Book 2 - Chapter 5

Brin pushed from a crouch up to his feet, feeling the burning in his muscles. “One.” He’d done sets of ten of these before System Day, and before he’d been bed-ridden for more than a week. His legs still tweaked from the wounds he’d taken, but he was determined to push through. Five. He would definitely do five.

Meanwhile, Marksi stood right next to him, holding a stone in his little gecko-hands. He didn’t really have the body shape for squats; he still had the long snake tail, but he wanted to try anyway. He curled up and down with his rock, determined to do whatever Brin was doing..

Brin squatted again, and pushed up against the yoke. Davi had made these things, based off the yokes they put on their ox, and weighted them with heavy buckets full of iron tools. They were pretty clever, but mostly they were infernal instruments from the pits of hell and Davi had a sick mind.

“Two,” said Brin as he rose up. He went back down. He strained to get back up, and his muscles just couldn’t make it happen. He pushed anyway, determined to make it happen. He’d done sets of ten at this weight. He could at least do three. He got halfway up, and his legs started to feel like they were going to collapse.

He felt his load lessen a bit, Davi was behind him helping a bit, and he pushed the rest of the way up. “Three!”

He dropped the yoke and started walking it off, pacing back and forth in front of the Pimental family barn and sucking in huge gulps of air. Marksi dropped his rock and collapsed on the ground, although it was hard to know if he was actually exhausted or just playing it up.

Through training, you have increased the following attribute:

Strength +1

“Nice! I just got a Strength. It’s been a while since I got one of those,” said Brin.

“I haven’t gotten one in a long time either,” said Davi. “I don’t know if I ever will, not if I spend all day learning from Jeffrey. You can actually lose attributes, did you know that? You’ll lose Strength if you start being really lazy all the time.”

“You’re not being lazy, Davi.”

“Sure feels like it,” said Davi. He walked over to Brin’s yoke, but didn’t even bother changing the weight. He just put it on and started pumping out squats. “We just sit around all day. I thought I would be learning songs, but we hardly do that at all.”

He knocked out the first ten squats like they were nothing, but kept going, and started to slow in the twenties. “I guess… I just thought… it would be different.”

“I don’t see why,” said Brin. “I don’t know all that much, but I do know that there’s way more to music that most people know. Theory and such.”

“Even that… would be ok…” Davi strained to hit number forty, but pushed up and then set the yoke on the ground with a sigh. “Jeffrey doesn’t care about theory. He assigns me homework from a book, but I don’t even know if he knows what’s in it. He barely cares about music. All he wants to talk about is manipulating people.”

“Wait, seriously?”

“Yeah,” said Davi, wiping his face with a towel. "It feels gross. Why can't the music be enough?"

Curious, Brin used [Inspect].

Davi Pimental

Human

Bard

Level 7

Description: Davi is your best friend and one of the three ‘golden children’ of Hammon’s Bog. [Bard] gives him a point in each attribute per level, plus the free point in being human. He’s probably putting all his free points into Strength. If he hasn’t hit the third threshold yet, he’s very close.

He hadn’t been expecting all the extra information, especially the description. The “probably” was also worrying. Yeah, he assumed that’s what Davi was doing, but he didn’t know for sure. Was the System just giving back his own impressions? If so, what good was the Skill at all if it was just telling him things he already knew? On the other hand, he hadn’t known Davi’s precise level, and hadn’t known that it gave one point to each attribute per level. He would’ve assumed high Dexterity and low Vitality.

“What kind of Skills do you have?”

“With [Bard] even the Skills are annoying,” said Davi. “The base of the Class is [Inflame the Spirit]. The soul is flame and you are its keeper. Jeffrey says all the Skills are like that. The descriptions are useless. That one lets you screw with people’s emotions. The other main Skill is [Color of Music] You are an artist. Music is your paint and words or your brush. It’s a bonus to learning instruments and memorizing songs. Not that I spend any time doing any of that.”

Brin used [Inspect] again.

Davi Pimental

Human

Bard

Level 7

Description: Davi is your best friend and one of the three ‘golden children’ of Hammon’s Bog. [Bard] gives him a point in each attribute per level, plus the free point in being human. He’s probably putting all his free points into Strength. If he hasn’t hit the third threshold yet, he’s very close.

Class Skills:

Inflame the Spirit The soul is flame and you are its keeper. Empowers a Bard to alter or enhance the emotional state of his audience.

[Color of Music] You are an artist. Music is your paint and words or your brush. A bonus to learning instruments and memorizing songs.

Alert! [Inspect] leveled up! 2 -> 5

Well that was interesting. Apparently [Inspect] would update with information that he learned from other means, and he’d get a lot of Skill experience for it. This must be what Hogg meant when he said that identifying [Witches] would help him level up the Skill.

“Hey, I’m trying to figure out [Inspect],” said Brin. “Would you mind giving me the exact phrasing of your [Color of Music] Skill?”

“Sure,” said Davi. “You have a largely increased ability to learn to play musical instruments. You have a perfect memory for the melody and lyrics of any song you’ve ever heard. I even remember that stupid ‘Sweet Home in the Boglands’ song you made up.”

