It was bright outside by the time Tars opened his eyes. The mid-day sun shone brightly in the sky, making him raise his arm up to block some of the light.
His body ached and his strength had yet to return on top of that. Still, he forced himself to sit up and take stock of his surroundings.
Tars recognized the wagon he was laying in as the one he had leaned against earlier. Several bags of various foodstuffs had been moved to create a hollow for him to lay. His sword and map also lay beside him.
He then glanced around the outside of the wagon seeing a few familiar faces. Kino, the archer from earlier approached him.
"Mayor Kinton wanted to speak with you but was pulled away," the thin man whispered. He seemed to whisper because that was natural for him, not as if what he was saying was some type of secret.
"That's fine," Tars replied. "I needed to check my system anyway. Is there a lunch coming soon or did I sleep through it?" he asked, feeling hunger gnawing at him.
"I believe they made some stew," Kino answered. "I'll have someone bring you a bowl."
"Thank you," Tars said before lying back down. He lay his arm over his face and focused inwards at the messages he received earlier.
On the system menu he saw a message scrawled across the center of the page like he'd seen when he learned Honor Sense.
-You have learned a tier 2 skill, 25 exp awarded!-
After willing the message closed another appeared behind it. Then like a book, the pages appeared, one behind the other, each with a sentence or two.
-You have leveled up! You are awarded 5 stat points.-
-You have learned a tier 1 skill, 10 exp awarded!-
-You have learned a tier 4 skill, 100 exp awarded!-
-You have leveled up! You are awarded 5 stat points.-
-You have earned a new title! 100 exp awarded!-
-You have leveled up! You are awarded 5 stat points.-
-You are suffering from mana exhaustion!-
-Your Magic Stat increased by 1!-
With that the main page of his system finally opened revealing two icons he took to mean they were either new or changed somehow. In this case, one was beside his level.
'Level 4', it now said, and his Exp now read '75/250'.
The other change was under his 'Titles' section where 'Protector of Immica' was now listed after his Blessings. Unfortunately, Tars still hadn't found a way of determining what a title did.
Looking at his status section he was still afflicted with 'Weakness' but strangely, there was no mention of 'Mana Exhaustion.' 'Maybe it's worn off already?' he thought. Hoping to get hints elsewhere, the new Protector kept looking through his menu by opening the section related to skills.
-Knight's Vow- A skill designed to allow a Knight to enforce rules upon his subordinates. Allows you to create a Lesser Vow as a form of contract between two or more people. All participants must verbally agree to the Vow and the time frame can last as long as a decade. Other details are included in the individual Knight's Vow. Can include small punishments for breaking the Vow.
-Domains- Truth, Heroes, Justice.
Requires Knight rank.
Once he stopped focusing on the skill description, Knight's Vow faded slightly, and Tars sensed that he couldn't use the skill. Focusing on it once again, there was a new line at the end of the skill.
Error- Not of 'Knight' rank, skill unusable.
'If "Knight" rank is required, how did I learn it in the first place? That seems to be a mistake,' Tars thought in confusion. 'Unless … unless I was of Knight rank before I lost my memories and the system was returning me a skill I already knew.' That was a possibility, he decided. It was frustrating how much knowledge seemed to be missing from his mind. With any luck, Tars would find someone to explain some of the rules for this system.
Still, there was little point in worrying about a skill he couldn't use. Tars was better off focusing on the ones he had available.
-Minor Vow- A skill for creating agreements between individuals. Allows you to create a Minor Vow as a form of contract between two people. Both participants must verbally agree to the Vow. It has a maximum duration of one year. Can include minor punishments for breaking the Vow.
-Domains- Truth, Trade, Justice.
This skill didn't come with any requirements, but it also had a smaller time frame with less people and smaller penalties for breaking the Vow. Tars guessed it was designed for merchants because of the 'Trade' domain, as opposed to the 'Heroes' domain of the stronger version.
While this skill was at least usable, Tars was still disgusted by the concept, though he still wasn't sure exactly why. He doubted he would ever use it.
-Bestow Oath- Allows the user to declare an Oath or empower the granting of an Oath to another. Reads the intent of the Oath-giver, allowing freedom to change the Oath based on the situation while simultaneously removing the problem of false promises and deliberately thwarting an Oath without breaking it. Oaths can offer punishments as well as rewards and are voluntary on all sides. The details of the individual Oath are described at the time of bestowal.
-Domains- Truth, Divine, Justice.
Requires Divine Energy to empower the Oath.
Tars was stunned as a series of images began blazing through his mind. Most of the people within those images were fleeting, unrecognizable shadows. Some representing people he couldn't remember, some being a situation where the individual was less important.
