Using my new ability, I inspected the men and contents of the passing train. What I saw as an unusual blue text was mixed with yellow and red. There was no explanation for the colors, but the pattern was clear. After focusing on the different colors, I realized they resembled combat risks. The yellow indicated a cautious challenge, while the red signified clear danger.
Every few minutes, while standing there watching and analyzing the caravan, the familiar voice I had heard once I gained this analysis skill would speak up.
[DING]
[73 XP Analyze Awarded]
[Level Up – Analyze Level 3]
87 XP Until Next Level
I blinked. That was quick.
[DING]
[89 XP Analyze Awarded]
[Level Up – Analyze Level 4]
103 XP Until Next Level
Okay, faster.
[DING]
[106 XP Analyze Awarded]
[Level Up – Analyze Level 4]
123 XP Until Next Level
Was I really gaining XP just by watching people walk? What was this called before? Oh, yeah, XP farming.
[New Skill achieved – Perception Level 1]
What is this new perception skill? As soon as I asked myself that simple question, the voice spoke again.
Skill Perception – a passive skill that allows the user to sense their environment within ten meters per level.
Seraphina nudged me and leaned in. “Do you plan on staring all afternoon, or can we find somewhere quieter?”
We left the caravan behind and followed a narrow path that wound past the edge of the village toward the old grist mill. It stood quietly now, the wheel creaking slowly with the gentle flow of the stream. A few smooth stones stuck out near the bank, worn flat by time, perfect for sitting.
We didn’t talk right away. The silence was soothing.
Seraphina sat next to me, pulling her knees up slightly. “I used to come out here when I needed to think. When things got too much for me to bear. I found this place after my mother passed that spring, a few years ago.”
“Seems like a good place for it.”
She glanced sideways. “You look like someone who has a lot of questions and not enough answers, too.”
I gave a soft laugh. “That obvious?”
“Only to someone who knows the feeling.”
I let the breeze fill the pause. “Things have been overwhelming lately. New place, new rules. I sense that people are expecting things I don’t understand. Things are changing fast, and I might lose grasp of it.”
“You’ve been through a lot. Most people wouldn’t last even a day, but you did more than that.”
“That’s generous,” I said. Then, more honestly: “I’ve just been trying to make sense of things. It’s not easy. And I’m not sure who I’m supposed to be here.”
She looked down, then said softly, “You’re still you. Whoever you were before, that doesn’t vanish.”
I nodded, unsure how to explain how much had already changed, how much I’d seen, how close I was to becoming someone completely different.
We sat quietly again, with the stream murmuring below us.
Finally, I reached out. I didn’t overthink it. Just let my hand find hers, palm to palm.
She didn’t pull back.
I let the silence sit a little longer, then opened my mouth to say something more meaningful, something real. There was something wrong.
“David,” Her voice lowered. “Three months ago, before the prophecy, I was seeing someone. I thought it was going well. Until he tried to take advantage of me.” Her free hand clenched in her lap, knuckles white. “I escaped. ”
I raised a hand, sharp and instinctive. Something felt off. I slightly turned my head. Leaves rustled not in the wind, but from footsteps. Then the voices came. Male. Loud. Slurred, unaffected by the quiet of the woods. Men in worn tunics and loose belts, the kind who spent too much time at taverns and remembered too little of what happened afterward.
[Name: Varn | Human | Class: Brawler LVL 4 | Status: Intoxicated | Intent: Aggressive]
[Name: Greel | Human | Class: Laborer LVL 2 | Status: Tipsy | Intent: Opportunistic]
The new overlay flickered blue unexpectedly, with text swimming at the edge of my vision like a warning light.
“Well, look at this,” the taller one said, giving Seraphina a look I didn’t like. “Didn’t know you were into stray dogs, sweetheart.”
My hand clenched around hers. She held her ground but didn’t step back. I moved in front of her before I even realized I had made that choice.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
“Walk away,” I said more firmly than I expected.
Varn chuckled. “Or what? You’ll ask nicely again?”
Varn’s grin grew wider as he stepped forward, fingers twitching toward the sword at his belt. Greel followed, cracking his knuckles with the subtlety of a falling tree.
