The stranger bowed slightly and gestured inside and Rilien returned for him, wrapping an arm around his small frame as he was led inside. Rilien whispered in his ear as though trying to comfort him, “Don’t worry Aster, they’re going to check you first.”

As Rilien guided him into a large room with the emblem of the 20 elements emblazoned on the floor. Aster looked around the room, noticing statues of people representing the 20 Deities associated with each of their corresponding elements, as Rilien continued speaking softly, “You’ll be living here from now on, no matter the result… They’re good people, though.” Aster glanced up into Rilien’s forlorn face as he gave a sad smile in return, “You’ll be happier here than at my home, at least.”

Then Aster found himself surrounded by 13 Elves dressed in the colors and accoutrements of the element they represented and corresponding symbol they stood upon as he stood in the middle of everything. He noticed a few of the symbols closest to him were missing acolytes.

It started from the furthest symbols, those making up the 4 “Core Elements” of Fire, Air, Water, and Earth as each practitioner reached out their arms towards him, their hands glowing for a moment, before dropping them to their sides again and allowing the next person to go. Aster noticed Rilien looked relieved when nothing happened after the Fire person was done but started to frown as each disciple kept going without any change in results.

The next square closer towards him were the “Complex Elements” of Lightning, Ice, Wood and Metal but nothing came from those people lifting and then lowering their hands. The third square inwards represented the “Aspect Elements” of Light, Dark, Life and Death but, yet again, nothing occurred and Aster’s fear and excitement began to climb. He knew the further into the center of the symbol they got the rarer the Blessing was gifted. He was fearful that the most common had passed him by but the rarest and more powerful ones might still be available.

The next square represented the “Meta Elements” of Song and Blood, Covenant and Illusion. Unfortunately only Life, Illusion and Covenant had a practitioner standing on it to test him. He frowned as nothing happened once more and was uncertain of how to proceed but the first person that had led them into the building to begin with, and who seemed to be in charge, spoke aloud for him. “Embedded in the remaining symbols are stones enchanted by Blessed Ones that are currently not here, if you can pick them up it will indicate an affinity.”

He gestured to the last corner of the meta square and the 2 stones within the innermost square holding the “Dominion Elements” Spacial and Gravity. Aster slowly made his way to them but to his increasing dismay they glowed for a moment but he wasn’t able to lift them. The head Elf shook his head to Rilien whose shoulders slumped in defeat.

“Wait! What about the last two in the inner square? Why are there no stones for Spirit or Time?” Aster cried out, gesturing to the innermost area.

The mage shrugged as he replied, “Those are so rare that we have not found someone to enchant new stones to test with, if you are Blessed with those however their effects are undeniable and we would know then should either of those manifest within you but for now it seems that you have not been granted a Blessing, youngling.”

Everyone then turned and began leaving the large sanctuary, the lead Elf speaking quietly once more with Rilien and leading him back towards the entrance.

Aster stood alone in the room, looking around at each of the elements’ symbols once more before hanging his head in disbelief and despair with a single thought, ‘... Resh’.

The Illusion mage paused for a moment before leaving with the others and approached Aster. They bent down to look into his face, smiled kindly and said, “Do not fret, youngling. I can teach you a small spell that everyone can do to help you learn more about yourself and perhaps it will offer some hope and guidance.” Aster was a bit taken aback by how beautiful the elf was, even with the intricate bright magenta illusion symbol tattooed on their forehead like a third eye, and the voice that spoke that he couldn’t define as feminine or masculine, perhaps they were both or neither? While their face was softer and hairless the lack of facial hair seemed pretty common among the elves he’d seen thus far. Their body was also covered with robes which hid any figure that Aster might use to identify a gender but then again perhaps that little detail didn’t matter at the moment especially in light of the idea of gaining an actual spell. Magic! He had always dreamed of acquiring some and to hear that even though he wasn’t Blessed yet he could still use some was exciting.

Aster shook himself slightly, realizing he hadn’t replied for too long just staring at them and almost shouted, “Yes! Please teach me!”

The mage chuckled lightly and reached out their hand with their palm up, “Let me see your hand.”

Aster put his hand in theirs so that they were palm to palm and the mage, which Aster assumed would actually be considered a follower of one of the deities worshiped here, flipped his arm over so that his inner forearm faced the painted ceiling as they drew circles on his bared skin, “Now repeat after me: ‘As the divine above blesses the creatures below, as thrice we reap what we once sow, we beseech the Watcher to face life’s trial, grant us the sight to see our Profile’!”

As Aster repeated each line of the... spell? Poem? Ritual? Whatever you would call it, nothing seemed to happen until he spoke the final word and with the utterance of ‘Profile’, a pale pink box appeared in front of him which startled him a bit but as he looked over it he began to get excited.

