‘It’s probably a good idea to check how much information the stone can provide and how accurate it is in comparison to my ‘Player’ window…’ Thought Anton as he stopped for a second to open his menu.

“What are you doing?” Asked Clara seeing that Anton had stopped walking and was seemingly staring blankly at one of the statues.

“Nothing, a lot has happened today…” He said and continued walking.

Clara looked at him confused, but continued; she could understand that he would be tired.

Ever since he had arrived, his stats had been increasing constantly due to different circumstances, after his fight with the troll, he had discovered that his Speed had greatly increased due to all the running he had done, that his Constitution and HP had improved due to having survived with 1 HP left and that his Mind had also risen due to not having lost it to fear. After living in the castle, he had noticed that his Intelligence and MP had increased due to all the reading he had been doing, he even had obtained two new abilities, Spark and Electro Surge.

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Name: Anton Levi

Age: 17

Abilities:

- Lightning Strike (LV. 01)

- Electro Charge (LV.01)

- Electro Surge (LV.01): Covers the body with electricity increasing speed and strength for a period of time. (30 seconds.)(5% chance of a 1 second stun on contact.)

- Craft (LV.01)

- Spark (LV.01)

Profession: Trinket Knight, a special kind of knight who fights using strange or unusual weapons usually made by themselves.

Element: Lightning.

Stats:

- HP: 35/35

- MP: 50/50

- STR+: 10

- CON: 8

- INT+: 15

- MND: 9

- SPD+: 17

- ACC: 8

Blessings:

- Bless of Language

- Hephaestus’ Hands

‘Overall,’ He thought. ‘I’m not doing all that bad!’

They arrived at one of the other rooms similar to the one that hosted the statue of Menphis and the Law Stone.

This one was a bit bigger than the other and had a door that went to the streets, from where people kept coming in and out of the room. On the centre of the room, instead of at the back like in the other one, there was an almost lifelike, 7 feet tall, marble statue of a woman holding a roll of manuscript that almost reached the floor on one hand and a feathered pencil on the other.

The statue had long, flowing hair that reached its hips and wore a long dress that accentuated its figure while still looking elegant.

Clara left Anton and Morgan looking at the statue and went to sit next to it. She began praying.

Even if Anton wasn’t an art expert, he could see that the craftsmanship necessary to make such a simple, yet beautiful statue wasn’t something that you could find on earth. He found himself looking at the statue, unable to look away, something that hadn’t happened with the other one, probably due to the rage he was feeling at the moment.

A window popped up in front of him.

Marble Statue of the Goddess Alya – Lv. ???

A beautifully crafted statue made by one of the best sculptors in the land. Some say the spirit of the Goddess comes regularly to live inside the statue which goes to show how similar it is to the real Goddess.

Added Ability:

Those who look upon this statue and pray will feel refreshed and rejuvenated for the next day.

Price:

Impossible to Determine.

“W-wow…” He said, unable to contain his surprise. “I can’t even see the level of this thing…”

“Mh?” Said Morgan. “Are you using your appraisal ability?”

“I… I don’t know if it is one of my abilities or not yet…” He said, knowing very well that it wasn’t one of his abilities. “But yeah…”

“And what does it say?”

“That the spirit of the goddess comes to live inside it from time to time… And it even has an added effect…”

“Yeah… the statues here are quite something.” Said Morgan. “I’ve heard there are one of the best in the entire continent.”

“Yeah… I can see that…”

Clara came stood up and came back to where the boys were still standing.

“Ready?” She asked. “I don’t need to pay here, so we can just go and see those abilities of yours.”

She was beaming, probably a side effect of praying on a statue that makes you feel refreshed and rejuvenated.

They got closer to the statue and Anton began looking around, noticing that he hadn’t seen any stone similar to the one in the previous room.

“Where is the stone?” He asked.

“It’s right there.” Said Clara, pointing at the base of the statue. “Every stone is different, in this one is the stone used as the statue’s base.”

Anton looked down to the base of the statue and saw a rock with a similar look to the previous one.

“Oh, and how does this one work? Do I have to put my hand against it and text will appear?”

“Yes, but this one doesn’t speak on the Old Language, it is translated into the Common Language so people from every country can read it, so, common, let’s try it!”

She suddenly grabbed Anton’s hand and pressed it against the rock.

“Wait! What!”

Light began gushing out of the stone and creeped into Anton’s arm. He got scared and tried to take his arm off of the stone, but found out he was unable to.

He felt the energy running on top of his skin and crawling into his body. It was a very weird feeling, as if the light could see everything he was and everything he would be, and it was uncomfortable.

“What’s… Happening!” He said.

“Don’t get so nervous, the first time is always like that. The Goddess has to read you so she can say what abilities you carry.” Answered Clara.

“But it’s… Uncomfortable! It feels like some tentacles are running through my body!”

“Yeah, I also felt like that when I came here the first time…” Said Morgan.

“Rude!” Said Clara. “Milady Ayla is beauty incarnate! Don’t say that about her!”

‘Yes! Don’t be rude!’ Said a tiny, high pitched voice inside of Anton’s head.

“What!?” He said. “Who said that!”

“Mh?” Said Clara. “Who said what?”

“There’s a voice in my head!” Said Anton.

“A voice? That must be Lady Ayla!”

Anton felt how the light began to recede and to go back to the stone. The light that was tickling him all over dissipated and he fell to the ground.

