Chapter 4:

01.04 - From Commonplace to World’s Weakest

Morgenstern - Morning Star - Ake No Myōjō - 明けの明星

The following years flew by in a haze.

I slowly got used to Tia reading my mind. At first, it was more than a bit disturbing, especially given my background. But having someone to get me back on track wasn’t all that bad after all.

My reading skills continued to improve, and I reached the abilities of an average literate adult not long after my fifth birthday. Not to be confused with ‘Reading Skill’ Skills, which, if they existed, I had yet to acquire. Alfred did have a Scribe Class, but it seemed mainly related to copying manuscripts and doing translations.

It did help that our home had a small library, which I shared with Alfred while his study was restored. The little flaming accident while forming my bond with Tia actually came in quite handy.

Books were not that expensive, but one usually wouldn’t leave a small child unattended in a library, for obvious reasons.

Soon after my seventh birthday, Alfred began slowly teaching me the basics of how to handle a sword.

To acquire basic abilities, to evaluate my skills, and to consider whether a special tutor should be assigned.

Didn’t look likely so far.

My abilities were… not great.

And my Level had gone down to 11.

Not like anyone noticed.

They didn’t even seem to be fully aware of their own Stats, Classes, and Skills. As for Levels, there seemed to be some correlation with a person's overall abilities, but they seemed oblivious of the System itself.

There was an evaluation at the age of fourteen that helped determine one's future potential profession and overall aptitude, but that was still a long way off.

As for ‘Segen’, the blessings acquired from the goddess I met long ago, they clearly seemed to work, but didn’t even show up in the regular information given by System. Though there was a separate tab in the menu. Who knows what was up with that.

I spent the morning after my eighth birthday in the garden behind the house.

It was a bit of a mess. No new gardener was hired since that day. Alfred and Tia shared the new workload, but Tia's idea of gardening was slashing or gnawing through unkempt trees, bushes, and weeds.

I should note that her definition of weeds was quite liberal to say the least.

As for Alfred, he was mostly busy teaching me to fight by practicing with wooden swords.

The man was clearly holding back, but I had a hard time anyway.

“Upper left,” Alfred said, as his sword followed his announcement.

“Not fast enough,” he said as I failed to block.

“Lower right torso,” he said.

My reaction was too sluggish once more.

I lost my balance on impact.

He looked at me, then sighed. “Fine, take a break.”

I slowly moved along a well trodden path to a nearby bench, while holding my aching side.

As I sat down, I used ‘Know Your Enemy’ on Alfred once more.

//========================================

// Human - Lvl. 37 - Alfred Charles Diedrich Cato

// Classes:

// Butler Lvl. 29

…

Manners

Etiquette

…

// Scribe Lvl.28

…

Accounting

…

// Swordsman Lvl. 26

…

Slash

Parry

…

// Stats:

Physical Power 54

Physical Resist 51

Special Power 34

Special Resist 41

Status Power 23

Status Resist 21

Random Power 77

Random Resist 77

//========================================

Not as if I didn’t know the approximate results anyway, not much had changed at all in the last few years.

I opened my own information panel next to Alfred's information.

//========================================

Hero - Lvl. 11 - Grey Morgenlicht

Classes:

Swordsman Lvl. 3

Slash

Stats:

Physical Power 37

Physical Resist 41

Special Power 37

Special Resist 31

Status Power 37

Status Resist 37

Random Power 23

Random Resist 61

Familiar: Tia

//========================================

Our Stats did not look that far from each other, given the age difference.

Looking at his Classes and Skills and comparing it with his own main Level, there probably were ways to increase Class and Skill Levels, as well as Stats without explicitly consuming points given by the System, but it just didn’t seem to work in my case.

Despite Alfred’s many attempts at teaching, I had not even unlocked ‘Parry’ yet.

My eyes went to one of my two C Tier blessings:

//====== Monkey See, Monkey Do - C Tier ========

For any of your own Classes, unlock any Skill you know the details of. Lose 5% total exp on any such Skill unlock. Improving Skills Unlocked in such a way requires 3 times the regular amount of points.

//========================================

Should I use it to unlock ‘Parry’?

I had struggled with that decision for quite some time now.

Leveling up would be a pain. At least for now. I had yet to acquire a way to earn the kind of Experience points handed out by the system.

If my hunch was right, the intended way was probably to defeat monsters in combat.

But there were no monsters here…. Except…

I looked over to the other side of the garden.

“Don’t even think about that!” Tia exclaimed, even before I had finished my thought.

Her fast growth had stopped at the level of a young adult. Probably as old as I would be, had I lived back home for the last eight years.

Tia was running around in circles, while holding my sister, Dawn, now six years old, with both hands above her own head.

‘Dragonflight’, Tia called it.

Dawn seemed to enjoy it more with every day. She used to cry at first, but not anymore.

“Higher!” Dawn said.

Tia crouched down, then threw her about three meters high into the air.

“Woooo!” Dawn said.

Tia used her now fully grown wings to leap up in the air, grabbed Dawn on her way down, and cushioned her fall.

“Again!” Dawn insisted playfully, with a bright smile on her face.

Seeing the two like that was a stark contrast to Aurora, who acted less and less like a mother by the day… and the bar was quite low to begin with.

“Be careful,” I said. “What if you drop her?”

“I won't drop her,” Tia said. “And even if… We’ve got you.”

I purposefully ignored that last sentence, stood up, grabbed my wooden training sword, and walked towards Alfred.

No risk, no reward, I thought to myself.

I triggered the effect of ‘Monkey See, Monkey Do’ to acquire ‘Parry’.

The exp decrease went over the edge, and I leveled down from 11 to 10.

I put some of the few remaining Skill Points from the start, to increase Parry’s efficiency. It was the best I could do. 3 times the regular amount of points was quite the condition, even for improving simple Skills.

Maybe I’d come to regret this.

But even if…

My musings were interrupted by Alfread declaring his next attack. “Upper right!”

I used Parry, blocking his swing and starting my counter.

This time, my sword connected with Alfred’s hand.

His wooden practice sword fell to the ground.

Tears began to stream down his face.

Did I really hit him that hard?

“Finally, young lord!” Alfred said with hints of relief and pride in his voice.

I found myself in a bear hug seconds after.

This didn’t feel quite right.

I didn’t really earn this, did I?