as to how this one might work in real life.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. [Stealth Field]: Temporarily masks the user¡¯s presence and physical appearance, rendering them invisible to onlookers. If the opponent has a high enough detection skill, the user may be found out! As the skill description read, I could barely see the outlines of myself through the mirror. The closest comparison I could give was that it was similar to those active camouflage things used in those sci-fi movies. Again, the application of this skill was extremely limited outside of military use. I undid my stealth and returned to bed. ¡°Next¡­ oh, what about other people¡¯s stats?¡± I turned to my sister who had fallen peacefully asleep by the side of the bed and tried to read her status. [Maybelle de Helvetius] Level: 7 Race: Human (Elf Aspect) ¡°Oh?! Wait, that¡¯s a lot less detailed than mine,¡± I thought but soon figured out it was because it had been shortened. On the bottom right corner of the menu there was a small button labelled ¡®detailed¡¯ and tapping onto it expanded her status screen. [Maybelle de Helvetius] Level: 7 Race: Human (Elf Aspect) Health: 120/120 Mana: 185/185 Stamina: 230/230 Physical Attack: 12 Magic Attack: 18 Critical hit Chance: 1% Critical Damage: 1.1x Physical Defence Pierce: 0 Magic Defence Pierce: 0 Physical Defence: 7 Magic Defence: 8 Magic: 21 Wisdom: 17 Dexterity: 26 Strength: 11 Agility: 16 ¡°Nice, wait what¡¯s this? Elf Aspect?¡± I quickly reopened my status menu to compare, and my race read as ¡®Human (Human Aspect)¡¯. ¡°Interesting,¡± it could be that there¡¯s hope after all. The other stats aside, the fact that my sister even has points in ¡®magic¡¯ must mean she¡¯s capable of using it somehow. ¡°Oh yeah, what about my items?¡± aside from it stinging a little, I might actually be okay with losing most of my items if one thing remained the same. The most useful item in a world like this was ¡®money¡¯. The problem was that currency in the game was treated as part of the interface instead of being its own physical item, which made it vague on whether it was possible to even drop. ¡°Please let it work!¡± I prayed and retrieved a metallic gold coin from my inventory. They were larger and heavier than I had expected, or perhaps it was due to my hands being smaller. Regardless, the important thing was it was possible to retrieve. Resting in my hands was an ornate gold coin that might look more at home in a museum, but I let out a sigh of relief. If nothing else, it would still be theoretically possible to melt down these gold coins into blocks to sell. I mean, it¡¯d be a cumbersome thing to do but it was better than nothing. I also had about 2.14 billion gold coins, but that was just the amount on my person; I had several guild castles and the storages in there were also filled to the max ¨C maximum being 2.14 billion. It wasn¡¯t because I was particularly good at playing the game or handling money or anything. Nah, it was because the game¡¯s economy went down the shitter after a certain incident involving item duplication. Well, sparing the details, the economy basically broke after that and the developers didn¡¯t know how to fix it. You could exchange 1 billion gold coins for about $100 USD, of which I exchanged a lot. Like, embarrassing amounts. But okay, gold was accessible. ¡°Next, my items,¡± I scrolled down the list of items in my inventory. ¡°How about a ¡®Crypt Dagger¡¯?¡± it was a simple item made of stone with etchings of gargoyles on it. It surprisingly heavy for a small thing. I mean, I called it ¡®small¡¯ but it was as big as my entire arm, which wasn¡¯t odd considering the shrunken state of my body. In the same way I read my sister¡¯s stats, I tried to do the same for this item. [Crypt Dagger] Weapon Tier: Exotic Weapon Type: Dagger Attack Rate: 1450 ~ 1550 Attack Speed: Very Fast Critical Damage Amplification: +92% (+0.92x) Equip bonus: +260 Dexterity, +255 Agility, +240 Strength Special Ability #1: Imbues all attacks with the ¡®Darkness¡¯ attribute. Additional 50 Darkness damage upon hit. Special Ability #2: If the wielder is about to receive more than 5000 damage, temporarily grants a state of invulnerability. (Invulnerability duration: 3 seconds). (Cooldown: 90 seconds) Equip Prerequisite: Over 1500 Dexterity. ¡°Excellent. It¡¯s just how I remembered it,¡± then I slapped myself. There¡¯s nothing ¡®excellent¡¯ about a dagger that can¡¯t be used in this modern setting. ¡°Stats, skills and items are all accounted for,¡± I nodded. The only thing that¡¯s different is the addition of these ¡®aspects¡¯. The quickest way is probably to ask someone or read a book on them. There was a possibility no one knew what they were, and I¡¯d just look like a crazy person. Though with my current appearance the worst-case scenario was probably just being labelled as a child with an overactive imagination. ¡°Now then, what to do next¡­¡± Chapter four: an old tale from father Chapter four: an old tale from father While thinking about what to do next, a knock came from the other side of the door. ¡°Corentin, I¡¯m coming in,¡± came the deep voice of a man. As the door slid open, I was greeted by an imposing figure; a tall man with a firm and commanding posture ¨C if looks could kill. With a face like a hawk, his gaze alone sent shivers down my spine, but perhaps it was due to my [Ailment Resistance] passive ability I could stand before him without flinching. With heavy steps he walked up to my bed in a brisk manner. He glanced over to my sister who was asleep then let out a sigh. ¡°How is your body? Any discomfort?¡± he asked. ¡°No, I¡¯m quite all right, father,¡± I replied. ¡®Gerald de Helvetius¡¯, if memory served correctly, he was part of the military, though what sector and how high was unclear to me. He continued to stare at me silently while I waited. Were all interactions between father and son supposed to be this awkward? I never had a proper father figure in my previous life and so this was genuinely new to me; the distance between two men in the family of a subordinate relationship was hard to gauge. Tough greyed out hair by the fringes of his temples and a face filled with wrinkles, yet instead of ¡®age¡¯ it was more sense of ¡®wisdom¡¯ I got from him. He seemed like the type of person who put his career before making a family, hence why he appeared a little aged to be a father of a seven-year-old girl. [Gerald de Helvetius] Level: 57 Race: Human (Elf Aspect) Health: 4988/4988 Mana: 5236/5236 Stamina: 4311/4311 Physical Attack: 337 Magic Attack: 585 Critical hit Chance: 15% Critical Damage: 2.0x Physical Defence Pierce: 37 Magic Defence Pierce: 48 Physical Defence: 92 Magic Defence: 107 Magic: 541 Wisdom: 562 Dexterity: 429 Strength: 380 Agility: 394 ¡®Interesting¡­¡¯ ¡°¡­¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°¡­¡± so awkward! ¡°Um, father, if you don¡¯t mind my asking, do you know what an ¡®Aspect¡¯ is?¡± I had to find some way to break the ice. ¡°Aspect?¡± for a second I thought it might turn out to be a dead lead, but he suddenly nodded to himself and began to explain. ¡°Hmm, I suppose you will be having your Aspect revealed this year so it¡¯s a good idea to get you familiarized on what they are.¡± Then he proceeded to tell me a story that sounded like it jumped straight out of a fantasy novel. The basic gist of it was that several thousand years ago there were numerous races other than humans living in this world, however after a certain cataclysmic ¡®incident¡¯ a massive portion of those races were wiped out and faced decline. These races were the typical kind; Elves, Giants, Dwarves, beastmen, lizardmen, etc. Unable to replenish their population faster than their rate of decline, they were headed for an obvious extinction event. The other problem compounding this issue was the fact that interspecies crossbreeding wasn¡¯t possible. Thus, in order to prevent this tragedy from happening the major races of the world gathered together and with countless sacrifices enacted a ¡®World-tier¡¯ magic known as ¡®Harmony¡¯. The exact details of this spell weren¡¯t preserved very well since it had happened over thousands of years ago, but basically humanity served as the base template for the other races to implant their essence, or ¡®Aspect¡¯ as it¡¯s known.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. To put it simply, every person here is a hybrid of human and another race. ¡°I see, so that¡¯s why sis is classified as ¡®Human (Elf Aspect)¡¯,¡± I muttered under my breath. ¡°So then, how exactly does this ¡®Aspect¡¯ thing work?¡± I asked. ¡°After the age of five, all children are brought to the church to have their racial aspects revealed. After which, they are thoroughly trained to harness the power of their Aspects in school. That said, while it may be exciting, it¡¯s not something that complicated. Your mother and I both carry the Aspect of Elves ¨C and so does your sister ¨C which would make it very likely you¡¯d also inherit our Aspects,¡± father told me. Unfortunately, that didn¡¯t appear to be the case with me. ¡°Is it possible to possess a different Aspect than that of the parents¡¯?¡± ¡°It is ¨C though rare ¨C there are cases where certain recessive Aspects have surfaced in the offspring. Your grandfather, in other words your mother¡¯s father, possessed the Aspect of the Giant. There is a small possibility you could inherit this Aspect.¡± ¡°Is there a case of Aspects fusing? For example, a person inheriting two Aspects?¡± ¡°No, that has never been documented, however the opposite has happened.¡± ¡°The opposite?¡± ¡°They¡¯re known as the ¡®Pures¡¯, instead of receiving just an aspect, they¡¯re born as one of the original races. Since Elves were the most numerous races after humanity, a Pure Elf is most likely the most common Pure you¡¯d see, that said even this is extraordinarily rare. The chances of a Pure being is about one in one-hundred-million.¡± ¡°What are the advantages of being a Pure?¡± ¡°Depending on the race their natural combat capabilities far exceed that of normal people. Say a Pure Elf, their capacity for learning and mastering magic is unparalleled and a lot of them have engraved their names into the history books.¡± ¡°What about non-hominid races like the Dragons? Are they born the way their original races appeared?¡± ¡°No, non-hominid races were not a part of the Harmony spell. Their physiology made it impossible to crossbreed with hominids. That said, there are rumours that these races have managed to survive the decline and exist elsewhere. None so far have been documented.¡± Father was quite talkative when asked questions on topics he was knowledgeable on. The awkward tension between us has also disappeared which gave me relief. That said, it was an interesting harvest of information for me as well. Before I could ask anymore questions, the phone in his pockets began to vibrate. ¡°Excuse me for a moment,¡± he said as he walked out of the room to answer the call. ¡°A fantasy world that¡¯s progressed into modern times,¡± I nodded to myself. ¡°Corentin,¡± fathered walked in with a serious face ¨C well, more serious than previously. ¡°Work has come up and I¡¯ll have to leave for a few days. Be sure to look after your sister and mother.¡± ¡°Understood father, but will you be all right?¡± ¡°Assuming everything goes as planned, there should be no problems.¡± ¡°That¡¯s¡­ that doesn¡¯t boost confidence.¡± He let out a small chuckle as he placed his hand over my head. ¡°It¡¯s important.¡± ¡°It sounds dangerous.¡± ¡°It can¡¯t be helped, there aren¡¯t many senior officers willing to go down into the exclusion zone,¡± I wondered if it was okay for him to reveal something like that to his son, though I felt like he was treating me more like an adult after the conversation we shared. Now ¡®exclusion zone¡¯ sounded like a place I wanted to visit, but it was unlikely anytime soon. I also wanted to ask about it, however I got the feeling he probably wouldn¡¯t tell me about this one. No choice then. ¡°Father, if that¡¯s the case then please take this,¡± I reached into my pocket and withdrew something from my inventory. It was a small grey pebble with a small inscription on it. ¡°I found it when sis was dragging me along before,¡± I made up a suitable lie and handed it over to him. ¡°Think of it as a good luck charm to keep you safe.¡± It was a fairly useful item known as the ¡®Reaper¡¯s Talisman¡¯, its effect was simple in that it negated a single death. In the game it meant you could revive on the spot without any death penalty, but I wasn¡¯t exactly sure on how it worked here. Either way, I didn¡¯t want this man to die when I only just got to know him. He took a good look at it and nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll be sure to keep it safe.¡± After that he left without saying anything else. ¡°¡­ Damn, I¡¯m actually pretty curious, but I¡¯ll let it go for now,¡± I sighed. ¡°A new world¡­ A new life. So be it then.¡± Chapter five: the welcome home chapter Chapter five: the welcome home chapter The next day I had been safely discharged from the hospital with no further complication was taken home. ¡®Home¡¯ was a funny concept to me; previously it only referred to a place where I slept and ate, but here was a real home with actual family members. It was just a moderately sized two-storey house in the middle of the residential district. My parents, or at least my background, in this life was quite affluent though not as far reaching as one may expect. ¡°What¡¯s wrong, Corentin?¡± asked my sister as she slapped me across the back. Perhaps she was worried that my previous affliction had still some hold over me, but I calmly assured her that nothing was amiss. ¡°No, it¡¯s okay, I was just feeling a little happy seeing our house after being in the hospital for a while,¡± I told her with a smile. The first step I took into this new house of mine brought along so many differing emotions: anxiousness, hesitation, joy and excitement. I turned the metallic handles of the door open and was greeted by the house ¨C by my new life. The entrance alone was neatly maintained with some flowering pots lined up on the side. However, the biggest difference was in the lighting, or rather the existence of one. The furniture gave off a nostalgic smell despite it being the first time I¡¯ve experienced this scent. The hardwood boarded floors creaked with each step I took. The lights above were just the right brightness and the walls were a marvellous shade of bright white making the place bigger than it actually was. The kitchen was visible from across the living room and my imagination instantly ran wild with the picturesque scene of my mother happily cooking food while we were playing just in sight. There were several rooms on the first floor with a few more upstairs. ¡°Let¡¯s go up to your room!¡± my sister dragged me by the arm and took me upstairs. ¡°We¡¯ll be having dinner soon, so be sure to get ready by then!¡± mother informed us as she readied herself to prepare the food. My room was neat and orderly. There were no unwashed clothes hanging around, no stain marks on the carpet and it had been kept very luminate. A small bed laid at one corner of the room and across it was a small table with a laptop connected to it. It wasn¡¯t anything particularly extraordinary, but this quaint little room felt rather cosy. ¡®Yeah, I like this,¡¯ I thought to myself content. Maybelle rushed in and immediately jumped headfirst onto my bed. ¡°Finally, home!