The water was pure and clear, slowly making it’s way from the far mountains of the south to the distant blue sea in the north. It was the the height of the summer season, the ninth month of the year nearly at it's end, and like many that came here to cool down and spend the day in a lazy shade of some tree so did Tercius and his family.

Today was a special day for Tercius in particular, but also for other members of his family. On this day exactly ten years ago a certain little boy was born and to mark that occasion all members left their work behind and came together to celebrate and spend the day in each others company. That they did it by the river was his mothers idea, she knew how much he liked to swim and she shared some of the same enthusiasm about it.

All around them people milled about, both on land and in water, enjoying the cool that the presence of the river provided around it’s long shores. His grandparents Ciron and Rona rested on a large blanket in the shade of the canopy right near the water, immersed in a world of their own. Septimus, his father, a man that would in the course of the current year enter his thirties, was carrying in his arms the latest addition of their family, a one year old baby boy by the name of Leo, a name his grandfather insisted on. The little scamp was napping while his father provided the motion necessary for that to happen.

His mother was sitting next to them, and in her lap his other sibling little Aurelia slept, tired after the afternoon spent playing with her parents and big brother in the water. Both of his sibling inherited their mothers and grandmothers green eyes and the black hair that eventually turned towards the dark mahogany red of their mysterious paternal grandmother. The elder males of the family often joked about how they had nothing to show for their involvement in the making of him and his siblings. Both his sister and his little brother were the most beautiful children he ever met, their little noses cute and their big eyes disarming to look at.

His parents kept in shape and in their bathing clothes it really showed, contrary to many present this day, they stood out. It was something that he liked to take credit for beacuse he insisted on a twenty to forty minutes of daily physical exercise for all, and he made sure to lower all of sugar products to a minimum while increasing more of vegetables and fruits that were consumed. At first it was tough for some to adjust but once it got into a habit then they complained less.

Tercius was currently floating on his back, his arms relaxed next to his torso letting the water carry him wheresoever it wanted. In his mind he was far far away going over the events of the last few years. A bit over five years ago, right when his mother went into labour with Aurelia, his entire family decided to buy a smaller plot of land in Nurium and build their house there. They came about that decision when Tercius shared his concerns, and in the process once again managed to foil the plans of Rala and his ilk.

When his family members thought it through they came up with a plan to split the rest of the money in equal parts and slowly move it to the build site his grandfather, Neiran and he were working on at the time. The old man then embedded the little leather pouches inside a few different stones that went into the foundation of the wall that went around the property. It was a risky gamble because there were skills that could have found their money, but that was only if luck failed them and someone with that kind of particular skill happened to pass by.

As they predicted and prepared for it, Rala and his cronies came the night before they were scheduled to move, broke into their house and started to thrash everything in sight in their search for the money. They did have someone with them who could feel metal in his proximity and that night he found none. When they explained that they already spent part of the money and sent the other part ahead, one of the men went berserk and Rala had to kill him on the spot, repeating that they must not be harmed permanently. All of them present that night got a serious beating from Rala and a threat of a repeat should they release a word. They left Tercius and his family black and bruised but feeling immensely smug. Even small victories counted for something to a loser. His grandfather and father particularly found the whole situation funny for some reason he did not see, they spent the rest of that night clutching their chests and laughing like loons. As for the money, the luck was with them, and it was right where they left it.

His father actually surprised him at the time, because he learned something previously unknown about the man. It seemed that his father was part of the military up until his middle teenage years when he met his mother and due to an event, that remained a mystery in all the stories he learned so far, left that life behind. He had four skills that he neglected over the years and getting beaten senseless gave him incentive to practise them again. That was how he learned these.

You have learned the skill Sword Mastery (1)! Learn Yes/No?

Increases the speed at which you gain the familiarity with the tool. Every skill level increases the effect by a small degree and lowers the cost of it’s use by a small degree.

You have learned the skill Shield Mastery (1)! Learn Yes/No?

Increases the speed at which you gain the familiarity with the tool. Every skill level increases the effect by a small degree and lowers the cost of it’s use by a small degree.

His father got him a shield and a sword made of wood to practise with and they spent an hour or two every other day since he got them two years ago. Both of these skills were slowly levelled the regular way, and were firmly at level 15 for two months now. It sometimes got so frustrating to watch them sit still at that level while some he got long after them passed them by. Like this one.

You have learned the skill Energy Manipulation (1)! Learn Yes/No?

Allows manipulation of Energy. Every skill level increases the effect by a small degree and lowers the cost of it’s use by a small degree.

My pride and joy! he boasted internally.

