This is a daily reminder: You have 2 unallocated stat points
Warning unable to evolve [Arcane Mana Core] due to the title [Voiceless]
Well, my annoying notification made a friend. I'm back in a cell. Once the locals decided I was a liar and I was defeating [Detect Falsehood] it's back to lockup for me. Even looking at my status screen meant nothing, since I have to read it to them. They declared I must tell them who I really was, and any answer that wasn't ‘Sara Maxwell’ would trip their lie detectors which I find amusing, master liar but not on this. They are convinced I am just mocking them when they detect my lies. It reminds me of growing up and I start to despair.
So here I sit inside a fancier cell block. They keep it clean, that's already a plus. The fancy part is the cell is a giant mana interface that constantly drains any mana I have. They had to move me down a cell after the previous one started smoking. So now charges of destruction of property join my impersonation of a noble. They have to keep a technician on hand to discharge the excess.
The weirdest part is that my mana core is inert, has been since I got the warning. Not that I know when that was. Loopy Sara is apparently a blind swiper. It may have been even before my break out. Derrick never mentioned my eye and that seems to be the first thing anyone mentions when they meet me. No one has, rude enough to think me a liar, too polite to mention white holes. I'm not buying it. My eye color must have reverted back, weirdly I can still see mana though I feel it's not as clear as before. Maybe it's my core that was powering it.
Derrick visits every once in a while. He always asks the same. Who am I really, how did I find the ring, how did I manage to kill those three people. I always ask him the same thing too. Has anyone reached out to Hilgurd, to Lady Maxwell, or my mother. We give each other the same answers which satisfy no one.
No one reached out to the Maxwells, Francis has already established me as a fraud, Christmas dinners are going to be so awkward in later years. Thane is in charge of getting the ring to Hilgurd which has no time table. Thane is mister obstacle and he keeps living up to his name.
As for me, still Sara Maxwell, was given the ring and I'm tired of using my aura on others. Sure I can show it off, but I know it has lasting effects. If I can keep it inside that's enough for me. Strangely, resistance is no longer leveling up, possibly because I'm at equilibrium? Will I gain more on level?
It was pretty funny when they brought in a compeller. No mana to negate him he was able to single word compel me. But no instructions longer than that. He couldn't overcome my mental fortitude. Which I told him was really inconvenient to me, seeing as another avenue for proving my innocence was denied.
“Congratulations prisoner you are being sent to the capital. Your refusal to confess has earned you time with an inquisitor ” It's been sixty daily messages.
“Will he be able to get to the truth of the matter?”
“He will get the truth, the only question is how many of your teeth will remain in your mouth when he does.”
Great torture.
-----
I'm put into another cage, Jerry the technician is coming with. That is not really his name but he never talks to me. He's got mouse ears, hence I'm not very original. The wagon is open air, and I am paraded out the town. My village starved this past winter and I'm being pelted by food. Wait, its rotten, my nose is being assailed instead of my sense of social justice.
As I'm almost out of the city I see Thane at the edge of the crowd. He was arguing with a guard. He looks like he is waving something at the guard. Doesn't matter, I give him a finger salute. He wouldn't understand it, but I feel better.
-----
Three days to the capital. There was no parade this time, just a transfer to the inquisitor. The first thing they do is use a status stone on me, apparently they had someone who could read [English]. I was excited until I was slapped for talking. I was made to push every button on the display. They did ask why my mana core had stagnated, I told them about the warning I kept receiving. I was informed that taking the airs of nobility before earning the right is still a grave offense and since I have spurned the ample time to repent, my execution date has been set.
It's not the same as the slavers, I don't want to slaughter my way through everyone, what would be the point. I doubt I could oppose actual higher level people nor a Queendom army. Hell I suspect the only reason my aura killed slavers is they live with cognitive dissonance the entire time. So I face fighting the world or breaking my promise to my father. The spiral grows and I stop thinking.
-----
“You're being released.” The door to the cell is open. Sara is not moving. The guard comes over and nudges the girl. He sees she is still breathing but beyond that there is no one there. The guard carries her out to a waiting carriage. Sara head lolls back in the guard arms. Upon being placed in the carriage there is a great deal of shouting. Sara does not hear any of it.
It is another month before Sara leaves the capitol. She is seen by a great many people all of which find no way to bring her back out of the void she is in. She breathes, she eats but she does not respond to her name. Another month to return to Hilgurd. It doesn't take that long to travel of course, only the zig zagging to various eccentrics to consult takes time. They would have been on the road longer but one suggestion was made after looking at her status sheet transcription. Like all things with hope, it causes the carriage to return with all do haste.
-----
“You want me to induct her as a permanent member of the Adventurer Guild?”
“She can't use the same title as before, it's already failed her she needs something that can't be taken away from her to merge with [Voiceless].”
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“The induction of a permanent member is a privilege not a medical treatment.”
“The Adventurer Guild has already failed her, does it plan to do it again?”
Lady Maxwell has won her argument. The guild master is cowed. He sends a messenger for Thane, the only guildmaster who would agree to provide the second signature necessary for Sara induction.
Thane arrives within a week, they have Sara provide blood for her signature.
You have acquired the title [Adventurer]
Adventurer - You have been recognized as being a permanent member of an international organization. Five additional presence level when leveling up.
They use a status stone to display her status. Then they guide Sara's hands to connect the two titles together. Someone mentions a confirmation screen, they flail Sara hand around until they finally see the title go to one.