¡± she announced as she stretched about like a cat. ¡°Geez, come on sis, you¡¯re just kicking up dust,¡± I told her. ¡°It¡¯s fine, it¡¯s fine,¡± she dismissed while snuggling up to my blankets. Now that I thought about it, Maybelle was seven this year, which meant she was already in the second grade. ¡°Sis, what¡¯s school like?¡± I was curious as to how much difference there was between the educational institutions of this world and my old. If I recalled correctly from these jumbled memories, Maybelle attended a special government school. In fact, in this world all schools are run by the government and privatization has never occurred. I know it sounded like a utopian system but it was most likely so they could maintain a detailed record on everyone¡¯s ¡®Aspects¡¯. ¡°Hmm? Just normal?¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t really answer anything. Specifically, what kind of things do you study there?¡±Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! ¡°Mm, like math and stuff? We also have language studies, history, and a bit of physical education.¡± As interesting as those all sound, that wasn¡¯t really what I had been looking for. Thought, I¡¯d be lying if I didn¡¯t say I felt a little bit of relief knowing some of the old subjects I learnt when I was a child would still be relevant in this world. ¡°What about learning about Aspects? And magic?¡± ¡°Huh? You already know about the Aspects? Well, I guess you are going to have yours revealed this year,¡± she nodded to herself. ¡°I can see why you¡¯d be interested in those. Unfortunately for you, we don¡¯t start learning about Aspects, magic and general combat related studies until we¡¯re in the fifth grade,¡± she pouted. I pouted too. ¡°Is that so? Then how about-¡± as I was about to ask more questions, a call came from downstairs. ¡°Maybelle, Corentin, come down for a moment, we have guests,¡± our mother summoned us from below. I turned to my sister to see if she had an idea of who it might be. ¡°Oh, that¡¯s right, while you were away at the hospital some new people moved in next door. It must be them!¡± she jumped down and head downstairs. ¡°Oh my, are they your children?¡± I heard the giddy voice of an adult woman who wasn¡¯t my mother. At the entrance there were two people; a couple that appeared to be newlyweds. Aside from their youth they were fairly normal, if not a bit on the attractive side. ¡°How are you doing, little ones?¡± the lady crouched down and greeted us. ¡°I¡¯m called ¡®Anne¡¯, and this is my husband ¡®Richard¡¯,¡± she introduced the man beside her. ¡°We moved in next door a few days ago but couldn¡¯t find the right time to greet you guys until today,¡± she said with a smile. Her appearance was around mid-to-late twenties, which would¡¯ve been the same age as myself if I had still been alive. I mean, it¡¯s not like I knew who this person was, but seeing someone that¡¯s the same age as me having their life together made me quite envious, though I guess this life of mine wasn¡¯t too bad either. Speaking of which, my parents were on the older side as far as being parents went. My mother was in her late-thirties and my father was in his mid-forties. ¡°Hello, my name is ¡®Corentin Helvetius¡¯,¡± I greeted. There wasn¡¯t a need to add the ¡®de¡¯ in between my name in informal situations like these. In the first place, I don¡¯t know why we even had a noble title when we appeared to be just a typical middle-class family. My sister followed by introducing herself as ¡®Maybelle Helvetius¡¯. ¡°And finally, my daughter¡­ oh, where¡¯d she go off to?¡± the lady looked around and found a girl hiding behind our front fence. ¡°Sherry, what are you doing all the way there? Come greet our new neighbours.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± I was immediately taken aback. A young girl timidly walked up to our front door and greeted us while hiding behind her mother. ¡°She¡¯s¡­¡± ¡°Oh my, how cute,¡± my mother complimented. ¡°This is my daughter, ¡®Sherry¡¯. As you can see she¡¯s a ¡®Pure¡¯, but don¡¯t let that get to you, she¡¯s as timid as they come.¡± Indeed, this girl before me looked a little different to both her parents. She possessed bright golden hair like silk that flowed down past her shoulders, and a pair of brilliant emerald eyes. Her skin was also quite pale, which was in contrast to her parents¡¯ which were a little more tanned. However, the most glaring feature of this child were her two long ears sticking from the side of her face. ¡°A pure Elf,¡± I accidently blurted out. ¡°Oh, you¡¯re already aware of the Aspects?¡± the lady asked. ¡°Yes, my father explained it to me a little.¡± ¡°That¡¯s great, then you shouldn¡¯t have a problem being friends with my daughter. You see, she¡¯s had a hard time fitting in because she looks so different to all the other children. Most of them don¡¯t understand all the Aspect stuff, and even if we try to explain it to them they have a hard time grasping the concept. So, I¡¯m glad there¡¯s such a smart boy who can understand,¡± she pat me over the head. ¡°I¡¯d be happy if you and my Sherry could get along. What do you say?¡± ¡°Yes, of course,¡± I replied right away. "That''s right, we were about to have a celebratory dinner for my son being discharged from the hospital. If you don''t mind, would you like to join us?" mother invited. "Really? Of course! But why was your son in the hospital? Is he okay?" "It was just a small flu; he''s feeling better now." "That''s good. Then, why don''t I help you with the preparations?" the lady offered. "That''d be welcomed, thank you. Corentin, why don''t you take little Sherry up to your room and play together?" ¡°Okay mother,¡± I took the little Elf girl¡¯s hand and showed her to my room. ¡°A Pure¡­¡± I whispered excitedly under my breath. ¡°Fascinating.¡± Chapter six: a pure elf Chapter six: a pure elf [Sherry Sinclair] Level: 12 Race: Elf (Elf Aspect) Health: 140/140 Mana: 2200/2200 Stamina: 130/130 Physical Attack: 9 Magic Attack: 165 Critical hit Chance: 8% Critical Damage: 1.0x Physical Defence Pierce: 0 Magic Defence Pierce: 10 Physical Defence: 3 Magic Defence: 25 Magic: 137 Wisdom: 129 Dexterity: 18 Strength: 3 Agility: 2 I almost spilt my drink reading this. ¡°2200 Mana? What?¡± For a level 12 to possess that much mana point was unheard of, even for players in the game they wouldn¡¯t have half as much. Heck, I didn¡¯t have 2200 mana points when I was her level. Her magic and wisdom stats were also absurdly high for a mere five-year-old. ¡°Actually, with that much mana she could probably start learning some skills.¡± I figured the main reason why magic and combat oriented studies were left until the fifth grade was because of a lack of mana and stamina most young children possess. However, Sherry¡¯s case was different. Incidentally, the reason why mana and stamina was labelled ¡®infinite¡¯ was because¡­ well, I don¡¯t think we really need to get into details, but it was because of a certain questline. There were only a handful of players that managed to finish the quest, though it was also true that there were only a handful of players left playing the game at that point too. Near the end of the game¡¯s lifespan the developers just threw caution to the wind and slowly made things more overpowered in an attempt to make the game more fun and attract players, but that never ended up happening. ¡°Corentin, use this,¡± Sherry called out to me while handing me a tissue. ¡°Ah, thanks,¡± I graciously accepted and wiped the drink that I accidentally spilt. A few days had passed since our families became acquainted, and normal life was starting to resume. Maybelle had school and was gone for most of the day while Sherry¡¯s mother was visiting our house and talking with my mother downstairs. It was just the two of us in my room; a scandalous situation if my opponent wasn¡¯t a five-year-old girl. That said, I did manage to see something interesting, ¡°so the racial categories remain the same. Only the primary races are switched out in the case of Pures,¡± I mumbled to myself while reading over her status screen. ¡®Elf (Elf Aspect)¡¯. ¡°Going by that logic, it would make me a Pure too¡­¡± ¡°Umm, Corentin?¡± Sherry tugged on the edge of my sleeves. ¡°It¡¯s a bit embarrassing if you stare¡­ so much.¡± ¡°Huh? Oh, sorry, I didn¡¯t realize I was doing that,¡± I apologized. Speaking of which, bringing up someone¡¯s status screen required me to concentrate on their person, and since they can¡¯t see what I¡¯m looking at, this would inevitably be the result. I should figure out a way to read these more subtly. ¡°Sherry, do you know any magic?¡± I dismissed the stat screen and decided to entertain my guest like a good host. ¡°Magic?¡± she shook her head. ¡°That figures,¡± then I had a thought. ¡°Then, do you want to learn some?¡± She paused for a moment then looked at me confusedly, ¡°how do I learn magic?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll teach you.¡± ¡°Corentin, you know magic? Amazing!¡± her eyes lit up like fireworks. Her head bobbed up and down, ¡°I want to, I want to learn magic! Please teach me!¡± ¡°Okay, but only on one condition,¡± I raised a finger. ¡°You must never tell anyone you learnt it from me, and you must not tell anyone I can use magic. If you can promise me that then I¡¯ll teach you some fun things.¡± ¡°Oh, umm, sure.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a promise. The moment you break our promise will be the end of our friendship.¡±This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°Eh?!¡± her face went pale. No surprise, my sister and I were likely the only friends she had until now due to her being a Pure. Most children didn¡¯t know about Aspects, so she probably just looked like an odd kid with long ears. ¡°Okay, I promise not to tell anyone,¡± she answered, but this time with a much more concrete and firmer attitude. When it came to magic, there was a skill in the game known as ¡®magic mastery¡¯ which basically served as a prerequisite skill necessary for learning other forms of magic. The game never had any classes, just a loose set of skills all around the world in which the players had to go learning them. Sometimes there¡¯d be a long quest just to get one skill, other times you only needed to read a book. After learning a skill, it was only a matter of investing skill points into upgrading their effects and potency. In any case, because of this ¡®magic mastery¡¯ skill, it gave me an intrinsic understanding of how magic is supposed to operate and how to forms spells and such. ¡°In essence, there are two types of mana,¡± I began to explain to Sherry and put up two fingers. ¡°The first type of mana is ¡®external mana¡¯, which is the mana in everyday life; it¡¯s all around us like air. It¡¯s theoretically possible to harness this mana with a lot of training, but for now we¡¯ll just disregard it. The one we want to focus on first is the second type of mana: the ¡®internal mana¡¯. It¡¯s inborn mana that everyone has.¡± I say that, however it¡¯s not exactly as if every living organism possesses internal mana. During my few days in this world I¡¯ve seen a few animals like cats and insects that don¡¯t have any mana at all. It¡¯s likely internal mana can only be gathered by organisms above a certain intelligence threshold. ¡°You want to draw out this mana and cause a physical phenomenon. Like this,¡± I demonstrated by casting a low-level fire spell. [Flare Bolt]: Low-level flame-attribute projectile. At higher ranks of this spell it can cause a persistent burn effect on an afflicted area, and inflict the ¡®burnt¡¯ condition upon the enemy. A reddish flame with a bright orange core danced around my hand before I snuffed it out just in case the fire alarms are triggered by this. Though, I assume most fire alarms in this world could distinguish between magical flames and non-magical flames, or so I hope. As if she had been caught in a trance, Sherry stared at my hand even long after the flames were gone. ¡°How did you do that?¡± ¡°Okay, let¡¯s do some mental exercises first. Imagine there is a dot somewhere around your body. Next, try to move that imaginary dot to the centre of your palms. Then, while maintaining that imagination, think about creating a fire.¡± I realized it was a very vague and hazy concept for a five-year-old to grasp, but that was the best way I could explain it. I guess I wasn¡¯t really suited to become a teacher. ¡°Wait what?¡± however, to my surprise she was able to manage conjuring a Flare Bolt in her first try. A bright reddish glow burnt at the palm of her hands while she still had her eyes closed. In fact, because she was so concentrated on the image in her head she failed to notice that the flames were growing bigger and bigger. The heat that radiated off that spell was hotter than how it normally should be, though I managed to counteract it by quickly employing heat resistance to all the things in the room, so they aren¡¯t burnt down. Her Flare Bolt grew ever more intense as a brilliant flash of orange formed at the centre of the spell, something it normally didn¡¯t do until high ranks. I was honestly astonished by her genius. She skipped through the initial phases of the spell and went straight for the stronger variants. ¡°Is this the power of a Pure? Truly fascinating.¡± ¡°Eh?!¡± Sherry cried out as she finally opened her eyes and saw what was going on. ¡°Ah¡­! Ah, what¡­ what should I do?!¡± she began to panic, and the spell grew more rampantly. The flames danced around violently as it became the size of a basketball with no signs of it slowing down. ¡°Co- Corentin, what should I do?!¡± ¡°I suppose it would be bad to let it erupt in this room. I sleep here, after all.¡± I clicked my fingers and for a brief second everything went silent. Then as if it were a balloon made of glass, the rampant Flare Bolt burst into harmless sprinkles of mana. [Spell Breaker]: Dismantle one spell. The higher the sophistication of the spell, the lower the chance of success. ¡°What was that? How did you make it go away?¡± there were sparkles in her eyes as she drew her face closer to mine. It seems all the awkward tension between us had faded away, or at least she had forgotten about it and replaced everything in her mind with curiosity of the arcane. It was a good sign of improvement and I wanted my little experiment¡­ I mean friendship to continue to more fruitful endeavours. ¡°That? It''s something called a ''Spell Breaker'', I¡¯ll teach you later down the line.¡± ¡°Okay,¡± she smiled and nodded. ¡°Honestly, I didn¡¯t think you¡¯d succeed on your first try either. You¡¯re very special indeed, Sherry, however you¡¯ll need to learn how to control magic first before conjuring it. Otherwise you might be labelled as a domestic terrorist.¡± After a brief contemplation I added another condition to her studying under me. ¡°Sherry, from now if you ever want to practice magic without me be sure to do it outside and in a wide-open area, Okay?