Chapter 2 - Tutoring With Aila

Miles left his father at the gates, who was caught up in a conversation with the guards there, and ran towards the villa. It was a massive, sprawling complex with a manicured front yard, with pristine columns and arches lining pathways between areas and buildings. To the right of the main building, was a large training field for the guards, with the barracks for those that lived on the estate. Beyond that was a servants area, where they washed and hung up clothes to dry, and a large bath house. To the left of the main building, was a large garden area, and a gazebo.

He had noticed it on the way over here, but having the passive Footwork skill really did help out a bunch.Together with Running, Miles was quicker than ever. Reaching the doors, they opened before he could touch them. Gudulli, the head servant, was there holding the door open for him. An older elf, with large bushy grey eyebrows, glasses, and formal attire. How does he always know? Does he have a skill for that? "Uncle Dulli! Good morning!" Miles said as he entered. "Guess what! I got three new skills today!"

"Good morning to you as well, young Miles. That is wonderful news! Already you walk with a grace above your age." Dulli smiled warmly at him, "Truly you take after your father. The young Miss Aula has some good news for you as well. She's already waiting in the library room for you."

"Thanks Uncle Dulli!" And Miles ran off for the library. Behind him, Dulli called after him.

"No running inside!' I always forget. Miles resigned himself to walking as fast as he could.

Walking into , Miles was always amazed at how beautiful the villa is. Its large atrium and inner court were always well maintained with pearly white columns all gilded with carved wooden panels and art decorated the walls. His favorite was actually the suit of armor displayed in the atrium, just outside the library itself. A Beautiful set of plate armor, with golden decorative inlays. He always stopped to marvel a little. Someday, I'll have armor as awesome as that.

He pushed open the doors to the library. It was one of the largest rooms in the villa, only slightly smaller than the ballroom, and it was filled with books lining the walls. To one side there was an unlit fireplace with a sitting area, and to the other was a long table for reading and studying. It was at this table that Miles was tutored alongside Aila. By the table, stored near the wall, was a large chalkboard.

Aila was sitting on one of the couches, reading a book. She was a small elvish girl. Long pointy ears, and greyish-black hair and crystal blue eyes that were common among the Waesdove’s. She was wearing a black sleeveless dress. It looked similar to his tunic, but went down to just above her ankles.  When he came in she looked up. "Miles!" She hopped off the couch and ran over and gave him a hug.

"Aila! Good morning! Guess what!" He said excitedly, "I got three whole skills this morning! Spearmanship, Footwork, and Thrust!" He was pretty proud of that, but Aila looked unfazed.

She laughed haughtily, putting on an exaggerated air. "Oh ho ho ho! That's pretty good, but not as good as what I unlocked yesterday! I can now use magic!" She exclaimed proudly. "Just look at this!" She thrust her hands in front of her dramatically and concentrated. Soon a small cloud of bluish purple sparkles puffed up between her hands. It faded quickly, but Miles was already enraptured.

"Wow, that was so cool! What skill was that?"

"Thanks," she gushed, "I unlocked Mana Sense, and Mana Manipulation yesterday. I practiced it all day yesterday. What do your skills do?”

“I just got them this morning, but Spearmanship helps me fight better and deal more damage with a spear. Footwork helps me move and stay on my feet, even when I’m not fighting so I’m like super fast now! And Thrust is an attack skill! It uses a lot of Stamina though. But I feel super strong when using it! Dad says that that is the Stamina making me stronger, and I should try to feel out the power. I wonder if there’s a Stamina Sense skill too, like Mana Sense. What’s Mana Sense like?”

“Mana Sense is so pretty! I can see the mana in the air! It's just so pretty, like a stormy cloud! It’s all black right now, but Mother told me that when I get it to Tier 1 I’ll be able to see colors! Plus, I can see people’s mana!”

“Really? What does mine look like?”

“Well, everyone looks the same, really. People just look like black shadows, but with clouds coming off of them. Father and Mother have a lot coming off of them. You only have wisps right now.” Miles looked at his mana pool, with only 40. Meanwhile, Aila’s parents were really strong storm mages.Yeah, I guess that makes sense.

Miles was going to ask if she thought that he could learn Mana Sense as well, when the library doors opened and Miss Nyarra Rowvyre walked in, their tutor. Another elf woman, but with blonde hair. Apparently she was a personal friend of Aila’s Mom. “Good, you’re both here already.” Then she stopped, looking at both of them intently before she smiled. “My, my! Looks like the two of you have been busy since yesterday. Congratulations on the new skills.”

Miles’s jaw dropped. “What! How did you know already?”

“The skill is called Analyze. It’s a skill that reads off of people’s or creature’s status pages, giving you some information about them. At Tier 0, it tells you Class, Tier, and Level. Tier 1 gives you information on the person's health, stamina, and mana. Tier 2 is stats, and Tier 3 tells you about their favored skills.”

Aila’s hand shot into the air. “Oh! I know that one! Well, I don’t have it already, but Mother’s been training me to get it.”

“Oh, yeah.” Miles asked. “My Mom is helping me get that when we are walking.” He had forgotten about it in his excitement.

