Meroun...wasn’t that the first Emperor that Mother had mentioned? The one who was my ancestor? Why was he here? Was he just something the illusory world took to make an antagonist or was there a greater meaning to this?

Perhaps I was to choose between the factions? Were there points for that? I suppose I would never know. Unless the System told me of course. That being said, there were a bunch of System messages

Stats gained!

Endurance +13

Perception +7

Intelligence +5

Wisdom +1 (+3 -2)

Combat +9

Another Negative to Wisdom huh. Guess I did miss something. Maybe I could redo? I mentally looked for some Trial window within the system interface but sadly found none. Well, time for the next notification.

Skills Gained!

[Distractive channeling]

[Multi-elemental casting]

Skills Leveled!

Meditation[lvl 3] from Meditation[ lvl 2]

Otherworldly Mana Manipulation [lvl 3] from [lvl 2]

A decent gain I suppose. The Mana Manipulation was having quite a time too. Wonder why it didn’t increase much those first few months and now suddenly has these level ups. I really needed to ask Meemauy about it.

Finally there was one last notification

Class advanced!

You are approaching the last leg of your journey. While it may be the hardest, your family’s little cheat will no doubt take you across. Rewards for Class Completion have been decided. Hidden stat Knowledge will be gained and your Spirit Bonded will be returned to you

The notification left me shocked. On one hand, the class finally going away meant that I could replace it with something useful. Maybe something that finally gave me some skills? But the mention of Wandel, my Spirit bonded, made me sad. Meemauy hadn’t let me see it these last months, and while I hadn’t really spent much time with it, it was still my bonded.

“Your highness…” A voice suddenly interrupted my thinking. I seemed to have forgotten the man.

“What is your name sir?” I asked, deciding not to call him ‘soldier’ in case he held a higher rank.

“I am no sir, your highness. Merely a simple soldier under your command, I fear that our battalion had only one officer assigned to it. That officer has not been seen since the battle began I fear.” The man said, he didn’t outright say it but the implication was there, the officer had either deserted or was dead.

I wondered why there was only one officer in the entire army. Did the administrators not fear that one person would not be able to lead the army?

“Well you now are a Sir. I hereby promote you to officer. Mr…” I asked, even if I was a fake prince I could give promotions right?

“Wardof sir, my parents are jewelry merchants in Ascovar and thus earned a surname” Sir Wardof said. Ascovar, the name did not ring any bells, but it is best that I act as if I knew where it was.

“Yes, tell me Sir Wardof, how many people exactly are there in the contingent right now? How many have fallen? What is your current assignment?” I asked

“Please your highness, we have tried our best to fulfill our duty,without trained men and classers however we were horribly outmatched-” Sir Wardof began, I knew exactly where thai was going, I had forgotten that most warring nations tended to put a lot of pressure on the army and every single failure earned heavy reprimands.

“I know you did, Sir Wardof, there must however be a count of the men present here. THeir needs need to be accounted for. I need to know the current food stores that we have and the amount of men present. If there are many, I may also need to appoint other officers and establish a chain of command” I answered, and I wasn’t even lying, I did need to do all of those things. No army could run without someone doing those things

“Um, I’ll have someone count your highness...But I fear that we have no food stores to speak of. All of the food was stored in the Burnelwise Silo while we entered the battlefield. It was to be a short mission, your highness, barely a few hours long.” Sir Wardof answered.

Imbeciles! Who went into enemy territory not prepared for things to go wrong?

“Sir Wardof, perhaps after you call for a count you can brief me on this mission of yours? I would like to know what mission it was that your officer felt sure enough about completing that he did not even take sufficient provisions.” I said

I could literally see Wardof sweating as he said,”Yes, your highness” and ran off, what had they done to the man that had him so afraid

Newly minted Sir, Karelin Wardof

Karelin was nervous. When he had approached the prince, he had done so in hopes of absolving himself of wrongdoing in this mess of a mission, instead it turned out that the prince knew nothing of the mission and instead made him responsible for it.

