Chương 5: Black Mould - Two - Blessings and Curses

It suited a young (at least in body) scientist to take notes. Seeing as I lacked pen and paper, or the means to use either even if I'd possessed them, I would need to make mental notes. Terribly unscientific, but I'd manage for now. My mother and father returned to pick me up around the time the sun was setting.

By then, the hunger was gnawing so hard at me that I felt a little faint, but my mother got to cooking right away while my father tiredly played with me, a smile on his oil-stained face as he wiggled my little arms and tickled my sides. It was immature, but I loved the way his eyes lit up when I giggled at his antics. My mom seemed annoyed by it all, but it was that kind of exasperated annoyance that showed she cared.

Food was served, my mother carefully feeding me so that I didn't spill any while my father made faces at me from across our little table. Then we all cleaned up in the washroom, using tepid water that stank of sulphur and which had a murky brownness to it. There was no place for shame or shyness, I guess. After that, it was off to the box once more. It would still be a while before I was too big for it. How old was I? Six months? Seven? I disregarded that.

It would be a while before I could do anything more than crawl. Maybe I could learn to speak, but I needed to hear more speaking for that to happen. In the meantime… [You have unlocked the [Mycologic Harvester {Uncommon}] Skill!] [Do you want to add the [Mycologic Harvester {Uncommon}] Skill to your known repertoire of General Skills?] Skills. The text hovered before me, but a swipe of my little arm through it revealed the box to be ephemeral. It didn't so much as waver as my hand passed through it.

It couldn't be a prank. Who would prank a baby? Besides, the sort of smoke and mirrors needed to pull this off would be impressive. Could I presume that this kind of thing was an artefact of this world? All I had going for me were vague dreams of the Lady. I focused on the second line of the text: "Add the [Mycologic Harvester {Uncommon}] Skill to your known repertoire of General Skills." Did that mean that I had a repertoire of general skills? If so, how would I see that? Did the system respond to voice commands?

My baby-ish blabbering didn't do anything. There were no prompts to swipe at, no way to know how to address the system. It had responded to an action, my picking of that mushroom… where had I put the mushroom? Did I drop it? The text disappeared as I was distracted. And that was my answer. If the text left when I was no longer paying attention to it, then it responded to my thoughts. Or it was on a timer and the disappearance was coincidental. It had reappeared when I thought of it though, I realised.

Yeah, I wasn't the cleverest. Thinking again brought the text prompt back. Then I focused harder. Did I have a system of some sort beyond that? Name: N/A Race: Human {Common} Age:. 6 Years Mana: 08/10 Afflictions - Black Lung {Common} - Child of Poverty {Common} Blessings - Blessing of Feronie {Unique} General Skills - - - - - I stared at the newest screen for a long moment. My name was N-slash-A? That, or I just didn't have a name. What were my parents thinking, just not naming me!

I babbled something that might have been a curse if I knew how to speak. Then again, it was possible that there was a cultural reason for it. Maybe babies were only named during a special event or on their birthday? It wasn't impossible. I decided to reserve judgement for now. Not like I could do much at the moment. I was human, which was patently obvious. Humans were common, which seemed about right. The only living people I'd seen so far were all human, all three of them. Or four, if I counted myself. Mana…

that implied magic. I was going to need to think on that some more. The Afflictions part was disturbing. I focused on Black Lung, and it opened a new text panel. Black Lung {Common} You are afflicted by blackened lungs. Your breathing is hampered, as is your natural ability to process mana through respiration. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. That… explained my slight difficulty breathing.

How much worse would that kind of thing be for a child than an adult? And it was crippling my ability to process mana… I didn't know how that worked, but it definitely sounded like a drawback. I had to find a way to avoid worsening that. From past experience, I knew that a lot of lung-based issues simply had no cures. If your lungs were made less functional by something, you just had to live with it. Maybe that wasn't the case here, but… I listened as my father coughed in his sleep, almost as if on cue.

Child of Poverty {Common} Marked as a child of poverty by lack of care, education, and opportunity, you carry the handicap of poverty. Well, that was just bullshit. Could other people see a person's system and afflictions? If so, wasn't the affliction itself the issue here? Marking someone as being poor. Talk about pulling yourself up from your bootstraps. At least I had one blessing to make up for it. Blessing of Feronie {Unique} Uniquely blessed by the Goddess of Nature.

Your soul connects with greater ease to all things natural. Nature knows that you are its friend and ally, just as much as the unnatural sees you as an adversary. All talents, skills, and classes related to nature will grow with greater ease and will be more readily accessible to you. I frowned. Part of that seemed great. Skill growth might be very important. On the other hand, being marked as an adversary to anything unnatural (whatever that meant) wasn't ideal.

The rarity indicators probably meant something important. Black Lung and Child of Poverty being {Common} was… unfortunate. The blessing being {Unique} sounded pretty great. I could still remember the lady in my dreams speaking to me.

"Do you know what it means to be loyal?" Was she Feronie? Did that make her a goddess? The Goddess of Nature, no less. I let out the tiniest sigh. I now knew a whole lot more than I did before, and it left me with a thousand more questions than I had. [You have unlocked the [Mycologic Harvester {Uncommon}] Skill!] [Do you want to add the [Mycologic Harvester {Uncommon}] Skill to your known repertoire of General Skills?] Did I want the skill? It seemed…

less than useful, at least if it literally did what it said it did, which was allow me to pick mushrooms and fungi. What good would that do for me now? I was stuck in a box and could barely crawl. Maybe if I could make a job of it, the skill would help, but as it was… Then again, it was the first skill I had stumbled across. I had slots to burn, and if I ended up in a similar line of work as I had in my last life, then maybe it wouldn't be all that bad. The {Uncommon} tag on it did make it more tempting.

I thought hard about accepting the skill. [Congratulations! You have obtained the [Mycologic Harvester {Uncommon}] Skill!] I shifted, waiting for something more interesting to happen. The skill did appear under my general skills now, which was nice. I was just expecting— I eeped as a new text box appeared before me. [By obtaining your first skill, you have unlocked the ability to gain a class!] [The following classes are available! Unlock more by gaining new General Skills!] [Child of Labour {Common}] [Mechanic's Child {Common}] [Factory Bound {Common}] [Myko of Feronie {Uncommon}] [Agaric Cleric {Rare}] [Rotter {Legendary}] I groaned. More stuff! I wasn't even a year old, I probably wasn't supposed to be thinking about all of these things. What if they all had life-changing ramifications? Dismissing the table, I shifted onto my side and closed my eyes to try and sleep. My eyes were open again within half a minute and I was scrolling through the options.

Each class had a full description, with some details as to how it grew. Judging by some of the text, it seemed the higher the rarity of the class, the slower the growth in that class, but also the less common the skills would be. I still made an effort to put off any sort of choice for the moment. Best to sleep on it for a night. I was a baby, I had forever to make choices and grow. In the meantime… magic seemed to be a thing. I gurgled a laugh at the possibilities.

Now, how did mana work, exactly, and when could I turn that into awesome effects?