Two scenes stood out in Tars' mind. A woman's smiling mouth with her eyes hidden in shadow radiating an aura of victory and a man with a mocking smile, his arms and legs chained to a stone wall.
The images described a Vow twisted and manipulated to allow betrayal. Friends were lost, homes burned, countries had their borders redrawn. Then it showed him creating the first Oath, an Oath of Vengeance.
In the way of dreams, the meanings were sometimes clear, sometimes ambiguous, and sometimes made no sense at all. What he did know was that someone he trusted used a flaw in a Vow to betray Tars and the power he represented, though he couldn't remember what that power was. The woman whose image he couldn't quite see, was the mastermind, and the chained man was the gullible fool who did the actual betrayal.
Tars took a few minutes to process what he'd seen and what it might mean. Did that event somehow lead to him losing his memories? What happened after that? These images clearly came from recreating the Bestow Oath skill, a skill he somehow knew was a skill he created. Was that how he became Blessed by Arthaesis? Mayor Kinton said creating a new form of Magic was a way to earn his blessing.
While Tars couldn't do too much with the new memories, he could continue making an effort to learn new skills. Maybe re-learning them will help him remember more and start understanding what happened to him.
Eventually, Tars sat up again, his energy feeling slightly better than before. His body aches were also fading as time went on. He was tempted to look at the map, but he wanted to wait until he talked to Mayor Kinton. The new Protector still wasn't sure what exactly happened before he passed out.
It was just as well, because a moment later a young boy of about ten was carefully walking towards him with a bowl in his hands.
"Hello, savior! Mom said to bring this soup to you!"
The kid was missing a tooth and looked happily at Tars.
"Thank you," Tars said with a smile, not as bothered by the stars shining in this kids eyes as he thought he would be. It felt … expected, somewhat. It felt different to how Allevia's gaze was, even though they meant the same thing.
Putting that aside, he reached for the wooden bowl and the spoon that was wrapped in a clean yellow cloth.
"Is it true you fell from the sky and blew up all the bandits?!" the kid continued once the Protector took his first bite.
Tars almost choked, not expecting the question from the overly excited youth.
"Jestom said you made a whole bunch of bubbles made out of light so that when the bandits went 'splat' all the blood and bones didn't make a mess on people's clothes! Mom says it's hard to get blood out of clothes."
"Wait, wait, wait!" Tars interrupted once he managed to swallow his single mouthful of stew. "I'm not sure what happened and who is this 'Jestom'?"
The kids' eyes went wide and his hands covered his mouth. "Oops! I promised I wouldn't tell anyone," he whispered from behind his hands. He looked uncertain now.
"You should be more careful when you make a promise," Tars said gravely, his recently awoken memories still fresh in his mind. "People get hurt when you break a promise."
The kid nodded in fear of getting caught when there was a shout from near the farmhouse, "Reggol!"
The kid whipped his head back before looking scared and relieved at the same time. "I gotta go, my mom is calling me!"
Tars just smiled and waved him off. The kid cheered up a little then disappeared behind a nearby wagon.
Tars shook his head with a sigh and started eating once more. 'That's another thing I need to talk to the Mayor about.'
When he finished his stew, Tars looked at his improvement quests again. Both involved learning 'Sword Arts' and 'Elemental Magic' skills. His daily training also needed him to improve two stats and his primary quest wanted him to learn a Life Magic skill.
'I've improved one stat and I have 15 stat points to spend,' Tars thought. 'I still need at least one sword skill and an elemental skill for the day. If I learn a Light Elemental skill it should work for both quests. I'll still want to try other elements later, though.'
Should he pick up the sword or try for a light magic skill? His mana exhaustion must have faded, but he had a feeling he wasn't ready to use magic just yet. 'Time to invest those points,' he finally decided.
One of the tabs on his system menu that he hadn't looked through yet was for 'Stats,' which opened into a list of words and their corresponding values. By thinking about a stat and wishing to know what it meant a description appeared after it.
-Strength: 120 (81)- Represents your ability to apply physical force in either short bursts or over a longer duration. Greatly affects stamina.
-Agility: 100 (61)- Represents your physical speed and coordination. Greatly affects evasion.
-Vitality: 120 (81)- Represents your body's ability to withstand outside influence including physical damage and debilitating effects. Greatly affects health.
-Mind: 100- Represents your knowledge, memory, and senses. Moderately influences speed of learning skills, moderately affects Mana.
-Soul: 100- Represents inner strength, willpower, and magic potential. Greatly affects mental resilience, moderately affects Mana.
-Magic: 151- Represents your ability to interact with and control pips of mana. Greatly affects Mana, slightly affects magical resistance.
-Charisma: 125- Represents leadership and how well you navigate social interactions. Greatly affects faith.