¡± She nodded furiously. It was a good thing she understood safety first. Honestly speaking, I was actually beginning to have fun teaching her this; I wanted to see how far she could go and what her limits were. It was the first time I realized, but the only thing ¡®genius¡¯ truly meant was that they had a bigger canvas to paint on, and I had so many things I wanted to paint. Chapter seven: the girl known as genius Chapter seven: the girl known as genius It had only a few weeks since Sherry began studying magic under myself, but her progress couldn¡¯t be described as anything less than blisteringly fast. In less than three days she managed to master the finer control of magic to such a degree she could hit a small tennis ball from other three-hundred metres away. She was like a sponge that absorbed anything I taught her almost instantly; her repertoire of spells had become staggeringly impressive for a five-year-old. I couldn¡¯t help but think of how amazing she¡¯d become if I kept teaching her more and more powerful spells. Indeed, somewhere down the line I also had a great deal of fun just seeing what she could do. The system known as ¡®magic¡¯ was largely similar to the one I remembered from the game, or at least how I used magic didn¡¯t change much from back then. Typically, all spells were layered in tiers; there were six tiers: elementary, intermediary, advanced, master, grandmaster, and at the top was the mythical ¡®sage¡¯ tier. As the complexity of these skill tiers increased, the more things a mage was able to conjure up, therefore characters focused around magic were also classified in these tiers. If I were to rank Sherry, she would be nothing less than an intermediary tiered magician, although at the pace she¡¯s going it wouldn¡¯t be too long before she could conjure up advanced tier magic. From what little research I had done ¨C over the internet ¨C most people capable of magic eventually bottleneck around the advanced tier as well, heck there were some people who couldn¡¯t get past the intermediary stage even through adulthood. So for a five-year-old to be capable of this much was incredibly impressive. However, there was one other thing to magic that made things a little more complex, and that as the existence of ¡®elements¡¯. There were three primary elements: ¡®fire¡¯, ¡®ice¡¯, and ¡®lightning¡¯, along with two auxiliary elements of ¡®light¡¯ and ¡®darkness¡¯. On average, magic users typically focus on one or two elements, yet even then they¡¯d focus on one and have the second element only as a backup. Sherry, on the other hand, had shown herself capable of using all three primary elements along with the darkness element. ¡°This is quite amazing,¡± I was left speechless by her talents. There was simply no other word to use; I was almost shaken up by the thought of how exceptional these ¡®Pures¡¯ were. Initially I only assumed they were mildly more talented than the average person, but this was on a completely different level. With proper guidance they could reach heights that would be a pipe dream for most. Of course, even the mighty ¡®internet¡¯ has scarce information on Pures, and with a sample size of just one I could only make conjectures. ¡°Eh?¡± she didn¡¯t seem to quite understand it herself how special she was. ¡°Is it that amazing?¡± she asked while playing around with a Frost Bolt. ¡°But, Corentin is much more amazing for being able to teach me all these spells!¡± ¡°Huh? Ah, no, no. My case is a little different. Still, I¡¯m glad you were able to absorb all the things I¡¯ve taught you so far so quickly.¡± Incidentally, learning skills was also one of the methods to gain experience points needed to level up in this world. Subsequently, just around the 29 to 30 mark. Her magic and wisdom stats shot up all the way to 347 and 299 respectively, with here mana just short of 6000. To put into perspective on how monstrous that was, there were some adults in this world still that couldn¡¯t break past 20 range, and most people seem to be comfortable and even content around 30 to 35. That said, with a lack of any real combat scenarios in this modern world I could see why there wasn¡¯t such a huge importance on levelling. Speaking of which, my father¡¯s level was also fairly high, though I guess we could attribute that accomplishment to his lifelong service in the military.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. Also, this ¡®level¡¯ thing was something only I could see, the concept didn¡¯t exist outside of video games in this world. The numbers I assigned were simply my estimates using research from online. ¡°Hey, hey, Corentin, what are you going to teach me today?¡± she looked up at me with those expectant eyes filled with excitement. Being honest, I was a little scared that I was making her too much into a monster, though that didn¡¯t stop me since it was interesting in its own way. Unfortunately, once a magician hit a certain point, unlocking grandmaster and sage tier skills required a special ceremony to continue, and I wasn¡¯t quite sure if those ceremonies could even be done in this world. That wasn¡¯t to say staying at master tier wasn¡¯t impressive, but it did feel like a waste of potential. I had to figure out a way around this issue, or some way to do the ceremony. Well, if I even knew the meaning of restraint, I shouldn¡¯t teach her past advanced magic until she was older just due to the sheer power and destructive capabilities of that tier of spells. ¡°Maybe we should take a small detour then?¡± ¡°A detour?¡± she repeated. ¡°There are still a few intermediary spells I¡¯d like you to learn before moving on to the advanced tier, namely ¡®support¡¯ magic. However, these spells are a little special.¡± ¡°What¡¯s support magic?¡± ¡°It¡¯s as its name implies, a type of magic used to support others and yourself in combat. You can form different armours based on elements, augment your own attacks with them, and a whole lot more. Since you¡¯re better at dark magic, it might be easier to learn offensive augmentation.¡± Body strengthening, speed increasing, hostile aura, were some of the kinds of things dark element users were capable of doing. ¡°I don¡¯t understand what any of that means, but that sounds amazing! Let¡¯s do it! Let¡¯s do it!¡± she jumped up and down. ¡°It does, doesn¡¯t it? However, support magic requires something else along with mana to use.¡± "And that is?" "Stamina." The moment I said that her face soured almost immediately. "Ehh¡­ doesn¡¯t that mean like moving around and stuff?" "Correct." As much of a genius as she. Was there were things even she was terrible - almost atrocious - at, and that was physical activity. She had a dangerously low stamina reserve, even amongst the children her age. "Well, if you say you don''t want to learn it then we can forget about it." "Uuuu¡­ but, but¡­" she was struggling between torture and the love for magic. "Uuuu, fine. I''ll do it! I just have to do it right?!" She said with the fervour of a child struggling against being told to eat her vegetables. "Come on, don''t make that face. Physical exercise will be good for your body in the long run as well." Unlike ordinary magic, because support magic requires concentration to maintain the effects for a lengthened duration, stamina was important. However, I could also see why she would be so against sok g strenuous physical exercise, so in order to make it more palpable, perhaps I should distract her from the fact that it''s exercise. Like disguising vegetables by grounding, them up and serving them with meat to trick the child. "Okay, how about this Sherry. It won''t just be exercise for the sake of it, but I''ll also teach you some other skills that''s not magic." "Not¡­ magic?" I summoned two small wooden swords from my inventory. Sherry has seen me take out items from there and hasn''t questioned it before, so I felt comfortable doing it. Of course, I told her not to tell anyone anything I did. "I''ll teach you some swordsmanship." She seemed rather ambivalent about the whole idea. She didn''t appear to be against it, but I guess it was just outside her area of expertise that she didn''t know how to interpret it. "Hmm." "I can see you have some doubts but rest assured; what I''ll be teaching you isn''t ordinary swordsmanship, it''s magic swordsmanship!" "Magic¡­ swordsmanship," her expression almost immediately improved. "That sounds cool!" "It is! So, what do you say? Feeling up for it?" She nodded furiously, "yes, yes! I want to learn!" "Okay! Let''s go to the nearby park, there should be some space we can use." After agreeing on it we headed downstairs to leave. "Mother, Miss Anne, we''ll be playing at the park," I informed them and left with Sherry. "Don''t come back too late, okay?" I heard my mother shouting from the house. "And be careful around strangers!" Chapter eight: the stick and the carrot Chapter eight: the stick and the carrot Although I tricked Sherry into learning swordsmanship, the unfortunate truth was that she simply lacked the necessary stamina to even begin, meaning we had to start at the very bottom at regular exercises and muscle-building activities. That said, I had to be careful in this because she was still a five-year-old child and excessive muscle development at such a young age would likely be more detrimental in the long run. ¡®Moderation¡¯ was the key word; I just had to build enough stamina for her to start properly learning swordsmanship. I just hope she doesn¡¯t stop halfway through because it was likely learning swordsmanship would take far, far longer. That said, I also wanted her to develop her own philosophy on how best to utilize power. Understanding one¡¯s role in the world and what affect they have on it was just as important as learning the skills to begin with. I may have messed up allowing her to learn so many destructive spells at such a young age, so this was a good way to slow down her progress and give her the chance to meditate on them. Therefore, against her wishes, I started off by making her do some laps around the park. It was a small, local park and at around this time of day there wasn¡¯t anyone else besides the two of us. ¡°Sherry breathe through your nose, not your mouth; you¡¯ll just get more tired doing that,¡± I instructed her. It had only been about fifteen minutes since we started, and she already looked like she was on the verge of collapsing. ¡°Just how low was your stamina,¡± I let out a long sigh. It was looking like this would take a long time. However, willpower was an important part of mastering support magic as it consumed a tremendous amount of concentration. ¡°Take a break if you¡¯re feeling too tired, but if you think you can continue, then do it. You have to learn to pace yourself; when you¡¯re caught up in a hectic battle the enemy won¡¯t kindly wait for you,¡± or so I said, but I wasn¡¯t really sure how much real combat she¡¯ll see in this relatively peaceful, modern world. ¡°Eh, better safe than sorry, right?¡± I mumbled to myself. ¡°O- okay¡­ I¡¯ll try¡­ my best!¡± she told me as she was on her fourth lap. ¡°Okay, keep it up. I believe in you!¡± ¡°You do?!¡± she suddenly sped up. ¡°Now then, while she¡¯s doing that,¡± I moved over and found a quiet place to concentrate. There was one thing I had been putting on hold ever since I came to this world, and that was my ¡®Guild Castles¡¯. There were five of these castles in total, all with their own themes and biomes. The word ¡®guild¡¯ might be a little misleading however, since I largely operated a solo guild for the conveniences and benefits, they provided. Socializing within an online game, unbelievable! Despite the real money costs, there were numerous benefits to possessing guild castles: personal castles, guild bank and storages, assistant NPCs, free daily material gathering, and the like. ¡°Lets see,¡± in much the same way I pulled up my status screen, summoning the Guild list was equally simple. With just a bit of concentration a holographic list spawned in front of my eyes with the details of all my castles noted. [Please select the desired destination] Hot Spring Resort Sacred Underground Temple Sky Fortress Warship Cove Forest Shrine ¡°They all appear to be intact,¡± I had been wondering at the back of my head if there were any changes since moving over to reality. I tapped on one of the options and expanded the information screen. [Hot Spring Resort] Managing NPC: Olivia Guild facility upgrades: Level 3 upgrades unlocked (maxed out) Population: 12 Daily Gathering Spots: All available Gold Storage: 2.147b << Enter Guild Castle >> ¡°Nothing different then.¡± ¡°Corentinnnnn¡­!¡± after a while Sherry dragged her tired body over to me and collapsed onto my leg, using it as a lap pillow. ¡°I¡­ I can¡¯t anymore¡­ too¡­ too much!¡±Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. ¡°Whoa, you¡¯re sweating like a pig,¡± with just a small touch over her forehead my entire hand was almost drenched. ¡°You¡¯ve only been running for like thirty minutes, how are already about to die?¡± ¡°It¡¯s your fault! Take responsibility!¡± she said as she rubbed her face onto my clothes. ¡°Geez,¡± I withdrew a small bottle of water that I had kept in my inventory and fed it to her through a straw. Interestingly, perishable and consumables didn¡¯t expire while in the inventory and they didn¡¯t lose any heat or coldness either. Rather than being like a cupboard or a shelf type storage, it was more of a frozen instance in time. If we were to continue at this rate it¡¯s likely she¡¯ll give up on the idea of swordsmanship entirely; I¡¯ll have to dangle a delicious carrot in front of her. ¡°Okay, how about this Sherry? If you can keep up with the training schedule, I¡¯ll bring you to a nice place.¡± ¡°What kind of nice place?¡± ¡°One I think you¡¯ll enjoy immensely.¡± ¡°Hmm,¡± she didn¡¯t seem convinced, but decided to go along with me. ¡°Well, if Corentin says it¡¯s something I¡¯ll enjoy, then it probably is. Okay, I¡¯ll continue with the training!¡± After which, I decided to join her in the exercises since I felt a little bad. We ran around, did some push ups and sit ups, but over all wasn¡¯t anything too strenuous. By the time we finished it was around three in the afternoon and a lot of school students were coming home from school. Looking at their little uniforms made me feel a little nostalgic about the time I went to school when I was a young boy all those years ago. Perhaps in that life those were my most peaceful days. ¡°This isn¡¯t good. I shouldn¡¯t be reminiscing about something so long ago,¡± I slapped my face and came back to reality. Sherry tugged at the corner of my shirt and asked, ¡°you said you¡¯ll bring me to someplace nice, when are we going? Is it far?¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s not. Okay, just close your eyes for a second.¡± She did as I asked and closed her eyes without hesitation. Sometimes I think she¡¯s a little too obedient. With that thought I opened the Guild list once more and clicked on the [Hot Spring Resort]. Doing so opened a prompt: [Would you like to take your party member (Sherry Sinclair) to your Guild Castle?] << Yes / No >> ¡°Party member?¡± I wondered to myself. The party system was a staple of any MMORPG in which players could do activities together. However, I didn¡¯t remember creating any parties. ¡°No matter, ¡®yes¡¯,¡± I tapped. Normally there¡¯d be a brief loading screen in between but that didn¡¯t happen here. Instead, the transportation system was as quick as blinking and before I knew we had already arrived at my guild castle. The Hot Spring resort was, as it sounded, a place of relaxation modelled after the Japanese hot springs and bathhouses. The place consisted of the main building which was a large three-story complex with dozens of rooms and baths. Surrounding the main building were several smaller buildings with their own facilities like a game room, massage room, dining hall, amongst other things. The resort was surrounded by a forest, and to my knowledge there should be an invisible wall there, but I wasn¡¯t quite sure how that worked in real life. Questions for another day. If filled to a comfortable capacity, the entire resort could house up to two-hundred patrons at once, although that would never happen since this place was my private property. Heck, it wasn¡¯t even located on a physical plane of existence. ¡°Whoa¡­ what, but how did we get here?!¡± Sherry shouted in surprise as she looked around confused and amazed all the same. ¡°Co- Corentin?! Just what is this place?