{Lord Alex Savage}

I was playing in my workshop and enjoying a mostly peaceful day getting a lot of work done when someone turned off my music and drawing my attention. Parnel looked at me with an amused expression on his pig-like face. “Master, there are some, people, who want to talk with you.” he said with an amused snort. This should be good given the way he was acting.

“What in the ever-loving hell is going on now?” I said slamming down my tool and walking behind the huge boar man. We walked out to the town center, to see seven people in robes. All were thin and pale. On seeing me in my mask, they formed a circle. As one they drew slave collars from their robes, put them on and the person next to them pulled the control coin. As one they moved to me and bowed offering me the coins. What the fuck? “Can I help you?” I asked in my Lord Savage voice. The leader, a mostly bald man looked up, hope in his voice.

“Lord Savage, we offer ourselves to you for the chance to learn and teach at your school.” The way his eyes sparkled, showed that he held me in some high regard for some reason. I rolled my eyes internally and scowled at him.

“Parnel please take the coins. I will talk to the leader.” I said pointing to the one who spoke. He clasped his hands together and stood smiling at me. I took the leader’s coin to make sure I had control over him.

“Yes My Lord.” He said as he followed me into my office. I sat down and gestured to the seat in front of me. “I order you to not speak of anything we talk about.” He nodded with a huge smile as his collar glowed. I pulled off my mask and frowned at him.

“What is all this about?” I asked him. He smiled at my question and sat on the edge of his chair.

“We want to learn and teach here. This idea of yours is going to be a nexus of ideas, learning and teaching. This school thing and letting anyone learn is amazing beyond words.” I started laughing as I shook my head.

“What the fuck? There is a school in every town in my world.”

“You are a wanderer, that makes a lot of sinse.” He said with a smile.

“What do you hope to learn and what can you teach?” I asked.

“I studied skills and hope to teach and learn about them. Given the way your town is and the verity of people here the skills produced here will be new to our world.” I sat forward, my smile falling as I clawed for my notebook. There was a knock at the door and Parnel walked in holding two plates of food.

“Good, thank you, I will be a while with this one.” I said to him, He snorted and smiled as he left. I knew he would be sitting in the shop in case he was needed. “Now how are skills handed out.” I asked starting from the beginning. Skills beamed and closed his eyes.

“Most skills are dependent on the child. If a child is around others, they can absorb the skills of those they admire. This slows once they hit ten winters old. Past that, it is rare that they gain a skill. Skills can evolve once the child reaches certain points. Like when the skill Blade Dance becomes Skywalk or Wind Sprint once they gain stats in the right areas.” I wrote down everything and nodded as he stood there smugly continuing his lecture. “The stat system is there to help us evolve skills and see how a person can change through actions. Children can also randomly gain skills that have nothing to do with anyone around them. We believe that this is because of the will of the gods or through their stats.”

“How about skills gained through actions?” I asked, thinking about how I gained enchanting and metal sense. He nodded, put his hands on the table and steepled his fingers under his chin. His huge smile told me that he was loving my question.

“Skills can be gained like that. The most common ones are the cooking and cleaning skills, but woodcutting and combat skills can be trained as well. What ones did you gain?”

“Metal sense when I altered the alloy of a pair of glasses.” I said leaning forward. It felt like this man was like me mentally. Our food was forgotten as we talked.

“You altered the alloy of a metal? Metal mage?” He asked. I nodded and he jumped up and started pacing as he spoke. “No one has ever tried to alter the metal in that way before. What can you do with that skill?” He asked, looking over at me.

“I’d rather not say, but I can do a lot with it. One thing I will tell you is that I can see everything happening around us in a mile wide range. I have metal plates set up and can sense the pressure of every step. It was a failsafe I put in given the number of attacks I've had in the past.” He looked down at my words and nodded. “I gained enchanting through the same means.”

“That is how you do everything.” He said, going back to pacing.

“You confirmed a few theories I had.” He said as he looked at my notebook.

“I will be keeping this to myself.” I said, patting the book. “I forget things at times and need to write things down. It helps me see the bigger picture.” He nodded and smiled.

“We have all of our notes and books in the wagon we came in.”

“Good, I would like a chance to look at them when we have time, but let’s get back to talking about skills. Can they level up?” I asked, thinking about my mana veins skill. He put his hand on his chin and went back to pacing.

“They can, but it is very rare. It is believed that skills do so when the gods take favor over someone. This level up can sometimes lead to unlocking new skills or abilities.”

“How high can they go?” I asked, on the edge of my own chair now.

“There was one case I heard of where someone reached level three in a blade skill, but that person died a long time ago.” He said unsure where this was going. “Would it be rude of me to ask to do an appraisal on you?” He asked. I nodded and he raised his hand as his eyes went white. The familiar blue window popped up before me. It still felt wrong, and I didn’t like it but knew this was going to be worth it to see the look on his face.

RACE: HUMAN

AGE: 27

STRENGTH: 7

INTELLIGENCE: 32

MAGIC: 23

AGILITY: 2

CONSTITUTION: 5

CHARISMA: 16
SKILLS: METAL MAGIC, METAL SENSE, ENCHANTING, MANA FORGED VEINS LEVEL 17, WAR CHIEF, CHAMPION OF LOVE.

His eyes went wide, and he stood there dumbfounded for a long while as I laughed. “Did you see something you like?” I asked, before laughing harder.

“What the fuck?” He stammered. “I mean, I mean, what the fuck.” He sat down hard on the chair and put his hands over his eyes as he took deep breaths. “Seventeen. By all the hells.” He looked up at me in total shock. “What the fuck are you?”

“I thought you knew. I am Lord Fucking Savage.” I said as I beamed at him. "Skills, I think you and I are going to become close friends." I said with a smile. He nodded and started laughing, but it was a nervous laugh.

{ZeroGiven40}

Sorry for the late entry on this one. I had this short planned out and forgot about it until someone reminded me. I hope it shines some light on the system.