Chương 15

Sobelle was so hyperfocused on solving the gods' questions that she didn't notice her father going inside the room. The moment she noticed, she turned and saw the man just stare at her. What did he think when he saw his daughter looking at air and pressing it with her fingers? He probably thought she was sick in the head.

"Sobelle." One word was enough to make her wary. He never said her name alone, and when he did, it meant he wanted to have a serious discussion.

"Did you punch Tudd earlier?" Could she even say no to this? She couldn't exactly deny it, so she nodded.

"Right, just as I thought. Why'd you do it?"

"He grabbed my face; I was just protecting myself." Granted, Sobelle was aware that she acted rudely moments before she got grabbed, but that did not give that man the right to do anything to her.

"Are you saying I am in the wrong for that?"

"Well, yeah." Her father sat down and gently nodded. He looked at Sobelle like she was the one who didn't understand the situation.

"You shouldn't punch people, especially when we're this close to being attacked. What if you hurt him so much that he couldn't fight?"

"You're saying that's possible? Me hurting him that much?" Sobelle waited for her father's response. Every interaction she had with him only resulted in her getting mad, and she was losing patience. If he could just say something, anything that would make her believe in him again, then things would be fine. Just this once.

"No, of course not." And there it was. Her father proved that he did not believe in the ability of his own daughter, that he never thought of her as someone who would actually do great things in the future.

"You cannot seriously injure a man; we're far too strong for that, but sometimes accidents happen. Because what if Tudd stumbles and falls backwards? What if he hits his head?"

"What if?" Sobelle repeated her father's favorite argument. She wanted to be snarky or do something worse. Instead, she nodded.

"You're right, I shouldn't have done that. But don't ask me to apologize to him."

"I don't want you to; he hurt you first. I just want you to know that what you did was bad and that you shouldn't do that again in the future. Got that?"

"Yes, Father." Not once did Sobelle's tone turn harsh during the conversation; she kept her words soft and non-aggressive. She was the one who adjusted for her father's sake. For everyone's sake. She knew that an argument here would only worsen things, and she didn't want to scream at her father. So she didn't argue.

"Good. Now rest here and don't go out; I'll call you once the goblins are killed." Saltor left the room, and everything went quiet again. Sobelle went back to adding large numbers into similarly large numbers and continued with the test the gods gave her. The pattern of these ones so far was fairly simple; she'd start with a small set of numbers, add those, and when she was done, she'd get a bigger and harder set that she needed to finish.

She took her time when it came to the large ones and quickly answered the small ones. Over time, she'd learned how to calculate the larger numbers. One of these tricks was her starting from the right side and slowly adding one number at a time; if a number grew bigger than 10—like, for example, 14—then she'd add that extra number to the top of the number next in line. She'd do this until she solved all of them, and the final result was always the correct one.

With this method, Sobelle was able to solve all of the large sets of numbers, and she never once failed. Right now, she felt confident in her answers and submitted them knowing full well that she hadn't gotten a single one wrong. Stolen story; please report. Sobelle's confidence stood corrected. Just like the last few times she did this, the system told her that she hadn't gotten a single question wrong and rewarded her with stats. [+2 Intelligence!] [10 [Intelligence] reached! Granting a Reward...] Two points this time? Was her performance that good? Sobelle hadn't expected to get another skill today, but she didn't mind if she got one. She needed it for the upcoming fight, and she'd accept any help she could get, no matter how minor. She was even content with whatever the gods gave her, though this time they let her pick:... [Choose Skill:] *[Flow State] *[Improved Recollection] *[Pattern Recognition]...

The three options she could choose from didn't tell Sobelle what the skills did, and she could only use their names as a hint to what they possibly did. She read each one repeatedly and managed to decipher what two of them potentially did as skills.

"Improved recollection" must be related to memory, as that was the only thing that Sobelle could think of when she thought about the words "recollection" and "intelligence" at the same time. Though she could be wrong and it might do something else. Next was [Pattern Recognition], and that was definitely related to recognizing patterns, but how would that do anything for her? It sounded so obsolete that Sobelle chose to forget about it immediately. Lastly, [Flow State] remained a mystery to her.

And that means it must be good, right? The gods had never done this before, so this must be another one of their tests, and they wanted her to pick the right skill. And if she were a god, then she would totally put the most powerful skill as something that was hard to understand. It only made sense! Sobelle chose [Flow State] and did not regret it. [Flow State—Humans, when doing a task, can often forget about everything and put 100% of their focus into doing it. This is called the Flow State. You are more easily susceptible to entering the flow state when doing something.] The skill made it easier to focus on doing one thing, and the best part is, it didn't even have any drawbacks! The skill was all positive, and to Sobelle, that made it superior compared to her other two options. If she were to assume that those had drawbacks, of course. Which they may not. Back to her new skill, [Flow State] would allow her to be more effective in combat as she was doing something.

And doing something puts her into a state of hyperfocus. Combat and just fighting in general should do that. But more than that, this would make shaving wood tomorrow easier! As she'd be very focused on doing the task. Would that also mean it wouldn't feel as tedious anymore? Sobelle sure hoped so! If it did, then this new skill of hers was definitely the right choice. To find out, Sobelle closed her eyes and got ready for sleep. She'd once again exercise at the brink of dawn, and hopefully, people would let her.

She awoke to the sound of whispering, and Sobelle saw Efree talking to a guy right outside their window. It wasn't Thetras, so what was going on? She decided to listen in to what they had to say to each other and smirked. It seemed that her sister had a fickle heart when it came to love. And what made her think this ploy of hers would work?

"He's going to see my true value once he finally loses me," Efree said to the guy she was talking to. She leaned in and the two of them kissed, a scene that Sobelle found rather distasteful.

"I love you, Okkor."

"I love you too." The guy broke the kiss and pulled back.

"I need to go; see you tomorrow."

"Mhmm." Efree giggled and closed the window. Sobelle hid in the darkness once she heard the sound of dying footsteps outside her window; it was then that one of their brothers spoke up.

"He won't ever notice you like this." Dorsh was their only brother left who didn't leave the house yet. Much like all of Sobelle's older siblings, he too came from the same mother.

"You're making a mistake."

"Oh please, you wish your own lover would choose you over Thetras the same way I'm choosing Okkor. He's liked me for a long time; Thetras knows this," Efree huffed like she was proud of what she came up with. She probably was.

"He'd get jealous once he sees that I am choosing another guy."

"Do what you want." Dorsh chose that moment to say that he didn't care about any of this anymore. Morning came, and Sobelle found herself observing a scene that proved her sibling right. Thetras barely glanced at Efree despite her being all over her new guy; in fact, Thetras was too busy talking to the merchant's daughter. Oh, so that was why he was so eager to have extra time when it came to chopping logs! Sobelle found all of this amusing, so she just shook her head and continued with her morning run.

Today was the day she would get another skill, and hopefully it would prove useful against the invading goblins.