10 My New Home

Mars took a deep breath and began explaining his situation to Hagar.

"I'm not five years old, my dear cousin..." Hagar listened intently and motioned for Mars to continue speaking. "I was reborn into this world after I found myself in a horrific scenario of looping endless death."

Hagar had a look of disbelief on his face with furrowed brows and squinting eyes, hearing the strange words uttered from his younger cousin seemed to force a grimace out of him.

Orlilin tilted her head and tried to understand them through their facial reactions and intonation.

"Mars, you sound insane, what are you talking about?" Hagar wanted to believe Mars, but his common sense would not allow him to do so.

"Think about it rationally for a moment, Hagar. Think back to the night of my birth and the strange events that occurred!" Mars was visibly annoyed and began to attempt convincing Hagar of his unbelievable situation.

"Remember the Oak Tome and the fact that my father delivered it to me at the cost of his life. How many 6-month-olds start talking and having conversations? Or can they learn new languages in a few paragraphs of speaking?" Mars paused for a moment, and Hagar used the silence to ask a question.

"So, what kind of life did you live before this one?" Doubt was written all over Hagar's face. Still, he had to admit there were some already unbelievable things about his cousin that he had witnessed, even just his intelligence seemed otherworldly for such a young child.

Mars paused a moment and spoke, " I was a space ship captain. A pirate who hunted the galaxy for scrap while upgrading his ship."

Hagars face squinted, and he held back laughter "What-" He started to laugh. Tears came from his eyes, and he felt the first relief he had all day.

BWAHAHA

"First of all, what's a "Spake Ship"?" Mars quickly corrected his cousin "Not "SPAKE" ship; it's "space" ship!" Mars was visibly angry. Hagar and Orlilin both had a good laugh together as his attempt to look intimidating was utterly pathetic. Being five years old meant, his anger looked adorable.

Mars gave up trying to explain his past to Hagar and figured it was too much to have this talk right now. He would explain to him at some point.

After they had finally stopped laughing, Orlilin explained she brought them to a cabin she had outside of Ilanwrtyn Vale, where they would reside for the time being. It was technically a treehouse, but it was by no means shabby. Mars followed Orlilin up the stairs to the front door.

It turned out this was a spare house that Orlilin had. She had made a vast fortune from teaching very eager students who fought tooth and nail to have her. She would only have class sizes of two or three. So often, the students were untalented and would never even reach the 3rd tier of magic. In over 300 years of teaching, her most talented student had reached the fifth tier. None were near her levels of magic ability.

Orlilin opened the door and stopped, "Oh, I'd almost forgot!" and pulled out two necklaces from her storage dimension. She handed them to Mars and Hagar. "These will keep Aze from finding you with divination magic."

The necklace had a simple blue orb inside of it; Mars put it on right away.

Hagar, on the other hand, had two problems with this scenario.

First was his idea that jewelry was not for men to wear. Skagi was a culture of very masculine and narrow-minded men. It was not that they were terrible people; it was their culture. Women in Skagi took great pride in wearing jewelry if they ever had the chance. Which they rarely did as the town was impoverished.

The second problem was he did not think it would fit.

"Listen, I am not going to be dressing up like my sister!" Mars looked at a once again angry Hagar and explained that this would keep them from that monstrous Wizard for the time being.

Hagar agreed and put the necklace on, which magically adjusted to the proper size as he did so. They entered the home and had dinner after an extremely long day. Inside, space was much larger than it had appeared from the outside. The ceilings were at least 25 feet high, and wooden furniture that would qualify for art was throughout.

They had rabbit stew, which both boys gobbled down. Orlilin sure could cook! Hagar was still hungry, but he felt gratitude towards Orlilin more than any other feeling. Even though she had run away with them, she saved their lives twice.

Hagar felt that he owed her his life. He did not realize that Orlilin was impressed with his tenacity shown against the Leucrotta. She saw potential in him to be a Paladin or Warrior. Her real focus was on the boy, Mars. She would teach Mars and lead him to stay as her ally.

Orlilin knew there was one spell she would need Mars for expressly. She wanted to cast "Move Mountain." Spoken of only in legends. No one was able to perform it. It also apparently required various rare items. There may be other spells they could cast together as well, but she wanted "Move Mountain" the most.

Although these strict requirements were a cost, she would pay. She could potentially have the Sky city of her dreams.

After they ate, everyone was quiet, and they decided to sleep. The enormous house was quickly 4000 square feet and had more rooms than Mars knew.

Everyone went to their rooms. Hagar would have stayed up fantasizing of revenge, but after fighting to the death and having his family killed after a day of carrying the wild boar back, he needed his sleep.

As Mars laid down, he brought the transparent white screen back up. He had been waiting to do this all day. Even in the dark, it did not produce light on the surrounding area. But to Mars, it was as clear as day.

Stats-Quests-Inventory-Map-Spells-Language

He selected Stats and saw his information. He could not adjust anything, but it displayed various information.

Name: Mars Level 3-950/2700exp

HP:12/12

Intelligence:25

Wisdom:18

Charisma:9

Dexterity:9

Strength:8

Tier 0 Available

Mars didn't know what it meant, but he decided to look at his "Inventory" it was mostly empty boxes, but it also had a mock-up of Mars in the top right corner of the screen. It showed a list of what he had equipped.

"Burlap Shirt" with a defense rating of +0.1 and a value of 10 copper.

"Burlap Pants" with a defense rating of +0.1 and a value of 10 copper.

"Boar Hide Boots" defense rating of +5 and a value of 20 silver.

"Necklace of Unknowability"+1 to magic resistance and the inability to be located through divination magic, and a value of 4700 gold.

The last item listed was "The Oak Tome- Insufficient Level".

Mars was taken aback by the necklace. With a value like that, he could easily afford the entire Town of Skagi!

Then he looked at Quests. It had one listing only on the screen. The quest listed said;

"The Challenge of Ozen Raw: Attain true strength." There was no further information on the quest.