The old woman could rant like anybody in the village, Micky would give her that. But he supposed that was par for the course for the town gossip, of well, a town. However Micky was quite content to leave this dreaded woman to spit her vitriol at her dead husband, and not a new target. Say the young boy that was standing in front of her.

Finally she seemed to be done cursing for the moment, but then she turned to Micky. Micky flinched back from the old woman. “Oh, don’t be like that, come in already. Though I guess in a way you could say your senses are sharp, I’ll give you that.” She said.

Micky did as he was told and Squishy jumped off of his shoulder, ready to see what trouble she could get herself into. Micky hissed at her not to run around but a “Oh, leave it be. Slimes are naturally inquisitive little creatures.” from the old woman left him without retort.

She served some tea and cakes to Micky and Squishy, should it want some later. “Crumpets, they're called crumpets. Though it doesn’t matter much, basically the same thing.” She said. Micky flinching from the mind reading powers of the town gossip.

“Oh, knock it off, I can’t read minds, and I’m not that scary am I?” She said. Micky flinched again, from her mind readying powers and from how scary she was. The old woman just huffed into her tea.

“Alright I’ll be straight with you, I was just going to take this job and call it a favor to be repaid later. I’m still going to do that, they don’t need to know. But, now I’m thinking of taking you on as an apprentice. Yes, that is exactly what I’ll do. You are now my apprentice!” The old woman said.

Apprentice to Yolanda the Ancient Wisdom Healer: Increase in learning spells and skills from Yolanda. An increase in training while under the care of Yolanda. An increase of knowledge learned and retained while under Yolanda. You are the 42nd apprentice under Yolanda. You hold the responsibility inherent with your station. You receive a bonus from Yolanda’s faction, and a negative to their enemies. Please acquire a faction module from your nearest civilisation!

Micky, of course, had a faction module installed among several other helpful modules. This came as being a [Citizen]. There were nations that did not provide such modules towards their [Citizen]s or even charged for them, even though the [System] provided them for free. Micky pulled up the module to see what is what.

Factions:

Kingdom of Aene:

250/500

Citizen [Pending] Bourgeois [Consolidating]

House of Alderson:

545/750

Courtier

House of Elderson:

125/250

Jurisdiction [Pending]

House of Hendriksen:

50/100

Tenant [Pending]

House of Anderson: [Main]

0/50

Unknown

House of Anderson: [Branch]

10000/12500

Family and Heir [Pending]

The Hendriksen Estate:

475/500

Exiled Hero [Consolidating]

The town of Earnburg:

75/100

Open Secret and Gossip [Pending]

Clan of Yolanda Onhiemmer:

1000/1500

42nd Apprentice

Micky looked at his faction section. Some of those particular titles were a bit disconcerting. For example, who the heck is an exiled hero? Or the fact that the Aldersons already consider him a courtier. Or the fact that he was an open secret and the current choice gossip in town. But the thing that Micky really wanted to comment on was that he didn’t get a choice on becoming Yolanda’s apprentice.

Wasn’t he supposed to get a choice on this kinda thing? Wasn’t he supposed to be asked by the great all powerful Gandolf if he wanted to become his apprentice in some kind of tsundere proposition? Why was so much of his life decided by every female he ever meets?

Good questions. But such great universe shattering questions aren’t really something that Micky, or anybody is capable of answering. So Micky will have to wallow in such unknowns.

“Don’t I get a choice in the matter?” Complained Micky to the air.

“No, now stop complaining. We have lots of work to do.” Commented the air back, otherwise known as Yolanda.

“Now child, I know what your thinking. And yes, I am one of the many hidden people you are expecting from those hero scrolls. But really there’s at least twenty of us retirees in this town alone. And that’s considered small really. If there are so many why do [Town]s and [City]s and [Kingdom]s fall then? Because we let them of course. Oh, we save our own, family and such. But for the most part we stay out of things. And because we stay out of things they stay out of things. And who are they? Other retirees. Child we have too much power. I alone could probably destroy a [Town] myself, if not a city. So stop complaining.” Said Yolanda. Micky was agape at the bomb that just dropped.

Micky had wondered why the old woman wasn’t the [Tribal Spirit Healer] he was expecting. But he wasn’t expecting to meet his very own grandfather… grandmother character… was she a fairy? That’d be cool if she was a fairy or had some fairy ancestry.

“Oh child, bless your heart. No, just no. None of what you are thinking. You are my 42nd apprentice, and I have lost many an apprentice. I’m not going to go out and fight a final battle to save your life. I’m probably not going to even fight a battle on your behalf at all, to be honest. I’m grateful you brought me my ring, I’m not that grateful. And no, I do not have any fairy ancestry as far back as my family history goes, or any blood rituals are aware of either.” Said Yolanda.

“Now child, tell me about yourself and your spells and abilities.” Yolanda said. So Micky did.

“Wow, just… just wow… So you have no abilities, your proficiency in anything but [Spellcraft] is crap and even that is mediocre, and you haven’t even figured out half of the tricks to the spells you do have. No wonder. Ok kid I… I might have stepped in it more than I thought I did. Let’s just start with this. Have you ever, I don’t know, put an [Accelerate] on a rock before?” Said Yolanda. Micky looked away embarrassed, indeed he had never thought of that.

Yolanda, ever the proper lady, put her face in her hands. “Alright, I think you should try throwing daggers as your main weapon. I would say needles would be better, but I don’t think you could actually hit the target with any skill. I know that you don’t get class proficiency with them but that’s just what hard work and effort are for. You don’t think half of those farmers out there have the [Class] do you? And even if they did, do you think they would be satisfied with being a [Farmer]? Kid, you need to…-” Yolanda sighed from her hands.

“-look, you need to work harder on this. Especially if your going to be out there fighting. I know that a high ranked, or even a mid ranked monster won’t be hurt by your weapons even if you use some enchanted sword. But you aren’t fighting mythical beasts, you’re fighting low ranked mobs, and getting wiped.” Said Yolanda from her hands.

“Alright, well that’s that. I think I can also help you learn some [Least] healing spells and a couple of other things. You’re in my ‘[Clan]’ now-” Yolanda said clan with air quotes. “So I can probably give you a good part of my lineage and not feel too guilty. It’s not like it matters too much anyway, I’m one of the more progressive side of things. What the heroes do is shit, but I’m not one to not give those I know and appreciate what I can.” Said Yolanda.

Micky just nodded his head. He was still thinking around what he could do with some daggers. Of course he could [Accelerate] them. How stupid had he been. Not just [Accelerate] but he could also change their inertia so that when they landed they would be like a ton of bricks, a mountain, an entire moon! He would be unstoppable! He would rule the universe!

He would at least be able to penetrate mid ranked monster hide if he invested in some enchanted daggers. Then he could deal DMG. Then his leveling speed might not actually be bad. Plus, he would be able to heal soon! What party wouldn’t want him then? Ok, he would still be last pick. But, he would be last pick of the healers, so much better than last pick of the supports.

“Hay, get your head out of the clouds. You still won’t be able to DMG a mid ranked monster with your aptitude. And that’s assuming your proficiency gets to a decent level. Now read this and get to work!” Said Yolanda as she whacked him across the head with a scroll.

Micky rubbed his head as he took the scroll. The wooden dowel knocked him in the head, and Yolanda wasn’t gentle.