“I’m never touching that stone again…” He said.

“You heard Lady Ayla’s voice!” Said Clara, almost yelling. “How was it!”

“Annoying…” He said. “I don’t like when people just talk inside my head, it’s weird…”

Clara gave him a mean look and turned towards the stone, where writing had appeared close to where Anton’s hand had been.

“Wow.” She said. “You have three blessed statuses, that’s really strange, most people get one at most and champions generally have only one…”

“And what is a Tinker Knight?” Said Morgan. “A crafting based class? And I can’t see the Appraisal ability, must be a part of the profession…”

“Your stats are not that bad for someone who just arrived either, especially your speed, that one is kind of incredible…”

“That would explain how you were able to outrun a Troll…” Said Morgan.

They both looked at Anton, intrigued.

“Can I see?” Said Anton.

He got closer to the stone and read the writing that had been carved into it. It was a simplified version of the information that appeared on his ‘Player’ window that only showed the names of his abilities and showed neither his levels of proficiency nor his blessings.

Name: Anton Levi

Age: 17

Profession: Tinker Knight

Element: Lightning

Abilities:

- Lightning Strike

- Electro Charge

- Electro Surge

- Craft

- Spark

Stats:

- HP: 35/35

- MP: 50/50

- STR•: 10

- CON: 8

- INT•: 15

- MND: 9

- SPD•: 17

- ACC: 8

“You are one hell of a strange and mysterious person.” Said Morgan.

After a bit more of surprised people asking him how he had managed to get a hold of three blessed stats, Anton and company returned to the castle.

Clara had wanted to take a look at some things in the commercial area, so she wondered off alone and left Morgan and Anton alone to walk the rest of the way to the castle.

“You sure you don’t have to follow her?” Asked Anton.

“Yeah, she may be a bit eccentric, but she is at the same power level as my commanding officer… she is quite strong… I wasn’t here to protect her, I was here to protect you, there are a lot people who don’t particularly like Travellers, some think you only come to disrupt the balance on the world and things like that…”

“And, do you believe that?”

“Well…” He said. “Can’t say it hasn’t been hectic for me ever since you arrived, but can’t say it hasn’t been somewhat fun either… I would like to go back to flying with Raksasha soon though…”

“Yeah… I still think is kind of overkill that you have to follow me around, I literally spend my whole time inside the library…”

“Hahaha,” He laughed. “That’s true, why do you read so much? I’ve been wanting to ask you for a while now.”

“About that, more than reading, I’ve been learning how to read…”

“What?” Said Morgan. “But you can speak with no problems! And you could also read the Sensing Stone with no problems!”

“Yeah… I think I have some sort of blessing for languages that helps me with the oral part… for me you are speaking English, the language I speak back on my planet, and you probably hear me speaking on your language… but it does nothing to help me with the written stuff, that’s why I’ve been binge reading, so I can get a hang of the language. Now I can read most things without many problems.”

“A blessing of language? That’s quite something…”

“Probably all travellers have that, otherwise it would be kind of a mess to communicate, wouldn’t it…”

“Yeah… probably…” Said Morgan, nodding.

Morgan stopped suddenly and looked at Anton.

“Wait…” He said. “That mean that… you learned how to read in a week!?”

Anton smiled.

“I can be kind of obsessive some times.” He shrugged and kept on walking.

“How is he?” Asked Anton to the girl that was putting a piece of wet cloth on John’s forehead.

The girl jumped and dropped the cloth to the ground, startled by Anton’s sudden appearance.

“Sorry.” He said. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Don’t worry.” Said the girl, nodding.

She was probably the same age of Anton and John. She was shorter that Anton and had short black hair and striking red eyes. She was wearing a simple dress that showed she was one of the castle maids.

She grabbed the cloth from the ground and cleaned it with new water before putting it back on John’s forehead.

“He’s stable.” She said. “His arm is already healing and he should be back to normal in a few days. He will only need to rest, but if what the priests are saying is true, the light within him will help him heal faster.”

“Thanks…” Said Anton, falling to a chair. “I was really worried…”

“Is he… family?” She asked.

“No… well, you could say so, but no, he is only a friend…”

He looked up and looked at her.

“What’s your name?” He asked.

“Anna, sir, my name is Anna.” She said.

“Well, thank Anna for taking care of him.” He smiled at her.

“Thank you, sir.” She said, shyly. “But it’s only my job.”

“I know, but either way, people deserve to be thanked when they do something good.” He said. “And please don’t call me ‘Sir’, it sounds really weird, I’m Anton, Anton Levi.”

Anton stood up and stretched out his hand towards her.

Anna looked at his outstretched hand and then at him. She stretched her own arm and grabbed his, nervously. He shook her hand a few times and then let go.

“Nice to meet you Anna.”

She nodded as she turned around, blushing slightly.

“Oh, by the way.” He said pointing towards his sleeping friend. “His name is John.”

He turned around and walked to the door.

“See you later Anna and thanks for keeping an eye on my friend.” He said. “I need to go talk with someone.

“Good bye sir.” Said Anna.

Anton smiled.

‘I hate being called “sir”,’ He thought. ‘Makes me feel old.’

He closed the door behind him and wet to look for Clara.

He was too far away to hear the shy voice that started talking from the other side of the door.

“His name is Anton… Anton Levi…”