After the meal, I started running around crazily through the house, looking for things that could be useful for fishing. Through a long and meticulous search, my hands and eyes found a closed oval basket made of knotted straw, which was light to carry and slightly flexible. In the long run inside my mother’s room, I discovered a similar straw hat, which I grabbed with my left hand, placing the container on the floor.

“This is a tad too big for my head...”

I giggled, failing multiple times to set it upright, ultimately stopping for a while, thinking of a way to make it work. A little later, I made an enormous ball of hair on top of my head as I had plenty to do so, placing all of it within the hat, filling the emptiness, and managing to hold it steady.

Suddenly two hands grabbed my shoulders, spooking me and causing my heart to beat faster than usual. My body jumped a bit as a reaction, causing a little whine to escape between my small lips.

“Where do you think you’re going, little miss?”

With teary eyes and a scared face, I replied in a soft tone while looking around.

“T-to fish...?”

Once my mother realized my frightened expression, her mature hand approached my cheek in order to pat it.

“Are you okay, dear? Did I scare you?”

Feeling a little calmer, I nodded in agreement, as my mind understood that there was nothing to worry about.

“Have you ever fished before?”

Mother questioned in what sounded a teasing tone, as she knew better.

“No, but I know what I need to do!”

Once Rosaline heard my cheerful reply, she remained confused, staring at me for a bit, and then resumed the questioning.

“You do? How so? Where could you possibly have gained such knowledge?”

I extended my hands in front of me with the palms upwards, as if holding on to something.

“Yes, mother! I’ve learned a bit from books!”

To that, she went into thought, unsure, ‘We have a few at home, but we don’t have one about fishing, I believe...’

She tilted her head while placing the index finger under the chin, touching it with the tip, trying to reminisce about it...

‘Maybe we do, and I don’t remember. Luke is the one who has the taste to read them...’

Interrupting her thoughts, I spoke cheerfully, “Mom! I thought of a birthday present!”

I saw that whatever was bugging her disappeared as she focused the tenderness of her beautiful brown eyes on me, with a glint of what looked like excitement.

“And what would that be?”

We traded joyful smiles, as I couldn’t hold back my happiness and words any longer, and mom felt like she could finally get even with dad, by giving me, their precious daughter, a present.

“I would like a farming hoe, a watering can, and seeds of all kinds, be they fruit, plants, or, who knows, even trees!”

With a more serious expression, she stared at me fiercely and dubiously at my words.

“Don’t tell me you received a farming job? Since you said you just wanted to try fishing for fun.”

I waved my vertical index left-hand finger to the sides, disagreeing with her while speaking loudly and energetically.

“No mother! To be fair, I haven’t decided on one. Nor have I figured anything about it!”

I saw her taking a deep breath, regaining her composure before speaking, as it felt like this subject in particular really mattered to her somehow.

“I don’t understand why you would want to do those two things, then. They’re pretty exhausting, just so you know.”

With such words, I lowered my head, making a sad expression, possibly making my mother feel troubled deep inside.

“I-I can’t?”

Before I could say anything, she promptly responded.

“Y-you can dear! I just wanted to know why you wish to do it, that’s all!”

With a more relieved expression, I regained the happiness and energy from moments ago.

“I want to earn as many achievements as I can, even if they take time and effort.”

She hit a right fist on her left open palm, finally understanding the motive behind it.

“Very well, just don’t tell anyone you are trying to do that, instead if anyone asks...”

Before my mother could continue, I interrupted her with a question, as something was amiss.

“Why would I need to lie to others?”

I tilted my head innocently yet with a cautious mindset, making her feel a mix of guilt and the strange need to justify herself.

“There’s an organization that does achievement and title hunting because of their work. These workers are called adventurers by law. You can find such people in the guilds across the entire kingdom. However, they are not liked by the white robes, in other words, the priests who undergo the ordeals of the church. They just hate people like that since some achievements give disgrace and the very high-ranking ones can measure our disgrace and fame.”

With a serious expression, she raised her hand to the air, lifting a single finger before continuing.

“Your father and I used to be adventurers for a few years, and we ended up killing some beasts and monsters who wandered into the human’s territory. We consider such circumstances results necessary to clear quests that the guild posts. They have different grades based on the difficulty of the enemies.”

I smiled nervously, making her expression change into a kinder one.

“Quests?” 

She started waving her hands as if using them to help with the clarification of my doubts.

“They are also called requests or missions from people who are in danger. A good example is peasants who get their fields attacked by hungry monsters. To prevent the worse, they ask adventurers to handle them.”

With a radiant smile, I added, to make sure she’d feel like explaining things in the future, too.

“Thank you, mother. That was easy to understand.”

“I’m glad dear.”

She took a few steps towards the kitchen while talking as I followed her back.