“That song is a work of art,” said Brin.

He checked [Inspect] on Davi one last time, and sure enough, the last part had updated.

[Color of Music] You are an artist. Music is your paint and words or your brush. You have a largely increased ability to learn to play musical instruments.You have a perfect memory for the melody and lyrics of any song you’ve ever heard.

“Ok, now your turn,” said Davi.

“You want to hear about [Glasser]. Sure! The first Skill is–”

“No, um… I want to hear about the other one. Zilly says she thought it was [Scab Eater] and that she was wrong but she thinks she was close.”

Brin didn’t really want to talk about this. Not for any particular reason, just because he didn’t. At the same time, he didn’t want people going around saying he’d picked [Scab Eater].

“Wait, when were you talking to Zilly? Isn’t that kind of hard now unless you're formally courting?” asked Brin.

“We’re the only two Rare Classers in our age group, and the first two Rares for three years, not counting you. People are practically throwing us together. Now stop changing the subject.”

Brin sat on the bench, and started curling with the weighted milk jugs they’d started using as dumbbells. “It was [Scarred One],” he admitted.

Marksi sat next to him, trying to imitate the curls. His arms were too stubby to copy the motion, so he held a small stone and rocked back and forth.

Davi sat next to them. “What was it like?”

“It was awesome.”

Davi raised his eyebrows in shock.

“Sancta Solia, it was incredible. I was so strong. I felt like I could do anything. Not just physically, although that was more than enough. All the bad things like sadness and self-doubt just slid away; I couldn’t feel them any more. I had magic that would hold my body together no matter how much it got cut. The attributes were insane, I hit the forth threshold in Strengh and Vitality. I couldn’t feel pain, it felt like excitement and fire, and I actually leveled up the more I got hurt. And getting hurt is the one thing I’m good at. I was over level twenty by the end of the night.”

“Twenty levels in one night? That’s impossible.”

“It was a difficult night,” said Brin. He switched to the other arm.

“Why’d you give it up?”

“I didn’t like who I was becoming.”

“But so much power… And you were controlling it. I could tell something was off, but you more or less acted the same way you always did.”

“I was acting, though.”

Davi grunted. Not a yes or a no, just his way of saying he would think about it some more before giving his opinion.

“Why did you take [Bard]?” asked Brin. “I thought for sure you wanted [Farmer].”

“I got offered [Farmer]. Still might take it. But the [Bard] made a good point: Why not just try it out? Not everyone gets the chance to take a Rare Class. I could just try it. If I end up not liking it, I can just reset and I’ll be no worse off, unless I lose a year to [Child]. Even that wouldn’t hurt me in the long run, though.”

“And what do you think so far?” asked Brin.

“I told you. It sucks,” said Davi.

Brin stood up. “You know what? I want to hear you play.”

“What?”

“If you’re going to reset your Class anyway, I want to make sure I get to hear you play as a [Bard] at least once. I’m going to run and fetch my lute. You go get yours and meet me back here. Your bull. What’s his name? He can be our audience.”

“Poco? He’s a bull,” said Davi.

“Even beasts can appreciate good music,” said Brin.

“Too bad neither of us can make any of that. More likely he’ll get sick of us and chase us off his lawn.”

“Then that will be extra motivation to do well,” said Brin. “Go on.”

“Fine,” Davi said with a frown.

Brin threw Marksi on his shoulders and dashed back home to grab his lute. He ignored how shaky the squats had made his legs and ran the entire way in a full sprint. When he got to his room, he grabbed his lute and then looked at Marksi.

“Hey. I want you to do something for me. Remember that feeling you get when we went to Gustaff’s house or whenever I visit the Peck’s? I want you to tell me if you get that same feeling around Poco the bull or around the Pimentals.”

Marksi twitched his tail for no.

“Just tell me if you feel anything like that, even if it’s just a little bit. Can you do that?”

Yes.

“Good! Then let’s go!” Lute in hand, Marksi on his shoulder, Brin took off again at a full sprint.

When he got back, Davi was already leaning against Poco’s fence, strumming his lute idly. The massive bull stood behind him, peering down curiously. When Brin approached the bull gave him a fair dose of side-eye and then snorted and turned around.

Brin fired off an [Inspect].

Poco. A bull. This one is larger and smarter than most, no doubt due to bonuses from his owners. The Pimentals are [Farmers], probably some kind of [Animal Husbandry] variant, and they’ve clearly used an enormous amount of time and Skill to make this animal as powerful as possible. He is probably at least ten times stronger than you.

Out of curiosity, Brin also [Inspected] Marksi.

Marksi. A dragonling. Marksi is very sneaky, and can use illusion magic to change his color as camouflage. He has near-human intelligence from his draconic heritage, something that will only increase as he gets older and more powerful. He can eat beast cores to trigger evolutions and increase his growth.

Wow. He’d already guessed most of that, and everyone had told Brin that Marksi was a dragon, but it was insane to see it written out like that.

Brin sat next to Davi in the grass, leaning against the fence and panting.

“Did you run the entire way?” asked Davi.

“I… was just that excited… to hear a real [Bard],” said Brin.

Davi snorted. “Yeah, right.”

