“Com-” The words got stuck in his throat. ‘What if it’s Rigon again?’ He thought. His heartbeat became faster. His back and armpits started to sweat. The memories of being pinned to the bed and being forced to drink a potion became clear in his mind. Due to his passive skills, the clear memory of the traumatic event flashed dozens of times in his head. The feeling of absolute hopelessness overcame him. His hands started trembling. His vision became blurry.

Kinslayer

BREATH DEEPLY AND SLOWLY!

It is Elora.

Politeness wouldn’t stop Rigon anyway.

The golden light of the system grounded him slightly, enough to read the message from Prometheus. It prompted him to compare all of the knocking patterns Veric has ever heard in his life and he realised that Prometheus was right. It calmed his breathing and shaking hands. The whole episode lasted less than 3 seconds in real-time but it was enough for veric to go into fight or flight mode. He grasped control over his emotions once again and pinched his forearm. The pain stopped him from dissociating and anchored him into reality.

“Come in.” He said dryly. His throat felt tight. He did his best to prevent his throat from sounding raspy but didn’t succeed.

The thick wooden door opened and the tall blonde woman walked in, she was wearing a pearl white shirt and brown tight trousers, it was her regular attire for honing her swordsmanship. It was in fact, Elora.

Her blue nearly predatory eyes scanned Veric. There was clear worry and hatred in them. Veric identified that the hatred wasn’t directed at him. This was enough for him to relax somewhat. Elora took three large strides towards Veric and wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tightly. Pressing Veric’s head against her hard muscular stomach. He could feel her hands shaking. She didn’t say anything but Veric could sense what she was about to say.

“I am fine. He didn’t hurt me.” He said with a trembling voice. Elora didn’t say anything till they both stopped shaking.

“He did and I will not forgive him. Dara told me about the state she found you in. She couldn’t wake you up for hours. Her eyes were bloodshot when I last saw her. If I found you in that state I would snap every bone and joint in his miserable body.” Her voice was cold and at that moment he felt that what she said wasn’t an overexertion. The air felt heavy and dense yet Veric felt safe.

After a few seconds, he broke the silence by saying. “I feel sleepy all of the sudden.” Which caused Elora to chuckle slightly and hug him even more tightly. Even though her muscles were hard as a block of dry wood. Her skin was soft and warm, making the hug comforting and protective.

“Would you do it for me?” Veric asked.

“Father wouldn’t be very happy with a crippled heir but I would, yes.” She replied with a bitter smile.

“What? How can he be the heir? What about Oswyn?”

“He shall become the [Knight of the silver flame] and as a marquess, he will be granted lands closer to the capital. Father’s lands will remain in the family.” She replied.

“What about you? Why can’t you be the Heir?” He asked hoping that sexism wasn’t the reason behind his sociopathic brother’s inheritance.

“I shall Join Oswyn’s court. Yorel is quite far away from the capital. Father needs an heir that will be here, to take care of the lands. Realistically speaking he will have to choose Rigon.” She said almost apologetically, yet hinting at a different possibility. Veric was smart enough to understand, yet for now, he didn’t give much thought to it.

He wanted to ask whether Oswyn would take him in but he knew the answer to that question. Oswyn would limit his bullying to verbal abuse however, that was enough for Veric to understand why Prometheus only cared about Elora and Dara. Oswyn would never allow Veric to be under his protection. He would most likely not refuse outright on Elora’s accord however, he would definitely find an excuse that would make him look noble for throwing Veric to the wolves.

“That is why you need to join the military school. You need to become a lot stronger. Father will not spend money on private tutors or resources for you. I know that it is cold and unfair but that is the truth. Only there will you be able to become stronger, strong enough to fend for yourself. I will help you as much as I can but it’s all up to you. I am leaving with Oswyn but I am not abandoning you. Father is healthy and it will be years if not decades before he dies and as long as he is around you should be relatively safe.” She said and released him from a hug. The honesty in her voice slightly surprised Veric. She was implying that under Rigopn’s rule he would most likely not be safe.

“Are you telling me, you will leave Yorel soon?” Veric asked with clear agitation in his voice.

“Most likely. Probably next year.” She said and walked over to the table where the book she brought yesterday was.

“Did you read it?” She asked changing the subject. She lifted the thick book with one hand displaying the cover to Veric. The cover read: Compendium of Warrior classes found in the Alvhar Kingdom. The book had a brown leather cover which was slightly weathered. Clearly, not the newest edition.

Veric ignored that book yesterday, especially because he was occupied with the scroll. “No, but I think that it is too late for that.” He replied.

