Gifted

I read out the Achievement to Gramps.

Achievement Acquired! Grand Deception - Successfully orchestrated the removal of a Noble from a settlement through deception while leaving no trace of your involvement.

Reward: 2000 steps on the Path of Deception or 100 steps on the Path of Infiltration.

To say I was grinning would be an understatement. Even Gramps seemed surprised at the reward.

“I am hoping you had your Path of Infiltration active when you were pulling off this little escapade?” he asked in a sardonic tone.

I just smiled in response which caused him to mirror me, lips curving up behind his beard, his earlier anger forgotten.

“How far are you away from completing the Path?”

“With the bonus from Gifted, this is enough,” I answered.

He let out a low whistle. “How much did you get from infiltrating their fort?”

I told him the amounts, both for the wooden fort and the House Landrin encampment.

Gramps shook his head with a disbelieving look plastered across his face. “Your Shadow affinity is really putting in some work. We need to get your hands on those Path manuals I ordered sooner rather than later. Well, go on then. Accept your reward.”

With the opportunity to complete an Elite Path, it wasn’t even a choice between the two options. Under my Gifted Attribute’s assistance, the reward of one hundred steps became one-hundred-and-sixty-three — more than enough to complete the Path of Infiltration. The Myriad Paths acknowledged it with three new notifications.

You have Completed your Path! Path of Infiltration III (500/500)

Reward: 8 Unallocated Stats, Advanced Attribute Unlocked: Invisible Presence

I told Gramps what I had been rewarded with and then moved onto the next notification.

You have advanced the Tier of your Path! Path of the Completionist III (209/200)

Reward: 4 Extra Skill Slots

Seeing that reward had my mind going to my Greater Skill Seed that was hidden somewhere in Gramps’ office. I was definitely going to revisit my thoughts on that later, but for now, I wanted to know what my last notification was.

Achievement Acquired! Successfully complete an Elite Path before the age of six.

Reward: Path of Exceptionalism!

Error. User already has the Path of Exceptionalism unlocked.

Checking details.

Assessing…

Assessing…

User has previous achievement to unlock Path of Exceptionalism. Changing reward. Achievement deemed to be assisted by Gifted Advanced Attribute. Reward reduced.

New Reward: 10 Steps on the Path of Exceptionalism

I told Gramps’ about the extra notifications before bringing up my full Status as I considered what to do about the offered Attribute. Gramps seemed similarly curious so I read out the current state of affairs to him.

Name - Sebastian

Skills (7/12)

Class - Locked

Muffled Steps (Minor) - 51

Controlled Grip (Lesser) - 19

Basic Attributes

Royal Cloak of Shadows (Greater) - 2

Strength - 125

Stamina - 129

Body Features

Coordination - 137

Aether Core - Lesser (107)

Mental - 156

Aether Channels - Moderate (111)

Aether - 108

Affinity (1/1)

Advanced Attributes (1/2)

Shadow (Potent) - 113

Gifted - 159

Boons

Paths (10/10)

Child Warrior

Path of Exceptionalism II (133/500)

Path of Running IX (6871/10000)

Dormant Paths (2)

Path of Balance IX (5003/10000)

Path of Brewing IV

Path of Body Strengthening IX (5224/10000)

Path of Coordination VIII

Path of Aethersensing IX (5611/10000)

Path of Swordplay VIII (3248/5000)

Path of Deception IX (5637/10000)

Path of Hatchets VI (500/1000)

Path of the Completionist III (209/500)

Path of Soulstealing II (39/50)

With the fifteen for completing an Elite Path and ten for the Achievement my Path of Exceptionalism had jumped forward by twenty-five steps.

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Completionist had gone up sixty-five — forty base for an Elite Path with Gifted increasing it accordingly and pushing it to the next Tier.

With Infiltration completed, I had pulled Hatchets back into my Active list. But my eyes were mostly drawn to my Advanced Attributes. I had one available slot which I had been holding out for Aethersensing. However, Invisible Presence sounded amazing.

I looked to Gramps for guidance. “What should I do?”

“What do you want to do?” he countered, eyes alight with amusement.

The answer was — I didn’t know. For so long, I had been driving myself forward towards the Aethersensing attribute. Declining the other options I had been presented with had not been difficult, even if they were still available for me now. Endurance and Willpower were offered before I knew much about the Myriad Paths, and I had declined them out of a lack of knowledge. Stealth, I had intentionally turned down because my heart was set on becoming a Mage like Gramps — and to do that I needed Aethersensing and Aether Manipulation.

