“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” – Frederick Douglass

  The first thing Ezekiel saw upon entering his home was a fox lying on his dining room table, its back half wrapped in bandages and rags giving the appearance of a mummy. The second was the pile of bloodied cloth on the chair next to the table and the bloodied knife on top of said pile. He stilled for a moment, having begun the process of doffing his armor and weapon as soon as he entered.

  Faintly, he heard murmuring coming from his bedroom. The sound of sniffles. Sounds of comfort. Confused he inched his way into the home, taking a long look at the fox lying on his table. Taking it all in. Taking in the smell of rot and iron that filled the space.

  Then, he made his way to his bedroom, both curious and concerned. He walked in to see his normally stoic son with eyes red from crying, with some blood dried where Elaine had missed when she cleaned him. There was blood beneath his fingernails, and a small splotch of it under his chin. He wasn’t actively crying anymore, but he had obviously cried.

  “Elaine? Everything okay?” He asked hesitantly, his voice startling both of them. It wasn’t as though he were being particularly quiet before, his grieves thudded against the floor and his chainmaille rattled as he walked, but they had not heard him come in. Too lost were they in the aftermath of saving that fox.

  “Zeke, you're home! Sorry I wasn’t able to get supper ready. I'll go make something quick!” His wife extricated herself from the comforting cuddle she had been giving their son.

  “My love, I’m not concerned about supper I’m more concerned with...” He didn’t know where to start. The fox on his table? The bloodied cloth? His son, who rarely showed any emotion save for curiosity and intrigue, in such dire states?

  “Right, well, I suppose now would be a good time to talk about it then? Is that okay honey?” She asked Lios who idly nodded and sat up, stifling a yawn.

  “I guess you probably have questions now... Thank you for... laying with me.” He couldn’t look her in the eyes, embarrassed and lost for words. Of course, she was his mother, this was her job in a way. To comfort her son in hard times. A pang of guilt ran through Lios’s mind and heart. The image of his mother in his previous life sprang to mind, not for the first time since being reborn.

  “Of course. I’m your mother.” She affirmed. “Now, let's go get some food prepared and have a nice talk about all of this, yes?”

  He nodded sheepishly, still thinking a bit about his new family. Feeling guilty that they knew nothing of his old one. Troubled at hiding his identity and reality for so long already. I don’t know if I can keep lying like this... I feel like they deserve to know... he thought as they went to the table, their spare chair occupied by bloody fabric.

  For a few terse moments silence reigned, accompanied only by the din of Elaine frying up some thin sliced meat and cutting vegetables. During this time Lios checked on the fox, breathing a sigh of relief at seeing her chest rising and falling. She was still weak, he could tell just looking at her, but she looked at least a little better. She wasn’t dead either.

  “Zeke, doff your armor. No uniform at supper you know the rule!” Elaine waved a spatula at the man sternly, leaving no room for arguments. He sighed and started removing his armor. It was a sturdy mix of plates over his vitals such as his heart and chains over the rest. On his arms were steel bracers that glimmered with a blue tint, the same was true of his legs with his grieves. He also wore a dark green cloak, all the better to move through the forest when there were beasts giving the town trouble.

  Lios stood and helped his father with some buckles. He helped him now and then, feeling like a squire when he tightened and loosened the straps. His father grunted his thanks, patiently waiting for them to start talking. Lios didn’t feel much like talking, he didn’t know how he would explain himself this time. After all, he scared his mother by going missing and came home with a dying fox. Not exactly the best look for a five-year-old.

  It only took a couple of minutes to help Ezekiel remove his armor. By that time the food was nearly ready. It was simple fare, meat thinly sliced and charred in a skillet, bread with butter and cheese and a few vegetables from the garden. As always, his mother omitted the tomato on Lios’s sandwich, even after being reborn he couldn’t make himself enjoy the acidic fruit.

  Elaine sat down, setting three plates on the table. Lios’s fathers sandwich was about twice as thick as his own. Granted, the man was easily three times his size, and he was still a child so he understood. For a few moments everyone ate in a terse silence, the only sounds were the sounds of chewing. Zeke’s eyes flickered between his wife and his son, unsure who to start with.

  “Lios, why don’t you start by explaining where you found this fox then we can explain the rest together?” Elaine said quietly, gently. She was still a bit rattled by the show of emotion earlier. The very uncharacteristic show of emotion.