“Come sit at the table you two. Let us begin our lessons today. Make sure you set your learning skills as favored before we start.” Miss Rowvyre said. Miles did so, switching out his fighting skills for them.

Over the course of the next 4 hours they went over practicing reading, writing, math, and they continued through the history of the First Empire. One hour on each subject. He gained a level in each of the related skills. 

Status Skills Quests Library Friends Notices Settings

Standard Language gained 1 level. +1 EXP

Empirical Language gained 1 level. +1 EXP

Mathematics gained 1 level. +1 EXP

History of The First Empire gained 1 level. +1 EXP

These hours always passed by even slower than when they were trying to get the meditation skill. At least he got some experience from them. It was this next lesson that was more interesting to him. It was anything from the system and what to expect, to skills you can get, to monsters!

“For our next lesson, we’ll be focusing on stats and their benefits and potential drawbacks. Because the two of you are 8 years old, now is the time for you to more seriously train to level your skills, and to gain new skills. These skills you gain now will lay the foundations of your life, that’s why your parents have begun to train you so hard. For the lower classes, they would be taking apprenticeships at this time. The two of you have your parents and tutors like me. During this period of training, you’ll be leveling up quickly. As you level, you’ll have you consider where to put your stats. Your parents should have already talked to you a little about then, but let us review.

“Strength. It is one of the power stats, this one focusing on physical power. It determines how much weight you can carry, and how hard you hit in a fight. It, along with Constitution, adds to your Stamina, and Stamina Regen.

“Constitution. It is one of the fortitude stats, again focusing on the physical. This ones important because it, along with your Will, adds to your health. It also adds to Stamina, determines how much damage you take from an attack, and makes you denser and heavier.

“Alacrity. Considered one of the control and regen stats. It determines how flexible, nimble, and fast you are. It is also important because it adds to your Health’s regen speed, and your Stamina’s regen.

“Acuity. The mental counterpart to Alacrity. This determines how fast your brain can process info, meaning your senses. You can see more, hear more, and so on. It also adds to your Health’s regen, and your Mana regen.

“Intelligence. The mental counterpart to Strength. It determines how much your brain can process at once, how well you can recall information, and how much force you can put behind any magical effort. It also adds to your Mana pool and Mana Regen.

“Will. The Mental counterpart to Constitution. It adds to both Health and Mana. It determines how long you can last mentally, and governs your mental fortitude. Some say that it can help add a compelling force behind your words, but that is unfounded.

“Any questions so far?” Miss Rowvyre paused the lecture. Aila’s hand rose.

“For Will, when you say mental fortitude, what does that mean?”

“That’s a good question, Aila. Will can cover a lot of things. It can be how well you can handle facing pressure and challenges. How easily you’re swayed by your emotions. It also helps against mental illnesses, or even against magical attacks from mind magic.”

Miles perked up. “Wait, your mind can get sick?”

Miss Rowvyre nodded. “Just like there are many different illnesses for the body, the mind can be afflicted in many different ways.” He was horrified.

“But that’s my lowest stat!”

“That’s perfectly ok. Having low Will doesn’t mean you’ll have a mental illness. Nor does it mean you will fold under pressure. What’s truly important is having the proper balance in your stats, no matter what you choose to focus on. Let’s move on to what happens when you’re not balanced.

“The golden rule for stats is the two to one ratio. You need at least half of Strength in your Constitution. If you don’t, you’ll be too strong for your own body and you’ll start hurting yourself. If you go to the extreme, you could possibly even break your own bones with simple movements.” On the chalkboard, she drew an arrow from Strength to Constitution. “You need at least half of Constitution in your Alacrity. If not, you’ll become stiff, heavy, and slow to move. In extreme cases, you’ll be too stiff for your body to move itself and your heart can’t beat, your lungs can’t draw breath.” She drew another arrow, from Constitution to Alacrity. “The pattern follows for the rest. Too much Alacrity to Acuity, and you’ll be moving too fast for your mind to follow, and you’ll overshoot simple movements, run into things, and so on. Too much acuity to Intelligence, and the amount of sensory input will start giving you constant headaches. In the extreme you can overwork and fry your brain. Too much Intelligence to Will, and the force of your mind breaks itself, starting out as headaches and constantly losing focus on things. In the extreme, your brain is fried.” As she was talking, she drew arrows to link the stats together, forming a circle. “Here, Will links to Strength. Too much Will to strength, and your mind becomes too much for your body to handle. You become jittery and twitchy. To the extreme, you’ll be thrown into constant seizures.” She finished the circle, drawing the last arrow from Will to Strength.

“These ratios only flow one way.” She traced the circle in the direction of the arrows. “For example, though Alacrity requires Acuity, Acuity does not require Alacrity.”

“Though the golden rule is a two to one ratio, none of these drawbacks become truly severe, and deadly, until you pass a three to one ratio. It’s only at that point do you have to worry about death.” 

Miles checked his own status page. Good thing he followed his parents advice.

“Aila, you have to worry about this most right now. Because we’re elves, we automatically gain a stat point in Intelligence and Will each level. So right now in Tier 0, you only have 1 free point to allocate, and most often you’ll find yourself needing strength.”

