The First Archmage

(Gavin)

"If I'm supposed to meet you here," I say to Bryant as he and the other Adventurers approach the gate, looking a little sleepy. "Shouldn't you have been here first?"

"How much sugar have you had?" He asks.

"We don't usually have sugar in this village," I tell him. "And when we do happen to have some brought here, us kids aren't allowed to have it. We usually get too hyper."

"You seem pretty wide-awake for it being this early in the morning."

"I'm always awake when I'm awake," I tell him. "It's so cool, being able to see the time in my vision. All I have to do is think it, and I can see it."

"Date, too," he says.

Date.

Friday, the 8th day of the 11th month of the 1,347th Year of the Age of Chaos.

"Age of Chaos?" I ask.

"It runs to two thousand," he nods. "Then changes to a different Age. If you think horoscope, you'll get a little thing for today that will tell you what will happen for you today, but it's usually just some mocking thing, and doesn't actually tell you what'll happen. Higher LUK does mean it's right more often, though, so check it out."

Horoscope.

You will be injured.

"It says I'll be injured."

"It does that for everyone's first time!" He laughs. "As I said – you can't really trust it. Sometimes, it'll be things that are already probable to happen. If you're going into a dungeon, it'll almost always say you'll be injured. Sometimes, it'll say you'll be healed, and you won't have a healer in your party. It's not trustworthy, so don't put too much stock in it."

"So trust the horoscope to always be right," I nod. "Got it! Okay! Let's go off on an adventure!"

"That's not what we're-"

"We're Adventurers, aren't we?"

"Well, yes, but-"

"Then everything we do is an adventure!"

"You have to admit," one of the other Adventurers says. "He's right."

"Yeah," Bryant nods. "He's right."

+1 CHA!

"So how hard is it to raise stats?" Because it seems pretty easy, to me.

"Quite," Bryant answers. "The one or two you get from your Classes, and the ones you get from Leveling your Species Level, are most of what you'll get. I've only gained around two or three into each stat on my own, and I've been an Adventurer for forty-eight years."

"Slacker."

Bryant just shakes his head, then looks at my pack.

"What do you have in there?" He asks.

"Firestarter," I answer. "A waterskin, some nuts and dried fruits and herbs, some twine and rope, my torture kit, some bandages-"

"Torture kit?" One of the Adventurers asks.

"-a map of the local area, in case we get lost while we're traveling down this road, and a spare knife. That's in addition to the waterskin and knife ya see on me, by the way."

"Can you use the knife?" Bryant asks.

"Can a hunter gut rabbits and fish?" I ask. "Ya, I can use the knife. I'm good at skinning things and disembowelment."

"What, exactly, do you torture with your torture kit?" The Adventurer who interrupted me asks.

"Small animals, children, the occasional Adventurer," I answer. "The usual stuff for a demented child. So did you enjoy the village whore last night?"

"Excuse me?" He asks, cheeks blushing.

"I can smell her perfume on ya," I sniff the air. "And the smell of sex. How'd ya like her?"

+1 PER!

"How do you know what sex is?" He asks. "You're just a kid!"

"I'm thirteen, not an idiot," I tell him, a little bit agitated by that question. If only he knew what Adventurers do… Oh, wait. He's an Adventurer. The jackass. "And I grew up in a small village. Ya learn things. Anyway, let's get going – on with the adventure! And possibly regrets of not knowing whether or not yer going to be a father… or already am, and are about to add to the count of kids ya have!"

"You're right," the Adventurer Bryant told last night that he'd like me says. "I am going to like this kid. Gavin – my name's Seamus, and I'm a Squire. Not sure if you had the option or not, but it's a basic Class, like all starting. It's the start for the sword-wielding Classes. I've brought mine up to Level 25, and once I complete its Quest, I can take on a Second Tier Class stemming from it."

"Like Bryant and Knight?" I ask, figuring that's probably what it meant when I saw his status yesterday and it had the two after it.

+1 INT!

Yup. That's what it meant. I'm so smart.

And adorable. I'll make all the Adventurers fall so in love with me, they'll never suspect I'm a demon hiding in plain sight.

Just kidding.

I'll eat all of them for breakfast.

"I really don't want to know what's going on in his head right now," the interrupting Adventurer says.

"Wondering which nuts and berries I should cook you with."

"You'd need to really scrub him, first," Seamus says. "Want some help? I can hold him down for you. Don't want to use any toxins, and they'll ruin the flavor."

"O-kay!" Bryant interrupts the interrupting Adventurer's protests. "Let's get started. We've got a couple of days to make it to the capital, and I don't want to delay it longer than it's been because of the stuff we encountered on our quest. Gavin – since you're a Scout, we'll teach you some basic tracking and stealth movements along the way. You'll want to put in every effort you can to increase AGI and PER, as they'll be very useful with the Skills you'll utilize as a Scout."

"Got it," I nod, wondering if he's confirming that they're useful stats for magicians.

"It'll take a long time, though," he says. "Before your stats will increase. Stat increases are few and far between, as I stated, so don't get frustrated. STR is the easiest to level, as it comes with performing exercises that increase your STR. Many warriors can up it up to fifteen times in their natural lifetime, if they live long enough, while other stats, at most, increase up to five in a natural lifetime for any."

In other words… I'm probably going to screw over the whole system in that regard.

Sweet!

"He looks excited," the interrupting Adventurer says.

Wait – pretty sure Bryant's stats got increased hugely. How did he do that? It's not like he's getting Stats every Level.

"He's a kid," Bryant says. "They get excited about a lot of things. He's probably just figured out which type of seasoning he'd like to use for you. Let's go – I want to make it to the woods by lunch, and we'll need to move fast to make it."

