A Different Perspective II

Rodrick's Pov : It had been a typical day, filled with the usual tasks I had grown accustomed to since we left the capital. Master Raven had relocated us to this small town with a population of less than 10,000, away from prying eyes and potential threats. Here, we acquired land and built a facility known as the Runeblade Emporium, a cover for our operations. The emporium, introduced by Master Raven's left-hand man, Stephan, had become the pinnacle of runic enchanting and sword-making in just six years. Swords directly engraved and crafted by Stephan were so sought after that numerous enmities were created during auctions between different factions. Lydia and I never doubted its success, having seen Stephan's unparalleled dedication to his craft as both a swordsmith and runic enchanter. His skills in runic arts were just second to Master Raven's. Stephan established and named it the Runeblade Emporium to honor Master Raven and all the teachings he had provided over the years. What began as a small enchanting workshop had now expanded its reputation throughout Aldoria and was starting to reach nearby kingdoms. So when Master brought young Ethan to us, he insisted on moving away from the capital to provide a safer environment for him to grow. Here my duties mainly involved overseeing the enchantment building and training my two wards. Today, after completing my tasks in the village square, I was training them at the manor's training ground, which was equipped with space runes Lydia had crafted. Suddenly, a sharp tingle from Lydia's communication skill pierced my mind, leaving a terse message: COME FAST TO THE YOUNG MASTER'S ROOM. I had only heard this kind of panic a few times in all the years I had known her. I barely had time to think before my body moved on instinct. Within seconds, I had broken through the runes of the building, smashing through the walls near the window. My aura was already radiating around the house, and my sword was drawn, ready for combat.I expected an intruder who had bypassed all our defenses, but there was none, no enemy to slay. Instead, I found Lydia with tears streaming down her face, cradling young Ethan, who lay there with his eyes closing into unconsciousness.The only question racing through my mind was, What had happened? As my eyes darted around, they landed on Ethan's hand. Lydia was suppressing his pain with a rune while another rune of legendary rank was working on healing his hand. I was nearly paralyzed with disbelief at what I was seeing. I demanded an explanation from Lydia, but she could only stammer that she had rushed in after hearing Ethan's screams and found his hand in this condition. My mind, reeling from the implications, was working overtime. From all my experience, there could only be one conclusion: Ethan had somehow damaged the mana veins in his hand. The symptoms and Lydia's frantic efforts confirmed it. But how? That was the question gnawing at me. Setting aside these thoughts, which raced through my mind in mere seconds, I used my mana to assess Ethan's condition. I discovered several alarming things: First, he had completely depleted his mana, which had forced his body into a state of deep sleep. Second, I was correct—his mana veins in his hand were damaged, though they were healing rapidly thanks to Lydia's runes. We couldn't risk giving him potions, as they have adverse effects on children under five. But the last discovery left me stunned. Lydia had to lead me out of the room to let Ethan rest while I grappled with what I had sensed inside his veins—ambient mana particles. How was this even possible? An eighteen-month-old child had somehow absorbed pure ambient mana into his body. This realization sent a chill down my spine. If Lydia hadn't found him in time, the consequences could have been dire. Master Raven had left me with one request: to protect his child until he returned. The weight of that responsibility now bore down on me with renewed urgency. I had almost lost Ethan. In all those years, Master Raven and Magnus had asked nothing from me, only giving. But with their first request, which they only had to order me once, I had nearly failed. As my mind processed all the implications of what could have happened to lead to this, I had already started using my Thought Acceleration skill. Hundreds of possibilities swirled around in my head. One thought went to Ethan's remarkable development—how he had grasped everything so easily, how he had started walking and talking so early. While rare, such things were not unheard of and were often seen in children of high elven lineage due to their high mana attunement. I had speculated that his mother could be an elf of noble lineage, but as he grew, this theory seemed less likely since he showed no features of a half-elf; even children of common elves showed changes in their ears. Then my mind went back to the day we visited the village square when I sensed a probing presence through my Concealment skill. The source of this probing showed the signs of it being the young master, which made me suspicious at the time, but I dismissed it as mere speculation. Now I regretted not following my intuition. If I had, this incident might have been prevented. I asked Lydia if she had noticed any differences today or any peculiarities, but she had observed nothing unusual. I realized it would be difficult for her to sense anything mana-related without her runes, as her skills related to mana were quite poor. Despite all these years, she had not been able to acquire a Mana Sensing skill. Master Raven had also not allowed her to learn it through skill books, as he always said skills gained from skill books could never reach their full potential. He considered having or not having them irrelevant, as she could do everything through the use of runes if she kept at it, given her great talent in that area. Lydia had therefore focused on mastering runes, acquiring all her skills through their use. She had stopped using them inside the manor, which was already well-protected from external threats. I chose not to tell her my suspicions, as she would take all the blame upon herself. As all these thoughts swirled inside my mind, I pondered how Young Master had drawn ambient mana into his body. I could not leave this aside; it could lead to severe consequences in the future. During these contemplations, I noticed Lydia had used a mana recovery rune on Young Master Ethan. With my mana sense already surrounding his body, I observed the amount of mana recovering inside him. As time passed, I waited for it to stop, but it did not. I had never seen a child of five years showing this much mana capacity. How could it be possible? There was no possibility except one, and my mind didn't even want to entertain it. How could a child have known about stat allocation? That means he had opened his system on his own. But how? This implication was so impossible for me that I asked Lydia, "Did you tell Young Master about the system?" It was just a passing question, but the questions lingered in the moment, with a tone desperate and awaiting response. She replied with a no, her tone desperate. I explained to her how much mana he had, and it was impossible without stat allocations. She was stunned by the thought. I had a way to confirm, something I would never have done under normal circumstances, but for Young Master's safety, I had to do it. So, I used my Inspection skill to check his status, and what I saw left me more bewildered. [STATUS ] [NAME: Ethan Runeblade] [LEVEL: 1] [EXPERIENCE: 0/100] [TRAITS: None] [HEALTH: 70/70] [MANA: 70/70] [STAMINA: 20/20] [VITALITY: 7] [STRENGTH: 4] [ENDURANCE: 3] [DEXTERITY: 1] [MIND: 7] [INTELLECT: 17] [PERCEPTION: 4] [STAT POINTS: 10] [SKILLS: None]  These days were just getting longer and longer. What I was seeing was my skill somehow not working properly. How could it be? I didn't find anything astounding but just confusion. All the stats were too normal, except for mana and intelligence. Normally, children start with 1-3 in both stats, intelligence could indicate Young Master's fast growth, while the mana stat might be related to either Master Raven or Young Master's mother. What bewildered me was the skills – there were none. Yes, none. This made it impossible, as Young Master could already talk and walk, so at least a language skill and a physical skill were minimal. Everything else he does, as well as the thing with mana, I noticed. This status was impossible to be his. Thoughts accelerated in my mind, making conclusions, but I had nothing to think. I had never seen such a situation. Seeing my expression, Lydia also asked me about what I had discovered. When I told her, she also used her Inspection skill, which showed the same result. We both were then sitting in the room, waiting for Young Master to recover so I could get the answers. I knew he was just 18 months old, but for his safety, I needed the answers. Without that, I didn't know what I was going to do.So we waited for him to recover, and after hours of waiting, I saw him awaken with a jolt.