I was crouching on the training grounds. I was waiting for Uncle Bennett; Aruna told me he should show up any minute now. Based on the in-game descriptions, he was supposed to be a muscular man with black hair and sideburns that resembled a lion's mane. His blue eye had turned white due to a congenital eye condition.
"Sven! Laocard!" someone shouted from afar.
I turned around calmly. It was him—a soldier in plate armor with a spell sigil painted on his throat. In his hand, he held a leash, and at the end of that leash was a monster. She was taller than me, with a body like a very bloated bat and the face of a pig. Sticky, disgusting drool leaked from the creature's mouth. I immediately scrambled to my feet.
"What is that thing?!" I yelled.
"They call them 'Dretches.' Cute, aren't they?" Bennett shouted back.
"Not really!"
"Hey, you offended him!"
"I didn't mean to!"
"Today's assignment is running!"
"What?!"
He let go of the leash, and the creature began to bolt toward me. Its arms were raised, ready to snatch me. Instinctively, I ran from the foul thing. I ran without even a thought of fighting it. Dust rose behind me.
Half an hour later:
My legs were buckling, and sweat was pouring off me in three streams. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Uncle Bennett lounging in a hammock in the center of the arena. Maybe I just need to stop and show no fear, like you do with dogs, I thought.
I turned toward the creature. It was charging at me. Surely he wouldn't actually let it attack me; Uncle wouldn't bring a real monster, right? But it kept getting closer, and closer, and closer. No—if I don't run, I'm either going to die or I won't be able to sit on my ass for a week.
I turned to bolt, but I didn't move fast enough. It lunged. I was pinned to the ground and started getting licked by its foul-smelling tongue. My arms were pinned by the creature's weight. I kicked and thrashed, trying to break free.
Bennett walked over, unable to hide a massive smirk. Fucking sadist. No wonder he was the first one killed. After a few minutes, he finally stepped in and dragged the Dretch off me.
"My god, he covered me in spit," I whispered, pushing myself up.
"You're lucky I had him neutered," Bennett said.
I wiped the stinking drool off myself. Honestly, I didn't even want to know what it would have done to me otherwise. Bennett put the Dretch back on the leash.
"Go drink some water and rest for now," Bennett said, walking away with the monster in tow.
I lay down on the ground. I needed to do something about this. I needed to find out if I had a trait or a skill to help me recover. It's one of the first skills one needs to learn. Do I have it? Every creature has at least one trait from birth, and around age ten, they acquire a second. If I'm already ten, I should have a second trait—but how do I find out what it is? Can other mobs or NPCs see my traits? I think I just have to will the skill to activate.
Recovery... Restore... Energy Recovery... Kir Recovery... Dammit, I probably don't have a skill or trait like that.
God, every "isekai" story has a System. I touched my heart, then my forehead.
"Status. System. Characteristics. Me," I muttered.
A system window appeared above me. Success, I thought.
[ Characteristics ] [ Statistics ] [ Shop ] [ Battle Pass ] [ Coming Soon... ]
What? What does "Coming Soon" mean? Does it mean the system updates as I develop? Strange, but fine—we'll see.
Characteristics, I thought, and the window opened:
Name: Sven Laocard Race: Human Class: ??? Subclass: ??? Traits: [Perfect Eyesight - Lvl 2], [Aberrant Mind], [Resilient - Lvl 1] Spells: [Mage Hand], [Protection from Weapons]
Every breath you take will be counted; we are watching you. With love, Camelot.
Class and Subclass are self-explanatory, but what is "Aberrant Mind"...
"Hey! You've been lying there long enough!" Bennett shouted.
I got to my feet. For the rest of the session, I did push-ups (3 sets of 30, 30-second rest), squats (3 sets of 15, 30-second rest), and lunges with a 5kg sword (5 sets of 30, 1-minute rest), and so on.
"We need to wrap up in ten minutes. Let's do a few rounds of sparring," Bennett said.
I've said it before: he is completely incompetent. Naturally, I spent ten minutes being beaten with a wooden sword. Afterward, I spent another half hour lying on a bench drinking water. Bennett left; I hope I don't see him for the next few training sessions.
After a short rest, I stood up and, limping from one foot to the other, headed home. As I walked from the training grounds through the backyard garden, I saw my younger brother, Aurion. He was sitting there, feeding the flowers with his Kir.
I didn't look at him for long. I entered the mansion, walked down the hallway, and the moment I reached my room, I threw myself onto the bed. I quickly opened the system window again.
[ Characteristics ] [ Status ] [ Shop ] [ Battle Pass ] [ Coming Soon... ]
I'd already seen the characteristics; now I needed to check the Status.
Intelligence: 9 Strength: 12 Dexterity: 11 Wisdom: 11 Constitution: 12 Charisma: 8
Transcendence Points: 0 (One Transcendence Point is equivalent to three Transcendence Sub-points)
What are "Sub-points"? I hovered my gaze over Charisma, and the sub-stats popped up beneath it:
[ Charisma - 8 ]
Performance: 5
Intimidation: 8
Deception: 2
Persuasion: 9
Hey, why is Deception so low? Is Sven really that righteous? And god... why the "Aberrant Mind" trait?