“You don’t know yet, but everyone usually has a class, and depending on it, they have benefits.”

I jumped a few times softly to catch up to mom as her long legs made the gap between us increase.

“Really!? What’s yours like?”

With a prideful smug, my mother turned around, replying happily while making a stance of sorts.

“I’m a swordsman, dear, and your father’s a healer!”

As much as I wanted to congratulate both, I made a sort of awkward expression, throwing out my best words at her.

“Wah... that sounds amazing mom!”

I added with a hint of excitement at hearing about it, even though there wasn’t much I knew about what the classes meant. My mother, realizing it, started laughing and then added more details.

“You see… a swordsman is one who wields a sword, the weapon we showed you.”

The mother heard a tiny inner sound from me, along with a slight nod, before resuming the explanation.

“You can think of it using certain skills with that blade to cut through, killing your enemies.”

I gulped down, becoming slightly nervous, doing my best to endure such words and their horrible meaning, nodding slightly in agreement. Sure, I understood from the recollection of the tales that in this world that much was normal, and that at some point there may exist a need for me to get used to it.

“If you wish to become stronger, that’ll be normal... to kill.”

A hint of sadness in her voice resounded in my ears. And before I could say anything, she took a step forward, hugging me. My face drowned between her big breasts, forcing the hat to fall on the floor, allowing my hair to roll. It stretched itself wherever it felt like all over my back. With a muffled tone, I added, slightly suffocated from how close my mother’s body was to me.

“I’ll do what I can to reach your and dad’s expectations, even if I have to kill.”

My words surprised Rosaline, who didn’t expect to hear them. The inclination I slowly aimed for was to protect this new happiness that was offered to me by either the goddess or the system. These last years that passed were the happiest I had felt in my life. This included my old one, where I went through a lot of pain sufficient to damage my heart, causing traumas to be born. A profound wound from the time my stepmother and siblings bullied me. The solitude one felt through some years I couldn’t possibly explain in words. Deep down, I understood from the stories I read that losing everything was possible: such were the words of John, the author, and strangely, they made my heart race.

Rosaline knelt in front of me after pushing my body away from the embrace. Yet her hands remained on my shoulders as she peered into my emeralds, reaching close to the same height as mom was considerably taller. She then spoke with the most humble and kind tone possible, pacifying my heart from many worries that dwelled within.

“No matter what this world brings you, my dear daughter. I and your father will never force you to do anything you don’t want.”

I noticed her sorrowful smile, understanding that her words were heavy, and that she didn’t have enough assurance to back them up. At any time, enemies living in the southern frontier could attempt to invade us. In the worst case, it could turn out that even I would need to defend myself, ending up killing a foe, even if by accident, or worst case being murdered by one. With teary eyes and a broken smile, I nodded in agreement with a muffled sound from inside of me. A hand then caressed my left cheek and a different one, my hair.

“You truly have beautiful, vivid green eyes, dear.”

Another similar mutter left my lips, as I knew that for some reason or another, my parents would always lie to me regarding my eye color. It quite pained me, but I wasn’t brave enough to contest it. Whenever I’d see myself in the mirror, clear icy blue eyes would show up on my reflection. My nature was that of a coward trying to become someone else.

She picked the hat up, placing it on my head, finding it funny as it went all the way to my little nose.

“It seems like that hat might be too big for you, baby.”

We laughed cutely as two tears befell from my eyes, unable to hold them inside anymore.

“Don’t worry mother...”

I lifted it, then made an enormous ball of hair before placing it on top again.

“My, oh my! This daughter of mine truly is smart!”

She smiled proudly, causing me to feel fulfilled and content inside. Unlike my former dad, who would despise and never find worth in me, little things like this helped my self-esteem improve gradually. I grabbed the hand that was on my cheek and started gaining some distance from my mother, pulling Rosaline along as I turned around to the exit.

“Dear... aren’t you forgetting something?”

With an innocent expression, I faced her once more, opening my mouth, then closing it, thinking for a bit, but not achieving the expected result.

‘Uh... what did I miss?’

Rosaline, with a kind smile, used her free left hand to point at the rod in one of the corners of the living room, making me let go of her right one, to go grab it.

“Don’t forget the boxes with worms. One should be enough.”

My agile legs took me there in no time. I grabbed everything necessary and then we went out after watching my mother placing a couple of things in the basket. 

“Today sure is a great day to be outside.”

We traded glances and smiles while heading to the river.

Once our feet landed near the river, my mother removed a piece of black cloth from the basket. Then she unfolded it many times, covering enough space for both of us to sit on it while placing the many things she brought in the free space. Then we took a seat on it for a while, avoiding our bottoms to get dirty.

“Iris regarding the status points that you should be able to spend....”

I felt nervous at her words, realizing I had used them already.

“I forgot to warn you earlier, but don’t use them in anything till we teach you what they’re for.”