It was a skill he got after many episodes where he had to spend his time on physical activities to reduce the Energy that his body got from what the skills could not handle. In that state he could never focus on any skill that required actual concentration or staying in one place. His body warned him, in it’s own way, to spend it as soon as possible or burst from internal pressure. It took many many tries over the years to get this skill, but once he did... Well, many of his neighbours now thought him a loon, with the way he behaved that day he got it. Let’s leave it at that.

He could now keep the energy contained and use it as necessary for the occasion, which made things much more easier to manage. He also made another way to break past the barrier that plagued every skill at every 20 levels. All he had to do was flood the skill with this Energy and then do something with the skill that was in some way a step forward. In some way make it his own, claim it. When you had a teacher to tell you or a book to read what to do it was so easy it was laughable. But for his pride and joy of a skill he had no one to ask and no book to read, and he was sure that he should not do the cannibalistic version of levelling. So for now it was sitting at level 20 and waiting for him to come up with something.

Considering the amount of skills he had, the necessity for a compact list developed over the years, and he kept it updated in an almost completely mental manner with the help of his skill Visualization, so he never forgot. He just wrote down the skills he had, added the new one to the list and then destroyed physical evidence. Quite simple.

It looked something like this:

Language Acquisition (40), Visualization (40), Meditation (58), Stone Shaping (40), Gardening (28), Mathematics (37), Running (40), Precision (20), Stone Sight (19), Teaching (16), Mana Manipulation (20), Mana Sight (20), Sword Mastery (15), Shield Mastery (15), Energy Manipulation (20), Energy Sight (16).

Since he started using the non-cannibalistic way of levelling the skills it looked a bit low for his eyes, but his gut told him he was right about that decision. If he went the route that everybody used than over the last five years he could have had more skills in Adept tier and many more in Apprentice. Hells maybe even an Expert skill or two, it all depended how far he pushed it. Now he would never know. It certainly took some time to figure out how to proceed over the barrier but it felt smoother in some way, compared to the first time he did it with Meditation.

Precision was something he got while playing a game one day with Neiran. A game invented by Neiran it involved that they attempted to hit a large stone, carefully balanced on a pillar of uneven rocks, and it must remain the way it was. The loser was the one who knocked it over. That day he was the loser because the skills appearance took him by complete surprise and made him flustered enough to use a lot more force than he would usually.

Precision (20)

Your senses increase giving you more control over your extremities. Every skill level increases the effect by a small degree and lowers the cost of it’s use by a small degree.

Stone Sight was a skill he got when his grandfather explained about one of his skills and from the description he got, to him it seemed like an x-ray image of the internal structure of stones, so he went with that in mind and after quite frankly embarrassing amount of time spent just sitting around and staring at rocks he got it. His grandfather was overjoyed when he told him about it.

Stone Sight (19)

A sense that allows for visual insight inside of a small volume of stone. Every skill level increases the effect by a small degree and lowers the cost of its use by a small degree.

Teaching was another favourite of his, standing in a firm third place. Like Precision it was a skill that came to him accidentally while he was trying to explain a problem that plagued his friend Neiran. The older boy practised maths on a weekly basis, a requirement his grandfather set when he taught them the basic principles of it, and his task for the week was a set of complex geometric calculations that he had trouble even understanding, let alone solving.

Tercius that day went into a full teacher mode, asking question of the older boy, guiding him towards the answer with questions of his own and at the end of the lesson this awaited him.

Teaching (16)

You make a connection with your students, in the process giving them the sense of direction of he problem that plagues them and increasing the speed at which they process the given subject. Every skill level increases the effect by a small degree and lowers the cost of its use by a small degree.

This was another skill that he shared with his family. It was was often used with Neiran, Aurelia, and even the rest of his family once they realised he was so far ahead of them in calculations of every kind. He gave lessons in particular to his mother who dedicated herself to the noble profession of trading. She got her store open a few months after Aurelia was born and with her own hard work she made her name known in the whole town and the wider area. He particularly liked the skill as it made potty training of Aurelia a breeze, and he hoped to achieve similar success with Leo. Tercius still nightmares from when he saw a three year old toddler, practically a child, with shit running down his legs like delta of Nile. A sight that would not soon leave his head.

Now, Mana Manipulation and Mana Sight were new additions he got just over a year ago in an attempt to control the rampaging energy that coursed through his veins. At the time he accidentally grabbed what he thought was the Energy and tried to get it under control, soon realising that he was doing nothing to stop it, only for it to drain as he got a new skill in a matter of minutes.

Mana Manipulation (20)

Allows the manipulation of Mana. Every skill level increases the effect by a small degree and lowers the cost of its use by a small degree.

Mana is the resource that the skills use as fuel to work, and as far as he could tell it was produced naturally by the body. He found no indication that it got into the body from outside even when he got Mana Sight. That came about while under a moment of brilliance that struck him like lightning while he used Stone Sight.