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a place in between realities,¡± or so I explained it away like that, but I didn¡¯t know where this was either. It¡¯s my own pocket dimension. ¡°But before we do anything, Sherry, you¡¯ll have to promise you won¡¯t tell anyone about this place. Got it?¡± She nodded, ¡°All right.¡± As we were dawdling around in the front entrance, an elderly lady dressed in a neat, rose red Japanese traditional yukata greeted us. Though I say ¡®elderly¡¯, she only appeared to be slightly older than my father with a few streaks of grey hair in between her predominantly black hair. There were slight wrinkles on her face, however they only accentuated her aura of a calm, elderly woman more than anything. With the clacking of her wooden sandals she came out to greet the both of us. ¡°Welcome back, master Helvetius,¡± she greeted me as ¡®Helvetius¡¯ even though it was my first time here in this body. My character¡¯s name back in the game certainly wasn¡¯t that but I suppose it wasn¡¯t the strangest thing. ¡°It¡¯s been a while, Olivia. I take it nothing major has gone on here?¡± ¡°Certainly not, master. This place has been left as you remembered it.¡± ¡°Excellent. Then, please take Sherry into the baths and give her the ¡®full treatment¡¯.¡± ¡°Of course, master,¡± she bowed and turned to Sherry. ¡°Please, this way, lady Sherry.¡± ¡°Eh? What, what¡¯s going on?¡± Sherry asked in a flustered tone. ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry; she¡¯s not going to do anything bad. Just trust me.¡± ¡°But¡­ but I don¡¯t know what¡¯s going on here. Corentin, come with me?¡± ¡°Come with you? You¡¯re going to be taking a bath, you know? Surely you don¡¯t want me with you,¡± or so I tried to turn down her offer but those large puppy-dog eyes that were about to cry couldn¡¯t be refused. ¡°Ugh, fine, just go first then. I¡¯ll join you in a bit,¡± I sighed. I suppose I did run around a bit too, and a soak in a hot bath didn¡¯t sound like a bad idea. Chapter nine: thank you for coming, we hope you enjoyed your stay Chapter nine: thank you for coming, we hope you enjoyed your stay The feeling of sleeping into warm water while the cold air of the open brushes past your face, this juxtaposition of hot and cold was nothing short of heavenly. I felt all the muscles in my body simultaneously give out, like I¡¯d melt into the water at this rate. Open air hot springs were something I had seen many times in anime and such but never experienced in real life; I can say with confidence that these received all the praises they got. ¡°This is bliss. If only I had some alcohol to go with it,¡± I missed being able to drink. It was as though I was the biggest alcoholic in my previous life, but I did drink my fair share back then. ¡°No, no, I probably shouldn¡¯t with this body,¡± I stopped myself. ¡°How are you holding up, Sherry?¡± After doing all that running around and exercise which she never did before, her muscles were bound to ache tomorrow morning. Fortunately, Olivia was a master masseuse, so I¡¯ve left that problem to her. Currently Sherry was lying face down on the massage bed receiving treatment, though admittedly the soft moans and heaving breathing was a little distracting. ¡°Ah¡­ haahh¡­ it feels so good¡­ haa¡­¡± ¡°Sherry, are you doing that on purpose?¡± I asked. ¡°Doing what¡­? ahahhh¡­¡± ¡°Never mind.¡± Once the message session was over, she thanked Olivia and dipped into the hot springs with me without reserve. ¡°You sure are brave, you don¡¯t even care that I¡¯m in here,¡± I complimented. To be honest, I wasn¡¯t that interested in a child¡¯s body either, but I was under the impression most girls would find at least a smidgen of reservation bathing with a member of the opposite sex. I felt nothing of it since she always felt more like a younger sister, though I was surprised how oblivious to this kind of thing children were. ¡°Brave?¡± she didn¡¯t even understand what was going on. I guess it made sense; a lot of little children also bathe with their parents without thinking anything of it. Perhaps I¡¯ve been with her long enough she didn¡¯t even register me as a stranger anymore. Honestly, I felt a little happy about that. ¡°Nah, don¡¯t worry about it. Anyway, how are you enjoying this place?¡± ¡°It¡¯s amazing!¡± her eyes suddenly brightened like she was going through sweets at a candy store. ¡°There¡¯s so many things to do around here! I wish I could live here! You¡¯re so lucky Corentin, you can come here whenever you want.¡±This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. ¡°I think you¡¯d get bored of it pretty quickly if you came here every single day, don¡¯t you think?¡± ¡°No way! I could come here every day for the rest of my life and I¡¯d still love it!¡± was it the naivety of a child? Or was she completely serious about that? Either way I saw a chance in here to use this place as a bait to make her continue with the physical training. ¡°I see, you like this place that much, huh?¡± ¡°Of course!¡± ¡°Olivia,¡± I called out. As if she was expecting it, in just a few short seconds the elderly caretaker of this place appeared to receive her next orders. ¡°Could you prepare a small necklace chain for her?¡± ¡°Understood. Please give me a few moments,¡± she told me as she clapped her hands to summon one of the servants of this place. They were female figures dressed in a pinkish yukata with a white stone mask covering their faces. They were closer to automatons than people, in that they were just moving as programmed without having their own thoughts or a semblance of sentience. Olivia whispered some instructions to the masked servant to which it nodded and retrieved a small black box. ¡°Would this be acceptable?¡± Olivia asked as she took out the thin, silvery chain of a blank necklace. ¡°It¡¯s perfect, thank you,¡± I told her and received the chain. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± Sherry asked. She curiously moved over and watched over my shoulders as I affixed a silvery key to the necklace. ¡°A key?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a very special and very precious key that will allow anyone to enter and leave this place at will. Now, I¡¯m willing to give this to you on one condition,¡± I told her as I dangled the necklace with the key attached to it. ¡°You have to continue with the training I¡¯ve set for without any complaints. If you can do that, then I¡¯ll met you have this so you can come to this place after our training session to wash yourself. How does that sound?¡± ¡°Really?! Okay, I¡¯ll do it!¡± this is why I liked children, they would agree to something they like without much reservation. The true value of this magnificent place was lost on her, but as long as she enjoyed it then I couldn¡¯t ask for anything more. ¡°It¡¯s a promise,¡± I told her and put the necklace around her neck. In the game the key was a soul-bound item, which meant once it was accepted by another person it would be permanently assigned to them; it would be impossible to lose it or trade it to anyone else. ¡°Thank you Corentin!¡± she said as she hugged me. After our bath we spent the next hour or so in the game room playing retro video games that played like they were made from the late 90s. Even in the era of the highspeed internet and high-quality graphics, sometimes simple was best. Other than that, as much as I wanted to, I decided against having any food here because it was likely our parents were making dinner while waiting for us to come back. By the time we decided to return home, it was already past 4:30PM and we were greeted by a disappointed Maybelle who had eagerly been waiting for us. ¡°Hmph, looks like you two enjoyed yourself at the park today,¡± she pouted in a grumpy tone. ¡°And what¡¯s this? Why does Sherry smell so good?! What did you guys do?!¡± ¡°What indeed?¡± Sherry and I exchanged a look as we confirmed our promise of secrecy. Chapter ten: the sword tyrant - a study of magic swordsmanship Chapter ten: the sword tyrant - a study of magic swordsmanship A swift five months have passed since that fateful day I woke up in a hospital bed and came to this world. I¡¯d like to believe I¡¯ve adjusted relatively well to this newfound situation and body of mine but being an adult in the guise of a child is, as expected, quite difficult. Maybelle has told me on numerous occasions my speech is atypical of children, though in the same breath told me she preferred this version of me because it was easier to talk to. I suspect this was more due to the fact our roles have sort of been reversed and she was the one being spoiled by me like a little sister, not that I had any problems with this set up. My mother espoused similar sentiments on my personality on a few occasions with no further thoughts on the matter. There was a sliver of guilt in my heart that perhaps I was robbing her of the chance of being a proper parent, but if needless hardships of parenthood can be avoided isn¡¯t that a good thing? As for my father, he¡¯s a rather difficult case to solve. There are many days in which he¡¯s away from home on special assignments and duties for the military, and on the rare chance that I manage to run into him I¡¯ve found his personality¡­ ¡®challenging¡¯ to converse with. Not saying he was a bad father or anything of the like, but he was way too serious to talk to and his expressions hardly changed so I had a hard time gauging him. I suppose being paired with mother equalizes their dynamic. In the end though, I believe both are model parents who think of family first, and in that manner, I¡¯ve come to respect the both of them from the depths of my heart. At the very least, I know in my heart of hearts that my previous self was nowhere near the either of them in terms of maturity. Outside of family, Sherry and her family were the only ones I had any real interactions with. I¡¯ve tried making conversations with the local children when we go down to the park but in the end, I couldn¡¯t really get through to them on anything. Children are both smarter and stupider in various ways. Speaking of which, as expected, Sherry¡¯s progress has slowed down considerably after changing from magic based lessons to physical training. She¡¯s a lot better in terms of physical capability than she used to be, yet even then I¡¯d say it was only a little better than the average adult of this world ¨C which is good for a child but nowhere near what I want her to be at. [Sherry Sinclair] Level: 33 Race: Elf (Elf Aspect) Health: 1930/1930 Mana: 6365/6365 Stamina: 1785/1785 Physical Attack: 35 Magic Attack: 675 Critical hit Chance: 19% Critical Damage: 1.4x Physical Defence Pierce: 4 Magic Defence Pierce: 33 Physical Defence: 45 Magic Defence: 107 Magic: 372 Wisdom: 329 Dexterity: 155 Strength: 150 Agility: 203 This is what her current stats look like, and her capacity for magic is even stronger than my father¡¯s who¡¯s at level 57. That¡¯s not too surprising since I¡¯ve also taught her various mastery skills to boost magic damage and maximize the efficiency of her magic stat. Still, that innate mana is quite monstrous at her level. This is no longer the status of a child, in fact she¡¯s around the upper ranks of what an adult would normally reach by their peak. ¡°Maybe I really am making a monster,¡± I quietly thought to myself. However, it was doubtful she¡¯d maintain this extreme level of growth all throughout her life so there was probably nothing to worry about; she was still bound by the rules and internal logic of this world unlike how I received my powers. The main difference between her and I was a fundamental difference in constitution. Simply put, my body was that of a game character¡¯s while hers was as a resident of this world. ¡°Uugh¡­ Corentin you liar,¡± Sherry uttered under her breath. We had begun training with the sword for a while now, though the only things I¡¯ve taught her were how to swing it. Perhaps it was because of this lack of excitement that her mood had been sour for the past few days. I tried to lighten her spirits by relocating our usual training locations from the park to a secluded area of the hot springs guild castle. There was also the added benefit of privacy which I preferred. ¡°Something wrong?¡± I asked. She looked at me for a second and turned away with a pout, ¡°it¡¯s nothing.¡± ¡°Doesn¡¯t seem like nothing.¡± ¡°Hmph! You said you¡¯d teach me magic swordsmanship yet the only thing I¡¯ve done this entire month is swing this sword around!¡± she retorted while wildly swinging around her wooden practice sword. ¡°You lied to me!¡± ¡°Hmm, I guess you have a point. Maybe it is time we tried some actual combat techniques,¡± I gave in. ¡°For real?!¡± her eyes lit up like it was Christmas. Truth be told, since this was my first time teaching someone anything, I had a hard time grasping just when she was ready. The best I could do was get her base stats up to the minimum requirements for learning the swordsmanship skillsets. Since the game had no strict classes and we could learn any skills at any time, there needed to be a way to prevent players from getting all the most destructive skills early on. The developer¡¯s idea to fix that was through putting stat requisites for learning certain skills. For a base swordsman to begin learning any skills they needed 150 strength, 150 dexterity, and 150 agility - the magic swordsman skills also asked for a further 250 in both magic and wisdom.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Okay, okay,¡± she certainly had the necessary stats so there shouldn¡¯t be any problems. ¡°Then to start off, let me show you what my version of ¡®magic swordsmanship¡¯ is like.¡± I gestured the masked servants to bring out several hay targets and set them at a distance. After gathering my thoughts, I asked her a question, ¡°Sherry, what do you think differentiates a magic swordsman from a regular swordsman?¡± ¡°Huh? Umm, well a magic swordsman can use magic?¡± ¡°Can you elaborate?¡± ¡°Like, they can shoot out spells in between their attacks? Also, I think you said something about making yourself stronger with magic?¡± I see, that certainly was a logical idea of the skillset, however, ¡°if it¡¯s only at that level, then anyone could do it. Learning simple bolt magic doesn¡¯t take too much time and boosting your physical capabilities through magic is also quite common.¡± I¡¯ve spent a bit of time researching over the internet how most people fight, but moderate physical boosts and bolt magic were very common and quite effective. ¡°No, the difference between the two is far deeper; it¡¯s on a fundamental level. You could say it¡¯s an ideological dichotomy of the same artistry.¡± ¡°I¡­ I didn¡¯t get any of that.¡± Right, sometimes I forget I¡¯m talking to a child since she¡¯s so knowledgeable about magic now. ¡°What it all boils down to is a distinction on how each one views their swords and what the ideal swordsmanship is,¡± as I started to explain I firmly drove my wooden practice sword onto the ground blade first, and after a brief second it began to pulse out a gentle white light. This light covered an approximate distance of 100 metres. ¡°To a regular swordsman the sword is an extension of themselves; once their sword is broken so are they. There is nothing more fearsome than when this type of swordsman becomes serious, be sure to remember that fact. However, no matter how sacred a sword is, to us as magic swordsmen they are just tools. This in itself is not an erroneous mindset; you can still respect your tools without the need to personify or deify it. That said, our sword is not just a sword, it is an ¡®anchor¡¯; a medium in which to process powerful magic. Indeed, you could say it¡¯s more akin to a staff or sceptre in how we use it.