-Mana: 14/151- Represents the amount of magical essence your body can hold. Used in the activation of most spells and some skills. Formula: Mana= (Ma/2) + (Mi/4) + (S/4).
-15 points available.
Tars took a few moments to study the new page. The descriptions faded away after looking through them, but if he focused he could bring them back again. After learning what the stats meant he paid more attention to the values. He reasoned that the 81 beside his Strength stat was showing his current ability while the 120 was where he would be if he wasn't 'Weakened'. His Agility and Vitality were reduced the same way.
Looking at his Mana was interesting for several reasons. First, it was extremely specific on how it was calculated. And second, his value was wrong. He had an extra 25 or 26 points in his mana, depending on how it rounded the Magic stat.
Looking through the stat descriptions again and then through the other pages of his menu, Tars didn't have any solid answers. The only thing that made sense were his Titles. 'The Blessing of the God of Magic could give a bonus to mana, right?' It didn't really matter, he wasn't going to complain about it, but his pile of unanswered questions was getting out of hand and he had a feeling it was going to get worse.
His current mana was very low, too low to practice spells, he decided. With his mind made up to work with the sword, he needed more Strength. Tars slid the sword towards him before sitting back up and making his way off the back of the wagon's gate. Now standing upright, Tars felt he was much steadier than earlier, his weakness seeming to fade rather quickly. Hopefully by dusk he would be back in good condition.
A minute later Tars stood in what he imagined a sword stance should be, his sword in hand. It was still heavy, but at least his arm wasn't shaking anymore. He then focused inwards and spent a point in Strength. There was a tiny difference, had he not been paying attention he wouldn't have even noticed. So, he placed four more points, one after the other and felt himself steadily climbing in strength. It was still a small difference, but easier to feel this time.
He looked into his daily quest, but unfortunately placing his unspent stat points didn't count towards his daily training. Truthfully, he didn't expect it to, as it would be far too easy to complete his quests if it did. If it were that easy it would just be daily planning, not daily training.
Tars closed the menu and started swinging the sword randomly, trying to get used to the feel of the blade. He tried different directions, different speeds, moving a step to the side while swinging. Whatever he could think of. It only took a few minutes to become tired, so he leaned against the wagon again to rest. A couple minutes later he tried again and was soon surprised to feel a bell chiming in his mind. He excitedly looked at his menu, seeing the message:
-You have learned a tier 1 skill, 10 exp awarded!-
Looking at the skills section however didn't give him what he hoped.
-Weapon Proficiencies-
-Sword (Novice) 1/5.
While not what he was hoping for, he did immediately feel his grip and stance were awkward. After repositioning he resumed his training. For the next half an hour he practiced swinging his sword, slowly becoming more competent. He would notice people watching him when he would take his frequent rests, but he didn't pay them too much attention.
Tars was pulled out of his practice when he heard a large commotion from the other side of the fence his wagon was parked in. There were too many people in the way for him to see so he moved closer.
When he arrived at the front of the farm, he saw a small group of people approaching. There were two people leading this group, one was a disheveled looking man with a wild beard and a slight pot belly. He was a little short but looked strong and the axe hanging from his belt looked like he was comfortable with it there. His Honor Sense told him the man was mostly trustworthy.
Next to him was a beautiful woman, slightly taller than the man and with a bow on her back and a thin sword on her left hip. She seemed dangerous to Tars, most probably the strongest combatant he'd met since awakening in the morning.
Considering his location that might not be saying a lot, but it did mean that if she were a threat not many here could stop her. Two things prevented that, however.
First, she read as the most trustworthy person he'd sensed yet, even more than the Mayor. Second, he saw a collar on her neck that gleamed faintly with glowing magic. He had a horrible feeling from that piece of metal and a worse feeling about the chain hanging from it.
"It's Mad Ponter" someone said while pointing.
"I thought he died!" someone else exclaimed.
"Forget Ponter, who's that looker with 'im?"
"She's wearing a slave collar, probably one of the bandits," the first one said with a scowl.
"But where'd Ol' Ponter get a slave collar?" the third asked.
"I always knew there was something off about 'im," the second one said, trying to appear wise.
"That's not what ya said when you were getting wasted with him at Jesta's last week!"
"Yeah! Said we has all been 'misunderstandin' 'im,' if I remember right."
"I was just bein' polite!" the second guy tried to defend himself. "He brought me a drink, I didn't wanna be rude!"
By that point, the information dried up as the trio started insulting one another and Tars stopped paying attention.
He really wanted to know what was going on with the newcomers. Something was calling to him about it. 'Besides, I should be able to judge some truth and maybe a lie or two from this.'
With that, Tars slowly pushed his way forward. Most people made way for the savior but a few grumbled about him. Those were the types of people he made the Oath for, hoping they wouldn't make trouble. Still, that would be an issue for later.