The next few days consisted of doing his chores followed by raiding the library for any scrap of information he could obtain. Turns out that gaining magic on your own wasn’t really a thing here, either a deity blessed you before you became an adult or you were out of luck, and his luck stat didn’t grant him any hope of that happening. One day as he meandered down the street he noticed a sign past the library that looked like a hammer and anvil. He continued walking towards it and attempted to peer through the grimy windows to view the sets of armor and weapons lining the shop walls. He thought briefly, ‘Well, gaining some trade skills might not hurt.’ as he pushed the solid door open and cautiously walked in.

He didn’t notice anyone at the front desk except for a small cat that appeared to have a coat of flames instead of fur but nothing around it caught alight. He stared mesmerized at the Fire-Blessed feline before making his way towards one of the aisles to look at the items that he could not afford to purchase. He found himself standing in awe at a finely displayed set of full plate, not taking notice of the cat now brushing his lithe body against Aster’s legs as he marveled at the shining metal in the lamp light.

A gruff voice broke him out of his reverie, “Listen brat, we don’t sell to kids. Plus, I doubt you could afford anything. Now get your grubby paws away from here!” The elf was much broader than most elves around town and most of it was soot-covered muscle. Aster could only assume that his thick arms were the result of swinging a hammer all day every day and instantly recognized him as the Blacksmith of this establishment, even without the more obvious indicator of the symbols for metal, fire, and wind emblazoned across his forehead.

He straightened his back against the harsh words and eyes glaring daggers coming from the smith as he replied firmly, “I’m not here to buy OR steal. I want to learn!”

The blacksmith crossed his arms in disbelief, “What interest could a brat have to learn here? You probably couldn’t even lift a hammer.” The words stung a bit as the man looked him up and down.

Aster shrank a little “That… that may be true…” he straightened up once more, forcing his resolve to return to him, “But I will grow and be able to practice later that which I learn now. So please let me at least watch you work!”

The blacksmith narrowed his eyes, still searching for an ulterior motive from the strange youth, “Why?”

Aster hesitated a moment and decided at that moment to keep hold of one of his core values in his past life: honesty. “Because I have nothing else,” he said bluntly. The cat decided to stretch up his leg at that moment with delicate claws and Aster was distracted enough to give the small animal the pet it was mewling for. He spoke towards the cat but his words were obviously meant for the smith, “I want to learn the art of the sword and, to better wield one, I should know how to make one!”

The man surprised Aster at that moment by letting out a hearty laugh, “Fair enough, youngling.” He turned then towards the back of the store and gestured for Aster to follow him. He pushed open a heavy door but, before allowing Aster to enter, he warned, “No second chances though, ya hear? Get in my way and you’re gone.”

Aster nodded enthusiastically as he gave a small smile. The cat followed them into the large smithy and plopped itself down in front of the large hearth.

Aster was surprised to see a new little blinking notification, he hadn’t even begun learning to smith yet.

Congratulations!

Your Luck increased by 1.

Aster gave a nervous little chuckle. Just what had he managed to be lucky about? He pondered, ‘How badly could that interaction just now have gone?’ He had a feeling that he wanted to do his very best in not making this blacksmith upset with him. The blacksmith clapped him on the shoulder and announced, “Let the sweating begin!”

6 Years Later...

Aster wiped the sweat from his brow, the heat from the forge adding to his own exertions. He glanced at the small Illusion clock on the wall displaying the time and realized it was already noon. He slipped his hammer into his belt and finished cooling the small dagger he had been working on before setting it away. He called out across the forge, “Sir, I’m heading out for today!”

The blacksmith waved him off without taking his gaze from his work, “Say ‘hello’ to Alima for me!” Aster smiled and gave his fiery feline friend a pat before heading out of the building.

He made his way down the street a few blocks and entered the tannery, calling out into the shop, “Ms.Alima! I’ve arrived! Falakuan says ‘hi’!” A smaller elf woman popped her head around the side of the shelves to look towards the voice. She had short dirty-blonde hair and a dazzling smile adorned her pixie-like face as she approached him with her arms spread, clearly displaying her Earth symbol over her right eye before pulling him into a hug. “Heya, Aster! Ready to learn that cross-stitch pattern today?”

Aster returned her embrace before flashing her another smile, “Of course! I want to use it for my own armor piece!” It was hard for him to resist her infectious exuberance.