¡± I pointed to the wooden sword affixed to the ground as it continued to release its mysterious white pulses, ¡°this is no longer just a mere sword, the moment it was planted into the ground it became a ¡®ward¡¯.¡± "A ward?" ¡°It¡¯s a type of magical support item. There are many varieties of wards and their effects. The simplest ones are passive support items that may increase your magic damage or mana recovery rate. Others can cast shields that repel opposing elements, or just erect a general barrier. There are also kinds that attack opponents if they get too close," I explained. Wards were a subcategory of support magic known as ¡®summons¡¯, and were popular skills players liked to set up before facing off against a huge boss. I personally did that as well since they were so convenient. In any case, I returned to the sword, ¡°this sword has now become a specialized ward that constructs barriers in the form of itself. ¡°Eh¡­¡± I could already see was lost. Maybe it was just easier showing her. ¡°Imagine it summons an invisible mould in which you can inject mana into it to create a duplicate sword,¡± after telling her I instantly created an imitation wooden sword identical to the one planted in the ground. ¡°The weight, durability, sharpness, and any other properties are replicated when creating a duplicate. By all metric this is no different from the original, however the one distinction is that it¡¯s made of mana.¡± I moved over to one of the hay targets and slashed it down. Even with a wooden sword I could easily cut down something of this level. ¡°And because it¡¯s made of mana you can do a lot more things with it.¡± This time I stepped back and tossed the sword straight into another hay target, yet it wasn¡¯t cut down or pierced, instead it exploded upon contact. Large blue flames erupted on the target as the ground beneath us trembled for a second. When the smoke was cleared and the dust settled, the only thing left was a pile of ashes and a large crater where the target used to be. ¡°What?! The sword exploded?! Wait, you have another one?¡± she commented and as she turned back to me, she noticed the same wooden sword in my hands despite already having thrown it. ¡°Wait¡­ what? Didn¡¯t you just throw that?¡± ¡°I did, and this is another imitation,¡± I spawned another sword and threw both of them at the same time causing the same level of explosion twice more. ¡°As long as you have the mana and the original sword continues acting as the ward, you can create as many imitations as you need. This technique is known as the ¡®Infinite Armament¡¯. And the technique to make the sword explode is called ¡®Sword Cannon¡¯.¡± "A- amazing! Magic swordsmen are amazing!" ¡°So, do you understand now? The Infinite Armament is a technique that goes against the virtues of a swordsman who treat their swords with reverence. We fight in the exact opposite manner, viewing our swords as expendable as long as the original persists. Use that fact to your advantage,¡± of course, both interpretations of swordsmanship are valid. To demonstrate the power of the Infinite Armament, I spawned ten more wooden swords appeared and they floated around my back. ¡°Remember this fact, Sherry, that the swords you generate are still made of mana, and in the same way you control Flare Bolts, with enough training you can control these swords even without touching them.¡± The swords that flew around me moved about as if they had a mind of their own. Seeing how she nodded, I decided to finish off the lesson by throwing these ten swords at the remaining hay targets. Some of them exploded, some of them just cut the targets down with exceptional precision and speed. At my level the speed of these swords were slightly faster than a bullet being shot out of a sniper rifle. I don¡¯t think Sherry would ever get to that point, but she could probably reach the speed of a handgun bullet. ¡°Actually, there was one more thing you can do,¡± I summoned another wooden imitation and after that the original suddenly disappeared from the floor. ¡°Huh? What happened?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a simple position shift. You can swap the original sword¡¯s position with any of the imitations, however doing that will cancel out the effect of the ward, so be careful how you use it,¡± though I say that all I¡¯ve done was demonstrate these skills. I still had to teach her these frightening and destructive abilities. ¡°In any case, with a bit of creative inspiration you can do a lot more things. It¡¯s just a matter of application.¡± She nodded furiously and with glee. ¡°Oh,¡± I let out a small chuckle, ¡°but to use these techniques effectively requires a lot of stamina, so be sure to not neglect physical training, okay?¡± Chapter eleven: expanding operations Chapter eleven: expanding operations A patronless antique wine bar with neon-lit signs. Slow jazz played from the old jukebox in the corner though it would mess up and scratch the records from time to time. I was at the counter taking regular sips from my drink, and as I sat there, I thought, ¡°hey Olivia, didn¡¯t I ask for scotch?¡± That¡¯s certainly what I remembered ordering, yet in my hands was a tasty, chilled apple cider comically served in a beer mug. Sherry had gone off to wash up after our usual training session. I¡¯m glad she¡¯s become enamoured by the whole idea of hot springs, which wasn¡¯t surprising since such places weren¡¯t common in this country. There were times when she¡¯d fall asleep in one of the guest rooms after bathing and seeing how it¡¯s been almost an hour since she left, I saw no reason to doubt it. ¡°You did indeed,¡± Olivia answered in a snap while cleaning the cups and organizing the drinks. ¡°Is this a phase?¡± I wondered. ¡°Are my children going through a rebellious phase?¡± ¡°Funny of you to say in that tiny body of yours, master.¡± ¡°But not far from the truth,¡± I chuckled back. Once a player bought and constructed a guild castle, the game would then allow for the creation of custom NPCs to manage it. The customizer had access to all the same tools as the character creator ¨C which was quite expansive for the middling game ¨C so there were a lot of unique settings and results. On their own they were quite powerful; their base levels were set to 150 with dozens of devastating skills. They were even able to equip the same items as the players so there were a lot of players in the game who liked to dress them up. ¡°Anyway, about my scotch¡­¡± ¡°Absolutely not.¡± ¡°Brutal,¡± I sighed. ¡°Ahhh¡­ I can still remember when you were this small,¡± I gestured to a size obviously impossible for even a human baby. She shook her head in disappointment, ¡°I¡¯ve never been that small. I don¡¯t understand how you got so drunk from mere apple cider. Perhaps I have to dial even these back?¡± confused she quickly checked the label of the drink and it was indeed just juice. ¡°Olivia, you secretly resent me for giving you the appearance of a middle-aged lady, don¡¯t you?¡± as elegant and wise as she looked to be, I doubted there were many people actively okay with being deliberately old. ¡°Oh my, are you finally feeling guilty about it? After all this time?¡± ¡°Ugh¡­ sorry.¡± ¡°Fufu,¡± she snickered back. ¡°Worry not, master. I¡¯m grateful you¡¯ve granted me a visage fitting for this grand establishment. I feel no discomfort or displeasure in this body, and I¡¯ve come to appreciate the aesthetic detail you had in mind when creating me. I am ¡®Olivia¡¯, the proprietress of a marvellous guild castle, and it is only natural I adorn a suitable figure, correct?¡± she expressed her sentiments with confidence enough to make me doubt my own guilt. It was true my original intention was to give this place a more relaxing feel rather than having a young and spry female manager who would only make it look like a sleezy brothel. ¡°Well, if you¡¯re fine with it then we¡¯ll leave it at that.¡± ¡°Quite. However, I suppose if there was one dissatisfaction, it would be that it¡¯s a waste to let this place go so unappreciated.¡±This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it ¡°You mean like getting other patrons?¡± I took a glance around the room, and I honestly quite enjoyed the juxtaposition of a fully furnished bar and hot spring facility without any patrons. There was also a slight feeling of repulsion at the back of my head about letting strangers roam free in this private sanctuary of mine; they¡¯d have to be extremely trusted by me or my assistants for me to even consider letting them use this place. Still, what she said was true in that it was a shame to see this marvellous and spacious bar go unused for whoever knows how many years. ¡°Hmm, I can see your point¡­ but I¡¯m not particularly a big fan of that idea.¡± Hearing my say so she immediate drew back, ¡°I apologize. It seems I¡¯ve stepped out of line and insinuated an improper suggestion.¡± ¡°No, I¡¯m not mad or anything. Truth be told, I do think it¡¯s a good method to convert the gold we have in storage to a more useable format by turning this place into a business ¨C even though it feels like we¡¯re laundering dirty money by doing so.¡± ¡°In that case, how about a replica?¡± Olivia suggested. ¡°The idea came to me while watching over your training with lady Sherry. This place will stay as is, but we can open an imitation in the real world and use it to slowly covert our funds into modern currency.¡± ¡°That¡­ hmm, yeah that¡¯s not a bad idea.¡± Obviously, there was no way I could go out and sign all those contracts for purchasing land and opening businesses in this childish body of mine. If it was only as easy as it is in all those other fantasy stories where children could purchase huge chunks of land if they drop a bag of gold; reality is tough. ¡°You think you¡¯re up to the task?¡± ¡°If it is the wish of my master, then you need only to give the order,¡± she lowered her head slightly in reverence. ¡°I see,¡± the truth of the matter was that I had been trying to figure out how to convert the gold in my storage without drawing too much suspicion. There was no way I could convert billions of gold coins so quickly, and it wasn¡¯t as if I needed all that money immediately either, so I thought to take my time on it. ¡°What we need right away is the capital to even start up all the preparations for the business. The safest and most direct route to take was to go to a refiner or a bullion dealer, which unfortunately means they¡¯ll probably take around 5 to 15%, but beggars can¡¯t be choosers.¡± I then took out some documents from my inventory and presented it to her, ¡°I¡¯ve done some of my own research on this matter since it would¡¯ve eventually come in handy. Here¡¯s a few reputable agents you should easily be able to get into contact with so sort it out from there.¡± ¡°Understood, I shall go and take a look into these people.¡± ¡°That said, it¡¯s not like I can just let you go out on your own. The real world is a dangerous place after all¡­¡± ¡°Dangerous, you say,¡± she had a doubtful look on her face. ¡°I don¡¯t believe there¡¯s anything out there remotely dangerous to me,¡± Olivia protested, but I wasn¡¯t feeling good about letting her do all the work. ¡°I¡¯d like you to take one more person with you.¡± ¡°I admit it would make me feel more assured,¡± she sighed and gave in. ¡°Very well, if you¡¯re so adamant on this, then I have no other choice. Be that as it may, who did you have in mind?¡± ¡°Good question.¡± The best candidates were obviously one of the other assistant NPCs. I¡¯d prefer it to be a male too just to get a diversified perspective on the operations, and a burly one at that for maximum intimidation factor during troublesome negotiations. That being the case, my choices were limited to two. ¡°My thought is either Cedric or Ark. Take one of them with you.¡± ¡°Actually, I was wondering if you¡¯d allow me to have Lyssa accompany me.¡± ¡°Lyssa? She¡¯s a little¡­ are you sure she¡¯s up to the job?¡± Lyssa was the assistant NPC managing the Sacred Underground Temple, and to put her personality simply she was a ¡®battle maniac¡¯. I was going through a bit of a phase when I created her, and because of this it was hard for me to even look at her without cringing. Despite her main role as a healer and support, she vastly preferred the frontlines and melee combat, heck her main staff was modified fully for melee damage regardless of it being classified as a magic item; Priestess parentheses, ¡®skirmisher¡¯. ¡°She¡¯ll definitely be an asset,¡± Olivia told me with confidence. I just wasn¡¯t feeling the same, but I had little reason to doubt her. ¡°If you say so, but I still want you to take Cedric or Ark as well.¡± ¡°Then Ark will do.¡± Ark and Lyssa were probably the two who got along swell, well that¡¯s what I would¡¯ve thought back when it was a game. When I created them, I set their personalities to both loving frontline combat and the rush of challenging powerful opponents. For the time being I decided to leave it to Olivia. ¡°All right, I¡¯ll have a chat with the both of them when I get time later.¡± Chapter twelve: Sacred Underground Temple Chapter twelve: Sacred Underground Temple "Lyssa¡­ Lyssa¡­" on a slow Saturday I had been lazing around in my room thinking about how to handle this situation. She was by no means a bad child, but when it came to handling her, she was a little troublesome. Considering how animate Olivia was, I could definitely count on the fact that the personalities of the assistant NPCs were more than just flavour text now. That being the case, there was a 99% probability she''d attack me the moment I stepped into the Sacred Underground temple. Not out of malice, but because that¡¯s what she was like. "Corentin!" as I was thinking about these things, Maybelle rushed into my room without even pretending to knock. She jumped onto my bed and rolled over next to me, clinging onto me like a body pillow. She had done this so many times it''s become a sort of a routine and I''ve since given up trying to tell her off. "Sis, it''s a little hard to breathe, so could you maybe not?" "It''s okay!" "What is?" I sighed. If viewed from a certain angle, Maybelle and Lyssa had similar personalities, the only difference being the severity of their actions. Maybelle especially seemed like she''d be the type to enjoy combat when she learns more about it, and as an older¡­ I mean young brother I felt slightly concerned for her future. Unfortunately for me, I couldn''t just shrug off Lyssa''s actions like it was nothing like I did with my sister. "Guess there''s really no other choice." "What are you talking about?" Maybelle asked while refusing to let go. Her legs had mine in a coil wrap like a snake and her bear hug left me with no avenues of action. ¡°Just wondering on how I¡¯d go about defeating an adult Maybelle.¡± "Me? Why do you want to defeat your older sister?! You cheeky brat!" She squeezed even harder. "Oh no, I''m defeated," I said in monotone. "Maybelle! Can you come down and give mommy a hand?" our mother called for her from downstairs. Looking at the clock, it was nearing dinner. It was a rather touching scene; in my previous life I never had a mother who asked for my help setting the tables, or even one who would eat together with me. She made an annoyed face and finally released me from her death grasp. "Fineeee!" she yelled while dragging her body downstairs. I couldn''t help but let out a chuckle; despite her complaints she was a good girl who listened to her parents and helped them around. "Now then," before I went to have a nice and friendly ¡®chat¡¯ with Lyssa, there were some things I needed to prepare. The first obvious problem was the difference in our stats; even though she was technically 50 levels below me, I had given all my assistant NPCs maxed out equipment and weapons since I thought that¡¯d be a good idea. Due to this the actual gap between her stats and my base stats were probably minimal at best. However, even my 50 level advantage wasn¡¯t much when considering this was my first actual proper fight in this body, while for her it would be no different than any other fight. ¡°I¡¯ll have to arm myself.