Year 5007 after the system day 12 of the flowering season after lunch.

 

Two wooden short swords clapped as they went against one another. A sound that spreaded on the plains where I was trained by Mom during the afternoon. Every word and action of my mother reflected a consequent reaction of my behavior.

“I’ll strike your left leg next!”

The sword in her right hand skillfully aimed towards where she mentioned in slow-motion, delayed enough for me to be able to co-op. Every time I blocked it, my mother retracted the practice weapon, aiming elsewhere in a pretty unhurried motion.

“Left shoulder now!”

With a beautiful arc, the sword fell from above to what my hands did my best to block, placing the sword horizontally above my head, receiving the attack’s full impact.

Panting sounds from me spread around, along with sweat that dropped ceaselessly. I felt my body tired and heavy, having to move it in ways that I was not prepared or used to. Like a snail, my skinny arms would do their best to follow through with my mother’s commands despite the wooden short-sword weight being enough to hinder my bidding. Walking, running, and from time to time, jumping. Different actions that she would force me to do, as every situation in actual combat could require it.

“Last strike for today at the right arm!” With a bit more strength and speed my mother attempted to push through my limits further than in our past sessions, causing me to not be able to follow, receiving the impact on my body. Not only did it leave me bruised but partially numb, making me let out a painful moan. Noticing the damage, Rosaline let her sword fall and went closer to check on me.

Notice: System consumed 2 health.

“Oh, baby! I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”

She started massaging my arm while curving herself to match my height, checking up on me, and waiting for my reply.

“It hurts when you touch it...”

“I’m sorry. Something in me figured you’d be ready to parry that, but you must have been more tired than I estimated you would be.”

Despite my prior laments, in the morning, I spent a moderate amount of time practicing my mana control after failing before in the river, thus, my mother, who wasn’t aware of it, ended up misjudging the daily dose.

“It’s okay, mother. We’re training, after all.”

I made a strong-willed expression, gazing at her with a weak and faint smile, enduring the pain.

“For better or worse, getting used to pain is something necessary for adventuring. Although I’m not deliberately going out of my way to cause you some.”

Rosaline giggled, making me smile happily, returning some color to my light-toned skin appearance. She then caressed my rosy cheeks, as my face was a bit like a tomato.

“You can go rest or do anything you want. For today, the training session is over.”

“Sure thing!”

I smiled beautifully before turning around, placing my hand on the spot where my arm hurt, and walking back home. 

With me out of sight, Rosaline muttered to herself.

“I compromised with your father to turn you into a stronger version of me. After all, for a child, you’re quite ambitious...”

She smiled with a fierce expression, lacking the usual motherly love.

“Going as far as to say, you want to protect two past adventurers.”

She picked both wooden swords and started cutting the air at a far greater speed than before, making the weapons flow through the air as swiftly as possible as they shone in blue.

“For my dear daughter, I can’t allow myself to rust till I pass the little I know,” she smiled charmingly, resuming her workout for a tad longer.

A period later, after a relaxing and lengthy bath, I jumped on the bed. My gaze shifted between the four white plain walls around and what they protected. With a bored expression, my eyes glanced towards the window attracted by the mellow sunset, radiating gently in tones of a darker yellow, almost orange, with a horizontal line of red below it. The sky adorned all of that with patterns of black-looking clouds.

In my past life, such a view was far from graspable, as the mansion fences and surrounding tall trees kept everything hidden, including the sun. To me, the natural appearance of nature made my heart fuzzy and warm, encompassing it with the feeling of freedom, as I no longer was a locked bird inside its steel cage. I gripped both hands tightly while taking a deep breath with my eyes closed, soon as all the air left me, leaving my inwards with a lighter sensation. Then my mouth voiced in a soft tone, shifting the gaze towards the usual screen.

Notice: System consumed 2 mana.

Status:
Fame: 800 | Disgrace: 960

A while passed with me looking at the status, giving me the chance to study its changes.

‘With the amount of disgrace increase, did my affiliation with the goddess possibly change?’

As I focused on that, a secondary screen appeared next to it.

Affiliation:
Goddess Aria: Positive.

“I guess gaining disgrace truly doesn’t matter. Might as well go all out and get that fishing achievement complete.”

I smiled brightly with less worry, stacking motivation for the following day.

Then passed my left hand on the smaller screen, making it disappear, tapping the soul option afterward.

Soul:
Soul Quality: Tier 3.
Soul Size: ???

I was hoping the size to appear after speaking with my father about it, but sadly only the tier appears. He mentioned that the beings of Artana have small souls and that gods have gigantic ones.’

I giggled cutely as I thought of something amusing, ‘I wonder what would happen if a human would get one like that.’

‘Be it as it may, I haven’t seen a way to increase its size, so for now, there’s not much I can do about it.’

Without having received any new title, my finger ignored it, hovering over achievements and falling on them.