With a feeling of anxiety mixed with worry, I shouted, “I! May have already spent them...”

Surprise filled my mother’s expression as expected, and with a similarly loud-pitched yell, she questioned me, “what!?”

It echoed in the plains and certainly, it also did in my eardrums, which rang loudly as an aftereffect.

“What did you spend them on, Iris!?”

I shrieked at the use of my name, knowing that it was serious or that it normally was like that.

“I wanted more mana, so I spent everything in wisdom.”

My thumbs rubbed against one another, calming myself of the mistake I had done, even though back then, my mind was certain that had been the right choice.

“Oh, my... you don’t even know what class you’re aiming for.”

Concerned, I abruptly questioned.

“Is it that bad?”

Mother muttered for a while and then started explaining. 

“Well, imagine you end up fighting something, without a balance of all status, which is...”

Interrupting her, I added.

“Strength, vitality, agility, dexterity, intelligence, and wisdom!”

She nodded, then completed it for me.

“You’re missing endurance, but that’s the gist of it.”

Notice: You have unlocked Endurance in status. 

With a surprised expression, my mouth did a little mutter, happy to have learned all of them.

Without giving it further thought, my mother raised a finger in the air.

“Anyway, they contribute in different ways to our growth as human beings. So balancing them is what every human does, usually spending one to two points on each one.”

I tilted my head, believing that we all should go the way we’d like or perhaps feel right. As mom mentioned before, every class should give its own advantages.

“Everyone does? Why?”

Mother sighed, but she didn’t look upset, making me think that possibly it wasn’t the worst question ever.

“The only thing we get as we age is vitality, about one point per year, and we need a bit of everything in our daily lives.”

Reminiscing about my status, I added to the conversation what I knew, even if small.

“I noticed I had a lot of vitality from the get-go, but how would other statuses affect us?”

“Of course baby, let’s see... the blacksmith job for example needs the dexterity and strength to use his tool correctly, endurance to get less tired from working, agility to move his body properly, the intelligence to know what the class does, and the wisdom to properly use the knowledge he got.”

Rosaline gestured the different actions while aiming a finger, pointing at her own different body parts. She went as far as to mimic the smashing of a hammer as if she wielded an invisible one.

“That is really complicated!” I shouted, a little overwhelmed, causing my mother to chuckle.

“It’ll get easier with time. You are still young, so don’t worry too much.”

“You’re right! I’ll take my time to learn everything!” I raised my fists in the air, showing my willingness!

“Good girl!” Rosaline patted me as a reward while smiling happily. “Another interesting aspect is that intelligence helps mage classes to earn that type of skills, magical ones!”

The excitement from her words resounded within me, causing my brain to crave more.

“Does that mean that someone who uses a sword would need something else?” I tilted my head cutely as curiosity filled within me. My eyes sparked beautifully, resounding with the surrounding green grass and the tiny, still growing dandelions. 

“Exactly baby! You’re learning fast!”

Rosaline placed the hand at shoulder height, showing one finger, leaving the other four closed.

“It might sound confusing at first, but in this world, we’re meant to gain skills by doing an infinite amount of things repeatedly, along with other methods such as self-discovery.”

I nodded heartily, which made my mother more willing to teach, as they intended to do this lesson the following day.

“What else?”

And so a prolonged explanation went on, long enough for my mother to pull me to the cloth so we’d stay seated for a while.

“I and Luke will teach you the practical version tomorrow, but like the parameters we have, there are seven types that anyone can get. Those who rely on strength, mainly the beasts, use their own type of martial arts. Some of them are pretty tough, which means they have a lot of vitality and use ones related to the body.”

Before continuing, my mother made a muscle form with her arms, making me laugh.

“If you see someone running for a long time without getting tired, they have a lot of endurance, which helps them get stamina skills. To improve the reaction we have towards daily things or even combat, one would focus on agility, in other words, movement skills.”

My mother suddenly got up, encircling me a few times, and then hugging me from behind, finishing with a kiss on my cheek.

“The alchemist Vicent who you met has a lot of dexterity since it helps him get crafting ones. For people like your dad, they’d go for intelligence, for magical skills and wisdom, for support ones. Since he is a healer, it means he can both attack and also assist others by regaining their health.”

“That’s...”

Interrupting me, who was in shock, she added.

“Overwhelming, I know, but it doesn’t matter too much. You’ll get a bit of everything during your growth and the way you live will eventually become a result of it all.”

With her words, I felt some relief inside of me as my heart feared disappointing her. I then raised both arms, stretching them upwards as much as possible. Then we looked at each other and a smile appeared on her face as she understood that I, like any kid my age, wanted something more practical. Therefore, she took the box with the worms along with the fishing rod, closer to the river, holding my hand as we walked side by side.