[Intent Shift: Varn – Hostile]
[Intent Shift: Greel – Hostile]
The overlay now glowed a bright, urgent red. The warnings were everywhere, along with the instincts. Varn lunged first. Time didn’t slow down; I moved. I stepped aside, twisting my body in a single fluid motion, letting his momentum pass by. My hand caught his wrist. The move wasn’t violent, not yet, but it was precise. His own speed betrayed him. I pivoted, lowered my center of gravity, and twisted. His arm wrenched backward with a pop, and his entire body followed, crashing to the ground with a hollow thud.
[DING]
[New Skill achieved – Unarmed Combat - Level 1]
Greel shouted and swung at me with a short club, more like a piece of wood than a proper weapon. I ducked underneath it, close enough to feel the air it displaced. My right foot moved behind his, and my left arm hooked under his armpit, lifting just enough.
He hit the ground with a different sound softer, like meat and wind pulled from his lungs. Varn tried to get up, but I didn’t let him. One hard strike, a palm heel to the chest, and he was down again. Wheezing. The dust swirled around us, settling slowly. Greel groaned. Varn wasn’t moving. The notifications faded. I stood in the middle of it all, steadying my breath, with fists unclenched.
[DING]
[322 XP Unarmed Combat Awarded]
[Level Up – Unarmed Combat – Level 1]
82 XP Until Next Level
[DING]
[Level Up – Unarmed Combat – Level 2]
90 XP Until Next Level
[DING]
[Level Up – Unarmed Combat – Level 3]
102 XP Until Next Level
[DING]
[Level Up – Unarmed Combat – Level 4]
112 XP Until Next Level
Behind me, Seraphina hadn’t moved. Her eyes were wide, frozen in shock.
“Are you okay?” I asked, turning. The chiming in my head finally subsided.
She nodded slowly, but didn’t speak.
“I didn’t mean to” I stopped myself. There was no point in pretending I hadn’t meant to win. “They were going to hurt you,” I said quietly. “That wasn’t going to happen.”
[DING]
[322 XP Perception Awarded]
[Level Up –Perception Level 2]
82 XP Until Next Level
The voice startled me. I reached out, grabbed her hand, and pulled her along with me. We left them there, breathing but exhausted. By the time we reached the edge of the path, a few villagers had started to notice. No one stopped us. Not after that.
We slowed down as the store came into view, the busy street swirling around us as if nothing had changed. But Seraphina walked quietly, her face still showing disbelief.
“Do you recognize those two?” I asked softly. “Seraphina?”
She shook her head. “No, never seen them before.” Then: “How did you do that? So fast.”
I gave her a half-smile. “Credit goes to my mother. She insisted I learn to defend myself. I trained for years in different styles. I was decent at Aikido. That’s what you saw. And a bit of Kali, too.”
She blinked, still absorbing everything.
I looked ahead. “Let’s go back to the store.”
I squeezed her hand once. “We could use a break.”
We stepped inside the store, the familiar bell on the door softly contrasting with the storm still raging inside me. The quiet hum of village life resumed as if nothing had happened, customers browsing, Elias behind the counter organizing goods, and the faint scent of herbs drifting from the back room.
Seraphina didn’t release my hand right away. When she finally did, she stepped behind the counter and pretended to work on a half-filled ledger.
Elias raised an eyebrow but said nothing. I could feel it; someone was coming. The feeling made the hairs on my neck stand up. I had barely exhaled when a sharp knock sounded on the doorframe not a customer knock. Military.
A village guard stood there, likely an officer from the caravan. He wore a shiny breastplate and a short blue cloak, still dusty from the road. His eyes scanned the room and settled on me.
“You,” he said, “step outside for a moment.”
Seraphina stepped in before I could. “He didn’t start it,” she said firmly. “They came at him. I saw it. They pulled weapons first.”
The officer raised a hand. “I’m not here to arrest anyone. Just following protocol. Two men are being cared for with broken ribs and a fractured wrist. Witnesses say you handled it quickly.”
“I didn’t want a fight,” I said calmly. “But I wasn’t going to let them hurt her.”
The guard scrutinized me, his jaw moving. “Normally, we’d sort this at the hall. But considering the men were part of a traveling group and not local and considering they were armed” He exhaled. “No charges. But you’ve made an impression. Word spreads.”
I nodded once. “Understood.”
The officer hesitated. “Next time, try not to leave bodies in the street. Even if they’re breathing.” He then turned and walked away. The door clicked softly as it closed behind him.
Elias let out a long breath. “So. How was your afternoon, then?”
Seraphina shot him a look that silenced him. Then she turned back to me. “He’s right about one thing.”