Achievements:
Completed.(+)
Beginner Reader(5/100): Read a set of books. Reward 1 wisdom once complete.
Beginner Merchant(4/100): Make a set of trades. Reward 1 intelligence once complete.
Animal Slayer(45/100): Kill a set of creatures. Reward 100 disgrace once complete.
Beginner Fisherman(21/100): Fish a lot of creatures. Reward 100 disgrace once complete.
Species Fished(5/100): Fish different types. Reward 1 dexterity once complete.
Beginner Preserver(13/100): Preserve many pieces of food. Reward 1 intelligence once complete.
Beginner Digger(20/100): Dig holes with a tool. Reward 1 endurance once complete.
Beginner Plower(10/100): Plow a farming field with a hoe. Reward 1 endurance once complete.
Beginner Seeder(20/100): Place seeds in the respective holes. Reward 1 fame once complete.
Beginner Waterer(20/100): Use watering can on hidden seeds. Reward 1 wisdom once complete.
Swordsman(6/100): Practise hourly with a sword. Reward a class once complete.
Mage(4/100): Practise hourly with mana. Reward a class once complete.
Beginner Sprinter(2/100) Run hourly. Reward 1 endurance once complete.
Beginner Jumper(1/100) Jump hourly. Reward 1 agility once complete.
Beginner Lifter(1/100) Elevate weights hourly. Reward 1 strength once complete.
Beginner Harmed(2/100) Lose a certain amount of health. Reward 1 vitality once complete.

‘They’re still very far from being complete, but it has become quite the progress.’

My expression turned vivid with a mix of pride. 

‘Jumping is especially hard,' the good thing was that each minute accumulated to its progress even if not done in succession.

From time to time, I would do it out of fun.

‘I wonder if there are easier ways to do these so-called achievements...’

Without being able to do anything about it, I went for the skills, tapping on that section.

Skills:
Active skills: Status, System Library.
Passive skills: Mana Control(1/10), Swordsmanship(1/10).

‘Seems like I haven’t leveled either skill further.’

I received both after some training with my parents. They taught me that the skills would go higher with a lot of effort and, upon being maxed, they may or may not evolve further. My dad mentioned that a special requirement or a demonstration for the system to analyze, meaning something exceptional, would be required, like a feat.

They also explained that one of the two skills would get stuck by the system's laws, as they represent different classes. Nonetheless, it would still allow me to be a magician with swordsmanship knowledge or even the other way around. Ultimately, being taught both allowed my body to grow.

Having distinct qualities in what came to skills and achievements might even trigger a different class to appear. There is no such thing as a rightful path toward this world, as different people will gain diverse results. As such, becoming good at many things with a continuous will to improve was idealistic for my dream.

After I rested for a while, my mother called me, making me move swiftly toward the kitchen.

“I’m here, mom!”

“Hey dear, how’s your arm?”

“Just a little bruised, but doesn’t hurt much anymore.”

“I’m glad to hear that. I called you to teach you how to cook some fish.”

With an excited tone, I responded eagerly.

“Is it the ones I caught!?”

“Yes! That way you could even get more achievements, since the more things you do the best.”

“Ah! Of course! I’d be happy to learn!”

“Though it could be a tad grotesque and bloody, I used to do it when I was a tad older with my mother but...”

I interrupted the words with some of my own.

“You’re the one who said I needed to get used to these things if I wanted to get stronger...”

My eyes gazed confidently at her with an attempt at a serious expression, which made Rosaline smile proudly.

“Right?” 

“Of course! You’re absolutely right! Wash your hands and we’ll start right away!”

After they became clean and dry, my mother started the explanation.

“So first what you have to do is with this knife scrape the fish scales like this.” She grazed the scales by pushing them from tail to head multiple times underwater on both sides.

“By submerging the fish, you avoid these little things flying dirtying everything.”

Rosaline turned it around and placed the knife next to the table.

Understanding what she meant, I got closer and did my best to copy my mother’s actions. Once I finished, she added.

“Now, with the big knife, slice the head off.”

With a disgusted expression, I gazed at the fish while thinking to myself.

‘You can do this, Iris, you can do this!’

I stabbed it down a few times, growing displeased every time it hit it, causing blood to dirty the balcony.

‘This is truly disgusting.’

I complained solely in my mind to not offend my mom, who went out of her way to teach me. I took a deep breath while lifting my dagger, looking at the fish whose head and body began falling apart.

“Focus on this spot.”

She showed me where using her index finger to point it out, then removed it before the knife fell. With an unusually indifferent tone, she ordered me, “cut it.”

Mercilessly, my hand went down and we heard a heavy impact on the fish, a little blood gouged out as I successfully cut the spine in half.

“Good job daughter! Now with this smaller knife, cut the side fins and the one under like this.”

Like before, my mom demonstrated by cutting one of them. The knife went very close to the fish’s skin, then the fins were cut by the base as she stretched them out. Her hand then placed the knife next to it and looked at me. At that, I began doing what she did, carefully.

“Now do a cut under the belly to remove the guts and little organs the fish has from here to there.”

She made a line with her index finger through the little creature, from the bladder to the belly.

I followed the order promptly and did a cut, making blood, and guts fall out of it.

‘This is completely disgusting. I feel like puking.’

“You can put them in this bag. Then once you take all of it out, wash the fish inside and outside.” 

My head nodded with a pale face holding my own guts inside.

“Once you finish, do it with the rest of the fish you caught, so you get used to it.”

At those words, deep down, I despaired, almost regretting having fished them...