¡± I pulled up my inventory tab and skimmed through everything that would prove beneficial in a fight against her. Lyssa¡¯s strategy was quite¡­ ¡®barbaric¡¯, if I had to use a word. She favoured attrition tactics whereby she would continuously heal and sustain herself while letting the enemy bleed out over a long drawn out fight. The counter to her strategy was very simple, break her sustain; either out-sustain her or inflict damage she couldn¡¯t just shrug off with a heal. I had various sets of end-game gear all focused on different aspects of combat: there was one for pure defence, pure attack, a mix between both, support, and etc. ¡°It should be either defence or attack,¡± I thought. In the end, I went with a pure damage-dealer set.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Interestingly, in the game there was a system known as ¡®aesthetic override¡¯ which allowed players to override the appearance of their equipment with any other equipment of the same type. For example, if I equipped heavy gauntlets then equipped soft wool gloves over it, the result would be soft wool gloves with the defensive power of heavy gauntlets. That system had persisted over to this world and I could wear all my armour under my casual clothes. Once the preparations were over, I opened the guild tab to warp over. [Sacred Underground Temple] Managing NPC: Lyssa Guild facility upgrades: Level 3 upgrades unlocked (maxed out) Population: 1 Daily Gathering Spots: All available Gold Storage: 2.147b << Enter Guild Castle >> [Would you like to enter the guild castle?] <> The moment I tapped on ¡®yes¡¯, my surroundings warped like a violent, nausea-inducing merry-go-round. One momentary blackout later, I found myself surrounded by darkness in a vast cavernous space, with only the pale blue fairy light of magical torches to luminate my vicinity. I wandered about in this hazy darkness for a while before I was stopped as my eyes were beset upon by a gargantuan marble structure in the distance. Howling winds from the tunnels of the cave rushed past me as a shiver ran up my spine. I stood there, frozen in awe; half anxious to see what lay beyond the steps to the temple, and half exhilarated like a child who saw his toys come to life. The ¡®Sacred Underground Temple¡¯, as the name suggested was an ancient shrine that had been forgotten to time after it had become buried do to some event. The monumental Greek-inspired temple stood atop of a long flight of marble stairs, kept luminate through magical or divine means without a proper light source. Even as the master and architect of this place, as I stood at the base of the stairs, I felt a little intimidated. Only the temple was lit, everything else was dark, like it was the destination of some grand journey; a light at the end of the tunnel. ¡°It¡¯s a lot more foreboding than I imagined,¡± I couldn¡¯t help but comment to myself. I let out a lengthy sigh as I made my way up the stairs to face what was easily one of the greatest opponents of this world. Considering the low level of everything, an enemy at level 150 was no doubt going to be a difficult endeavour, and that thought alone put an excited smile on my face. For once I could understand why Lyssa and Ark were so enamoured by the idea of conflict. It took almost five whole minutes to scale up the long flight of stairs even when I started running halfway through. The entrance to the temple were hidden behind large stone pillars, it was an enormous iron door that looked like it would withstand the blast of a nuclear bomb. All of this place was familiar, yet at the same time a new experience; what I saw through the end of a computer monitor couldn¡¯t compare the majesty of seeing it in real life. I took a deep breath and called out to her, ¡°Lyssa,¡± the lonely resident of this massive castle. The iron doors began to open, and the grounds proceeded to tremble and shake as if they had a mind of their own. A further heart-pounding thirty seconds had transpired for the doors to fully open themselves. I tried to peer inside but there was only darkness. Then, footsteps. Cold, desolate clacking strike of heels against stone floor. ¡®Clack¡¯, ¡®clack¡¯, ¡®clack¡¯. I couldn¡¯t tell if it was the rhythm of my heart or the sound of an approaching enemy. ¡°Master,¡± I heard a womanly voice call for me from behind the shadows, then suddenly I felt a presence looming behind me followed by the dangerous ¡®whoosh¡¯ of a wooden staff flying through the air. ¡°I¡¯ve missed you¡­ so much! How dare you leave me alone for so long!¡± I didn¡¯t know how I managed it. My body instinctively went on autopilot as it turned around and blocked most of the blunt-force trauma from her staff-cum-mace by quick summoning a legendary-tier round shield to receive her attack. The force of the impact alone sent shockwaves that reverberated against the stone pillars and destroying parts of the ground between us. ¡°That¡¯s quite an extreme way to greet your master, isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Oh please, it¡¯s just how I show my love.¡± Chapter thirteen: battle mania Chapter thirteen: battle mania Soft golden hair, luscious cherry lips, long eyelashes that accentuated her glittering crimson eyes, long eleven ears protruding from the sides of her face, and supple white skin second to none: she smiled a smile that could move the very heavens with its destructive potential. Her nubile figure struck through those thick white religious habits - nothing about it really encapsulated holiness, indeed it was closer to fetishist wear that could easily be spotted on Halloween more than anything. Long slits ran down one side of her skirt, purely for ease of movement during combat, though I couldn¡¯t deny that sex appeal was also on my mind. I gulped in guilt as my eyes were naturally drawn to her alluring legs exposed through the gaps. ¡°Fufufu¡­¡± she chuckled softly. ¡°Master, how very nice of you to finally drop by after all these months of leaving me alone. I hope you¡¯ve prepared your last words because I won¡¯t let you off so easily,¡± she said with the sweetest and most unsuspecting smile. Then as gently as one could, she pointed the tip of her staff and began charging some spell. It took a moment to break free from her charm and finally realize what she was about to do. [Flame Breaker]: Master tier flame magic. Deals increased damage the longer it is charged. Leaves behind a ¡®burning field¡¯ that deals periodic damage to all opponents within. If this was still back in the game, I would¡¯ve easily broken her channelling, but it was noticeably harder to grasp things in reality. I felt a little embarrassed after selfishly acting like I was some kind of combat guru yet something on this level was getting to me. I was like a deer caught up between headlights as I couldn¡¯t exactly move from the spot or else she¡¯d shoot me with that thing however, at the same instance if I didn¡¯t move she¡¯d also fire that thing. ¡°Hey Lyssa? Let¡¯s calm down and talk about this,, okay?¡± ¡°No excuses!¡± she shouted as she let loose her skill. A great fiery rage was shot right towards me at a frightening speed. Everything in its path was instantly eviscerated and became either molten rock or steam. The mere heat off that spell seemed potent enough to burn off my face. ¡°Dammit!¡± [Mouth of Naraka]: Temporarily summon a giant mouth capable of eating anything. With little time to act I defaulted to my usual strategy. The ground next to me suddenly darkened and transformed into a murky swamp-like surface, and as if it had grown a will of its own it jumped out lashing a hungry roar. There was no face, just a giant gaping mouth lined up with rows of terrifyingly sharp teeth like a blender; imagine an amorphous black mass of ooze spawned with a mouth and jumped out of the floor. It unhinged its jaw like a snake and swallowed the incoming inferno whole. In just a few short seconds there was nothing left of Lyssa¡¯s flame spell, as if she didn¡¯t do anything in the first place. Content, the dark mouth sank back into the floor and disappeared. Acting on instinct, I turned around and suddenly Lyssa appeared at my back while attempting to bash at me with the end of her staff that had turned a glossy white due to powering it up. [Impact Strike]: Combat skill, attack a foe with a powerful hit. ¡°It¡¯s bad manners to go for someone¡¯s face!¡± I told her off while ducking to dodge the swing. Yet, with her ungodly reflexes she recovered and immediately attempted to strike again without losing any momentum. I promptly dashed back while her staff smashed and completely obliterated the concrete. In a last ditch effort, she quick fired some Flare Bolts at me, though I managed to easily avoid those by teleporting away a few metres. [Blink]: instantly teleport a short distance. ¡°Tsk,¡± she clicked her tongue. ¡°It¡¯s no fun if all you do is dodge,¡± she shrugged then rushed at me relentlessly. Her staff whizzed past me making sounds that didn¡¯t seem like it was just from a wooden stick ¨C honestly at this point it was closer in power and weight as a steel girder and she was tossing it around as if it were Styrofoam. The way she attacked and wove in several high level skills and abilities was masterful and hypnotizing to witness, and it would¡¯ve been more so if I wasn¡¯t on the receiving end of it. There were no pauses or wasteful movements, just pure mastery and anger balled into one. Every time I managed to avoid an attack there would be another one coming for me, and just when I thought I had a moment to retaliate I would see fireballs flying my way. That said, if there was one advantage of having a small body it was that I had smaller hitboxes, for a lack of a better term. ¡°Argh, so annoying! Stop moving around!¡± she shouted like a teacher scolding a particularly disruptive student. Her staff suddenly glittered white and the faint outline of a sword appeared at the tip. It caught me off guard. I actually had no recollections of giving her these skills; they were from a branch of combat known as ¡®Spear bearer¡¯s technique¡¯. Right, there was no reason for me to give a healer/support these kinds of abilities, yet she clearly used them. She slashed down at me with the edge of the blade attached to her staff and managed to cut my arm. Fortunately, with my armour and defensive stats, the most it did was make me bleed a little - nothing major. The bleeding stopped once I applied some minor healing to it.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. [Spear Bearer¡¯s Mirage]: Temporarily convert any long item into a spear. ¡°Spear Bearer¡¯s Mirage? When did you learn that kind of skill?¡± I asked. ¡°Oh my, do you finally have an interest in me after all?¡± she continued to surprise by converting her staff from a bow to spear and shot me with magical arrows. I quickly struck them out of the air with my own Impact Strike and they disappeared quite easily. ¡°Since you¡¯ve left me alone in this place I¡¯ve been doing some practice on my own and seeing the surprise on your face was worth all the effort.¡± ¡®So, NPCs can learn skills on their own,¡¯ I noted to myself. ¡°Still, I should say it¡¯s expected of my master, but it doesn¡¯t seem like normal melee combat will ever be enough to take you down,¡± a sinister smirk stretched across her face. A terribly feeling swirled down my stomach. My nightmares were answered as she proceeded to loading up on self-buffs. [Holy Armor]: Increase physical and magical defence by 60%. Increases HP regeneration by 300%. [Divine Strength]: Increase strength and physical attack by 60%. Increases weapon durability by 30%. Increases blunt force damage by 60%. [Angel''s Fury]: Adds 300 points of holy damage to melee hits. Attack speed increased by one stage. [Warrior of Justice]: Increases critical hit rate and damage by 30%. Increases physical and magic defence pierce by 30%. [Shield of God]: Decreases all damage sustained by 30%, calculated before defence reduction. Increases holy damage by 60%. [Will of the Heavens]: Reduces the duration and effectiveness of negative status ailments by 90%. [Inescapable Judgment]: Increases physical and magical pierce rate by 30%. Opponents hit by an attack while this status is active receive the debuff ¡®under judgment¡¯; every subsequent attack temporarily shreds 3% of the opponent¡¯s physical and magical defence. [Divine Armament]: Allows the use of Divine Weapon skills. For a second she had been engulfed by a holy aura like a great white bonfire. Luckily for my eyes the effect of those spells died down to a more subtle level, though I could still feel an unmovable presence coming from her. I had always wondered how spell effects would feel when stacked and now that I know it definitely feels nauseating standing against it. Shaking off the pressure, I let out a sigh. Despite everything, Lyssa had a grand smile on her face as someone told her Christmas was tomorrow. "You know I gave you those skills to support other people, right?" I sighed. "It''s okay, master." "What is?" before I could receive an answer, several dozen swords of light fell from above like a hail of deadly rain. ¡°Tch, divine armament,¡± without much thought and time to react, I spawned another Mouth of Naraka to eat the swords out of flight, though unfortunately one of them made it past the mouth and grazed my left arm. The moment it hit a text box appeared before me with the words, [You are now under judgment]. I was left momentarily distracted by that textbox, enough to be struck at by another skill. A blinding white pillar of light struck down at me like a waterfall and rooted me in place. ¡°Shit,¡± I swore, crowd control effects were always annoying, even in the game I hated people using them. Seeing me frozen in place she must¡¯ve thought that was her chance and got close. Her win condition was probably sticking to me like glue and making sure I couldn¡¯t heal or retaliate. Unfortunately for my dear little Lyssa, the difference between us was that I played this game religiously; The moment she got within distance is repelled her back with a powerful repulsive spell from my shield. Luckily I had an ace for this kind of situation; activating another skill the pillar dissipated almost instantly. [Unfaltering Hero]: break free from all crowd control effect and temporarily gain a barrier that renders all subsequent crowd controls ineffective. Upon activation of the skill all enemies with in a two metre radius are knocked back. It was as if a powerful typhoon had just hit her as she was repelled. I didn¡¯t let up and quick-summoned the wooden practice sword, that I had been using with Sherry, and planted it onto the floor. Like before, it started to pulse out a white aura after it was converted to a ward. However, I wanted to go a bit further than what I did with Sherry and spawned the ¡®Sword of Damocles¡¯. A gigantic wooden sword ¨C almost ten metres in length ¨C appeared behind me and lodged itself into the floor, crushing the stairs and half of the roof of the temple. That wasn¡¯t the end of the spell, along side the giant wooden sword, normal-sized wooden swords started to be generated alongside it like a cell undergoing mitosis. I couldn¡¯t help but smile a little, after all these were my favourite kinds of skills. The ones that everyone cry out is unfair and overpowered. All the dozens of wooden swords faced Lyssa¡¯s general direction and mercilessly fired themselves out like a machine gun, only that machine gun shot out wooden swords, and that wooden sword exploded upon impact, and that explosion was akin to a grenade ¨C imagine a machine gun that shot out grenades and had infinite ammo. Every time a wooden sword was fired, a new one would generate in its place and the cycle would continue without rest. This was a skill that was balanced around the player¡¯s mana reserves, but once people could get infinite mana this skill truly became broken. Lovingly dubbed the ¡®Infinite Barrage¡¯ by the player base. I could still feel Lyssa¡¯s presence holding out over there. She was hiding behind a large translucent shield, which was another one of her divine armaments, but it was only a matter of time before even that nigh unbreakable shield would crack. Heck, I was actually going easy on her; I would¡¯ve used a real sword to up the attack power, yet here I was going soft on my poor children. ¡°What say you give up?