5 Infancy - Part 1

Riwall consciousness was too erratic. Sometimes he would wake up only to be breastfed and feel extremely sleepy, other times he would be awake for enough time to hear Erika's stories. He would barely have any time to check on Friday if anything unusual happened. As he was a baby, and it was winter season, he spent all the time home, going from the cradle to his mother's or Erika's arms.

Erika took a liking to Riwall, during afternoons she would come back from hunting and take care of him while Hellen would leave to help the farmers with her earth magic. In the beginning, she did not enjoy the arrangement; all babies she knew were poop factories that would cry all the time, but not Riwall. He slept most of the time and drank a lot of milk, but when he was awake, he would attentively listen to any story she told and would laugh or frown as if he understood everything she said.

Riwall loved these stories for two reasons. First, Erika was just great at telling them; she nailed dramatic pauses and intonation, making it an enjoyable experience. Second, he learned a lot about this world and its rules.

Apparently, it was common knowledge that there was a system regulating the interaction between mana and matter. The System, as it is called, has been studied by countless scholars, with one among them being especially worthy of notice. Julius Muller. He was one of the first in the world to prove the existence of the System, creating a tool called the Muller's Tablet. This tool allowed a person to see his level, race, attributes, skills, blesses, and curses in a slab of stone.

Julius Muller amply spread the method for crafting a Muller's Tablet, and as it was pretty simple, most of the world ended up adopting it. Its use was equally simple; pour some of your mana into the tablet and voilá, a panel similar to the one Riwall had access to would appear.

The continent they were now is called Frostlands, where all the seasons range from cold to freakishly cold. Only its northern part had distinguishable seasons and warmer climate overall.

A few hundred years after Frostlands discovery and shy colonization of its northern part, a heaven-defying ritual spell was cast somewhere else in the world, bringing noticeable changes to water currents and the climate. The seas to the west and north used to be calm throughout most of the year, but they suddenly became unnavigable with dozens of hurricanes forming during 11 of the 12 months of the year.

Suddenly the continent was cut off from the rest of the world. The colonists then ventured south to expand their lands, and by the turn of the fifth century, four kingdoms shared the Frostlands.

The Ilex Kingdom to the northmost had a temperate climate and inherited most of the infrastructure left by the colonizers; their borders stop where the Illusion Forest begins. They are the most populous among the four kingdoms, but their attention is turned continuously inward as they would rather bicker among themselves than conquer the rest of the continent. The ruling family has managed to hold its power since they were no more than Governors appointed by the colonizers.

On the south border of the Ilex Kingdom stands the Guan Kingdom, its lands stretch all the way from the northern part of Illusion Forest to the Neck Trees at the south. According to Erika's stories, a triumvirate composed of the three oldest families shares the power. They are at constant war against the sentient beasts that rule over the Illusion Forest since centuries before the colonization began.

After the small forest called "Neck Trees", lies the Azure Kingdom, a feudal society that holds no real power over the various cities and villages. They are in an eternal war against the monsters from the Azure Forest and the southern border. The capital, Azurehall, and the town of Branwatch are the only places where the royal family has any real power. With no standing army, they have to raise their banners and count on the support of the various lords of the kingdom when facing significant threats.

The land in the south of the Azure Kingdom is where used to be the only pre-colonization kingdom, its name long lost by the time the first colonists arrived. All the mana in the region is aspected to death, with all kinds of dark creatures lurking in a forest of dead trees. The few adventurer parties that managed to reach some of the old ruins came back with relics that put any modern creation to shame. But no one has been able to find out the history of this lost kingdom so far.

Every fifteen years, an explosion of unaspected mana happens in the southernmost region, spreading all over the continent. This tsunami of mana forces the evolution of most of the monsters that it touches, increasing their levels and accelerating their reproduction cycles. This event is called Evobomb.

That's why the Azure Kingdom had to resort to a feudal organization, by decentralizing power, they managed to defend the territories better from the threats from within the woods and hills.

Erika's tales were full of stories of heroes who faced all kinds of adversities for the sake of the Azure Kingdom. Often such stories would end with the hero marrying into the royal family, which Riwall noticed would help keep future generations looking at the royalty in a good light.

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After about one year, Riwall's body and soul finally synched, letting him be wholly conscious and make full use of Friday's capabilities. The only downside was that his mindset was being affected by his body. A seemingly obvious thing but that was often overlooked by the isekai novels he read back on Earth.

Although he had plenty of agency over his behavior, his body would trigger feelings and actions that were out of his expectations. Like one time when Hellen came back early and interrupted a very engaging story she was telling. A wave of disappointment and sadness washed over him, and the adult Riwall couldn't help but cry in response.

Friday speculated that a way of getting a better hold of his own emotions would be by increasing some of his attributes, after discussing it among themselves, they concluded that there might be some similarities between the System and some RPG systems from Earth that he could take advantage.

The two more likely to be related to the problem at hand were: |Composure| from the Social Attributes and |Resolve| from the Mental Attributes.

After discussing possible methods of training both attributes, Friday suggested creating a few mental stressful scenarios and have Riwall complete them. In these scenarios, a restriction would be but in his memories, and he would have to either defuse the situation entirely or resist giving in to his emotions for as long as he could.

With a goal set, Friday spent a few days in silence creating the simulations that would help Riwall grind his first stats.

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Riwall was walking back home after another tiring day of work. He had his eyes on the ground as he lamented his life choices.

"Man, I really need to find a better job, I fucking hate working for Mrs. Tucker."

THUMP!

"YOU FUCKING IDIOT! LOOK AT WHERE YOU ARE WALKING!" A man in a suit screamed at Riwall after spilling coffee in his suit because of the bump.

Riwall froze at the guy's snap and could not formulate any words

"What? Have nothing to say? You are going to fucking pay for it! You know how much it cost?!"

"I... I'm sorry, I didn't see where I was walking, I mean, I was just walking straight, you could have dodged."

"How can you say I had to dodge if you were not even paying attention?!?"

Riwall did not know what to do. His words got stuck in his tongue, and his thoughts came to an abrupt stop. People were gathering around them and pointing their fingers, making him even more nervous. All he could do was look at the angry man's eyes and babble some nonsense before taking a sucker punch to the face and blanking out.

Suddenly he remembered where he was and what was happening. As soon as Friday lifted the restraints on his memories, he felt disappointed at his performance. His current body clearly influenced his behavior. For he faced situations much worse back at the lab on Earth and did not freeze like it just happened.

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