A lot of men would have questioned my manliness had they known that I was paying attention to anything other than the amazing view I had stumbled upon in the library; two very sexy women, their state of undress enhancing the view of their great beauty, their bodies moving in a beautiful tango. In my defense, I was distracted by two glowing, floating sentences, invisible to everyone except myself.

[+100 Experience]

[Achievement: Patient Prowler. Wait two decades before gaining your first experience point. +500 Experience, +5 to all stats]

It was difficult to overstate the magnitude of what had just happened for someone of my particular background. After all, I was the unlucky sucker that was born with a level cap of one in a world where almost everyone was able to slaughter monsters to level up. Even the occasional unlucky people who were born without the system were better off than me, because at least they were able to increase their capabilities through training. However, I was destined to stay locked with no chance to progress.

At least, that had been the assumption until it was invalidated by the notification I had just received.
Naturally, I started thinking about the reason, leaving the fact that I was actually able to think without obstruction thanks to the incredible boost to my stats I had just received. It was a weird experience, everything I had learned suddenly connecting in unexpected ways, giving me an unprecedented clarity. Still, I was unable to understand why I just gained experience, when all the previous attempts had failed spectacularly.

Of course, the secrets of the System and the leveling ability was the biggest mystery of the world, its roots shrouded in mysterious folds where the history and myths merge. Some claimed it was a gift from the gods, others theorized it was linked to the endless hordes of monsters that turned the otherwise beautiful planet into a blackened sea of death, save only for the occasional town or city. Some fringe religions even claimed that the System was somehow linked to the Demon Kings, and every human with the ability to level up was cursed by the demons. Needless to say, it was not a popular theory, especially since people who were lucky enough to have a high level cap literally held every single position of importance.

Level cap was the biggest challenge with the system. Everyone had a level cap, and just to make it even more fun, there was no known way of detecting it other than reaching the said limit, realized when the unlucky Leveler killed a monster, only to receive no experience for their efforts. Just to top it off, reaching the level cap prevented people from gaining any new achievements as well, truly locking them to a stasis with no chance of further improvement.

It had been assumed that my inability to gain experience was because I had a level cap of one, the sign of ultimate unluckiness, putting me even lower than the people lacking the system. After all, at least they could increase their abilities through working hard to the point of holding a minor position if they were diligent enough.

As the firstborn of a noble family, I was tested when I was five, revealing my status as a Leveler. It hadn’t been a shocking reveal, as history had shown that the Leveler ability was mostly hereditary, and very rarely did noble families have an offspring without it.

Things had taken an unexpected turn when I killed a small monster that had been captured by the hunters, only to receive no experience. It caused a huge commotion in the family, because it was unheard of for someone with the system to not gain experience when killing a monster. Repeated tries, or experiments with different monsters, changed nothing. No matter the creature, no matter the circumstances, I never gained a single experience point.

Experts of the family had subjected me to countless experiments, all of which failed to net me any experience points. There was a possibility that the experts outside of the family might know something, but my family never dared to reach out, fearing it would damage our reputation. Instead, my father quietly registered me as an invalid, and raised me in a distant family estate, only with a few servants. And when I reached the age of majority, he quietly arranged a few bribes and sent me away as a library assistant to the prestigious Silver Spires, the prime educational facility of the Empire, hoping that the fact that I was serving there would wash away some of the shame I had brought upon the family.

However these two sentences made of glowing fire changed everything.

Everything!

---

Considering that my whole life had been turned sideways just a moment ago, the shocked gasp that escaped my mouth was excusable.

Unfortunately, it alerted the ladies that had been sharing an intimate moment to my presence. Their heads rose simultaneously, and I found myself looking at two beautiful faces contorted in anger. The recognition came far faster than I was accustomed to. One of them was Cornelia, of the House Antony, and the other was Marianne, of the House Louis. They were rather popular in the magic hall of the Silver Spires for their general magical prowess. Cornelia was especially famous for her impressive capabilities in fire magic, and her matching angry disposition.

The panic gripping my heart was understandable.

“Who is there,” called Cornelia, anger echoing in her tone. I couldn’t help but memorize every single detail as she hurriedly wrapped her arms around her breasts, barely able to hide them from the view. Marianne was different, her face was contorted with fear, and her arms were far from sufficient to cover the amazing expanse of her bosom. And just like that, another notification appeared in front of my eyes.

[Achievement: Perilous Peeking. Persist in being an unwelcome observer despite being noticed. +100 Experience, + 1 Perception]

At that point, dashing away while trusting the endless shelves of books for cover was the best option. I didn’t do that, because the newly improved workings of my mind was still a mystery to me, making it hard to react properly. I realized I was in danger, but I was too slow to escape. Cornelia’s gaze was already on me, a flickering orb of flame already hovering above her hand, ready to let loose.