Mana Sight (20)

A sense that allows for visual inspection of Mana. Every skill level increases the effect by a small degree and lowers the cost of its use by a small degree.

This particular skill was a game changer because it allowed him to see Mana in other peoples bodies, so now he practically had a form of sight that suffered no obstructions other than other Mana itself. Both of these skill he kept to his chest and told no one about them, only practising in late hours when he was alone. He figured that these were the skills that were prerequisite for learning the Thaumaturgic skills. They gave access to a resource that felt in some ways like another limb. It was a difficult journey where he slowly learned some ways and found some tricks to manipulate it. He did only this, because he learned that some Schools and Academies declined a student based on some Thaumaturgic skills he might have and he wanted to keep his options open. How they checked for it he was also unable to find out.

Besides, he knew not were to begin to do what that earth moving skill did years ago. He would have to do a lot of experimenting on his part and he pretty much had his hands full from sun-up to sundown.

For Energy Sight he just repeated the same as before, the skill taking an absurd amount of time to get, compared to Mana Sight. Tercius spent those months so frustrated, knowing that a skill must exist yet not getting it, that his family became worried for him. Even his younger sibling sensed something was wrong with her older brother. It turns out that some skills require more Energy to form and once that box was checked it appeared.

Energy Sight (16)

A sense that allows for visual inspection of Energy. Every skill level increases the effect by a small degree and lowers the cost of its use by a small degree.

He was told that when he used the sight enhancing skills his eyes would glow neon-like, which even his family, for some reason, found disturbing. Most who saw his glowing eyes said the same, so he tried to use them mostly when alone, or with Aurelia. His little sister absolutely adored his glowing eyes, which inicially meant the world to him. But as the little girl kept asking to see his glowing eyes over and over again, he had to admit that he wished on multiple occations, that she just join the glow-eye fearing group.

***

"...Tercius. Tercius wake up..." someone kept using his name in a whisper. Mother’s voice... his brain made the connection.

I must have fallen asleep. he thought to himself. It was a pleasantly lazy day like that.

"...What is it?" he said, his consciousness waking along with him. The night was starting to fall and around them there was barely anyone left. "Time to go?"

Petra nodded while she carried Leo in her arms, the little noise-maker taking one more daily nap, so that he could raise hell later in the night. She placed one finger on her lips, the indication clear. Keep quiet. Then she pointed slowly over the river into the canopy on the other side, and he saw the reason she made that motion.

On one large branch of the canopy a bird stood observing them. Now what truly mattered here was it’s size. Even from 50 meters away it was a giant and he was sure that if his grandfather stood next to it he would not even reach where it’s wings met the torso. It was easily 3 meters tall just standing on it’s legs. Tercius was only moving his eyes to observe the sleek aerial predator in all of it’s wild glory, all else was paralysed. The bird that resembled an eagle was split by colour in two halves with its head, neck and upper part of torso and wings white, the lower a mix of brown and red. It’s feet and beak were a golden yellow. It was preening it beautiful white neck feathers with it’s beak, but he was sure that the eye on their side was observing everything.

Large majority of the crowd had gone home by this point, leaving only about twenty people here, his family excluded. Tercius turned his gaze back on the big bird, not wanting it to leave his sight for more than a moment. He read about birds of prey once, and if this one was anything like those, then it hunted based on movement it spotted.

"Everyone don’t move a finger! They hunt based on movement." he said with his lips just cracked open, keeping them in place by sheer willpower. He didn’t remember if these birds had a good sense of hearing so he said it softly, just enough for his immediate vicinity.

"RUN!" someone behind them chose that moment to pierce the silence, and he could hear pandemonium of movement ensue around them. Fuck! People frantically started running away in all directions, some headed for protection of the lower branches and bushes, some jumped into water, others just straight up went on flat ground with no cover in sight. His eyes returned on the form of the bird and he saw it gliding through the air, crossing the river in a fraction of a second, where it swooped down on the back of it’s victim, a young man that ran straight towards town.

Tercius and his family stood with nary a sound, frozen in place, their eyes peeled to the scene while the bird opened it’s talons and plucked the boy off the ground like he would a plant from his garden. No resistance was possible. It’s claws raked the man’s torso leaving bright red marks all over it, blood gushing out like a fountain, while he screamed his voice hoarse with cries of help. It lowered it’s head and with the tip of it’s sharp beak gave a peck on the top of the head of the unfortunate man, making his skull wide open. With a few flaps of it’s large wings that displaced enough air to make a dust cloud it quickly got altitude, carrying it’s still living meal with it.

He shivered from the eagle’s cry that echoed from somewhere above them.