“It’s never too late. Don’t become discouraged by what happened to you. If you work hard you can become stronger than Rigon. He is lazy and relies on his natural talent too much. You can reach greatness through hard work.” She said in a charismatic, almost convincing tone.

“I’m sure that once my level is three times greater than his then maybe my strength can be greater than his but… what I actually mean to say is that I already have a class.” He said almost stumbling on words, not wanting to disappoint her with his choice.

“What class is it?” She asked somewhat surprised.

“[Nessari Archanist.] It is a magic-based class.”

Elora didn’t reply but turned her head to face the window. She intertwined her fingers and started to crack her knuckles one by one. A habit she developed after watching her father and Oswyn do the same thing.

She crack her knuckles every time she reached a bottleneck in her training. When her muscles felt like they couldn’t move any longer yet she needed to push herself. Her talent for the sword was great but nowhere close to Oswyn, she didn’t want to be left behind. Their father’s preferred weapon was a large warhammer however, the nobility of Alvhar was known for their swordsmanship.

He decided that his children will learn the swordsmanship of Alvhar. It was swordsmanship limited only to the nobility of that country. Not all members of nobility would have classes related to that swordsmanship however learning it was considered to be a sign of patriotism and devotion to the protection of the kingdom. Oswyn had a talent for the sword and mastered Alvhar’s swordsmanship before the age of 15, it was then when he was recruited for the Academy of the silver flame. He would spend his free time teaching Elora and through frequent training and sparring, they bonded and became quite close, sharing their hardship and path of the sword.

28 uncomfortable cracks later she looked at Veric. “Mother’s blood must truly ruin thy veins. It only means that you will train twice as hard in the military school. What are your current stats?”

“My vitality is 9, constitution 8, Strength 2, agility 3 and dexterity 3. I have leveled up my class once so I have 3 unused attribute points left.”

“Your Vitality and constitution are low but within a normal range for someone your age, I am guessing that it is due to the potion that Dara stole for you. Your strength, agility and dexterity on the other hand are atrocious. I am pretty sure they are equivalent to someone half your age. You should not use your free attribute points on your stats until each reaches 25.”

“Why is that?”

“By training our bodies we can increase physical stats up to 25. After that point, each stat increase becomes extremely slow. However, once you invest all the free attribute points into your physical attributes, you will miss out on the points you could have achieved through training. It would put you behind those that worked harder than you. In your case that is 67 points, a gap which you cannot afford.”

‘Thank god she told me that. I really can’t let myself fall behind that much.’ Veric thought while thanking his lucky stars.

“What about mental attributes? Are they also limited in this fashion?” He asked knowing that the ship most likely has sailed for him.

“I am not sure, How high are yours anyway?”

Veric took a deep breath and decided to tell her the truth. He felt like he could trust her and she wouldn’t take advantage of his abnormality.

“My intelligence is 409 my wisdom is 406 and my Willpower is 36.”

Elora burst out laughing. Her laugh floated through the air like a melody. After a few seconds, she wiped a tear from her left eye and noticed that Veric had a straight face and her laughter was brought to an abrupt end. It wasn’t quite the reaction he was expecting but it wasn’t bad.

“You are not being serious, are you?”

“I am.”

“But… that’s impossible. You must be joking.”

“I am not my mana is slightly south of 8000 points.”

“Do you know that if that is true it would make your stats high enough to comfortably put you in a 3rd tier?”

“I don’t know what that means. What do tiers correspond to?”

“The system divides people of similar power into tiers. In total there are 11 tiers. From level 1 up to level 50, the system considers them in the 0th tier. Most humans remain within that realm for their entire life. Once you reach level 51 you are considered to be within tier 1. Then there is tier 2 from level 101 up to level 200 and so on up to level 1000.”

“What tier are you?” Veric asked.

“Tier 1 close to reaching tier 2.” She said somewhat uncomfortably, an accomplishment she dedicated many years to has been again overshadowed by one of her brothers. She saw Oswyn dedicate his life to the sword, his accomplishments felt fair, and the gap between them could be explained with slightly greater talent.

Veric on the other hand always was feeble and weak. His revelation was shocking and from Elora’s perspective nothing other than his stronger connection to their mother’s bloodline could explain his attributes, it felt almost unfair. He did nothing but read books she brought him and sleep, actions which were incapable of granting great power. What She didn’t know was that Veric has spent twice as many years as Elora was alive studying and researching the nature of his previous world.

“It’s not that I don’t trust you but I would like to test your attributes for myself. You know, trust but verify sort of situation.”She said.