  Lios nodded as he took another bite, mulling over his words carefully as he slowly chewed. He was almost distracted by the flavor of his supper but pushed past it to form an explanation. He looked down at his plate as he set the sandwich down, swallowing deeply and taking a sip of juice that his mother had poured for him. “There isn’t a lot to say, honestly.” He was squirming a bit, his eyes flicking up to see his parents’ expressions as he got started.

  “I was playing in the garden when I heard something from the forest. A yelp of pain. To me... To me it sounded like a cry for help. So I grabbed a hoe and wrapped a sheet around my arm so I wouldn’t get bit as easily and went to look for it. After a few minutes I found her... She was dying, but she stood up to me so fiercely... I managed to placate her just before she collapsed and after that I wrapped her as best I could and rushed over here...”

  At that he looked up at his mother, some excitement filling him as it finally dawned on him what they did. And what she did. The magic she used. He wanted it; he wanted all of it.

  “Why didn’t you come get me? Do you know how dangerous that could have been? Lios I know you're smarter than that! You should have gotten me!” His mother scolded him, frowning. Her voice went from quiet to raised and back to quiet.

  “I know, I know. I thought you would stop me... I didn’t want you to stop me...” He said in a soft voice, unsure why he had thought that in the first place.

  “What happened after?” Zeke asked softly, pushing the conversation along before mother and son could get too distracted.

  “After I came home, I asked mom to help her. Then we... I cut the rotting flesh out and she healed after me.” Lios looked over at the bloody sheets lying in the other chair. “We saved her.”

  “You cut the wounds open?” He looked over at his wife, shocked. “You let him use a knife?”

  She looked over at Lios proudly, her consternation at his not asking for help in the beginning fading away momentarily. “You wouldn’t have been able to say no to him either. Besides, we saved the fox.”

  “Well, what are we going to do with her now? And are you sure it's a girl?” He asked with a touch of anxiety in his voice. “We can’t keep her, she’s a wild animal.”

  “I’ll look after her. I promise I’ll do a good job Dad. Afterwards she will probably want to be free, so I’ll let her go.” Lios said matter-of-factly, trying to convince his parents.

  “If she so much as growls at you I’ll finish the job myself, understand?” Zeke furrowed his brows looking between the wild fox and his son.

  “Yes, sir!” Lios gave a mock salute, shocked that his father was allowing this so easily. He had barely had to work to convince him.

  “Good. Now apologize to your mother for worrying her. And never do that again. If you hear something, get one of us.”

  “I’m sorry mom, I know I worried you and I’ll be more mindful next time...” He hung his head a little, a lot of his emotion from earlier in the day fading with his relief that his parents weren’t too upset with him.

  “As long as it doesn't happen again I’ll let you off this time. If you ever make me worry like that again though, it will not be a good day for you. Now, let’s take those sheets out and burn them. Zeke, tomorrow can you have the guard make sure there are no rottfangs in the area? I think that’s what hurt her.”

  “I see. We will get a hunting party together then.” He stood and grabbed onto the bloodied cloth, taking it outside with him. Lios and Elaine followed him out. They did not have any sort of fire pit, didn’t really have a need for one, so he just tossed them on the ground in the middle of the field beyond their well.

  Lios watched as he lit it with flint and steel, a few sparks was all it took to light the dry parts of the fabric. Once it started, Zeke grabbed a few branches and tossed them on, then plopped down cross-legged, firelight making clear his facial features.

  Lios plopped down next to him, suddenly exhausted. Perhaps it wasn’t so sudden. Stress, adrenaline, anxiety had run rampant for the past few hours and he was still young. His mind, his body was exhausted. He looked up idly. He enjoyed looking at the stars, at the twin moons. Two moons, two suns, stars more vibrant than city lights viewed from an airplane. The air was clear and fresh and clean.

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  This world may be filled with monsters and danger... but it sure is pretty. He thought to himself and let out a sigh, enjoying the feel of heat on his legs and chest.

  “Hey mom, could you teach me how to do that magic?” Lios asked, his eyes still up in the sky.

  She seemed to take a few moments to ponder the question, perhaps sharing a glance and silent conversation with his father. “Maybe if you are still interested once you gain access to the System.”

  “You always talk about the System, what is it? How does it work? Does it have something to do with ‘The Overseer?’” Lios asked, looking back at his parents. He found them leaning into each other.

  “I still think you're too young to -” Zeke started but swiftly got interrupted.