It was a character sheet, like a 100% RPG character status screen that had all the relevant bits of info about a person.

Aster had loved video games and LitRPGs in his last life even as he aged, and as it became harder to actually go out and do things, those stories became a great escape. Now that he was living in one of those worlds it became that much more appealing. He read over the information carefully trying to get a better assessment of his current situation.

Name: Aster

Surname: Hinoyuki

Title: None

Age: 6

Gender: Man

Race: Half Winter Elf Half Airelian Human

Level: 0 (0/0)

Attributes

Strength: 5

Dexterity: 5

Constitution: 5

Intelligence: 12

Wisdom: 11

Charisma: 10

Luck: 0

Willpower: 5

Karma: 0

Resources

Health: 50/50

Regen: 0.5/minute

Stamina: 50/50

Regen: 0.5/minute

Mana: 120/120

Regen: 1.1/minute

Qi: 0/110

Inspiration: 0/50

Favor: 0/100

Affinities

Air: 0%

Earth: 0%

Fire: 0%

Water: 0%

Ice: 0%

Lightning: 0%

Metal: 0%

Wood: 0%

Dark: 0%

Death: 0%

Life: 0%

Light: 0%

Blood: 0%

Illusion: 0%

Song: 0%

Covenant: 0%

Gravity: 0%

Spacial: 0%

Spirit: Unknown

Time: Unknown

His stats seemed… low? He didn’t even know level 0 was possible. Maybe it’s because he was a kid? How did a system like this handle children? What was the average? Was it 10 like so many other games and worlds? So many more questions filled his mind but it was interrupted by the mage still watching him closely. “If you can’t read it, I can cast another of my own spells to view it and read it to you if you wish,” the melodic voice said softly. Aster pondered that for a moment. Was he supposed to be able to read or was it the system bending the rules for him? Did his mother teach him? Was not reading common for people his age or people in general? He decided that his stats probably weren’t anything to brag about nor would they give away any secret about him being some special incarnate with past life knowledge so he agreed to let the elf cast their spell. They began reading things aloud and their eyebrows raised slightly when they got to the mental attributes. Aster spoke up, “Is something odd about my attributes?”

The elf hesitated only a moment then smiled warmly, “Nothing wrong, your mental attributes are just a bit higher than we expect children of your age to have. Most children have 5 in all attributes whereas adults have 10 except for what we call the “Soul” attributes on the last line there. Karma is usually 0 and goes up and down based on the actions you perform. Willpower is usually 5 and Luck… they hesitated for another moment and seemed to say reluctantly, “Well, Luck is usually 50. I’ve never met a person with a 0 in that stat before.” They patted Aster’s head as though to comfort him, “It may seem a bit tough now but knowing your capabilities means you can work towards improving them.”

Aster had been fighting back another wave of despair at learning his luck was so abysmal. What had Chii been thinking with that ridiculous stat distribution? He tried to keep his voice from breaking or tears from falling as he asked a bit spitefully, “How does someone even raise their luck stat?”

The mage seemed to grimace a bit as they replied dryly, “By testing it… repeatedly. There are magics and items out there that can help too which I would recommend over actually trying your luck, especially with your particular starting point.” The mage turned suddenly as their name was called by the head elf returning from seeing Rilien out of the building. The mage gave another soft smile that seemed touched with a tinge of pity, “I’m sorry but I must go now. I will see you later, youngling.” They then stood and left him there looking at his profile as the head elf came over to him with another new elf woman wearing light green robes with vines embroidered all over it and a gold necklace with the symbol of Wood hung around her neck which matched the green leaf etched on her forehead.

“Aster, this is Lady Mali, Cleric of the Cultivator, she will help you settle in. Please follow her and do as she asks.” The head elf gave a slight nod to the brunette and left the two of them.

The lady gave him a slight nod and said bluntly, “This way.” and Aster quickly followed behind her, not daring to ask anything more yet.

“This is where you’ll be staying from now on” the Cultivator Cleric said as she opened the door to a small room. Aster walked in and sat down on the simple bed taking up part of the room. Aster was informed that anyone who worked for the temple (which the building was indeed called) was referred to as a “Cleric” of their chosen deity. The deity chosen was usually the one who had Blessed them with power and in Lady Mali’s case The Cultivator had Blessed her with the power of Wood.

She continued speaking as he took in his new living quarters, “Meals are rung for and your list of daily tasks to accomplish will be brought to you soon. Your time is yours to spend as you please as long as you adhere to the rules.” Aster took in the small dresser and mirror hanging on the wall above it next to the door they entered from. A small wooden desk with a matching chair was facing out the large window which ended next to the head of his bed. A small trash can sat on the floor next to it and at the foot of the bed was a wooden chest. The room lacked any decoration but it wasn’t neglected. “You’ll get used to living here soon enough, my dear.” the young woman said finally before giving a slight bow and leaving him to his thoughts.

