Tranquil days passed by quietly like a flowing river. Before he knew it, Roy had been working as an apprentice for nearly a month, and he spent many nights getting into Gwent matches in the inn. Slowly but surely, Roy started to blend into the familiar yet alien Kaer.
Over the month of working and playing Gwent, Roy managed to save up sixty crowns, most of which came from Jack and Seeger. The money was enough to sustain a trip to Vengerberg or any big city. Roy wanted to win more crowns, but Seeger and Jack started bringing their guards up when around him. They stopped playing Gwent with him, and Roy lost his greatest source of income.
Ever since he got to know Seeger, Roy kept asking him about his hometown, the Skellige Isles. He was trying to forge a bond with Seeger. He spent fifty crowns purchasing a dagger and a small crossbow from Seeger.
"Gotta protect myself, you see?"
The crossbow was called Gabriel, named after the Forger of Verden. It was grey in color, and Roy could hold it with one hand. Seeger also gave him twenty wooden crossbow bolts as a gift.
Any other Aedirn blacksmith wouldn't have sold Gabriel to a scrawny boy like Roy, but Seeger was different. He came from the Skellige Isles, and he was an honest man. Seeger believed that a man should always possess a weapon from a young age in order to stay safe amidst the chaos. Children as young as ten would have started swinging weapons around on Skellige Isles, so he didn't mind selling Gabriel, especially when he had taken a liking to Roy.
***
Compared to the crossbows that could've been easily found in the game, the crossbow Seeger gave him was powerful. It might've had an outdated structure, short range, and slow reload, but at least crossbows didn't demand any skill. Even weak children and the elderly could use it. As long as they held it steady and shot straight, even elite soldiers could be hurt.
The crossbow was the perfect choice for Roy, who had no combat experience, and had a lower Constitution than the average adult. At least it was better than a melee weapon. His perception rivaled an adult's and he had a broad range of sight, making him an efficient ranged fighter.
Roy kept his dagger and crossbow in his inventory space. It was a convenient thing for Roy. Aside from being unable to keep living beings, the only restriction was size. He could keep anything as long as it didn't exceed the maximum space. All he had to do was think about the item, and it would show up in his hands.
***
As dawn broke through the horizon, the dewdrops on the weeds flanking the streets started to glisten under the sunlight. Roy, as usual, was going to the butcher's place. He would wave at the villagers on the way there, but most of them ignored him.
Kaer was a traditional place. The villagers held the belief that children should inherit their parents' business. They thought Roy should just toil the fields, but instead, he went to learn the skills of a butcher, spent his nights in the inn, and even made a friend out of the outsider from the Skellige Isles.
His aberrant behavior garnered him nothing but the villagers' jealousy and nasty whispers. If he was the original Roy, he would have locked himself up where the sun didn't shine after hearing the rumors, but the current Roy didn't care about them.
If his plan went well, he'd level up first before going out into the wild and hunting with his new weapons. He could just get some kills and sell the animal skins for some crowns. Of course, he'd keep on learning the trade of the butcher.
Something like a hunting license might've existed in big cities, but a small, remote village like Kaer wasn't bound under that regulation. Roy could hunt all he wanted.
Once he leveled up a few more times, Roy thought he would be able to defend himself well enough. After he made some money, he'd try to bring Moore and Susie to Novigrad and settle there. He'd have to make sure his parents were safe before he could go off in his pursuit of strength and explore the wonderful world he was in.
Messages started flooding his mind. Aretuza, the academy for young ladies, was located in the Thanedd Isles, Gors Velen, while Ban Ard Academy for young men was located in Kaedwen. The stronghold of the Wolf School, Kaer Morhen, was located in the Blue Mountains, which was east of Kaedwin. It was there that Vesemir lived.
All the places the messages told him about were in his exploration plan, and Roy intended to check off everything on his bucket list. However, for the time being, he'd take the first step to his momentous journey — killing more livestock. Then he'd level up.