I couldn’t help but feel resentful as the orb of flame drifted closer, too fast for me to dodge. I couldn’t help but feel resentful. After two decades passed in a meaningless blur, the clarity I received was about to be snuffed by the icy grip of death. What a pity.

[-12 HP]

Pain enveloped my mind and I collapsed, barely able to pay attention to Cornelia, who was walking toward me with determined steps. “I’m going to kill you, you twerp,” Cornelia whispered. Her tone was threatening enough to make me shiver despite the fact that I was about to die. Another orb of flame appeared on her hand. “When I’m done with you, even your bones will turn into cinder-” she added before a desperate shout interrupted her.

It was Marianne, I realized. “Stop, it’s the Mule!” she exclaimed, reminding me my nickname, which, for the first time in my life, caused anger to spark in my heart, because for the first time, I truly understood what it meant, loaded with impotence and disregard. “Don’t kill him. It’s not like he’ll tell anyone, or even recognize us.”

“Damnation!” Cornelia called as she took a step. I lay motionless, still on the floor while trying to combat the pain that invaded my body. “Do something!” she called.

Marianne’s hand glowed blue and a cool sensation filled my body, replacing pain with exhaustion and emptiness. The darkness still encroached upon my vision, but it was merely exhaustion rather than death. Then, just as I was about to collapse, three new notifications appeared in my view, promising to change everything.

[Achievement: Survive the Storm. Narrowly escape death after being caught. +500 Experience, +1 Endurance]
[Level up!]
[Achievement: Patient Progress. Wait for two decades before leveling up. +10 Wisdom]

---

Waking up felt different. Despite the persistent pain in my cheek, I felt like I was reborn, that I was walking unencumbered for the first time after wading through mud for my entire life. I would have thought that I was in a dream, but even in my dreams, my thoughts flowed with a clarity that I had never experienced before.

I was in uncharted territory. The closest I had been to this was when my mother had pitied me, and cast status enhancement spells on me, which raised all of my stats by five for a glorious minute before disappearing forever, leaving me with a fleeting memory of heaven that had never left me.

Still, I couldn’t help but tremble with fear as I brought up my status window, afraid that the clarity will dispel like a puff of cloud the moment I bring it up. that damnable screen had always been filled with ones, a constant reminder that I was cursed.

[Level: 2 Experience: 1200 / 3000
Strength: 6 Charisma: 6
Precision: 6 Perception: 7
Agility: 6 Manipulation: 6
Speed: 6 Intelligence: 6
Endurance: 7 Wisdom: 16
HP: 59 / 62 Mana: 82 / 82 ]

I couldn’t help but feel excited as I examined the screen, particularly the enchanting glow of my enhanced scores. In less than a minute, the curse that ruined my life was dispelled, I was free. Free to live. Free to grow.

Free to play however I wished.

At that moment, I was thankful to my high Wisdom stat, because I had no doubt that, without the patience it supplied, I would be shooting my lungs about my curse being broken. That I could be something more than a damnable Mule, capable of something more than just being relegated to collecting discarded books, lacking the intelligence to even sort them correctly.

My newly enhanced Wisdom stopped me, my mind sorting a lifetime of barely remembered knowledge in a revolutionary manner. I manage to dredge up foggy memories of the parts of a discussion between two experts I overheard, arguing the probability that I could gain experience with something other than monster kills, a hypothesis that was ultimately dismissed. Not much, but enough to convince me that keeping my mouth shut might be the better idea.

Only then, I remembered to glance around, checking where I was. I was afraid that I had been in the medical ward, which would mean I would be examined before leaving. It would have been impossible to hide all the changes that my body had gone through. With my stats upgraded, a night’s sleep was enough to put some muscles to my twig arms, and add some color to my pasty skin.

Luckily, I was in my room, which was a small room in the depths of the Silver Spires, in an abandoned wing. My room was barely bigger than a wardrobe, with a dirty, ruined as the only furniture. Only after my revolutionary mental shift, could I truly process how insulting it was to live here, but I still welcomed it. After all, it kept me out of sight and out of mind.

I couldn’t help but wonder just how much of my life had been spent being kept out of view. My childhood had passed locked in a room, various experts my only companions, then my father arranged me a ‘job’ as a librarian assistant. Not a bad job for a child with no prospect. Of course, now, I was realizing that it wasn’t my father’s mercy that drove him to arrange it. A job in Silver Spires was prestigious enough to prevent too many questions. More importantly, with more than a thousand miles between the Silver Spires and my family estate, it was impossible for any gossip to reach to my family's social circle, neatly saving their reputation.

In reality it was nothing but a cruel exile, damning me to be forever stuck in level one between the best and the brightest students of the Empire and the Free Cities, my days filled with meaningless menial work, the monotony of which was broken only by one of the students deciding to prank me to relieve their boredom. The latter didn’t happen too much though, because there was no great pride to be found in tricking the ‘Mule’, a nickname given in reference to my endless menial tasks and the slowness of my mind.