  “Dad, mom, please tell me about it... I want to start planning for my future but I can hardly do that without knowing what rules I’m meant to be playing by.” Lios intoned matter-of-factly. He had so many ideas, but needed information to determine the correct course of action. He also did not understand the need for secrecy.

  His parents exchanged another look, both frowning. They whispered something to each other, the faint sound masked by the crackle of fire. They had a quick conversation before his father spoke up.

  “Why do you want to grow up so fast? Isn’t it enough to be a kid a while longer? We’ll tell you everything you want to know before it’s time, so can you please wait a bit longer?” He sounded resigned, his tone melancholy.

  “You guys know I’m not like the other kids. I can’t play with them, it’s... insufferable is too strong a word for it.” He shook his head, biting his lip. “And... I’m bored... a lot of the time. I just want to learn, to grow, so that one day I can go on adventures like the heroes bards sing about. Please, just tell me about it... If you’re worried that I might do something reckless again I promise I won’t, not without talking to you both first, okay? Just trust in me...”

  It had already been five years, plus some number of months before, and Lios was starting to get impatient. He knew there was magic. He knew there were swords. He knew there was everything he could only imagine before, things he had fantasized about for twenty years or more. And that was before being thrust into this world.

  He knew he didn’t need to learn how everything worked now, in this moment, but he very much wanted to. He wanted the chance to get a head start, to develop his future. If things worked the way they tended to in fiction, he could only imagine how much an early start might benefit him. How much it might influence his future, for better or for worse. If things worked how he imagined they did, how all of those anime’s portrayed it, everything he did now would affect his abilities in the future. He couldn't just sit on his hands and wait anymore.

  “Okay. Okay. Fine, I’ll tell you. But the instant that you try to do anything dangerous because of what I’m telling you, you will be punished. Besides, you would have learned all of this a few years later anyway, and you're plenty smart enough to understand what we are about to tell you.” Lios’s father seemed to convince himself, rather than simply agreeing. Perhaps hearing the boy be so adamant about it, having seen him crying earlier, or some other factor allowed him to decide his son was ready.

  “The System is an entity run by, or managed by The Overseer. Nobody knows where either came from, or when. Some rumors say that the system came about a few millennia prior to the Great Cataclysm, which occurred nearly three thousand years ago. Where the system came from isn’t really relevant though unless you are a worshipper of The Overseer.”

  “Worshipper of The Overseer? I thought there were only seven gods worshiped in Jorial?” Lios asked, confused, drawing on his memory of his visit to the temple a number of years ago.

  “That’s technically correct, though there are seven other gods worshiped on Ravos, and a group of fanatics who believe the Overseer and System are gods as well.” Elaine piped in, enlightening her son.

  “Okay, interesting. Please continue.” Lios said shortly, eager to finally learn about what made his new world turn.

  His father chuckled at his apparent impatience. “The System is what allows people to do things like cast magic, wield weapons better, do their jobs better. Run faster, lift more, process information quicker and more. It is what gives us our power, which is why some worship it. You will become part of it when you turn ten, like everyone else.”

  “How does it do all of that?”

  “Hmmm... I am no system scholar, though some make it their entire career. My understanding is that it helps individuals to pull in essence.” He held up a hand, staving off the question bursting at Lios’s lips. “Essence is what lets us level up. It’s everywhere. In everything. Absorbing it is what is said to grant folks their considerable benefits. Some folk far to the west use [Meditation] to passively gather it while thinking about other things. Otherwise people gain and absorb essence by doing things to improve their skills, which, in turn, raises their class levels.

  “There are a number of things that influence levels, which, in turn, influence the quality of classes a person may be offered. The first is essence, which we have spoken about. Gaining levels and experience in skills increases our capacity for essence. To increase levels in skills, though, one must also increase their understanding of the skill. So the second factor in leveling is comprehension.

  “The third factor is importance, or weight. For example, your mother would gain more skill experience by making a dress for a noblewoman with high renown than for a peasant like us. I would gain more by defending a citizen from a goblin than from simply slaying the goblin. The more weight a task has, the more it influences our growth.

  “The fourth factor, somewhat related to the last one, is difficulty or challenge. The more difficult the task, the more essence it provides when complete. The more weight it carries. This reason is why we wanted to wait to talk about the system. Kids have a tendency to take risks to get better class options when they get the system. I swear to the gods I had better not find you taking stupid risks to get better options!”

  Zeke glared at Lios, his eyes flicking to the fox on the table to prove a point.

