The Harukian Chronicler - Chapter 10

The situation within the small room could only be shown as being quite tense; with everyone standing still, and the two older males letting out fierce auras of wrath towards a woman who probably had one foot in the grave. From the way that it had happened earlier, one could say this woman had a hatred for the demon race, looking down on the man who had married into the Haruk clan and rose to a high rank within Jarl Bandi’s court. This man has a son, me, who inherited the appearance of a demon, thus she tried to sew some discord within the family by stating I was not good enough for the main branch family; but the appraisal has a few interesting effects.

(“First thing, the appraisal will allow one to see the Holder’s patrons… save for Baalish, as there is only room for three patrons on the slate they use. Your father’s eye isn’t as deeply ingrained as yours, so he is unable to see unappraised people’s abilities, so for a second he believed the Crone. But when one is appraised, then we patrons are able to show ourselves on the Holder; usually in markings on the body which correspond to our spheres. These usually only appear when one uses an ability granted by us, so infants can’t do so; so it would not had been caught, if you weren’t able to use your heritage of Demonize.”)

<“demonize is=”” just=”” a=”” simple=”” term…=”” it’s=”” a=”” battle=”” mode,=”” when=”” one=”” feels=”” their=”” blood=”” boil…=”” as=”” a=”” half-breed,=”” you=”” can=”” only=”” do=”” minor=”” changes…=”” your=”” old=”” man…=”” he=”” can=”” become=”” fearsome;=”” as=”” a=”” high=”” tier.”=””> Baal gives a raspy laugh, the chains binding him clinking together as he shakes from the laughter, <“though since=”” you=”” did=”” use=”” this=”” heritage…=”” i=”” am=”” afraid=”” apart=”” of=”” your=”” body=”” will=”” no=”” longer=”” be=”” human…=”” your=”” legs=”” will=”” remain=”” demon;=”” while=”” your=”” arms=”” can=”” change=”” at=”” will…”=””>

“Volva Shinha, please explain why you tried to pa.s.s one off on the Jarl, and the clan Haruk? Both of these are offenses deserving of harsh punishment; since that son appears to have quite some strength to him.” Zekiel glares down at the woman who is now cowering; the gray horns on his head slowly enlarging as he feels himself becoming lost to the wrath within his heart. Jarl Bandi steps up and removes Zekiel’s claws from the woman, and pushes her into the other room, closing the door on the demon man. While the Jarl deals with this, Zekiel walks up to the son on the floor, and picks him up, slowly becoming his human form again.

“Forgive me, my son. For a second I thought something horrid of you, your mother will have my head for sure. Look at you, such a strong form you have.” His eyes peer gently down at me, as he checks my arms and legs; then strokes my horns, “Chitin Ichor, a rare talent for one of only half blood, but should keep you alive if you learn to harden it.” He moves to put me next to my brothers; the ichor receding on my arms and my horns going back to normal, “Let’s get you boys to your mother, she’ll probably be feeling antsy with the rage in the house now. Knowing her, she’ll only calm down when you boys are near her.” Zekiel gives a chuckle and carries the three of us gently back to the room; Grandfather and the Volva were not left in the room, but I could feel his aura from here…

As we entered the room where we were born, my poor mother was already coming up to check on the three of us, and busily picking each of us up starting fro Nihlis, being very protective of her youngest. She’d check each of us in kind, putting Nihlis down, then taking Yehai… Indra would poke at his scales and smile; Bandi had scales on him too, and Indra always liked to poke them and feel them. When it was my turn, she stroked my horns, and I could only coo happily; it felt nice for her to touch them. Mother smiled down at me before playing with my now black and plated feet and legs.

“Awww, little Zeri’s legs are now all plated and hard.” Indra turned to glare at her love Zekiel, pouting slightly, “What happened in there, and why is he able to Demonize hours after birth? And why does he have markings already? Is that possible?” Her questions were rapid fire, and Zekiel took them in turn, sighing softly as he sat down next to her, checking my feet and legs to make sure they weren’t in pain. I will admit, I didn’t have much feeling in them because of the chitinous plating, but they felt st.u.r.dy… wonder if I can train them later…

“Turns out the Volva has some misgivings to those of us of less… glowing races, as she states that little Yehai and Nihlis had the blessings of Death, and even were three patron holders. But when it came to little Zeri, she said no Death blessing, and only a single patron.” He gave a sad look down at me as he lovingly stroked my head, “I will admit, I was a bad father; looking at him and believing her for a second… then he started to cry out, and the markings appeared. Maybe he felt his life was in danger; and showed us that we were wrong.” My crying mother brought me to her face and kissed my forehead; then rubbing her cheek against me. It’s been… a while since I had a mother like this, I can feel that in the pit of my soul. I know in my last life my mother was gone quite early in my life… so this is nice.

“Well… then that woman had better leave Handrak before I am able to walk; or I will go to her hut and crush her skull myself. She dares to make a fool of our clan, and try to besmirch my own son that way.” Indra turns to look at her husband, and smiles softly at him before kissing his cheek; “Do not worry, my love, I am sure he won’t hate you for that. He’ll need you to teach him things about your race later on, or he’ll have some issues.” She then stares down at me, and smiles sweetly; “For now… perhaps you should go to sleep little Zeri, it’s been such a big day for you.” Uh oh…

“About that, dear…” Zekiel kind of looks nervous, and looks away from his wife… “I am afraid, you’ll have to endure two of us now…” He cleared his throat and tried to hide from the eyes of a woman who could sear the soul with ice; “I looked at him with my eye… and he sort of… inherited… Cieri’s Blessing from me.”