“No more.” I voved, unable to prevent excitement from slipping to my tone. I was finally free, and ready to take what the world owed me for twenty years of humiliation!

---

Of course, before making the world pay for my humiliation, I needed to validate the reason for my experience gain. With my improved deduction capabilities, it wasn’t hard to theorize that the sexuality of the situation had been a major part of it, but I needed to test the exact conditions to gain experience points.

Before starting on that however, I needed to select my skill. Excitement burst in my heart as I realized that, for the first time in my life, I had the privilege of selecting a skill. I called for the skills tab, and an empty list greeted me, but with a glowing line of letters underneath to break the monotony.

[Select one of the following skills: Basic Subterfuge, Basic Resistance, Basic Concealment]

The list of skills were quite a bit different than what was supposed to be. According to what I had learned, most skills were directly related to combat, but I welcomed the change. It might have been tempting to have the ability to beat up the assholes that humiliated me for years, but keeping my change of status hidden was much more important. I needed to decide between Concealment and Subterfuge.

[Basic Subterfuge (0/25)]

It wasn’t an easy choice, but I went with basic subterfuge, because I needed to hide the changes I was going through, and the ability to trick others would prove invaluable. The ability to act as my previous self was paramount for my survival.

I had never heard a skill that didn’t focus on combat and similar activities, but since none of the experts were able to identify my problem during my youth, it wasn’t too wild to believe my condition was unique. I needed to keep that hidden since I had no intention of spending another ten years of my life under the examination of so-called experts.

I donned my librarian assistant robe, which conveniently covered my whole body loosely. It even had a hood to cover my face. Then, I took a deep breath, trying to suppress the sudden surge of excitement that thumped into my heart. For the first time in my life, I felt alive, doing something other than obediently following other people’s direct orders like a wind-up toy.

The moment I stepped in the corridor I couldn't help but notice the difference. I smelled the mold and the dust that covered the corridor, my increased stats allowing me to process just how disgusting those smells were, but even then, it made me only happier, like a recently recovered blind person enjoying the sight of a dumpster.

A desire to let out a laugh filled my chest, different from all the times that I had been trying to copy the others when they laughed, usually with me as the butt of their joke. I suppressed that particular desire, not wanting to alert anyone to the sudden change of my status, though I had a feeling that if it wasn’t for the ridiculous increase in my wisdom stat, I would have missed that particular detail under the rush of excitement.

I started to come across other people the closer I got to the library. I had passed just a few people when another line of fiery letters appeared in my sight.

[Subterfuge +1]

Excellent, I thought. I was surprised, but definitely not dissatisfied, with the rate of progression I experienced. I remembered hearing about real life situations providing a much better speed for skill progression. Supposedly, a swing against a deadly monster was much more valuable than a thousand swings in the training yard. Apparently, the likely consequences of getting noticed was dangerous enough to qualify my situation as equivalent to facing a deadly monster..

Missing such an amazing opportunity would be extremely wasteful, so I decided to get ‘lost’ during my walk towards the library. For anyone else, getting lost while walking towards their location of employment for the last two years would be incredulous, but for my past self with all stats capped at a measly 1 and no skills, it was something that happened at a startling frequency.

I spent almost an hour wandering in the corridors, which helped my subterfuge skill to reach the rank of ten, but unfortunately, that number stayed the same for the last five minutes, suggesting that I needed more dangerous situations to test it. Or maybe, I added a moment later, it required more interactive situations.

The sensation of a hand, wrapping tightly around my biceps, pulled me from my thoughts. I turned towards my assailant, only to recognize the face of a servant that I occasionally saw in the halls. “Lost again?” he murmured, but didn’t wait for an answer before starting to drag me towards the library. “Fucking nobles!” he murmured. “Every single one is a parasite, wasting food for that pathetic Mule. They should have just let a monster eat that useless sack of meat.”

I quirked an eyebrow as I listened to the grumblings of the servant, curious to see that our supposed shared status as an Invalid not quelling his anger. Maybe because my past self’s capabilities were abysmal even by Invalid standards. He was careful to hide his mumbling whenever another student or servant closed in, but apparently, I didn’t count. I might have ignored it, but maintaining my silence added another five points to my subterfuge skill. Tempted, I pressed the skills button as the servant deposited me at the library entrance, checking my full status.

Things were finally looking up for me…

—————

[Level: 2 Experience: 1200 / 3000
Strength: 6 Charisma: 6
Precision: 6 Perception: 7
Agility: 6 Manipulation: 6
Speed: 6 Intelligence: 6
Endurance: 7 Wisdom: 16
HP: 59 / 62 Mana: 82 / 82 ]
SKILLS
[Basic Subterfuge (15/25) ]