The Second Week

It's the weekend of the second week since Aisam's reincarnation, and he has been repeating the same daily routine since getting the book 'Dagger Mastery' without any significant incidents except for a few minor injuries and little scars because of his mistakes while practicing with the dagger that healed in a few days.

The first thing in his daily routine was playing with the twins if they insisted or wanted after breakfast when they didn't have lessons with Rayna on the weekends and in her free time.

She couldn't teach them during the first 3 days he reincarnated because she was busy, and accidents that had happened to him.

She teaches them essential literacy skills for this world in her office, which closely resembles Earth.

Their lessons cover writing, reading, mathematics, geography, history, and common societal norms, with a few major differences that Aisam learned about from listening in on her lectures with permission of Rayna and asking her questions occasionally.

In this world, parents or guardians could choose to teach their children themselves or send them to an elementary school that lasted six years, typically for kids aged 6 to 11. After this, children could continue their education in a regular university-like center from 13-18, studying typical subjects to prepare for civilian jobs.

Alternatively, children could be sent to an Academy if they showed talent (also 13-18), often determined by birth or by being gifted by a god. Gifted individuals, known as 'Unshackled,' each had a system with unique features, and some were even granted an exclusive system, an incredibly rare occurrence.

He asked Rayna to show him, her system, but she refused because "it's confidential and you should never show your system to anyone carelessly," and the twins had systems (which could be determined by religious centers) but couldn't manifest it yet because of not reaching the suitable age of 11-12 and not having overall enough capacity.

Aisam tried figuring out his exact relationship with the twins by asking Rayna once in private but she refused to answer and said "It's a pretty sensitive topic, I don't want to talk about it, and you just need to treat them as your sisters, so please don't ask about it again?" Such a response made Aisam conclude they're not directly connected and it's a complicated case so he ignored it.

The Academy as stated before by Rayna, has two terms of 3 years, the first 3 years are called preparatory academy, and in the second term of 3 years, the real necessary stuff starts.

The value and difficulty of things they teach in the preparatory academy and the second/final term teach could be different depending on the reputation and overall quality of the academy.

This is why reputable academies teach things to preparatory academy students that even graduates of standard academies don't know.

The students in academies study magic in countless different major types, combat mastery in different weapons, or by unconventional methods like using alchemy, optimizing superpowers, etc.

Aisam also discovered all humans use the same language and different races have different languages, it made him wonder why he could read and write their language but all the other memories were blank, but he couldn't come up with any answers except that it was probably just because of his race.

They were currently in the 'Forest of Dendron' which is near the 'The City of Mathema' and 'The City of Odysseia'.

The first city is where the Eldrin Academy is located, the best Academy in the 'Empire of Dynasteia', and the entire territory of humans which includes the entire vast 'Continent of Nesos', the biggest continent in the world of Elysiuma, that is near many other races' territories.

This city is also where Rayna works as an Adjudicator whose job is to maintain the city's security and suppress Nekroses, monsters, Virulents (Artificial monsters), and the people who cause them.

The second city is where many people who have graduated from an academy, adventurers, and unshackled people go to work in different magic-related or gift-related professions with much better income than civilians could ever dream of getting.

These were most of the things he managed to understand and remember after he found out about them.

The remaining things in his daily routine included doing the daily quests as before and practicing with the dagger.

The thing that bothered him the most this week was the weekly quest which he still hasn't completed although there's only one day left till the end of the week: Kill one Monster/Virulent. Reward: A random skill of that Monster/Virulent. Punishment: loss of one random skill.

...

"... Why did the difficulty suddenly spike?! Besides I thought only Virulents existed because Rayna hadn't mentioned 'Monsters' till now... You mean in addition to the Virulents that one of them caused my death, there are also actual monsters! Besides I don't even exactly know what either of them are like," Aisam had said surprisingly after discovering what the weekly quest was at the start of the second week, but he postponed the quest to the end of the week when he was a bit stronger.

Now it's the weekend and only one day is left till his weekly quest ends, and he's sitting in his room right now, having already finished his daily routines, long before midnight.

"OK, time to check my status. Nova, show it, please."

[You haven't checked your status since last week]

[Calculation is necessary...]

[Calculating...]

*Ding

[Calculation completed.]

[Name: Aisam/Erebus]

[Age: 40/12]

[Race: Human]

[World: Earth/Elysiuma]

[Quests🔺]

[Stats🔻

variable stats 📍

Strength: 4.3/20

Dexterity: 10.2/20

Constitution: 17/20

Vitality: 4.5/20

Mana: 4.3/20

Inherent stats 📍

Intelligence: 16.8

Charisma: 12.6

Luck: 4]

[Achievements: (???) 🔒]

[Skills: Dagger Mastery (Novice-growth type), Sixth Sense (Novice-growth type), Childcare (Passive-Intermediate), Acting (Passive-Intermediate), (???) 🔒]

[???🔒]

[Hint to unlock your exclusive system: FEAR]

Aisam stared a bit for a few seconds silently at his status,

"Hmm... I don't exactly know how strong I am with these stats because I haven't seen anyone else's status, I haven't fought anyone or any monsters or virulents as they say, and I'm not even sure I can do this week's quest." Aisam said hesitantly but it was soon gone as he remembered the gravity of punishment for not doing his weekly quest.

"Although it's really risky, I don't have a choice other than doing it somehow; I can afford to lose 2 of my skills which Erebus already had, but if by any chance I lose two of my new skills, it will probably cost me a lot in the long run as they seem extremely useful," Erebus said then clenched his fist, "It's what it is, just gotta deal with it, I have chosen to live till now, and I will if I can no matter what!"

However, despite these, there was something that reassured him the most, "Haven't I become bigger?", Aisam said as he looked at his body which he hadn't paid much attention to, his torso as well as his whole body grown and evolved a lot tougher almost like a firmly huge rock in considerably short time.

It was because he focused on increasing his 'Constitution' ignoring all the other stats and leaving it to chance, although it benefited him, it also caused an imbalance in his build as his strength couldn't match up with his body build which had made him look 2-3 years older.

This sudden change in his body build also caused Rayna and the twins to become curious as they questioned him many times except Machaira who didn't ask him anything and only encouraged him since his body build became noticeable a few days ago.

"What did you do to become like this so fast?!" Rayna asked Erebus curiously but he only responded by saying, "Oh... I don't know, but I guess it's just that I've trained so hard," and similar general responses to evade her questions.

Although it seemed like Rayna wasn't convinced, she didn't ask any more questions after a few times and assumed he was a special case as there have already been such cases in the past where kids have grown significantly faster physically than they're expected to because of their gifts from birth or bloodline.

"How did you grow older so quickly? Teach me too!" Riona asked Erebus eagerly, and he only responded by saying teasingly, "But what if I don't want you to grow older? You are better off being cute and little," and similar responses by only teasing her and never giving a proper response which caused her to pout and be mad with him that didn't even last half an hour.

"I've seen you work so hard every day, so... there's no need to ask any more questions, right? Keep it up!" Machaira had said with a gentle smile, she was the last person to say anything about his fast body build change, and such a reaction from her satisfied him as it was the ideal for him that he didn't need to be questioned much.

"...Alright, I'll have to sneak out of the house early tomorrow morning to do the weekly quest because I'm sure Rayna won't allow me to go outside," Aisam said determinedly.

He then got up and laid out his clothing which was a bit suitable for exploration because of its almost completely dark black color with slightly white areas which allows camouflage in certain situations and being flexible, and equipment, which consisted only of his dagger and his shoes.

He stashed everything under his bed for quick access, and he planned to escape through the window of his room, leading outside into the forest.