She laughed and wrapped an arm around his shoulders as they walked towards the back room, “Haha, still a bit young to be needing armor!”

Aster gave a sly grin at his own inside joke as he replied, “Hey, my body may be 12 but my mind is closer to 104!

Alima raised an eyebrow at his declaration, “While I agree that you are super mature for your age that seemed… strangely specific.”

Aster chuckled nervously as he waved the conversation forward, “Anyways, show me that stitch!”

Her cheerful smile adorned her face once more as she replied merrily, “Right, let’s go!” As they made their way into the back tanning room Aster was surrounded by the now-familiar smell of hide and cloth. The area they went to sit down in was cozy as Alima rummaged for the things they would need while she continued speaking, “By the way Aster, how did your Blessing test go yesterday?”

He gave a forlorn sigh, knowing he wasn’t going to be able to avoid this, “Same as every month” He glanced down at his painfully blank forearm.

Alima sighed along with him before offering verbal comforts, “It’ll happen Aster, you’re just a late bloomer.”

Aster glowered back at her before falling into his usual chair, “I only have 1 more test before they give up on me, I’ll be labeled ‘Cursed’ even if the mark doesn’t show up yet...” even though 17 was considered the age of ‘adulthood’ among the Winter Elves, by the time 13 hit, the temples would stop the Blessing tests to try and trigger an affinity discovery. Aster learned that the tattoos were actually a feature of the system, or world, that was part of every citizen and was an outward display of a person's known power. The symbol indicated the elemental affinity while the level of detail around each indicated what rank they had leveled up to. Aster glanced up at Alima with a little pathetic smile, “Hey Ms.Alima, you… you won’t give up on teaching me when they give up, will you?”

Alima dropped some items into his lap and tousled his hair as he flailed slightly to not drop anything, “Idiot, you don’t need a Blessing to craft armor!”

Aster blinked up at her a few times before his smile became a bit more genuine, “Right, no Blessing doesn’t mean there’s no options.”

Alima sat across from him and began to work on her stitching, going slowly so Aster could watch and replicate. She didn’t look at him as she asked while working, almost a bit too nonchalantly to be real, “Say Aster… are you still being bullied by those elflings?”

Aster shrugged, returning her non-chalantness, “They’re just kids. They just want to get a reaction out of me. If I ignore them, they’ll get bored.” He gave her a grin, “Besides, I can handle myself. So no worries, Ms.Alima.”

Alima sighed as she finally looked up at him, “Seriously too mature, Aster.” They both broke out in laughter before Alima made them return to their task. After a couple hours of working and idle conversation she returned to the topic one last time, “What if there’s something more behind the teasing? Or if it escalates? You’ll tell me right?”

Aster gave a slightly pained smile as he tried to appease her, “I said there’s nothing to worry about, Master” He glanced up to the Illusion clock behind her showing a quarter past the fourteenth hour, “Ah won’t you look at the time, gotta go!” He quickly began putting his work away for the day.

She gave him an annoyed look at his obvious sidestep, “Aster!” He returned a cheeky grin and a wave as he made his escape out the door.

He glanced at his notifications as he left the shop and was happy to see a message about his skill increasing.

Congratulations!

Skill Level Increased: Leatherworking (Novice 2, 0%)

His skills seemed to level up so slowly nowadays. At first he had been dismayed to learn that each rank of skills had not 10 but 100 levels, but he had finally broken through from Beginner to Novice two months ago already. ‘So ridiculous.’ He thought exasperatedly. Unlike most RPGs it might actually take him a whole lifetime to reach the Master ranks.

He decided to take a look over his profile while he travelled to his next training session.

Name: Aster

Surname: Seppen

Title: None

Age: 12

Gender: Man

Race: Half Winter Elf Half Airelian Human

Level: 0 (0/0)

Attributes

Strength: 12

Dexterity: 18

Constitution: 9

Intelligence: 29

Wisdom: 20

Charisma: 20

Luck: 5

Willpower: 10

Karma: 7

Resources

Health: 90/90

Regen: 1.2/minute

Stamina: 180/180

Regen: 0.9/minute

Mana: 290/290

Regen: 2.0/minute

Qi: 200/200

Inspiration: 72/120

Favor: 14/200

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

He couldn’t figure out why his level never seemed to increase though his skills did. The attribute points he had managed to gain came purely from ranking up his skills which had taken a ton of time and effort but fortunately made him feel like he wasn’t dragging so far behind others. The only things that seemed to increase at random points were the soul attributes. He had learned that his health pool was based on his constitution but the regen for it was based on strength. Similarly, his stamina pool was determined by his dexterity but the regen was based on constitution. His mana pool was based on his intellect while the regen was wisdom. He still couldn’t figure out how to use his mana, however, since he didn’t have an affinity.

