It was another day in my paradise of sarcasm. I was now old enough to eat the green mush my mother made for me. Yay, Already been vomited food. What's next straight up poison? Okay may be exaggerating but that green stuff was indeed the worst. How do you turn food into that? Even zucchini tasted better than that. Heck, I would have taken Kale, and I used to freaking hate Kale. I miss you sweet, sweet ribs, I thought in such a way that Zotherg could hear me.

I heard a scoff but no reply. Well, old man mountain was also feeling grumpy it appeared. No matter how I poked or prodded him, zotherg did not reply. After a while, it occurred to me he was distracted.

"Zotherg?" I called.

"... Yes, what do you need my lord?" Zotherg replied dismissively.

"What's wrong? You are clearly worried and don't try to hide it." I said.

Zotherg went quiet as he thought. Earth elementals seemed to either like to take their time or be somewhat lazy, Possibly both. Finally, Zotherg spoke " There is a strong demonic beast that has entered my territory. It has figured out that I am stalling for time and it is strong enough to be a real challenge for your village."

A cold sweat went down my little spine. An enemy was coming for me, and I was still powerless. I checked my status, but nothing had changed. My stats were still useless, and I would not even know how strong my enemies were. Zotherg could roughly estimate level but not species, talents, or skills it possessed. If only I had a way to analyze my enemies, but Zotherg said there are no known skills or talents like that. Just skills that give a basic level or creature name. That's when I had a light bulb moment. If it did not exist why can't I create it from scratch? I created my soul vortex, and no one knew anything like it, with determination I started trying to develop a new skill.

I noticed a bug at the edge of the tent that made up my room. Looking at it did nothing, so I thought about my specialty. My soul is more potent than usual right? I thought. So I closed my eyes and spread out my senses. I used my sense of feel and imagined my mind spreading out and touching the bug. It worked, and I could sense the bugs life force, but the prompt that followed was not what I was hoping it would be.

Skill created [Soul Detect]

Soul detect allows one to detect beings with souls and their whereabouts. Soul detect can measure how strong a beings life force as well as other forces that affect the soul.

Well, it was not completely useless. At least I would know when the beast came but not how strong it would be. So I set back to work focusing again on the little beetle. I frustrated myself for at least another twenty minutes before I realized what I was looking for, I wanted a menu like my status page but for my enemies. If all beings have a status menu then why can only the user see it? I asked myself. The answer was most likely not the body as zotherg was an elemental and had one. Zotherg also stated that he had known spirits that had it as well. So the answer was just that it was attached to the soul somehow. I used [soul detect] on myself looking for anything that seemed out of place. First I noticed my soul looked like a complex clockwork with lots of rings spinning and creating a vortex with a bright sun-like light at the center. It fit my initial description from my traits. So I looked away from the center and noticed a small glowing blue ball that was like a moon orbiting the sun of my soul.

I focused on the ball and grasped it with my very being. Information entered my mind instinctively telling me this was my interface to the system as my status prompt appeared again without me asking for it.

Name

Juren

Knollen

Age 1 Yrs

Traits

Level

0

Elven Swiftness

Elven Talent

Elven Longevity Elven Spirit

Hp

5

Mp

3000

Soul Memory

Str

0.3

Mp regen

240 min

Simultaneous Thinking

End

0.3

Chosen

Agl

.3x10 = 3

Soul Vortex

Int

30

Wis

24

Cha

1(+50)

Con

0.3

My stats appeared the same, but I noticed a small difference. Age? 1-year-old?, I thought. The truth was my mother breastfed me a whole year, and the truth hurt. I wanted to point at her like Phoenix Wright and say "Objection." Well, what's done is done I moved on.

Having verified that the blue ball was what I was looking for, I turned to look for the little beetle again, but it was gone. Instead of the little beetle, the was a small lizard with a beetle leg sticking out of its mouth.

I was slightly agitated as I felt reasonably familiar with that beetle after spending so much time with it, but the lizard would work. I activated [soul detect] and found the blue ball again. I grasped at it with my being and two prompts appeared instead of the just one as I had anticipated.

Skill created [Soul Hack]

Soul hack allows the user to touch, affect, or modify a soul directly. Opponents with strong souls will be immune to soul hack and backlash can be severe.

Skill created [Soul Analyze]

Soul analyze will automatically create a connection to targets status interface when used. Allows the user to see all targets information.

I did the baby on its back cabbage patch dance. I created a unique skill that no one else had! It's like GI Joe said "Knowledge is power" and that power might be the difference between life or death. I activated [soul analyze] on the lizard.

Tree lizard

Age 1.3 Yrs

Traits

Level

3

Tree Camouflage

Skittering Evasion

HP

35

MP

15

Str

.3

End

1

Agl

3

Int

0

Wis

0

Cha

3

Con

2

I found its stats very interesting. It was three levels higher than me, but my stats dwarfed its. I was not sure if it was because I was a higher being or because of my traits. The tree lizard looked in my direction startled and ran off like it was being chased by a serial killer. My connection to it was broken, and the status page disappeared. Well dang, I didn't even get to read [tree camouflage] or [skittering evasion], but the names gave away what they did. I was pretty sure it used [skittering evasion] when it fled.

As if on cue my Father Ileor entered the hut. He picked me up and held me in the air, apparently expecting a giggle from that, but I just looked at him. He checked my diaper, but I had not felt the need to empty myself yet that day. Curious I activated [soul analyze] on my dad.

Name

Ileor

Knollen

Age 842 Yrs

Traits

Level

759

Elven Swiftness

Elven Talent Elven Longevity Elven Spirit

HP

9,210

MP

80,815

Str

641

MP Regen

8,140 min

End

512

Agl

2,156x10

=21,560

Int

871

Wis

814

Cha

222

Con

101

My Father winced and looked around the room like someone had pinched his arm as part of a prank. I barely noticed as I took in the information before me. My Dad was a serious badass. If he could shoot an arrow or swing a sword with any skill, then very few people should be able even to block a hit. No wonder he is the chief but if he was this strong why is Zotherg worried? I contemplated, with 842 years under his belt my dad should be more experienced than any human general.

I realized the truth was that my dad was strong, but the other elves were not. My dad was the only reason they could live free in the forest in the first place. The demonic beast would not announce its presence or fight the toughest person first. It would kill the weakest first as they are the most natural prey. I was the easiest prey!