Veric expected something of the sort and promptly agreed.’Seeing is believing after all.’ As a scientist at heart, he understood that better than anyone.

“Sure. How will you test it?”

“Follow me.” She said and turned on her heel but before she took the first step she turned back and extended her hand. Veric raised an eyebrow and Elora explained. “I think it will be a lot easier for me to pace myself if I can hold your hand.”

‘The fact that she thinks I need her to hold my hand is humiliating but she is most likely right. I am really slow.”

He grabbed her hand and they walked out of his room. It was somewhat strange to leave his room. He had so many memories from inside of that room. Everything was familiar and safe. The outside on the other hand was foreign to both minds. Old veric had some memories of the outside but they were not substantial enough.

The tall, stone corridors of the castle felt very cold. The floors were made out of thick wooden boards. Some windows were made of stained glass and some were completely clear. The stained windows were peculiar because the art was not contained within them but within the light that passed through them.

If one looked at the glass it looked like a collection of random colours yet the light passing through them would create a paintings, some depicted simple objects like flowers and trees some were complex depicting mythical creatures like gryphons or dragons. The sun had to be in the right position to display the painting within them, some would reveal the correct image only during the specific time of year.

Each time they passed a servant they would greet and bow or curtsy when they saw Elora. Most of them gave an intrigued look then they saw Veric. Some of the newer servants didn’t recognise him, they heard that the baron had four children yet they have never seen him before. None were impolite enough or stupid enough to ask about him directly but their eyes spoke volumes.

Veric looked small and feeble compared to Baron’s other children. The only thing that stood out while looking at veric was his eyes. The deep purple they possessed had a grandiose suppressive quality to them. It was like staring at a nebula that was hundreds of light-years in diameter. It was one of the reasons why people felt somewhat uneasy in his presence.

After a few minutes of walking Veri’s legs started to get tired and Elora slowed down for him. “Do you need to rest?” She asked

“No we can keep going but a bit slower please.”

‘I thought that I would fare better than this but walking around my room and actually walking at her slow pace is completely different.’ He thought while realising how miserable his state actually was. The idea of spending his free attribute points crossed his mind but he decided against it.

“Where are we going anyway?”

“To our mother’s study.”

“I thought father didn’t let anyone inside?”

“That is true however, he tasked me with retrieving and moving an artefact from her study into training grounds before the start of the military school.”

“Why you? And what artefact is it?”

“Well, he doesn’t trust anyone else with treating it with utmost care. Rigon would break it, and everyone else is mostly busy with the preparations. The artefact is also heavy so only someone with high strength can move it. There are probably not enough servants in the castle to safely transport it.”

“What does the artefact do?”

“You will see.”

After a few more minutes of walking, they reached a metal door with strange symbols carved onto them.

“What are these?” Veric asked intrigued by the symbols. They didn’t look like Alvharian letters and neither did they look decorative.

“Those are runes. It’s something like spells but in a written form. I don’t know much about them other than they used to protect this room from unwanted guests. If they were still active Dara would be in a lot of trouble.”

Her sister’s words made him realise that if Dara told Elora about the state he was in, she most likely told her about the potion she stole for him. “Is she in trouble?”

“No, I am preatty sure dad will not notice a single vial missing and she is the only person I can trust when it comes to your safety.”

“Thank you.” He replied and his sister only nodded back with pursed lips. She placed her hand on the door and gave it a gentle push.

“No locks?” Veric asked.

“No need. I think everyone except for Dara thinks that those enchantments are still active. A lock is a lot easier to get through than an enchantment. If father placed a lock on this door a lot more things would go missing.”

The open door revealed something similar to a primitive chemistry lab. There was a bunch of glassware used for destination, beakers and vails. There were glass bottles and jars with strange liquids, plants and organs inside of them.

“Was mom a potion maker?”

“Yes, one of the best ones in the region.” She said and closed the door behind them.

There were also two other doors inside the lab. One led right and the other was on the opposite wall leading left. Both of these doors were made of metal however they had locks on them.

“What is the point of these locks?”

“So that the people who do end up inside grab old useless things and nothing valuable. Mother’s notes are on the left and artefacts and more personal belongings are on the right.” She said and walked over to the door on the right.

“Are notes more important than potions?”

“Well, knowledge is timeless but those potions do have an expiration date. It’s a miracle you didn’t end up with food poisoning. Next time someone hands you a potion more than a decade old, better double chek whether it is still safe to drink.” She said and stroked his head mockingly. Veric did feel silly before and after drinking it but there was nothing he could do now, so he accepted his punishment of a bird's nest on his head with a smile.