(MC's POV)
It took me under 15 minutes to get back home; since I got more comfortable with moving in the forest and better at moving around in general, I was able to travel a little bit faster than before.
When I was near the wall surrounding the mansion ground, I hopped up onto it and jumped down with ease. After landing, I put away all my gear which includes: the Almighty Revolver that didn't see any action, the Dark Knight Cloak that was pretty useful when I didn't have full coverage, the Drakon Wakizashi that was the main MVP in this quest with 10 confirmed kills and 1 assist kill.
Leaving only the black long-sleeved T-shirt, long pants, and combat boots. I looked at my hands and the gloves I had on were torn to shred so I took them off before putting them away too.
After that, I activated [Stealth] and ran towards where my room was; sensing that no one was near, I jumped up and grabbed hold of the railing around my room's balcony then lifted myself over.
Taking off my boots and replacing them with slippers, I slid open the glass door and entered the room. I did a brief scan of the lit room before diving into my new big soft bed.
It was like nothing I have ever felt before! What is it made out of? Angel Feathers? If someone told me so I would believe it.
After that whole ordeal had been dealt with, I can finally relax for a brief moment. Seriously, whatever supreme being planned out that kind of encounter just a mere 3 days after I've arrived in this world is truly sadistic.
I get I have to entertain them to a certain level, but come on!? At least give me a week to adjust first or something. Surely, they could have waited just that little amount of time considering they're presumably very old, maybe in the millions and billions or even trillions years old.
Sigh, that's enough venting, I guess. Wouldn't want to piss off one of them and get Thanos snapped out of existence, now, would I?
I got up off the soft cloud that is my new bed and started to change into more casual clothes that are appropriate for someone of high status.
I need to start thinking about that kind of stuff from now on too since I might meet rich people in the future, and I'm not really down on embarrassing Gramps by dressing 'poorly' as some snobby f*ckers would call it.
I don't want to trouble Gramps any more than I already have, I mean, he's literally taking care of my every need and even going the extra mile to accommodate me as best as he could.
Granted, I am only 16 and have no other family member to take care of me, but still! I have lived alone by myself for well over a year back in my old life and doing things on my own had become something natural for me.
I got a part-time job to pay for any of my living necessities plus some extra so I never needed my parents to send me money; aside from rent bills, but other than that, I was supporting myself just fine and dandy, I even have a fairly sizable saving too.
That is until the virus hit and the place I worked at closed down, but we're not gonna get into that.
Simply, I feel the need to find a way to support myself and be independent again, but then I would be refusing the kindness my new family is giving to me. One of my past life's regret was being distant with my family; I don't want to do that with this life.
Thus, I decided to just accept being taken care of and try not to trouble Gramps too much, and the first step of that is accepting the role of Young Master of the Stayv family.
And as a Young Master, I need clothes befitting of one. Nothing too gaudy and extravagant, just fancy enough to be considered as 'acceptable' in the eyes of the wealthy.
So, a nice white or black dress shirt, comfortable long trousers with a leather belt, then finish it off with a nice expensive-looking wristwatch and leather shoes, and we're done; about as simple as it gets.
Not to be narcissistic, but I look pretty decent in this kinda get-up. It makes me look more mature in a sense, I could probably pass myself off as a school teacher or a salaryman if I tidy up my hair a bit and put on a suit and tie.
But this is a good enough of a start, for now; I can adjust some things later on if needed. Pulling up my sleeve, I checked the time and saw it was around 7:50.
And right on cue, came a light tapping upon my chamber door followed by a sweet and mature feminine voice filled with elegance.
"Young Master Roger, I was ordered by the Head Butler to come and escort you to the dining room" A maid, I assume, spoke from the other side of the door; I cringe a bit at how she addressed me but soon brushed it off.
"Is Gramps home already?" I already know he is, but I asked anyway for the heck of it, then made my way towards the door.
"Yes, the Master has returned and wishes to see you, Young Master" Hearing it again, I felt my face twitching. I took a deep breath and forced down all the cringe I was feeling, then put on a calm smile before opening the door.
"Alright, lead the way" I gently ordered and scanned the woman standing in front of me, I inwardly sigh at how attractive and hot she looked in the normal maid uniform before using my Throwing 10 (MAX) to mentally yeet away those impure thoughts.
Snapping back to reality, I see the maid in a daze with wide eyes and mouth agape. I waved my hand in front of her but didn't get a response until I called out to her.