“Play something,” Brin urged.

“Fine.”

Davi started a song Brin had heard before, it was an epic ballad, one that Jeffrey really liked to play. When Jeffrey played the song, Brin always felt grand emotions, like he was the hero in the story. He felt the bitter agony of defeat and then the blazing glory of victory, so keenly that it nearly brought him to tears.

Davi launched into the first verse, and a wave of emotion rammed into Brin. They were all the right emotions, setting the scene by describing the grandeur of the kingdom that the hero defended, but at the same time it was wrong. Foreign. The emotions were clawing into him, trying to overwhelm him, trying to force him to feel something he didn’t want to feel.

Marksi jumped off Brin’s shoulders and ran around behind him, as if hiding from the sound.

“Stop!” Brin shouted. He jumped to his feet, furious, but at the shocked dismay on Davi’s face, he forced himself to take a deep breath. Then another.

“I don’t want the emotion stuff. You need to practice that some more with Jeffrey before you unleash it on someone. I just want to hear the music. Can you do that?”

“S–Sure,” said Davi.

He started over, and this time it was just music.

Davi was pretty good, all things considered. He played slowly and the song wasn’t complicated, but he never missed a note and his rough, deep voice wasn’t off pitch. The ballad was sung in the High Frenarian, and Davi tried to put on a posh, big-city accent to make it sound authentic. That’s what was cool here, but it sort of hurt to hear a country kid like Davi trying to sound like that. It felt wrong. Not break Davi’s lute over his head wrong like the emotional manipulation stuff had been. It was sad, honestly.

Brin played a few songs he knew from recreating old Earth songs on the lute. He didn’t bother with lyrics, just played the melodies as best he could. They alternated, Davi playing a song, and then him. Lastly, Brin played ‘Sweet Home in the Boglands’, complete with the nonsense translations, which sent them both into hysterics.

When they calmed down, Davi started into something completely different. Something soft and slow. A mourning song. About halfway through, he started sneaking in some of his emotional power, but this time it was just barely there, faint and restrained.

It didn’t hurt going in, except in the way that real sadness hurts. Brin had plenty of things to be sad about. This time, he thought about his earth parents attending his funeral, and wondered if the song they played would sound something like this.

Brin rested his head against the fence and closed his eyes, weeping. The long was pretty long, and Davi played it slow. Brin waited patiently, and just let it happen.

When the song wrapped up, Davi waited in silence.

“My mother was a [Witch],” said Brin. If his suspicions were correct, he’d need to have this conversation someday. Better to have it now, before he knew for sure. “She tried to betray Arcaena and got caught in Travin’s Bog. That’s how I ended up there.”

“I thought you couldn’t remember,” said Davi.

“I remember a bit,” said Brin. It stung to lie to his friend, because he couldn’t remember any of Aberthol’s life. He only knew this from running into his undead father.

“I don’t know what I’d do if my mom turned out to be a [Witch]. I don’t think I could bear it,” said Davi.

“Your mom is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. If she turned out to be a [Witch], all that would mean is that not all [Witches] are evil.”

Davi grunted.

“Thanks for the song, Davi. It was really something. Hey, did you mention that you learned to play some other instruments?”

Davi brightened. “I can play the fiddle. Want to hear?”

“Yes!”

“Hold on, let me grab it,” said Davi, and dashed away.

When he was out of sight, Brin said to Marksi, “Well? Anything?”

The snake twitched his tail for no.

Brin eyed the bull. It was still pretending to ignore them, face turned the other way, but still where he was able to watch them from the corner of his eye.

Brin strummed a chord, trying to get the right sound. He’d never played this one before, but he knew it by heart. It was really catchy. ‘Has got it going on’ didn’t really translate, so he had to make some adjustments, but he was satisfied it would do the trick well enough.

He sang. “Davi’s mom is really super fair, I want to run my fingers through her hair! I want her in my bed, I don’t care if I end up dead! I know it must be wrong, but I’m in love with–”

The bull called out angrily and turned, pointing his horns towards Brin menacingly.

Brin laughed. “Gotcha.”

The bull took another step forward.

Brin paled, and waved his hands in apology. “No, no! That song was a joke! I was just kidding! Please don’t kill me, boss.”

The bull snorted, and then stomped his hoof on the ground. If he was a Wuxia character, he’d be saying “kowtow before me five times.”

Honestly, it couldn’t hurt. Brin didn’t have anything like pride. He bowed his head to the ground. “A thousand apologies, great master.”

The bull huffed, then turned his head.

Brin put his head to the ground again. “This one thanks you for your mercy, great master.”

He turned around to find Davi standing there with his fiddle. “So… what’s all that about?”

“N-Nothing,” said Brin.

He fired one last [Inspect] off at Poco.

Poco. A bull. A [Witch’s] familiar. He is very defensive of Davi’s mom. She is almost certainly his [Witch].

Alert! [Inspect] leveled up! 5 -> 7

Davi played the fiddle. He was pretty good, and seemed a lot more comfortable with instrument than he ever did with the lute.

When he was done, he said, “Hey, it’s about supper time. Why don’t we wash up and you can come eat with us.”