After a month of continuous scolding and teachings from the butcher, as well as the sweat and blood Roy sacrificed for his work, his stats changed ever so slightly.
'Roy
Age: Thirteen years and eight months old
Status: Civilian
HP: 41
Strength: 4→4.2
Dexterity: 5→5.1
Constitution: 4→4.1
Perception: 5
Will: 4→4.5
Charisma: 5
Spirit: 6
You unlocked a new Skill.
Unnamed (Passive): Level 1
(You have killed and dismembered more than four types of animals. Your total kill and dismemberment has exceeded fifteen. You now have a bloody aura around you. The aura cannot be dispelled. You have a one percent chance to Fear any enemies within a one foot range. If the enemy has a lower Will than you, you have a one percent chance to cause it to lose control over its body. You have an understanding of the anatomy of mammals (pigs, cows, goats, dogs etc.). You know how to control your strength and weapon to bypass their skin, muscle, and bones to attack their weakness. Your damage against creatures with a similar anatomy is permanently increased by one percent. Tip: This skill will level up according to the number and types of creatures you kill.)
PR/N: One foot is around 0.3 meters.
Inventory space: 1 cubic meter
Other: Unknown
EXP: 98/100'
***
After a month of intense training and enough food to eat, Roy's strength, constitution, and dexterity saw a slight increase. His face was no longer a stark contrast to his jet black hair, but instead had a pink glow of health to it. Roy was obviously sturdier than he was a month ago. He was still scrawny, but at least he had shed that feeling of extreme weakness.
Will was the attribute that saw the biggest increase, but Roy thought it was natural. Anyone would have an iron will after having puked for a month and kept on working in a bloody, squalid, and rancid environment.
Roy could feel something evil coming from his new passive skill. The odds of it activating and the damage increase it provided were only one percent, because it was only a level 1 skill after all. The damage increase would help in at least some situations. Besides, the skill could level up through skill point distribution and the moment Roy made enough kills.
Hm, since I got this skill through the butcher's teaching, and it levels up through killing, why don't I call it… Roy gave it a name, and the unnamed skill was called Massacre.
***
On the way back to his house, Roy bumped into Brandon, who tried to ram into him.
Brandon had a special affinity with magic. He only spent a month mastering the little tricks Roy taught him, such as the prophecy, the magical hay, and the phantom fork, and he was already performing them perfectly.
Roy wasn't sure if Brandon could be a bard, but he knew Brandon could be a magician if he wanted to. After being harassed by Brandon for a month, Roy had already held up his end of the bargain, and he had no desire to play along with Brandon anymore.
"How many times have I told you? I taught you everything I know, so let me go, you snotty brat!"
Brandon's eyes were filled with the desire for knowledge. "It's fine. You can get a gander of this trick I improvised on. Man, if I perform this when I become a bard, the whole Kaer's going to be surprised. No, the whole Lower Posada!"
"Not interested. I have a job to do."
"I can give you some cracklings. Fletcher made it yesterday." Brandon gave him a sycophantic smile. That was the first time the little guy had to beg for a favor. Usually it was the other way around, but after finding out about magic and falling in love with it, Brandon showed an unprecedented passion for it.
Roy stood his ground. "Then show it to your dad. Or your lackeys. Brady and the gang would love to praise you for your show."
"My dad? He's going to kick my ass." Brandon held Roy's hand and insisted, "And I can't show those guys. They're just kids. They can't give me any ideas to improve. You're the only one around who can."
Roy stared into his eyes and cruelly replied, "Stop coming to me. I have a job, and I need to settle something important. Never talk to me about magic tricks ever again. If you don't have anyone to show off to, why don't you show it to your mother?"
Brandon froze, and he looked down in silence.