"Um…Hello, is something wrong?"
"N-no, nan demonaidesu!" She jumped back in fright and turned away quickly; she was trembling slightly.
Why did she say the last part in Japanese?
Actually, now that I look at her closely, she does have some features of a Japanese person so I guess it's not too weird if she switched from English to her mother tongue in the spur of the moment.
I just stood there and patiently waited for her to calm down, she turned back to face me with a slight flush and bowed deeply.
"I apologize about my unprofessional behavior just now" She, right now, looks pretty cute with how flustered she is.
"It's alright, we're all humans, we make mistakes. Just be careful from now on, okay?" I felt the slight urge to pat her head but yeeted that away too and just settled with a soft, gentle smile.
"Yes! Thank you for your forgiveness, Young Master Roger" She repeatedly bowed to me in quick succession, her 'assets' were jiggling up and down in an almost hypnotic way. As much as I like the show, I have somewhere to be right now so I reluctantly decided to stop her before she suffers any more back pain.
"Alright, alright, no need for all that. Don't you still have to escort me to the dining room?" I gently grabbed hold of her shoulder and straightened her back.
"H-hai! Sumimasen!" Her face turned bright red before she turned away from me, shrugging off my hands, and started leading me to the dining room.
While walking, I had a thought. Am I that attractive? I mean, I have [Charisma] 1 and [Appeal] 1 so I like to think that I'm above average in the look department, same as in my previous life.
Maybe there's something else at play here that doesn't reflect on the 『Soul Board』 and is completely out of my control?
Well, it's a minor thing anyway, no need to think too much about it; as long as I don't touch any of those two stats, I'll be fine, probably.
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.
.
Dammit, I just jinxed myself, didn't I!?
Please for the love of all that is holy and evil, don't make me too charming or attractive, it'll just become a burden later on.
I can already imagine a strong fallen angel/devil/goddess trying to me their boytoy just because my body looked like it was sculpted by the gods with jade-like skin and handsomeness that could topple entire nations.
Then, as if foretelling my fear was not unfound, a small screen appeared right in my face.
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[Charisma] +1
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My face went pale as I look towards my 『Soul Board』 to find that 1 SP was used and now I only have 31 SPs out of the original 32 I have after getting the reward.
Natural Distribution, is the process every living thing in the world goes through in their life; this is how their SPs are used to gain stat in something.
This, of course, doesn't happen based on nothing. The 『Soul Board』 reflects on oneself, one's capability, one's talent, and defines a person's core existence on a board with words and numbers.
Natural Distribution only happens when you are deemed qualifiable for it, like whether or not you have unused potential (Soul Points) to move up a level in something and whether or not you have reached the peak of the level you are at or just happen great talent/potential for it.
Say you practice the Sword, and that you are quite skilled and have Sword 3. Once you have trained reach the very peak of Sword 3, only when you have unused potential (Soul Points) can your Sword 3 move up to Sword 4.
On another side, if you just have such great talent/potential for something, Natural Distribution will happen to take priority in that something specifically until your talent/potential can't outweigh the effort needed anymore.
Talent alone can only get you so far, you also need effort and hard work to get the most out of your talent.
A prime example would be Lavia, Hikaru's lover, who had so much potential in Fire and magic that Natural Distribution used up all of her SPs and made her into a powerful fire magic user even before meeting Hikaru; it effectively locked her into the path of fire magic and nothing else.
That's how it normally works and how it is supposed to work for all; however, Hikaru and I are exceptions as we can freely put SPs into any stats that are available to us on our 『Soul Board』 or someone else's.
We can freely change the capability of anyone including ourselves regardless of their talents, so long as they have unused potential (Soul Points).
Even so, it looks like even I am not an exception to the rule of Natural Distribution. Luckily, it's not too bad, if I don't want any more points in [Charisma] or even [Appeal], I can just avoid doing something that can cause another Natural Distribution to happen.
Like how I dressed nicer and tried to look good.
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.
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Oh, who am I kidding!? There's no way to avoid the natural order of things set by the one who gave me the 『Soul Board』. For all I know, I'm not even affected by the Natural Distribution thing I just completely made up and this happening is just them trying to scare me.
*Sigh*
Well, once again, there's no point thinking about these things that are out of my control. I'll just try as best as I can to live like I want while getting stronger.
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A/N: I started playing Stardew Valley again, have any of you played it before?
If you have, who did you marry first? I married Emili- I mean Emily in my first game.