Star Bright Shining Light

My birthday is tomorrow and then I go to my rite of manhood for seven days of various unpleasant things said to make a boy into a real man though I wish we could avoid the venomous snake poison during the entire trial. So here's the thing about mud men or as we call ourselves Almerrians there's a hierarchy that is practically absolute and goes like this pure born are on top basically if you are pure white or pure black your considered pure born meaning your ancestors have never mingled with anyone who wasn't of their type and it basically relates to what kind of clay they were animated from so pure born on top then it's the half and half's basically grays a combination of white and black they are looked down on but are considered better than mud born who are the lowest class and are the typical browns and reds and the rare greens and any mix there of myself I'm a brown but I have just a touch more red than a pure born brown making me a ruddy brown. Even divided up by color of skin wasn't enough for the royals so they added a second system where you were graded on your appearance now mind you that you can find a shaper and have him permanently alter your appearance and honestly it's all very shallow but it goes the coarser your appearance the lower you're rating from square looking people getting a poor ranking to the finely detailed royalty getting a perfect ranking honestly the system would have been abandoned long ago if there was not some truth to the appearance rankings if you are of the finer perfect appearance you are always going to have better traits than someone who has a squarish appearance.

Back to the rite of adulthood I would be given my adult name or choose my own and endure 7 days of getting poisoned each day and earn a couple traits hopefully maybe I should mention that almerrians can gain traits through exposure to things if they are lucky enough to survive and also happen to be lucky to earn a trait. During the adulthood rite most receive two traits some few receive three or four and rarely five traits though there is a legend about a almirrian receiving seven traits though most just discount it as fantasy. The reason why we can see our information is a simple spell we all learn at a young age called ancestral guidance and it basically tells us our information much as a game system would and it is a channeled spell so as long as you maintain it the display will stay. My own traits read as follows strength-5 endurance-7 agility-5 intelligence-6 will-6 wisdom-4 luck-4 traits: Almirrian adaptability.

Normally at my age an average of 5 in everything but will wisdom and luck which is usually 4 is the norm my endurance I have trained by literally torturing myself in every way physically possible to boost it and managed 2 points in a year and because I did it to myself and mentally endured it without flinching I gained a couple points in will as well though my intelligence came about naturally because I loved to read ever since I learned how. I wanted to get every trait I could out of my manhood rite so I trained diligently to get stronger for it and so when it came time to do the rite I was as prepared as I could be.

The first part of my manhood rite was simple and the easiest I sat in a chair and was given an injection of stone viper venom that had been diluted normally a single bite could kill an elephant so it was very diluted. The agony was intense but I persevered through and it was diluted down to the point it wouldn't kill me but it would come close a delicate balance of poison and healing was maintained through out the process and during the next 7 days I could not check my status so I had to hope that I achieved my goals as each venom could give one of two different traits stone viper could give stone skin a minor defensive bonus making the skin tougher or it could provide a endurance bonus.

My second day proved easier though the poison was now fire ant extract from a hundred fire ants though I had them double the dose and the possible traits were a small fire resistance or a boost to the agility stat and oh it hurt but I had already trained with fire so I was almost guaranteed the fire resistance trait. The third day was hell diluted death viper venom is a nasty one so bad in fact that many vomit continually the entire day though the benefits are worth the chance as both possible traits are excellent the first called half life doubles your lifespan and considering that a almirrian only typically lives 45 years it's worth it the other trait is called enduring vigor basically it means that you retain your vitality and energy until you literally drop dead from old age.

The fourth day was strait forward but unpleasant the poison was alberic tree sap also known as adventurers bane and it gave 3 possible traits though all three were widely different the first nature's bounty basically gave you the ability to survive without food or water for twice as long the second druids baptism was as the name implies a minor resistance to hostile magic the last was longevity it gave a slight boost to your lifespan usually 4-5 years it was thought. The fifth day proved tiring but I made it through the poison was called dream weaver and the only trait you could gain would prevent you from being magically put to sleep. The sixth day was a simple affair honestly I got my dose of Carnac venom and wasn't even in pain Carnac venom is a painless way to die by the way it enters your bloodstream and targets your nerves deadening them before the nerves die and also happened to be the most preferred way to commit suicide.

Carnac venom is known for giving odd traits always one but rarely the same one for everyone so far in the hundreds of years it had been used this way it had given over 200 different traits and even if you had the same trait as someone else who took it the traits could be vastly different in power. The seventh day was the day of dread and dreams or so everyone called it you would either die or gain one of three traits that would determine your life for the future the traits were mage blood giving boosts to magic in general and your mana resource the second was soldier which did the same for warriors but the last was called lords blood it is as mysterious as it is rare few ever obtain the trait and even its description is ambiguous though the few who do seem to get it either rise to the top or fall to the bottom of the food chain in this world.

The eighth day was a day of rest and reflection and of finding out my new traits I was so nervous my hands shook so bad I could hardly cast the spell but when I did I was floored. I'd received exactly one trait and a new resistance to poison which was a healthy 28% my trait was simply called Oroborus and its description was ominously vague the text read "you will see the world turn and be consumed in time" like what the hell does that mean if I went just by my limited understanding it meant something like immortality as long as I didn't die but what did it mean when it said world consumed by time what kind of stupid trait is this!

All my efforts seemingly wasted I sat there in shock staring at my information page and then I noticed a little * next to the last words so I mentally clicked on it hoping that it would tell me anything about what was going on. The new box was interesting to say the least "this is a hidden trait undetectable by any means, death is just a new beginning any time you die you get reborn with all of your memories minus the first 15 years of your lives, all sensations increased 25%, chance of unlocking new traits -75%, +25% observation hidden objects are now easier to spot, all earned traits come with you to your next life" and that was it everyone would think I was a zero but I didn't really have to fear death ever again a good trait I guess but I wanted to get more traits damn it.

I took the only option left to me other than becoming a slave to one of the other villagers or townsfolk and I was certainly not up for that because a 25% increase to sensations probably meant increased pain and I could only imagine what getting hit would feel like. I ran as fast as my 15 year old legs could carry me out of the village towards the wilderness zone if I was to have a chance I would have to escape before the testing even if my limbs felt wooden and my endurance was reduced because of the poisons that I'd been subjected to the last 7 days. My escape was successful but I knew they would bring trackers so I headed to the nearest river and began wading up stream the mountains being a good place to "get lost" and they weren't that far away but I needed to get rid of my scent and trail so here I was marching in waist deep freezing water submerging myself every so often and trying to go as fast as my limbs would carry me I don't know how far I traveled like that but it got to the point where everything was going numb and hurting and I was obviously weakening in the current because I could barely make headway so I found a rocky outcropping and climbed up out of the water and managed to maybe get a mile out before I simply couldn't go on and my tired limbs collapsed consciousness vanishing in a blink.

I had no idea how long I lay there but the sun had come up and saved me heating up my tortured body if only a little and rousing me from my nearly dead state I was ravenous so I searched out the nearest berry bushes and ate everything I could late season berries proved to be edible if a little over ripe luckily for me.