…

…

So here I am now; laying in a rather warm and comfy basket with blankets all around me. I am covered as he mother and father have a long talk about the Cieri’s Blessing that I inherited from him. Seems that the random function took that into consideration… and from the looks of it, Indra was not happy about her son having that trait. Was there something bad about it? Besides the fact that one of her babies wouldn’t be sleeping… and until I could sleep in my own room, they wouldn’t be able to have proper relations… oh boy.

<“don’t worry=”” too=”” much=”” boy…=”” the=”” blessing=”” is=”” indeed=”” a=”” blessing…”=””> Baalish laughs that raspy laugh, chains rattling against each other as he lets it all out, <“your father=”” probably=”” knows=”” of=”” the=”” good=”” points=”” to=”” this=”” ability…=”” but=”” he=”” doesn’t=”” have=”” the=”” patience=”” to=”” use=”” it…=”” while=”” you=”” are=”” blessed=”” by=”” the=”” lord=”” of=”” death…=”” and=”” you=”” received=”” his=”” ‘patience’.”=””> Mentioning the Grave’s Patience from his abilities, I sigh slightly in my head.

‘Well, since they’ll probably leave us alone for some time, why not tell me what to train? I should be able to train something, Mala?’ I think into my mind; hoping there was something I could do for the time being…

[“Of course young one, there are a few things you should be able to train yourself even as an infant. I would suggest examining your own body first, and get a good look at everything.”] Well, if life herself is telling me to… I look down at myself and allow my own Keeper’s Eye to open, the essence of my being flowing into the eye to be a.n.a.lyzed and translated to what my own soul would understand it… and of course it looked like a video game screen… My eyes sort of squinted at this; next you’re going to tell me that combat was done on a turn by turn basis? [“Don’t be silly… this world isn’t that strange.”] Mala gave a soft hearted chuckle… but I felt as if something was off by that statement. Well; let’s look at the information at least…

…

…

[Name: Zeriq Tigrerious Haruk. The Mysterious Watcher of the Graveyard.]

[Age: 0y, 0d, 4h, 45m] [Gender: Male] [Race: Half-Demon – Wrath Variety]

[t.i.tle: None]

[Level: 0] [Cla.s.s: None] [EP: 2]

[STR: 6] [DEX: 8] [CON: 6] [PER: 7]

[INT: 11] [WIS: 11] [MND: 9] [WLL: 9]

[LCK: 10] [Life: 15] [Mana: 80]

{Skills}

None

{Techniques}

None

{Traits}

[Eidetic Memory] {MAX}

[Cieri’s Blessing] {MAX}

[Circuit Capacity] {2 / 5} {000 / 500}

{Abilities}

[Grave’s Patience] {MAX}

[Life’s Guidance] {MAX}

[Keeper’s Eyes] {MAX}

[Consumption] {MAX}

…

…

‘First and foremost; EP?’ I asked

(“Evolution Points. Every being has the chance to earn these by completing certain criteria, they’re not set in stone when people do the same thing. You can use these for a variety of things; Yrmala can explain these things better.”) Hannash states with a small indifference in his voice.

[“To use a point of Evolution, you just need to ‘state’ it to your soul. They can be used to increase any of your statistics; to gain a new trait, to increase progress to the next stage of a trait. They can be used to improve techniques you learn or create, and can also give you skill bonuses. They can also give you other improvements, but those are not able to be used at this time, due to infancy.”] Mala gives her advice with a happy smile, you could feel the motherly warmth from her.

‘Well, I don’t really feel I need to use them for right now; so I’ll just save them for the time being.’ I should save them and see what I can do all at once, ‘When would I begin to acc.u.mulate levels and gain a cla.s.s?’

(“Usually, a being gains a cla.s.s when they join a guild in this world; but seeing as you are… you… then you’d probably figure out how to do it with enough time and patience. You gain levels and experience once you are able to train.”) Hannash adjusts his gla.s.ses and flips pages in one of the many books hovering around him; (“From what I gather, one can have multiple cla.s.ses, each giving a bonus to certain skills, and giving you access to techniques. Whenever you change a cla.s.s, your level will reset to the highest level you have achieved for that cla.s.s.”)

[“You can choose a cla.s.s once you meet certain criteria, actually.”] Mala gives a soft sigh; [“Hannash, please give correct information.”] Her attention comes back to me, [“Let’s go with the simple Warrior; you can select that as a cla.s.s once your strength stat has reached twenty; and you have reached level one in at least three combat type skills.”] Mala explains that most of the citizens of Handrak reach strength twenty once they reach the age of seven, due to the life out here.

‘Well… is there anything I am able to train at this moment?’ I ask to the voices within my own head, waiting for the response from Han or Mala… maybe even Baal, but it comes from a rather unlikely source…

{“Well well child… hehehe, you can always try to gain the trait for Mana Regeneration.”} Dralath gives a sly cackle; {“With Baalish taking most of your Mana with every use, being able to draw the ambient mana into you, would be a boon. Not many can train this trait till much later; but with Hannash here, it should go smooth.”} He then went silent, as Han and Mala both sighed, but Baal laughed.

Would it be that simple to train Regen even as an infant that Death suggests it?

End of Chapter 10