  “I get it dad! I really do!” Lios raised his hands somewhat amused. “So, the gist of it is that leveling increases a person's ability to store essence which then modifies their capabilities? Then the importance and challenge of a task is what allows us to actually absorb the essence? Is that correct?”

  “Pretty much. There is one more factor to leveling and skill acquisition though. Repetition. You gain skills by doing something specific enough times. If you want a skill for cooking, you need to cook. If you want to improve it, you need to cook more often and make more challenging dishes. The same will go for anything else. One other thing you should know. Combat related classes level significantly faster. There is more risk in combat, after all. And when a creature dies the being who killed it gets a portion of its essence while the rest seeps back into the world.”

  “Did you really have to tell him that Zeke?” Elaine piped up from next to him, slapping him on the chest.

  “Do you think he’s going to go out slaughtering the masses to get experience? He will find out about that anyway, when he gets older.”

  Lios ignored them as they fell into a bit of banter, musing over what he wanted to do. After a few minutes of thinking over this new info, info that was fairly in line with his expectations, he looked back up at them. “So, you mentioned classes? How many skills and classes can someone have?”

  “Up to three classes. Ten skills per class and ten general skills on top of that. You gain your first class on level ten, your second on level fifty and your last on level five hundred, although few ever make it so far.” His mother told him, sating his curiosity.

  They went back and forth for a while longer, Lios asking questions and filing them away to help him plan. The System wasn’t overly complicated. One could gain new skills by trying different things. They could evolve skills by either increasing an individual skills level and understanding, experimenting with it and trying new things with the skill, or by combining multiple similar skills together. Alternatively, using two skills together repeatedly could open up another evolution even if the skills were not inherently related.

  He then began to ask about magic, how it worked. Without using the word for it he discovered it was possible to become a wizard, a magic user who created spells rather than used skills. Those who only used skills were considered sorcerers, using only the abilities gifted by the system. There were pros and cons to being both, with sorcerers able to use singular and more powerful abilities typically in an instant versus wizards who needed time to prepare.

  Once he learned this, he found out that wizards could cast spells in a variety of ways. It was times like this that he missed google, but his parents seemed to have quite a bit of the pertinent information, anyway. Eventually they mentioned an older way to cast spells, one that typically took too long to be viable on the battlefield. Runes. Upon hearing about them Lios knew they fit best into his plan for the future. Runes were probably also used in enchanting, though his parents didn't explicitly say so.

  He also learned some general terms for his parents' classes and their levels. His mother had two classes and was comfortably at level ninety-eight in her tailoring class. The second class was a healer class she did not use often, so it was still under level fifty. When Lios asked why she didn’t use it she replied with “I can’t stand blood... I thought I could handle it when I took the class but as much as I want to help people I simply can’t stomach it for a long time.”

  She then revealed that she often helped the gals by the river and even their kids when they got scuffed up, but didn’t use her skills too often otherwise.

  As for his father, he learned he was level one hundred twenty-seven in his [Guard] class and level eighty four in his secondary, [Sword Trainer]. He often trained the younger guards despite having only been a member of the city guard for a few years, since just before Lios was born.

  He also learned that there were additional milestone levels. At level fifty one’s class would evolve, or they could change their class resulting in getting different amounts of stat points. Stats were always automatically assigned on level ups, one couldn’t use “Free Points” to increase a particular attribute, it was all automatic. This was both nice and a bit sad for Lios, on one hand he had less to worry about and on the other he would get less customization.

  They talked deep into the night. His parents' reluctance gave way to Lios’s child-like curiosity, and they couldn’t help but to answer all of his questions. During the conversation a new plan took shape. I can have two classes? Well, three if I ever get to level five hundred but realistically two classes. I should be able to do everything I’ve wanted to. He thought to himself as they finally went to bed. Lying in his straw bed, strangely comfortable despite the material being so firm. Or perhaps because of it. He didn’t love sleeping on overly soft surfaces anyway, likely a symptom of spending too much time camping and backpacking in his last life.

  So, which one to focus on first? Smithing? No... that’s my support class... he mused, wide awake and unable to do anything but ponder over the deluge of information he had just eked out of his parents. I need to start with swords. Thankfully, I have the perfect person to teach me, he even has a class for it. After that I need to start learning runes. Not sure how I’ll manage that. I’ll either have to find a teacher or learn to read and find a book... How much do books cost?

  He finally felt like he had a true plan, even if it was only in the beginning stages. He fell asleep that night dreaming about his future, armed with knowledge regarding the system.