Aila nodded. “Yeah! I had to follow my parents advice, otherwise I probably would have messed it up a lot. Though now that I can use Mana Manipulation, I want more Acuity. But that’s the hardest to get stat points to!”

Miss Rowvyre nodded. “I had the same problem when I was your age. Don’t worry, though. This will only last until you get to Tier 1. In the next Tier, you’ll be able to get your own Class and get more stat points. That’ll give you more freedom in stat placement. Though Miles, as a Human, gets another two free points to allocate instead of one to Intelligence and Will. So he has a little more freedom where he puts his stats.”

“Now, about what I said about the next Tier. You’ll eventually reach the end of Tier 0, level 100. It’ll take you a couple of years still, but it’s important to keep in mind early on. When you reach level 100, you can choose a new class to replace the child Class you currently have.”

Miles had the “Child of Ateia / Linus Reamore” class, and it had a little “(Sta)” next to it. Miles raised his hand.

“Yes, Miles?”

“My Dad told me that the little ‘Sta’ next to the Class name means ‘standard,’ but what does that mean?”

“That is the rarity of the Class you have. Because everyone starts out with the child Class, it is standard for everybody. You see, every Class has certain prerequisites you need to meet in order for it to be available when you reach the end of Tier 0. The rarity of the Class depends on the number, or level of difficulty of the prerequisites. The rarity of the Class is very important. You want to get the rarest Class you can get, because the better the rarity the more stats you gain per level.

“The lowest rarity is Standard. The only Class at this rarity is the child class. It only gives you one free stat. The next is called Common, which gives two free stats. Then the Uncommon rarity, which gives four stats per level. Then Rare, which gives eight stats per level. Then Unique, which gives you 16 free stats per level. There are only a handful of people who get a Unique Class, and they’re all powerful individuals. Aila, your father is one who has a Unique Class, this is the reason he was able to lay claim to the Mage’s Tower in the city. The next rarities are only found in history, rumors, or myths. You have Epic, then Legendary, then Mythic, and then lastly you have the Divine Class. Each one doubling the amount of stats gained.

“Before choosing a new Class though, you want to make sure to at least max out your favored skills, and get your other skills as high as you can even if you can’t cap them. This will give you the best chances of getting a higher rarity. Though most people remain in Tier 1, there’s many soldiers and adventurers that are in Tier 2. The elites of armies and the most powerful of adventurers can even break into Tier 3.” 

They continued their lesson for the rest of the hour, talking about potential prerequisites of classes that Aila and Miles knew about. Miles himself was shooting for the Spearman Class, like his father. In the lesson he learned that it was an Uncommon class. Aila wanted to follow in her family’s footsteps and become a Lightning Mage of some kind.

Miles needed to get his Spearmanship, Footwork, and Thrust maxed out to get the best spear class he could. He also needed the skill Meditation, even though he hated just sitting around, and Pain Resistance. He may already be on his way to getting that one with all the sparring he’s doing.

Aila’s goals were getting her Mana Sense, Mana Manipulation, Meditation, all maxed out. She also needed to get Lightning Resistance, and some sort of Lightning spell. He didn’t want to think about how she was going to get Lightning Resistance.

Lessons are over. Time for lunch!

~~~

When lunch was over, they played together in the side gardens. They spent the time kicking a ball, and when they got bored of that they tried to teach each other skills that the other lacked. Miles tried to teach Aila his Tumbling skill and they just rolled around in the grass, or his Footwork skill, where they just kind of shuffled around each other laughing. Aila in turn tried to teach him her Noble’s Posture skill, and they placed books on their heads. To Aila’s wonder, Miles was able to keep it on his head, even without the skill. She also tried to teach him Mana Sense. Neither had any success so far in gaining a new skill, but they enjoyed themselves.

Eventually though, it was time for Aila to go practice magic with her mother, and Miles stayed in his Dad’s office, keeping his Dad company, until his Mom came to take him home.

“Hey, Mom!” Miles said when she came into the office.

“Hey, Miles! How was your day?”

“It was fun. Guess what? Aila got some new Mana skills! She has Mana Sense and Mana Manipulation. They sound really cool! Do you think I could learn those too?”

“Oh my! That’s good for her! If you want, I can teach you about some of my magic.”

“That’ll be awesome! Thanks, Mom.”

“What’s this? You don’t want to be a Spearman anymore?” His Dad said, coming over to greet Mom with a kiss.

“What! No, I still want to be a Spearman. But, well, Aila showed me some magic, and I just thought that it was super cool.” He said, kinda embarrassed.

“Miles,” His Dad said, crouching to look him in the eyes. “I’m sorry, I was only kidding. There’s no reason why you couldn’t learn about Mana. If you put your mind to it, there’s nothing you can’t do.”

On their way home, they stopped by the market to get the ingredients for dinner, and to make a special dessert. Again, all the way home, they practiced analyzing people. When they got home, the sun was setting. The orange sky played off the colors of the moons, especially Resia, the light green moon which currently sat low in the sky.

That night, while Miles was enjoying a crisp apple pie in celebration, Aila was weeping in her mother’s arms, having just gotten her Lightning Resistance.