But those previous offerings didn’t sound anywhere near as good as Invisible Presence.

“What does it do?” I asked.

“Invisible Presence?” Gramps asked before continuing. “Most attributes are passive. Like your Gifted or my Roaring Flame —” he paused at my open mouth. “Makes my Fire Magic considerably hotter. Not important right now. No more interruptions.”

I pressed my lips together and clamped down on my curiosity.

“Most are passive. Most, but not all, especially at the higher Tiers. Invisible Presence is a Tier three attribute which you should have control of when it is and isn’t active. It doesn’t cost aether, like Skills do, and what it should do is make anything that possesses aether more likely to ignore you. There are Skills, Enchantments, and Attributes capable of resisting it. Also, don’t expect it to work if you’re drawing attention to yourself. But it’s a very powerful attribute. Even more so if you invest in it.”

“How do you know so much about it?” I asked.

“A member of my adventuring Guild had it. He was our scout, and I don’t ever recall him being caught when he didn’t want to be. Thankfully, unlike you, he didn’t have much of a playful streak so he didn’t walk around sneaking up on us. Excellent scout though. Went on to join the Beast Hunter’s Guild when we dissolved our own small Guild which is no small feat.”

“So… you think I should take it?”

“Why don’t you just say what’s stopping you.”

“If I take it, I will need to open up two Advanced Attribute slots to become a Mage,” I said, pointing out the obvious. I knew Gramps already knew what my hang up was, he just wanted me to put it out there.

“Considering your progress on the Path of the Completionist, we can basically guarantee you’ll unlock another slot for Advanced Attributes before you turn twelve. You’ll also complete the Paths of Aethersensing and Aether Manipulation by then. So, if those are the ones you want, then with your work ethic and Gifted, you’ll get there.”

“Is there another way to unlock an Advanced Attribute slot?” I asked, my voice filled with hope.

“Not one I know of, Kiddo,” Gramps replied with a laugh. “The most common source of additional slots — where I got all mine — are from Class Paths. Maybe there are some others from Dungeons, but I never went deep enough to find out. As for Paths, Completionist is the only one I know of.”

I sighed, eyes flicking back to the offered Advanced Attribute. Invisible Presence sounded amazing, but if it was a choice between that and being a Mage, well, I think my answer was obvious. Gramps’ expression certainly seemed to think so.

“I won’t take it for now,” I said dejectedly.

Gramps just nodded as though my answer was a foregone conclusion — and perhaps it was. I consoled myself by investing the unallocated Stats into Gifted.

I was about to ask him more about Dungeons when the door opened and Mum entered.

She closed the door behind her and the moment I saw her pretty face I knew I was in deep shit.

“Did you know?” she growled at Gramps.

The old man shook his head, throwing me in the deep end on my own. I couldn’t blame him. I had dug my own grave, now it was time to lie in it.

“What were you thinking?!” Mum demanded, her voice breaking as tears filled her eyes. “You could have been killed!”

Her arms wrapped around me, her eyes bloodshot as she looked at me. “You promised no more secrets, Sweetheart.”

It was the first time I had ever heard Mum sounding like this, and there was only one way to describe it — betrayed.

“I wasn’t going to keep it a secret, Mum. I knew you and Gramps would realise straight away. But that man wouldn’t leave you alone, and I saw you hiding from him and…”

My words jumbled up as I tried to express my childish feelings, torn between being worried about her and feeling guilty for going behind their backs, but at the same time thinking I was doing the right thing.

“And I knew you and Gramps would try to stop me.”

Mum sat down next to me, looking into my eyes expectantly. For the second time that day, I recounted what I had done.

“What am I going to do with you?” Mum whispered when I was done as she held my hand. “I can’t even punish you. It’s not like I can make you work harder than you already are.”

“I’ll do more chores around the outpost,” I suggested helpfully.

Mum laughed softly. “Fine. You’ll help me clean up the common room in the evening every night. Sweeping, dishes, wiping the benches down. Everything.”

I knew it took Mum an hour or so to clean up the place most nights. That time had gone down with the assistance of Dorothy and Molly. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. I just had to figure out how to turn it into a game that would progress my Paths. Was I a little obsessed with seeing my numbers go up? Definitely.