Qi, Inspiration and Favor were a bit unusual in his opinion from other systems he had played video games in or read about. From what he had read in this world and been told by his various trainers, Qi was similar to mana in that it powered techniques and abilities, the main difference being that it was stored up over time, like cultivation in those wuxia novels he read once in a while. The only problem for him was that, while it seemed he was indeed capable of meditating and storing it up, he had no way to spend it as the abilities were all made manifest via a Blessing.

Inspiration, on the other hand, was even harder for him to figure out, even asking others and reading up about it didn’t grant him great insight on how it truly functioned. As far as he reckoned, it seemed to grant modifiers at certain times to help him accomplish tasks. So far it seemed like the harder he wished for something the more likely it was to trigger using the resource but he didn’t feel like he had good control over it. It did seem to help counter his terrible luck though, he couldn’t begin to recount how many items he had messed up and needed to restart on due to not just his lack of skill but because something unfortuitous would occur, like someone tapping on his shoulder at just the wrong time. Inspiration seemed to help though, he gained it steadily as he focused on a task and he noticed it drop after he completed creating an exceptionally difficult item for him. He now proudly wore those bracers he had managed to craft.

Favor seemed to affect his interactions with people though. It was slightly more straightforward than inspiration in his opinion as he could actually sense when he activated it to help him persuade people. He was able to haggle down some of the prices when he went shopping for the temple every Marsola. Gaining it seemed to be a simple matter of just being social. It was a bit of give and take he supposed, where being nice gained him points that he could then spend for favors.

He was jogging briskly down the fairly road towards the outskirts of town, dodging pedestrians, when he was jerked back and dragged off the road into an alleyway and slammed against the hard grey stone of a building. Most of the Winter Elf buildings were made out of stone. Aster looked up in alarm as an older teenaged elfling towered over him with an evil glint in his eyes and his brand proudly displayed; a small simple Water Blessing sat center-right on his brow. His tone matched his condescending gaze, “So, I hear you’re the half-elf orphan bastard.”

Aster didn’t recognize the thin boy but he was familiar with some of his lackeys who had a habit of trying to make his life harder. They were your run of the mill bullies but this new kid seemed a bit more conniving in the way he presented himself. Aster looked unimpressed as he replied while trying to move past his assailant, “Yes, I am. Now, I’m in a hurry for my-”

A pale arm blocked his sight and halted his movement as the stranger spoke snidely, “Hate to break it to you, trash, but you’re gonna be late.”

Aster narrowed his eyes up at the teen who was a whole head taller than he, “Who are you?” he asked bluntly.

“That’s Sir Dekishi to you!” the elfling replied angrily. Flustered by meeting someone who did not already know who he was. “It was my little sister you beat up yesterday!” his eyes became a bit more menacing as he reestablished his purpose for confronting Aster and he gestured behind him towards the crowd of other elflings.

Aster tilted his head a bit puzzled as he looked for some sort of answer to the many questions that began to invade his mind. His eyes landed on a younger girl with her arms crossed and a slight blush coloring her cheeks and the tips of her long ears. She refused to look at him, her discomfort apparent. He recalled their encounter the day before, he had stopped on this very route to give some acorn-like things in his pocket to a fluffy little air squirrel when the girl had yelled out to him “You’re eyes keep taunting me!” before she ran towards him but tripped midway and landed on her face. He had just walked away for his part, thinking it had been merely a poor attempt at bullying. Aster looked back to the girl's older brother, “She insulted my eyes and then tried to assault me. I simply left. I didn’t lay a hand on your sister.”

All of them stared a bit shocked at him before one of them said slowly, “Lay… a… hand… on” their teenage faces flushing crimson at their wild lust-filled imaginations going crazy and Dekishi grabbed the front of his shirt again to push him harshly against the wall once more. “You bastard! Stay away from Roteki!”