Bryant starts walking, and the other three Adventurers do so as well. I have to work hard to keep up with their longer legs, and by the time we break for lunch, we're at the edge of some woods. I feel like the reason we only made it to the edge and not in them was because we had to stop a couple of times so I could rest.

I'm used to moving fast, and for long periods of time, but they just have long legs, and we just walked the entire time.

As we eat lunch, Bryant has me work on my PER by focusing on observing our surroundings, doing my best to give him as much detail as possible. When we pack up the lunch supplies, Bryant tells me to do my best to move as silently as possible in the forest, for while we'll be safe with the group, it's better to work on being as silent as possible from the start, and for a Scout, having the Soundless Skill is a huge boon.

Silent, I can do. I'm used to it from running around the mountain and woods on the other side of the village. I can also do stealthy and sneaky like, too, and be very unseen just by the way I move.

Skill Gained!

Soundless 10/10 (Adjusted for skill prior to access): Allows one to be quieter in their movements.

You have mastered Soundless! +10 Experience Points!

Skill Gained!

Camouflage 10/10 (Adjusted for skill prior to access): Allows one to blend into their surroundings. Mana Cost: 10; Duration: 1 minute per Skill Level.

You have mastered Camouflage! +10 Experience Points!

"Status."

Name: Gavin

Age: 13 years

Titles: None

Species: Human Level 1 0/25

Classes: Wizard 1 0/25, Scout 20/25

INT: 20, AGI: 15, CHA: 14, STR: 15, CON: 22, PER: 21, LIF: 22, LUK 29

Health: 39/37

Mana: 47/47

Skills: Soundless 10/10, Camouflage 10/10

"Huh," I say. "It only increased Scout's Experience."

"What did?" Bryant looks at me.

"Looks like I'd had enough skill with Soundless to have it mastered."

"Ah," he says. "It increases the Experience for any Class you have that it works for when you mastered it. Generally, it's ten Experience to the respective Class or Classes for a Tier I Skill. No one knows what really affects your Species Level, as it's different things for different people."

"Are you going to mention," Interrupting Adventurer asks when Bryant stops talking. "The fact that it's incredibly difficult to gain a single Level in a Skill, and he's somehow mastered one?"

"Oh, I also have Camouflage mastered, too."

"Seriously?" Bryant asks, and I show him my Skills. "His Skills screen says he has."

"Shame there isn't a cuteness Skill," I pout. "I'd probably have that mastered as well, and I bet it'd give me experience for Human."

Skill Gained!

Cuteness 4/10 (adjusted for skill prior to access): You're just adorable. When flaunting your cuteness, you gain a small CHA boost.

"There is!" I exclaim in excitement. "But it's only Level 4."

"With how cute you are," Bryant says. "I'm pretty sure it'll be tough to get it to Level 10, if it's only at Level 4 right now. It could also just mean you need more girls to fawn over you, so-"

"Right!" I exclaim. "Alright! Let's get moving to the nearest city! I bet I'll have more girls flocking to me than the four of you combined!"

"Why did the System think it was a good idea to give him Access?" Interrupting Adventurer asks.

"Well, it gave you Access," I say.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"That yer belt buckle's not done properly?" I say, and he snorts.

"Actually," Bryant says. "He's right. You might want to tighten it, before we go too much farther."

Interrupting Adventurer glares at me, then fixes his belt, and we're off again. I start humming as we move, and he tells me to stop.

"Why?" I ask.

"The less noise we make as we move," he says. "The lower the odds of something hearing us that we don't want to encounter."

"Monsters usually avoid the paths."

"That doesn't mean-"

"Plus," I pull off my pack, then rummage through it until I find what I'm looking for before pulling my back back on. "I've got this."

I pull the charm around my neck. An adder stone strung on a leather cord, a four-leaf clover sealed in the hole worn by time with the sap of a tree.

"That some sort of childish village charm?" Interrupting Adventurer asks.

"No," Bryant stares at it. "Where in the hell did you get that?"

"Found it."

"Sure you did."

"No, seriously," I say. "There's a cave not far from here that I found it in while I's exploring a few months ago. Monsters don't come near when I's wearing it. I have to be wearing it for the effect to take hold, though."

"You've… been in these woods?" Bryant asks me. "Without someone to protect you?"

"Me and some 'o the other boys come in here all the time," I nod. "We loves camping out here, ya know. It's more fun on the mountain, though, bigger cats to scares. But ya, nothing ever bothered us when I's wearing this. Never understood why."

"Focus on it for a couple of seconds," Bryant says.

I focus on the amulet, and after a few moments, a message pops up.

High Amulet of Warding: Gives a powerful aura that deters the presence of most monsters from approaching when worn. Does not work on elite or boss monsters.

"That's cool!"

"Just like a kid in a sweets shop," Bryant mutters. "If you focus on an object for a few moments, you can usually pull up a little info screen about it. High Amulets of Warding are rare, and worth quite a lot. I find it hard to imagine you'd just find one laying around."

"Well, I did," I say. "I mean, it was on some corpse, but he ain't needing it anymore, is he? Not much use for it for a dead person. We picked 'is pockets, too. He had some sort 'o tome on him. I took that, 'cause I likes reading, and the other boys don't care much for it. It's my pack, now. He was dressed all fine and stuff, but his clothes were all bloody and torn up, so we left those, but he had this really cool sword, and Jeffery took it, and I took his knife."

"Do you remember where the cave was?" Bryant asks.

"Does a bear shit in the woods?" I ask. "If yer looking for 'is body, is probably just bones now, if any left at all. Monsters'll probably 'ave eaten 'im up after I took the amulet, y'know."

"Take us there," Bryant orders.

"Oo-oo kuku mutata," I roll my eyes, then start walking, humming as I go along.

"The fuck?" Interrupting Adventurer says.