“What’s that?”
She offered me a small, unreadable smile. “You’ve made an impression.”
The store had quieted down. Outside, the last customers had left, and Elias’s footsteps no longer echoed on the floorboards. A warm glow from the lantern lit the common room where Seraphina had set out tea, not the best, but better than silence. I sat across from her, still feeling the tension from earlier slowly unwinding.
She didn’t speak right away. She simply watched me as I looked into my cup.
“I’ve been thinking,” I finally said. “About earlier. About everything.”
“Hard not to,” she said. “You took down two armed men with your hands.”
I nodded. “There’s more. And I need you to see it before it gets stranger.” She continued.
She didn’t flinch or smile. She just waited.
I remembered the menu in my mind, still feeling strange, and focused on the part I hadn’t shown anyone yet: my Status Screen. Taking a deep breath, I activated the display. A translucent panel appeared from my outstretched hand. I turned it toward her, willing it to be visible. She leaned in as the faint light shimmered in the air like glass catching starlight.
David Robertson
Race: Human
Status: Unmarried
Title: None
Age: 20
Class: ???
Strength: 26
Intelligence: 40
Wisdom: 37
Agility: 28
Charisma: 18
HP: 220/220
MP: 200/200
SP: 200/200
Skills:
- Blacksmithing – Level 10
- Analyze – Level 5
- Perception – Level 2
- Unarmed Combat – Level 4 (Aikido)
She leaned in, her expression unreadable as the blue glow from the status screen illuminated her face. The soft light shimmered in her eyes, highlighting the gold flecks in her irises as she examined every line of data. I watched her, nearly stopping my breath. Her hair brushed my arm, and the scent of her clean, warm, with hints of honeysuckle and steel filled my lungs. It hit me harder than I expected.
A heat stirred low in my chest. Not just desire, though that was there, thrumming just beneath my skin, but something more profound. A need to protect her. To impress her. To be more, because she was watching.
She blinked once, then twice. Her lips parted slightly, but no sound came out. The glow of the screen lit the delicate curve of her jaw. I forced myself to look away, to steady my breathing. Not now. This wasn’t the time. But the feeling didn’t fade; it just settled in me, quieter, heavier.
Something was changing.
“I didn’t realize I had this. It just happened. I touched something at the forge, and everything changed," I said.
She stared at the floating text. “This is your status screen? You’re twenty?”
I hesitated before nodding. “Yeah.” My hand twitched slightly, ready to dismiss it. Her gaze didn’t leave the screen. “Seeing all that, and that’s your first worry?”
“It’s not nothing,” I said. She turned to me, brows raised. “I didn’t show this to anyone,” I added quietly. “Only you.”
Something in her face softened at that. Her smile returned less playful now, more careful as her eyes examined the details once again. “Blacksmithing. Analyze. Perception. Aikido, your stats are outlandish.” Her voice tapered off slightly. “Blacksmithing is a class, but for you, it’s just a skill. And you’re leveling up without a class. This shouldn’t be possible.”
“I think I have one,” I said. “But it hasn’t revealed itself yet.” I folded the screen away. “We should visit the priestess tomorrow. Maybe she can help make sense of this.”
Seraphina got up and walked over to bend down and kiss me on the cheek. It was a gentle touch that lingered for a moment after she said, “Good night.” She turned and walked across the room toward her bedroom. I watched her go, the flicker of the lantern light catching in her hair. I hadn’t meant to notice how she moved, but I did. And that, too, was something I was still trying to understand.
After Seraphina’s door clicked shut, I lingered a bit longer, cup in hand, until the tea cooled.
There wasn’t much left to do. Elias and Edmund had already gone to bed, and the house was silent. I paused to tidy the table and turn off the lanterns. The comfort of routine helped, even if it felt borrowed.
Once everything was in place, I crawled into the blanket nest I had made on the floor near the hearth. The fire had died down to embers, casting just enough glow to keep the darkness away. I lay there, listening to the creak of the wood and the distant hush of the wind blowing past the shutters.
But sleep didn’t come. Something tugged at me, a prickling sensation, a whisper beneath my skin.
I sat up slowly, my eyes adjusting to the darkness. Nothing moved in the room. I got to my feet and approached the window cautiously, careful not to make a sound. I pulled the curtain aside just an inch. The street was empty. Silent. Yet, the feeling persisted. I didn’t see anyone, but that didn’t mean no one was there.