***
After Roy shook Brandon off, he went to Fletcher's house and noticed a couple of people struggling against a big white pig. Fletcher was clamping down on its head, while a villager tried to pull on its tail, but the pig dragged them around and oinked loudly. Roy hastened and pinned the pig down, then Fletcher fed it the anesthetic, and it finally stopped squirming.
Fletcher plopped down onto the pig's dirty back, but didn't complain. The flaps on his face trembled as he moved, and he asked, sounding nonchalant, "You saw that brat, didn't you, Roy?"
"Yeah. He went to show off his magic tricks to some kids."
"Call him back for me once we butcher this pig. That brat stood the chief off again." Fletcher rubbed his nose and whispered, "I did yell at him a bit too harshly though, so help me out. I don't want him to run around in a fit of anger."
He just doesn't know how to show that he cares, doesn't he? Roy thought, and he agreed to help out.
With Fletcher's help, Roy killed the fat pig in one strike. Once the blood had finished flowing out, his EXP bar filled, and Roy felt a weak quake from his character sheet. He then excused himself and sat down somewhere quiet.
When he looked at his character sheet, there was a plus sign after the EXP bar.
After concentrating his mind on the plus sign, a new message showed up on the sheet. "Level 1 (3/500)."
At the same time, a surge of warmth flowed through his body. It felt like inner energy, Qi, or as they called it, chaos energy. At the same time, a plus sign showed up after every stat and his skill, Massacre.
He gained one attribute point and one skill point from the level up.
Roy was overjoyed, but he held his excitement back and observed his stats closely.
His Strength was 4.2, Constitution 4.1, and Will 4.5. Those stats were weaker than an average adult. Even if he added one point to any one of them, it wouldn't provide him with any edge in combat. He could just keep working as an apprentice to the butcher, and his body would eventually grow into the stats of an adult. There was no point in wasting a hard-earned point on that.
He had no desire to become someone who relied on their looks for a living, so Charisma wasn't in his list of considerations.
That left Spirit, Perception, and Dexterity for him, and it was those stats that Roy was paying attention to.
He was on par with an average adult in those stats, and his Spirit was one point higher than a normal adult's. In his case where he had little attribute points, Roy would prefer to increase his advantage rather than to be a master of all trades.
However, Roy hadn't mastered any spell, nor had he come into contact with pseudo spells like the witchers' signs. Since Spirit would only increase the strength of spells, Roy wouldn't add a point to Spirit.
So only Perception and Dexterity are left.
Adding a point to Dexterity would increase his reaction speed and sight when he was moving. It would increase his efficiency in utilizing Gabriel, which would help in his plan.
Adding one point in Perception would grant him a clearer view of his surroundings. It could be used in defense and premonition. A higher Perception would also help with his observation skills and sight, which could increase his efficiency with Gabriel.
After pondering upon the matter long and hard, Roy came to a decision.
"I'll go with Perception then."
The moment he thought of adding that point into Perception, Perception had its point increased by one, making it a total of six. At the same time, a stronger surge of warmth flowed through his whole body.
Roy fell into a state of transcendence after he heightened his perception. The world itself became livelier in his eyes. Roy could faintly smell the stench of blood coming from the butcher's house, and when he looked into the growths of grass, Roy could see the dewdrops on the tips of their blades, and the ladybug that sparkled bright red as it crossed the leaves. He could feel the flow of the air as it brushed against his fingertips before dancing away into the space ahead. The air itself felt warm to the touch, and it enveloped him in a gentle manner.
Everything around him became livelier and more magical than Roy had ever imagined.
He stayed in that trance for the longest time before slowly snapping out of it. And then he added his skill point into Massacre, leveling it up by one level. Massacre was currently level 2.
It was only a one level increase, but the damage increase and activation chance spiked. They were only one percent at level 1, but they were both five percent at level 2. The addition to Perception didn't change Roy's physique though.
Roy was delighted by the improvements he made, and he was confident that his following plan would work out. The euphoria from leveling up swept everything away from his mind, and he had forgotten the request Fletcher asked of him.
***