‘Well, at least I’m not a slave. The people here really do seem good.’

Aster laid on the bed to rest a bit. So much had seemed to happen to him in such a short amount of time that the silence and solitude was a welcome reprieve to collect his thoughts.

Magic was ingrained in this world and so far he didn’t seem to possess any. He did learn that most kids and about a tenth of the world’s adult population were “Unblessed” but, from what he could gather from peoples’ response to it, these people were looked on as less fortunates to be pitied and ignored or worse. The world had money and an economy and wealth did make a person seem more powerful in most societies but the real power lay in magical ability.

He was dropped into this new world with no family, no belongings, no money, and no magic. Chii seemed to have bluffed about knowing him more than he realized, this didn’t seem like it would be a very fun life so far. He thought of his Profile and luckily it appeared without him needing to verbally request it. He perused it again and noticed there were what looked like tabs at the bottom of the page which listed other page options of ‘Abilities’, ‘Skills’, ‘Inventory’ and ‘Reputation’. It was only now he realized, when looking back at everything he had set up before entering Selesola, that when Chii had asked him “no god mode, virtual assistant, or cheats” that it meant no access to any special powers or help, including hers, nor any kind of menu or connection to the actual Hypnos System.

He focused on the word ‘Abilities’ and his profile was replaced by a screen that simply said “Unknown”. He focused on the word ‘Skills’ and that was replaced by the message “None”. ‘Odd’ he thought, ‘Why would one say unknown and the other none? Does that mean I actually have abilities that I need to discover?’ He next went to the ‘Reputation’ tab and saw a bit more information this time. With three different sections listing one entry under each.

Reputation

Nations

Name

Leader

Standing

Tsukiyuki

Queen Tsukiyuki Fuyuka

Neutral

Cities

Name

Leader

Standing

Location

Seppen

Praetor Fumi

Neutral

Tsukiyuki

Families

Name

Leader

Standing

Hinoyuki

Lord Hinoyuki Natsu

Loathed (Banished)

Nice to see that even the system agreed that he was loathed by his grandfather. Leaving that depressing thought behind he quickly moved on to the ‘Inventory’ page that turned out to not really help his mood improve. He had no belongings listed at all on the left side of his screen but on the right side was a shadowy silhouette of what he thought was himself and a bunch of empty slots next to different parts of his body. It kinda reminded him of the character equipment screens in many of the video games he used to play. That idea was solidified when next to his chest he read “Torn simple cloth shirt” and next to his hips read “Torn simple cloth pants”. Next to his feet read “Worn simple leather shoes”. He gave out a small chuckle and spoke to the empty room, “Seems like basic starter gear to me”. He did notice at that point that he wore a ring on a chain around his neck. His fake memories filled in that his mother gave it to him as a memento from his father, though she never said who he was. When he inspected it the information was lacking a bit.

Ring of Airelia

A Ring of the Realm of Airelia.

Quality: [ Flawless ]

Availability: [ Unusual ]

Type: Jewelry - Ring

Airelian was the type of human he was, according to his profile, he figured the ring was just a symbol of his heritage.

Aster was brought out of his brooding by the slight sound of an envelope sliding across the wood floor from under his door. He sat up and walked over to pick it up and carefully opened it.

Inside was a piece of parchment with a small list of chores for “Seppen Aster”. He assumed in this culture family names were addressed before given names. He searched his memory though and realized ‘Seppen’ was the name of the town they were in and his family name is, or he guessed was, Hinoyuki. He assumed getting abandoned to a temple meant giving up your surname and taking on the village’s. He wondered if there would be many cultural things he would have to learn given his limited background of being raised fairly secluded in the forest by his single mother.

The list under his name though seemed straight-forward enough, a list of days of the week and the tasks he needed to accomplish that day. He noticed the days of the week were named differently but at least the time of day and length of a year and seasons seemed roughly the same as his past life. He glanced over the short list once more, committing it to memory.

There were 7 days that made up the week and there were 13 months that each had exactly 4 weeks that made up the year. Each day he only had one chore listed.

Sovesola: Garbage Collection

Wasola: Cooking meals

Pasola: Floor Cleaning

Arsola: Bath Cleaning

Socisola: Garden Tending

Prasola: Dish Cleaning

Marsola: Shopping

Today was Sovesola, the first day of the week, and the 22nd day of Nuluna, the first month of the year. ‘Well, at least I’ll have plenty of free time…’