You have acquired the title [Voiceless Adventurer]
Voiceless Adventurer - Gives off an aura of worthlessness. You have been recognized as being a permanent member of an international organization. Five additional presence and Ten additional soul level when leveling up.
They wait, Sara does not respond. They take her back to the Maxwell estate and lay her in her bed
[Arcane Mana Core] gains the Mental aspect, skill [Mental Mana Core] Basic 1
Mental Mana Core - you have a magical aspected core of mental energy
Basic - a nascent mental magical core
Gain 2 exp
You have gained the skill [Mental Mana Sight] Basic 1
Mental Mana Sight - the ability to see mental mana
Basic - a pinprick hole is open in your eye to the metaphysical, can only see mental magic at a slight distance
Gain 2 exp
Sara opens her eyes. She can't lift herself up but she sees the wooden boards that indicate home. She turns her head towards her mirror and sees her left eye, there is a purple dot in its center. It seems to pulse. Sara begins to yell obscenities in [English]. That no one understood the words was immaterial, that she was heard was enough. Her mother is hugging her, for once she is not wearing her breastplate or void top. Sara rests her head on the prodigious chest, she doesn't even notice.
“Hey mom.”
-----
So physical therapy is rather accelerated in a system body, if only depression wasn't so harrowing in this world. It didn't take long to get back to moving. Just a week to return to routine. I had my first spar with my mother today. I am incredibly sore.
You have gained [Sword Arm] Apprentice 2
Str raised to 16
I greet the lady at breakfast.
“Good morning Grandmother”.
The lady is rather annoyed with Francis and permitting me the first use of the honorific. It helped that when I first saw her that I broke decorum and hugged her fiercely, bawling my thanks to her for getting my new title. She patted my head and I said she was the best grandma ever. She did admonish me that only grandmother was appropriate. Still the best.
I fluff my hair pass the chair back, it's grown pass my shoulders at this point. Mother swishes my hair as she passes and takes her seat.
“Mother, I'm the one who Marie tortures if my hair is out of place.”
“I know.”
I should have guessed from the sparring lesson, mother is also a sadist. My [Resist Blunt] skill leveled twice.
I must keep making small talk unless the real sadist in the room gets to start her pleasure. I nibble at my toast, and ask a question I've been wondering.
“Was the plan really to wait twenty-nine years for me to tier up my race. I thought I needed memories for that.” Fifty soul to build a core, a hundred soul to tier up after the core is aspected.
“We noticed that the [Speak:Common] number was changing after all the long conversation around you. It was our hope that at least a part of you was experiencing the outside world.”
“Is that why it's up to 9.”
“No, Marie took it upon herself to teach you new words as you slept.”
Of course, the captive audience and all, can't complain about the results.
“So you were planning on talking to me for twenty-nine years?”
“We were ready to do what was necessary.” Mom had a strange look to her eye.
“I wish knowing that questioning your vanity was all it took to wake you up though.”
I smile, “It wasn't that, well it was but the title is what allowed me to see the notification in my mind. I think it has to do with dropping of the ‘cannot direct mental changes to the soul’ portion.”
“Does that mean you have a voice now, dear?”
“Naw” zap, fuckin sadist “gah, I mean to say, no, I just see the screens as visualization in my mind now.”
“Are you still holding off on leveling?” Grandmother asks.
“If I level, my effective mental fortitude will fall below my soul. I wouldn't be able to hold my aura in. I'm hoping to gain perception stats so that I can start leveling [Status Screen] again. It's either that or have Marie push [Resist Lightning].”
Zap, gah, I didn't even do anything
“Anything to help the young miss”
Zap ah, more likely to amuse yourself.
You have gained [Resist Lightning] Basic 7
Gain 1 exp
Both mother and grandmother are chuckling at Marie's steady hand. The morning lesson focus is on getting writing to competent so I can combine my language skills. The lessons feels more brutal than last time, Marie making up for six months.
-----
“Ah apprentice, my fire has been dim and my basin low for too long, I am glad you are back. Where has your white dot gone?”
Hugging Belna is rather rough, it's all the scales. I don't think she is at all comfortable with the act but she knows I need them. She pats my head and shoos me to the fire. By the time I finish stoking the fire I get a notification.
You have gained [Fire Tender] Apprentice 1
Apprentice - can better control the heat of the fire
Agi raised to 13
“[Fire Tender] is an agility skill?” I'm grabbing my bucket.
“What else would it be, it takes a certain amount of grace to control fire.” Belna continues to hammer at her anvil.
I walked by a customer on my way out to the fountain, Maria follows. By the time we return Belna holding a sword in the air and proceeds to sharpen it on her grind stone. I'm too far to hear the conversation she is having with the client but they seem rather animated. After Belna is done with the sword she hands the blade back and receives her pay. She waves me over as the customer heads out.
“I have been told that your write skill has been coming along and your math is intermediate.”
Uh oh.
“As a Maxwell, maintaining books will be necessary, young miss” Marie interference is evident.
“Here is the ledger, hatchling, I have just been paid 70 copper for basic sword maintenance, do keep your penmanship neat enough so I do not need to ask you what you wrote later.”
“As you wish, mistress.”
I open the ledger, I see Belna handwriting and it is rather rough. I sigh and record the transaction. Documentation is required everywhere it seems.
-----
A day of normal. I let my aura out, the nightmares have been too intense to risk it. I position my aura away from the door and towards the balcony, safety for Marie and awfulness for any intruders.
You have gained [Pariah Aura Manipulation] Apprentice 2
Gain 2 exp