¡± I asked, though I probably wouldn¡¯t have been able to hear her over the sound of explosions. Feeling a little sorry I ceased firing my infinite barrage. However, when I noticed it, she wasn¡¯t there. ¡°Defaulting back to old tricks, I see,¡± I turned around and intercepted a very obvious attack from behind. Before she could get close enough, I surrounded her with all the imitation wooden swords that were set to go off. It was as though she were a submarine amidst a minefield. She clicked her tongue and dropped her staff, ¡°it¡¯s my loss.¡± She threw up her hands. ¡°Good girl.¡± Chapter fourteen: a chapter about my spoilt High Elf underling Chapter fourteen: a chapter about my spoilt High Elf underling Once our bout was over, all the destruction and mess we caused were magically cleared away and the temple was restored to its former pristine state. In the game it wasn¡¯t possible to completely destroy whole terrains like this unless specifically programmed in by the developers for a particular event, so even I was a little worried about what would happen. Technically the entire guild castle was classified as a single ¡®entity¡¯ with its own internal durability, and I knew it would slowly replenish itself, I just didn¡¯t know how much of it was repairable. Should the worse have come to worst I would¡¯ve had some of the servants from the other guild castles come and fix it, but luckily it didn¡¯t have to come to that. Since things seemed to have simmered down we decided to move our conversation over to the temple¡¯s kitchen. Lyssa went to take a quick shower, while I only decided to do with light washing up as I hadn¡¯t worked up that much of a sweat. After a few minutes she came back wearing a dull, monochromatic tracksuit with a towel hanging around her neck. Her slightly damp hair and the showing of skin which was usually hidden away by her habits gave off the sense of defencelessness and was quite erotic. How mighty it was, the power of exposing things that were normally hidden away¡­ She walked over to the kitchen counter and started making herself a bowl of cup noodles. I didn¡¯t remember leaving those things around when I originally made this place, ¡°where did you even¡­ no, never mind, I don¡¯t want to know. Anyway, have you finally calmed yourself down?¡± She looked at me with one brow raised, ¡°what a strange thing to ask, master. I¡¯ve always been calm.¡± ¡°Right¡­ well, at least it¡¯s good to know you won¡¯t be randomly attacking me again,¡± I let out a relieved sigh. Events like these were not good for my heart, but the worst part about it is that she didn¡¯t use 100% of her powers; never once did she attempt to heal herself throughout the fight. Though, it could be argued with some merit this would¡¯ve only prolonged the fight since I technically didn¡¯t heal myself either. The outcome would not have changed much. Yet, perhaps I spoke too soon, ¡°huh? I fad nuffn bot nt tking uuuu?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t talk with your mouth full,¡± I shook my head in disapproval. If only her personality wasn¡¯t so disappointingly rough and boorish, she would¡¯ve been an unparalleled beauty who epitomized the natural splendour of the High Elves. Just which idiot was it who thought making her personality like this was a good idea? Ah, it was me¡­ ¡°I said, I never said anything about never attacking you again. Seriously, what¡¯s gotten into you today?¡± ¡°Oh, my bad. I was just under the mistaken impression that attacking a superior was somehow a bad thing, but clearly this was just my naivety taking over.¡± ¡°Honestly. Master, if you keep acting strangely I might have to start distancing myself from you in public to avoid the embarrassment,¡± she continued munching away on her noodles even after that rude comment. Just where did I go wrong in raising her? Oh right, I made her like this deliberate. In my defence I never thought her personality would be anything more than just flavour text - which makes this so much more awkward for me. ¡°So, since you¡¯ve finally taken the time off of your busy schedule to come see little ol¡¯ me, it must be something important. Clearly, I wasn¡¯t high up on the priority list-, ah, could you pass me that kimchi?¡±The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°Kimch¡­ I mean, it¡¯s not unimportant, but let¡¯s just say I came because I missed you too; it¡¯s definitely not because I forgot about you or anything, so don¡¯t worry about that. Nope, ahahaa¡­¡± I told her as I handed her the plate of kimchi ¨C no really, where does all this food come from? She glared at me like a rabid dog ready to pounce. ¡°A- and, oh, what¡¯s this?¡± I withdrew a ¡®Dragon Staff¡¯ out of my inventory and presented it to her. Unlike her wooden one, this staff was purely metallic. At the head of the staff was a small statuette of a dragon clinging onto a large red magic crystal, and the black chains wrapped around the length of the handle gave it a slightly brutal appearance. Ordinarily it would be a perfect high class magic weapon, but I held back my tears as I painfully loaded it up with melee-oriented max physical damage enchants and upgrades. If my friends from back in the game saw this abomination they would immediately vomit. ¡°Wh- whoa¡­! What¡¯s this +10 Dragon Staff of maiming doing here?! Here, why don¡¯t you take it Lyssa? And while you¡¯re at it, maybe you could also forgive your master.¡± The moment her eyes set upon this thing it lit up like Christmas candles. She slammed down her cup noodles with enough force to expel half of the contents and dirtying the table. Didn¡¯t she know this was technically a holy place and should be kept neat and tidy? She rushed to me like an excited dog and snatched the staff from my hands while giving me a warm smile and patting me on the head. ¡°What¡¯s this master, you do know how to please a girl.¡± ¡°If all girls were as hardcore as you, then sure.¡± If half of the population was like her then this world would¡¯ve already met its end long ago. ¡°Anyway, the reason I came today was because there was a job I need you to do.¡± ¡°Ehhh¡­ do I have to?¡± she made a super annoyed face without even a hint of trying to hide it. Her beauty was wasted on this girl. ¡°Don¡¯t look at me like that; I¡¯m not the one who asked for you, it was Olivia.¡± ¡°Psfft¡­ Mmm, ack!¡± as soon as she heard the name ¡®Olivia¡¯, she almost choked on her drink and her ears perked up like a frightened dog. ¡°O- Oliv¡­ Mistress Olivia?! But why would she¡­ I mean¡­ I- I understand, please tell her I¡¯ll be happy to be used like a slave, and she¡¯ll hear no complaints from me!¡± Sweat dripped down her face like a torrential downpour. Did she develop some sort of trauma with Olivia while I wasn¡¯t looking? That was something to think about too; my NPC assistants could theoretically travel between guild castles without restriction. Other than thinking it was a bit of a shame to miss out on interesting little interactions my assistants had between each other now that they were sentient after coming to this world, I felt it was a good thing they were evolving. ¡°What the? Aren¡¯t you treating us too differently? In case you¡¯ve forgotten, I¡¯m the master here.¡± She said the following with a completely straight face, ¡°yes, but my kind-hearted master will forgive me for anything I do. Mistress Olivia on the other hand¡­ I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if she banned me from the hot springs for my life, and High Elves live for a very long time.¡± I thought I was getting a migraine, ¡°whatever. As long as you¡¯re good with helping out then there¡¯s no problem. Oh, and while you¡¯re at it go tell Ark he¡¯s also being summoned to assist with the project.¡± ¡°Hmm? I don¡¯t mind, but shouldn¡¯t you go see him?¡± ¡°I¡¯d like to, but there¡¯s an annoying¡­ I mean important event coming up that I can¡¯t miss.¡± ¡°I see, then I¡¯ll do as you command.¡± As back and forth as our relationship was, when I gave her a serious order, Lyssa was the type to complete it without complaint. Though, I could imagine her taking some creative liberties with the intent of the orders. It was only when we were free and joking around she¡¯d act like a spoilt princess. At the very least, it was good for me to know I still maintained the majority command over my assistants. Chapter fifteen: the aspect ceremony Chapter fifteen: the aspect ceremony As the start of November came around there were many things going on around this end of the year - which, by the way, something similar to Christmas known as ¡®Harmony Day¡¯ existed; it was like Valentines and Christmas rolled into one, and people would cheerfully callout ¡®Happy Harmony!¡¯ or so I¡¯ve heard. However, disregarding the festivities, there was a more important event coming up for the children of this world known as the ¡®Aspect Ceremony¡¯. It was common for people to not know about their own aspects upon birth, so with some special involvement by the church it is revealed to them, though if you ask me it¡¯s rather a moot ceremony as eventually the children will figure it out on their own. My personal theory on this was that it was more for the parents and concerned members of the community, like those very ominous looking black-suited guests in the back row observing all the children with a keen eye. If I had to guess, they were most likely part of some agency and were here to scout out potential recruits for their own purposes. Most people seem to regard this event as a coming-of-age type deal, so there wasn¡¯t any harm in it. Being someone who knew about his aspect from the beginning there was no real excitement in it for me, but it was rather weird how anxious Sherry was about this ordeal. I wondered why her parents bothered, however if it really was being treated as a coming-of-age thing then it made more sense. The ceremony would be held at a large local cathedral with all members of the community and interested parties being invited to observe. The moment I truly grasped the importance of this event in the eyes of the people was when I took a glance over the average level of the observers ¨C especially those suspicious black suits. The upper average for those powerful individuals hovered around 50 to 55, and for clarity the power disparity between those people and common adults would be like the difference between a pre-schooler and a trained soldier in a mech suit. Compared to my previous world it was a lot less sensible, in fact I¡¯m surprised this world hasn¡¯t completely devolved into a survival of the fittest scenario. That said, if I trained Sherry hard enough I could probably get her to around level 60 by the time she enters high school, and if she continued in that manner I could easily envision her being in the upper 90s by the time she reached her peak ¨C perhaps reaching three digits may not be impossible. Speaking of, Sherry had been hiding behind my back ever since we got here. While she was with friends and family she seemed quite confident, but as soon as we brought her to a large public affair her timidity resurfaces. To be fair, it was a big improvement from the first time she was introduced to us where she hid behind a fence several metres away. Before making her more overpowered, perhaps I should be looking to fix that innately introverted personality of hers. Being an introvert wasn¡¯t itself a particularly bad thing, however if she¡¯ll be handling overwhelming powers then she¡¯ll need to have a proper attitude attuned to maturely wield it. ¡°There¡¯s¡­ a lot of people,¡± she whispered while clutching onto the corner of my shirt. ¡°Yeah,¡± I responded half-heartedly. I¡¯ve done my own research on aspects over the internet, but not once have I heard any mention of the ¡®Human Aspect¡¯ outside of it theoretically existing, even then their conclusion was that it wasn¡¯t a useful aspect as there were no inherent abilities associated with humanity. If that was truly how people felt about it then I could foresee this ending in disaster for me. All the participating children were brought to a special preparation room where we were given ceremonial robes to wear on top of our clothes and wait for our turn being called out on stage. The rest of our families were guided to the seats a little further away and watch from the sidelines. I could easily see the smiling face of my family eagerly cheering me on, to which I could wave back uncomfortably. ¡°You know, is there really a point to you partaking in this ceremony?¡± to break the ice I asked Sherry. ¡°Eh? But don¡¯t all children have to attend?¡± she looked bewildered at my question. It never dawned on me the possibility that she wasn¡¯t even aware of what she was. She cautiously looked around the room over the children who had been staring back intently and suddenly hid behind me. I calmed her down and told her there was nothing wrong with her being there in the context of this being an important ceremony in a child¡¯s life. It seems her parents wanted her to live a normal life despite being a rare Pure, a sentiment I could respect, despite ruining all chances of normalcy by making her slowly more overpowered. ¡°Well, if you¡¯re fine with it then there¡¯s nothing wrong with you being here. If I had to give an analogy, it¡¯s like being given an excellent grade before doing the test; technically you can still do the test, not that there¡¯d be much reason to. Still, if you just take this casually then you¡¯ll probably come to regard it as a fun memory when you¡¯re older,¡± I explained to her, but she didn¡¯t really seem to understand.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. ¡°Uhh¡­ okay,¡± given little choice I reached out and touched her ears as she devolved into a flustered mess. ¡°Eh?! Co Corentin?!¡± ¡°You¡¯re an Elf. A Pure Elf. These ears are the proof; how could you not know something so basic?¡± "I never knew¡­" On that note, it appears that the ears of an elf are their sensitive point. I doubt that information would have any practical use aside from it being an interesting little fact. In any case, while it was fine she attended the event it was also going to draw her a lot of attention by those black suits, which would be quite¡­ inconvenient for me. There were still a lot of experiments¡­ I mean, things I wanted her to learn, and with that thought I leaned in closer and whispered to her, ¡°Sherry, be careful who you talk to during this ceremony. There¡¯s bound to be a lot of people interested in your unique condition, so unless you have absolute confidence in them, don¡¯t promise anything. Okay?