Growing Up

By the time Keat reached the age of 4, he was capable of speaking fluently in the language of his new world. And despite his incredibly young age, his family had a tendency to forget his age. His mother would regularly send him off with the servants to run errands. Today was one such day, as his mother had asked him to go with the servants to purchase a gift for his father's name day.

"Mother, could you spare a few more silver, please? That merchant from Drona is in town, and he practically robs us!" Keat asked, putting on his best pitiful performance.

"Fine, dear, but no more books! Our library is plenty full already, dear, and you're letting your body waste away reading all the time." His mother nagged him, while pulling out her coin purse. She made sure to pull out 5 more silver to hand him, before closing it back up.

"Of course, mom! No more books, I promise!" Keat said, as he casually crossed his fingers on one hand behind as back, while grabbing the silver with his other hand. "We should be back by noon. "

Keat rushed outside before his mother could even reply, heading straight to the carts where the servants were. Keat opened his book, and hopped inside. The book he was currently reading, was about the History of Elisan, and the Turmoil of Magic. There was much discussion inside about how mages were necessary for consistent crop production, otherwise a simple drought or pest could cause widespread famine, and the importance of enchanting. It also talked about, however, many misdeeds conducted by evil wizards. Of course, Keat thought it was all a load of baloney. However, it was important to understand the context of this churches distaste for magic before he dared to use it. And, there was also one very good bonus that he received whenever he read.

+1 Intelligence

Every so often, the system would give him a bonus to his intelligence or wisdom whenever he would read a book.

'I wonder, will it give me extra strength if I just swung a sword around all day? Although, it definitely seems to go quicker at first. I only get a bonus once a month now' Keat couldn't suppress his sigh as he thought about it. If things continued at their current pace, it might start taking years of reading just to earn one!

"What's the matter, little sir?" Barbara, the old maid, asked after hearing his sighing.

"It's just taking forever to raise my stats now"

"That's just natural. You have to do and learn new things in order to get stats, little sir, and you've already read most of the books. It's natural!" She tried to cheer him up.

Keat stared at his stats, while wondering what he could do to make it faster.

Level: 0

Class: None

Strength: 5

Constitution: 5

Dexterity: 5

Intelligence: 15

Wisdom: 15

Charisma: 5

"I know, that's why I'm gonna get a new book once we get to the market." Keat replied nonchalantly, as he quickly jumped out of the cart and ran into the market before Barbara could even respond.

"But you promised, little si-" As she turned around to reprimand him, she realized that he was already long gone.

Keat quickly joined the masses in the market, trying to make his way to where he was told the merchant from Yourik would be. He believed that, since Yourik was where the Mage's Academy was located, he would finally be able to find a book on magic! As he got to the stall, he quickly discovered that he was in the right place. The merchants stand was the only stall not surrounded by people. In fact, it was almost as if they were deliberately avoiding it.

"Hello there, boy. You look curious to be here, is there anything I can do for you?" The short, stout man asked him.

"I was just curious about what kind of books you have here?" Keat asked, as he tried to look as casual as possible. He needed to buy one of these books without anyone realizing that he was after magic. He would hover over a magic tome, before quickly touching some benign book or trinket.

"Well, we have an interesting cookbook here, it's always helpful to learn new skills!" The merchant said, before picking up one of the books that Keat had hovered over. It was a book on how to use Firebolt, the tier 0 Cantrip. It seemed as if he knew quite well what this boy was after, as before anyone could get a look at it, he wrapped it in a cheap rag. He gave a warm smile before saying, "But it'll cost you 7 silvers!"

"Deal" Keat said, not even bothering to haggle, and quickly picking out the silver to pay the man. It would leave him only 3 silver to buy his fathers name day present, but it was worth the investment if he could learn magic from it. After receiving the cloth, he quickly scurried off to buy one of the copies of 'Eldir's Gift of Faith' from the local merchant. It cost 1 silver for one of the hardback copies, and he knew he could pass it off as him being a kid.

'Now that that's done, tonight I can try to learn my first spell!' He thought excitedly as he ran back towards the cart, just as the sun was reaching the middle of the sky.