“Thank you, Sweetheart,” she said, kissing my forehead. “But don’t you dare do anything that reckless again or you’ll break your poor mum’s heart.”

I nodded, even though I knew I would in the future. This had been enough excitement for a while and, as long as there were no more issues. I would do as she asked and settle into some steady growth as I worked on my Paths.

As a group, we left Gramps’ office and headed to the kitchen for breakfast. I was halfway through my toast and eggs when Griselda knocked on the back door. Gramps let her in and she handed over some eggs and meat to Mum which told me she had gone home last night after our little escapade.

Mum was giving her a bit of the stink eye as she took the proffered food and moved it into the larder before addressing the elephant in the room.

“Next time my boy comes up with one of his little plans, Griselda, you come tell me. What if something had happened to him?”

Griselda grunted in response. “He is a warrior. Sometimes things happen when you are a warrior. He is whole. Was a good plan.”

Mum seemed ready to tell the half-orc off, but Gramps got there first — though his words were not what I expected.

“Since you seem so willing to help, mind staying at the outpost another night?”

Griselda looked at Gramps for a moment before nodding. “I will need to go home and tend to the animals. Let Martin know. But I will return before night.”

“Thank you. If you have a spare shovel, bring it as well,” Gramps added.

Griselda took her leave shortly afterwards.

The rest of the day felt more normal than it had in weeks. Aethersensing practise with Gramps, followed by reading, writing, and a little history with Mum whose mood was vastly improved; ending with sword work out the back.

As promised, I helped clean up the common room in the evening, which was even messier than usual owing to an impromptu celebration from the Horndale Mining Co. It seemed I was not the only one who disliked the Lady Yalindra and was happy to see her gone.

Griselda had kept to the kitchen throughout the evening and joined Gramps by the fire as Mum got ready for bed. I asked to stay up, sensing something was wrong with the old codger. All evening, he had been staring off into the distance with a stern look on his slightly wrinkled face. Mum had allowed it since I was under the watchful eyes of Gramps.

“Why aren’t we going to bed?” I asked as I sat on the furs by the fire.

Gramps didn’t answer me right away. When he did, he leaned forward as though he were telling me a secret.

“What do you think Lady Yalindra will do with Marcus?”

“Probably blame him for everything,” I answered.

“Precisely. Not a lot of incentive for the man to go willingly to the noose.”

“He was tied up,” I pointed out.

“So he was. However, it might help Yalindra’s argument with her cousin if she can blame the entire thing on a soldier gone rogue. All the better if he’s not there to defend himself. If Marcus is going to make his escape, it’s the first night he’ll do it.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because there is something here he wants — and some people just can’t take ‘no’ for an answer. The weak of will…”

His words trailed off as he turned back to the fire, clearly unwilling to say more. I mulled over his words. Was he right? Would Marcus manage to escape and rather than flee into the wilderness return for the prize he had been eyeing for weeks?

I hoped Gramps was wrong. He wasn’t.

Just as my eyes had started to droop, my young body giving in to sleep, I heard the clatter of hooves outside and then the sounds of a pair of boots hitting the ground. A moment later, the door rattled, dust flying as something hit it from outside.

Griselda stood, but Gramps laid a hand on her arm as he walked past her. I had seen Gramps use plenty of fire magic, but never anything else — so my eyes widened when I sensed aether and the wooden block barring the door shifted out of its holder and fell to the floor.

The door swung open and Marcus stepped into the room. His white shirt was torn and stained red with blood. With one hand wrapped around the hilt of a dagger that was similarly bloodied and an empty scabbard, he looked like he had fought his way free of his deserved imprisonment. Hard dark eyes looked from Gramps towards the stairs where Mum had just exited her room.

Marcus took one step forward, opening his mouth. A blue ball of fire shot straight into his throat and his scream sounded more like a wheeze: or a death rattle. The noise was silence as fire engulfed the rest of his head. Gramps didn’t move an inch as the soldier turned stalker collapsed to the floor.

Then there was only silence and the smell of cooked flesh.

“Griselda, get the shovels,” Gramps ordered.

I watched the pair of them leave, Griselda hefting the corpse over her shoulder like it was just another wooden log while Mum ushered me up to bed. Rather than return to her own room, she curled up with me beneath the covers and sung me to sleep like when I was a babe. It helped.