Just as Dekishi pulled back a fist aimed directly at his face, Aster winced and braced for impact, though it was delayed by the girl finally moving and calling out, “Wait! I wasn’t trying to hurt you, Aster!” her brother glanced back at her, a brief moment of confusion crossing his face, and she concluded, “I was trying to kiss you!”

There was silence in the alley as everyone stared at the blonde elfling. Her face flushed bright crimson, “I.. I mean.. I… I’ve been watching.. And… and I thought… he was rejecting me… and I was mad… and… I…” she stammered.

“This…” her brother seemed to be at a loss for words for a moment before he turned back to Aster with a look of pure hatred, “This is your fault!”

Aster’s eyes went wide with surprise at the serious turn of events and barely thought ‘Oh resh’ before doubling over attempting to catch his breath from the punch to the solar plexus that landed on him. Aster coughed and gasped realizing this had quickly escalated beyond the normal teasing.

Dekishi pulled him to a fully standing position once more by his shirt collar while pulling his right arm back, winding up for another blow, while practically spitting in fury, “Roteki and a half-elf like you?” The other teens held Roteki back as she gave a startled cry and tried to move towards them.

‘This is punishment’ Aster barely managed the thought before another wave of pain washed over him from the fist impacting his stomach. ‘This is rage’

Roteki cried out, “Brother! Stop it!” struggling against her brother’s lackeys.

Dekishi’s face filled Aster’s vision as it scrunched up with some inner conflict as he almost whispered, “You made her weird…”

‘This is confusion’ the next blow landed across Aster’s cheek and the force was enough to pull him from his attacker’s grasp and onto the ground.

He could sense Dekishi shuffling away from him and he gave a weak chuckle, “Heh, I didn’t make her weird…” He pushed himself up off the ground, trying to steady his breathing. ‘Resh it, what am I doing?’ He gingerly rubbed his stomach trying to ease the pain, “There’s nothing weird about liking someone.” He finished standing wondering why he didn’t just stay down.

‘I should just ignore them’, he thought briefly, but the way Dekishi was acting reminded him too much of the hatred he saw in his old world, so many people hated the fact that he was attracted to multiple genders. While that didn’t seem to be an issue in this Elven society, the racism here seemed just as bad as that had been.

Dekishi glared at him again, missing the blush returning to his sister’s face, and asked, “What did you say, trash?”

‘I must be an idiot’, Aster raised his arms into a defensive position that he had learned in his past life. He had taken Aikido luckily which worked well with his size but it had been years since he had used it. This was the first time he had gotten in a fight this bad where he felt like he actually needed to resort to force, “You came to get revenge for your sister but now you’re ignoring her wishes… Doesn’t that make you the ‘trash’?”

Dekishi raised his fist again and moved to close the short distance between them. Aster was ready for him this time and quickly side-stepped the assault and tripped the teen using Dekishi’s own momentum against him. The maneuver sent the elf into the wall that was previously behind Aster.

Aster had now positioned himself between the bully and his gang. “If you really care about your sister, then you shouldn’t get mad about who she likes.” he said firmly, bolstered by his successful counter.

Dekishi looked outraged as he pushed himself against the wall and prepared to pounce at him.

‘Stay calm, just like it’s a game’

The elf lunged at him once more, fist raised and aimed at his face.

‘Don’t forget…’

Aster’s muscle memory seemed to take over at that point as he deftly deflected the blow while maneuvering his body around his assailant’s grabbing the outstretched arm and twisting it around his body and using the momentum to force Dekishi to the ground, pinned under Aster’s knee against his back.

‘...You're the hero of this story!’

Dekishi groaned as Aster kept his arm behind him, slightly twisted so he couldn’t make another attack and the group of teens looked on slightly bewildered at the sudden turn of events. “Don’t take your confusion and frustration out on us.”

The elf glared up towards Aster as his cheek rubbed against the ground and said with a sneer, “Don’t get cocky, bastard! Drowning Requiem!” His free hand made a sudden gesture towards the alleyway exit and the next thing Aster experienced was a ball of water catching him off guard by slamming into his face. The force pushed him backwards off of Dekishi and his hands went to wipe the water off.

The water mage stood up, his arm stretched out toward Aster, maintaining control over the globe of water covering his mouth and nose, a triumphant smirk appearing on his thin face.

Panic began to set in when Aster realized his hands couldn’t remove the water and he might actually die in an alley with his last thought being: ‘A pathetic end for a pathetic beginning.’