¡± I didn¡¯t expect a five-year-old to truly grasp the severity of all this, but luckily she nodded to my advice. The ceremony commenced with a lengthy history lesson about what exactly aspects were and how they were created through the world-tier magic known as the ¡®Dusk of Harmony¡¯. Overall, the story told by the high priest was similar to the one father explained to my at the hospital. The explanation took over an hour and a half with most of the children barely keeping up and some of them even falling asleep. Throughout the whole service I noticed numerous stares coming our way, or to be more precise, at Sherry. I tried my best to keep her oblivious to this by keeping her occupied and talking to her. Once the stage was set the children were called up one by one and have their aspects revealed. The method to revealing the aspects was quite interesting: the children would stand up against a special mirror prepared by the church and have them touch it. Upon touching the mirror, it would faintly glow and reflected upon would a version of the child with their aspects drawn out. As my father once explained, all the children here at least were of a hominid race; the only ones I saw today were Elves, Dwarves, Giants, Beastfolk, Sylphs, Undines, and a unique race known as ¡®Tyrants¡¯. It seems these Tyrants in particular were an exceptionally rare aspect, and the one boy who possessed it drew a lot of attention. From what I could tell, they were a race most closely resembling the concept of a devil from my previous world: dark crimson skin and two horns upon their forehead. Apparently, they were descendants of an ancient race of red dragons, or so the stories went. The ceremony truly reached its climax when Sherry was called out on stage. The entire cathedral came to a silence with only small whispers amongst the observers. The priest looked a little worried and turned to his peers for advice. One of them came up and whispered something in his ears, to which the priest then nodded and carried on with the event. ¡°Please place your hand upon the sacred mirror,¡± he told her, and upon doing so the entire great hall lit up like Christmas fireworks. A flash of green mixed in with trace amounts of gold lights. ¡°So, this is a Pure,¡± commented the priest with a tone of reverence. ¡°Thank you. The mirror has determined your true ancestry,¡± he said despite there being no visible changes reflected, as to be expected. ¡°You are descendant of the respected clan of the Elves. May you walk this world with your head held high knowing that you are being watched over by the Elven lords and gods.¡± As he said that, a thought wondered into my mind about the true form of ¡®gods¡¯ in this world. Were they like in my previous world? Nebulous existences that required faith with no real answers. Or perhaps they were more literal in this world. Now that was something I¡¯d like to find out. Already there were some unsavoury discussion happening in the back. Some of them even dared to approach Sherry¡¯s parents and handed their business cards and whatnot. Obviously they looked troubled by all this, and we couldn¡¯t have that. ¡°Echo,¡± I uttered under my breath while ensuring I wasn¡¯t within earshot of anyone. A slight rush of icy wind breezed past me, signalling that he was listening. While it was doubtful those black suits would do anything too eye-catching in such a public place, they were certainly being a nuisance. ¡°Keep an eye on the people causing trouble for Sherry¡¯s family and gently make them stop.¡± The breeze disappeared as I issued my order. ¡®Echo¡¯ was a unique¡­ ¡®entity¡¯. Rather than a fully sentient personality, it would be more apt to call it a physical extension of my will. The true identity of Echo was actually a special legendary tier ring known as the ¡®Crucible of Shadows¡¯, which was an exceedingly rare drop from a notoriously difficult raid boss back when I played the game. In the game its function were manifested as a ¡®hooded knight cast in dark armour with no discernible facial features¡¯, and it would often aid the player in combat by spawning at random to attack the enemy. It also had a function to act as a scout by revealing the minimap and the locations of hostiles. That was the game, however in reality it was a lot more intelligent ¨C though still taciturn ¨C with a more flexible usage of its skills. As to how it was going to stop those black suits, it would probably cast an uncomfortable aura to approaching individuals with the intensity of that discomfort increasing as they got closer. Basically, it was more of a subconscious persuasion. ¡°Next person, please come up,¡± the priest finally called for me. I walked over to the sacred mirror and slowly placed my hands against it. Nothing different reflected on the mirror; it was still me, or that¡¯s what it seemed like, but a small fracture formed across the moment I touched it. The priest was baffled for a second before turning back to his peers to discuss what was going on. ¡°This is strange,¡± he commented. ¡°Is it possible this child carries no aspect? No, that couldn¡¯t be¡­¡± A strange atmosphere settled into the room. Amongst the observers, some voice opinions of pity, others scorned and mocked me, dubbing me a ¡®null¡¯. None of it really matter. ¡°It is unfortunately, but you do not appear to possess any aspect. I am sorry, child,¡± the priest told me with a concerned gaze. ¡°I¡¯m aware,¡± I replied and left the stage. Chapter sixteen: my older sister Chapter sixteen: my older sister ¡°Corentinnn!¡± as my aspect ceremony drew to a close, Maybelle immediately rushed into me and embraced me like a bear. Her small, childish arms wrapped around my body like a rope as she rubbed her crying face into my clothes, wiping whatever fluids came out. ¡°Cornntnnn!¡± she continued to cry until her words muffled. I would¡¯ve liked to soothe her, but my hands were literally tied to my body by her hug. ¡°What¡¯s wrong sis? I¡¯ve never seen you cry so much in your life,¡± I asked. Though, if I had to hazard a guess, she was likely crying for me because people were calling me mean names or something, not that I was particularly surprised or bothered. I suppose to a child this kind of thing had more impact than it really would; they¡¯ve lived their lives by the axioms of their peers and parents, and too immature to properly interpret things in a logical manner. This in itself wasn¡¯t a bad thing, drawing inspiration and lessons from their surroundings to form a stronger and more synthesized belief about the world around them is how our society builds upon each generation. ¡°But¡­ but Corentinnn!¡± she continued to cry. ¡°They said¡­ they said that you¡¯re¡­!¡± My mother came over wearing a worried expression. She gently placed her hand over my head to calm me down, though I think she¡¯s gotten the wrong person. ¡°It¡¯s okay, Corentin,¡± a small sparkle at the edge of her eyes lit up as she wiped it away. ¡°There are many people who live lives which have nothing to do with their aspects. Especially today¡¯s society where things have become more convenient, there are even people who haven¡¯t tapped into their aspects in years or decades!¡± she explained. While these ¡®aspects¡¯ were a bigger part of life than fighting was for the people in my previous world, it was something akin to that. Perhaps it was a general trend amongst all societies of all worlds, as they advanced the need for violence reduces. ¡°I understand, mother,¡± I replied. ¡°I¡¯m not really that bothered by it; as long as the people around me accept me, then that¡¯s all I need.¡± ¡°Well said,¡± my father too, uncharacteristically, came and nodded his head. ¡°That¡¯s right son. Whatever will happen, you will always be Marie¡¯s and my child.¡± ¡°Really, you have such doting parents,¡± Anne, Sherry¡¯s mother, came over and commented. She gave me a relieved chuckle and told me, ¡°don¡¯t sweat the small stuff. You¡¯re you. I want you to continue being good friends with my little Sherry from here on out too. All right?¡± she asked of me with a wink at the end.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. ¡°Yes, it would be my pleasure!¡± * * * Now then, the real problem started a few days after the ceremony. Ever since then my sister¡¯s behaviour had become slightly awkward around me, and she was much less energetic than she was before. She still tried to put on a smile here and there, but it was obvious she was forcing herself, and I might just know the reason as to why. There was a very convenient scouting skill in the game known as ¡®Clairvoyance¡¯, and as its name implied, it allowed me to see things from very far away. In fact, it had an almost unlimited range, however the further a place was, the more mana it consumed, though for a person like me that wasn¡¯t much of a problem. The skill would summon a small companion which would then act as a player¡¯s eyes ¨C in the game it would pop up a small window and reveal distant parts of the map. The shape of the companion could also be customized with various effects ¨C the most popular amongst the player base was either a raven or an eagle, both of which were medium all-rounders with good durability and speed. Personally, I favoured using the ¡®red-eyed falcon¡¯ which was extremely fragile, in exchange for it being very fast. For the past few days I had it tail my sister around to see what was happening at school, and as to be expected rumours about me had already spread. ¡°Did you hear? Maybelle¡¯s younger brother is a ¡®null¡¯¡¯,¡± I¡¯d often hear such things from the students, even the teachers would comment on that. In a way, my existence was much rarer than that of a Pure, in that I was the first recorded cast of an individual with no aspect ¨C which wasn¡¯t exactly true, but they had no way of knowing about a human aspect. The term ¡®null¡¯ was also specifically chosen for me. ¡°Does that mean he¡¯s a failure?¡± another student would ask. ¡°Isn¡¯t that what it means?¡± ¡°But doesn¡¯t Maybelle have an Elf aspect? Maybe her brother was adopted or something.¡± They weren¡¯t exactly subtle about these rumours either, however the worst part of it was that they would sometimes take it a step too far. Insulting me in front of my sister, sometimes bullying her, taking her things; she¡¯s become a collateral to my existence. I had tried to help out from time to time, like using my clairvoyance pet to help her find her things, or preventing the escalation of the bullying by interfering with them, and etc. Unfortunately, as the weeks went on and her torment continued, she was visibly less enthusiastic about school. There was always the option of showing off a little bit of my powers to rid the stigma that I was a failure, however I decided to hold off on that. Even if I did that now, it wouldn¡¯t change anything as I wasn¡¯t yet enrolled in school so no one would notice. It was also just a rumour, as distasteful as it was, it was likely in time they¡¯ll get bored and stop talking about it. There was also the desire to keep my stats a screet from everyone for the time being, well to be honest it was mostly just that. For now, I decided to play the waiting game and watch over my sister¡¯s condition through clairvoyance. Chapter seventeen: my little brother Chapter seventeen: my little brother << Maybelle de Helvetius'' perspective >> I like my little brother. Little Corentin¡­ or at least I think I did¡­? But lately, I''m not so sure. A few days after my Corentin¡¯s aspect ceremony, a strange rumour began to spread in my school, and as a result my friends became a little weird. They began to exclude me from their activities and often start talking behind my back, sometimes they''d do it openly and mock my him to my face. They''d call him a ''failure'' and asked me if he really was my younger brother and not just some adopted kid. I tried to deny it at first, I defended him, yet they wouldn''t stop and after weeks of that I just kept quiet. My friends¡­ they no longer wanted to hang out with me. Why? Didn''t we have so much fun before? I thought we could be friends for our whole lives, but just because something happened to my brother they don''t want to be friends anymore? This isn''t fair. After a few more weeks their harassment had escalated to the point where they hid my things. They wouldn''t tell me what classes we had next or let me sit next to them during lunch. Sitting alone in the corner of the room as they constantly talked about what my little brother was as they came up with outlandish theories. Maybe he was adopted, maybe he was some sort of genetic experiment by the government, maybe he was this, or that¡­ I couldn''t take it anymore. The more I defended my little brother the more they treated me poorly. Why? I haven''t done anything. If you have a problem with my him then take it up with him! I don''t know when I stopped laughing at school. I don''t know when I had to start eating my lunches in a secluded area of the building by myself. Honestly, I wanted all of this to just go away. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. I thought¡­ I thought maybe talking to mama might help, however all she said was that we were family and we should look after each other. So, then what has my brother done for me when I''m going through all of this? ¡®It¡¯s important for family to trust family and to support one another,¡¯ she told me. Maybe that was true, even so my suffering didn¡¯t stop because of that. "Sis?" while I was wandering around my neighbourhood aimlessly, I ran into my younger brother and Sherry who always stuck to him like glue. I felt my face burn up and become twisted, so I tried to hide it. ¡°Are you going home?" he asked, not knowing what I was going through because of him. "H- huh? Yeah, I''m¡­ going home," I replied to him. I know it wasn''t his fault. He never wanted to be born a failure, and that it was wrong of me to think this way. But¡­ I was hurting. Even I started to doubt at times if he really was related to me. When I think back, he never treated me like an older sister, he would just look down at me as if he was better than me. Right¡­ He was always different¡­ I was never really a sister to him, I was more like an annoyance, wasn''t I? If that''s the case then wouldn''t it be better for the both of us to just stay away from each other? That way¡­ maybe I can get my friends back¡­ I looked to him. To his face that I could never properly read because he was just so enigmatic. Was he really my brother? How come he never acted like I did? The way he speaks and acts doesn''t feel like the way I do things, or even our parents. Maybe¡­ my friends were right? If he is just a stranger, then why do I need to defend someone like him? Right¡­? He probably doesn''t like me anyway, so there''s no real harm; if I can just return to my friends everything will go back to the way it was. "Sis, is something wrong?" he asked. Of course something is wrong! Everything is wrong! He was wrong! It shouldn''t have been this way. Sherry must''ve sensed something wrong and called out to me, "big sister?" She was always clinging to him like she''d die if he wasn''t around. What was wrong with her? Did she not have any other friends, or was she not worried about what would happen to her if she continued hanging around Corentin? Will she feel the same way I did when it''s time for them to go to school? "It''s nothing," I told him as I rushed past him and Sherry. I don''t know¡­ I don''t know what to do¡­