‘Now, now, it’s not all bad. You’re an officer now, if you succeed you will gain a lot from this mission, perhaps enough to finally retire?’ Karelin consoled himself. It was true however, the mission was of great import and while dangerous, there were ample rewards to be had.

But he worried, he always worried. At least this time the leader was a somewhat reasonable one. Oh, he had no doubt that the prince would choose to continue the mission, not even a prince would not be tempted at these rewards. The last one had after all, even if he ran off at the first sign of trouble.

As Karelin headed towards where the men were gathering and burning the bodies of the fallen in a mass pyre of sorts, he was called out by one of his comrades.

“Oy, Kar! What did the prince say? Are we to be executed yet?” a man asked, he might seem to be joking, but the question was legitimate. Failing to guard a prince was a capital offense after all.

“I have not informed the prince of our...failure, he has asked for a count however” Karelin said

“And what do you think will happen when the prince finds out we killed one of his brothers? Will he still let us live? And why is the prince asking for a count if he does not know?” Old Rangie, a war veteran that had been fighting for five years now asked.

“The prince said that he needed a count to get food, also to promote other officers” Karelin said

“A noble prince worrying about food for commoners? That is a first! And what’s this? Other officers? Did he already appoint some while we weren’t looking?” Old Rangie asked.

Karelin nervously raised his head and straightened his back, trying to look like a noble officer; he wondered if he managed to look like anything but a strutting chicken. “Yes, the prince has appointed me. You are now looking at Sir Karelin Warford”

“Sir? You were given a title? Did it come with land? Or is it just a field promotion?” Old Rangie said, his doubt showing. Karelin knew that debating with Old Rangie was useless. The man wouldn’t believe a noble if he said that the sky was blue. It was the others he had to convince.

“Maybe we should just kill the damn brat?” Alforn, one of the fresh recruits suggested, he had yet to know how fruitless that action was. That would change however, if the looks thrown at him by his fellows was any indication.

Deciding to spare him the beating, Karelin said,”All nobles have their mana imprinted in these special devices that tell you if the imprinter has died, they will also leave a mark on the killer’s soul, allowing them to track you across great distances. Not only that, if there is one thing all the noble houses agree upon, it is that killing a noble is a capital offense. Even if you enter the First Emperor’s home and ask sanctuary for killing the prince, he’ll still kill you.”

“Humph, I still don’t believe that brat isn’t playing some trick, but you lot should get on with that count, we have all day to discuss what to do. But if we let that brat wait then we might find ourselves without food.” Old Rangie said.

Karelin could scarcely believe his years, he’d never seen Old Rangie agree with a noble ever, he always distrusted the nobles and the nobles always distrusted him. It was a wonder he hadn’t been executed yet.

It was one of the reasons Old Rangie was so respected, and that respect showed itself as the men quickly gave Karelin a count. Something that no noble or officer could ever accomplish without threatening to kill them and their families. And they did that often.

Karelin quickly made his way to the prince, hoping that he was not too late. The thought had not occurred to him until Old Rangie had called for them to hurry, but if the prince was as inexperienced as he appeared, he might be used to the speed and obedience of the royal guard, not the slow speed and rowdiness of the army.

Karelin could easily imagine his anger at the delay that had occurred. Thus with his head filled with images of him being executed, he arrived before the prince.

Name

Alforien

Gender

Male

Species

Banmeru

Age

7 months

Titles

Heir candidate to the Earl of Cristanfor, Noble of the Kingdom of Mistrane,Count of Launeior ,Transmigrator

Class

[The Known]

Skills

[Otherworldly mana manipulation] [ Force of Will] [Conversion] [Meditation]

Stats

Strength[The amount of brute force one can use]

112

Endurance[The amount of time one can work continuously]

161

Flexibility[The range of movement of the body]

102

Precision[The accuracy of one’s movements]

113

Perception[The ability to notice nuances and advanced concepts]

133

Intelligence[The ability to comprehend the advanced concepts]

138

Wisdom[The ability to effectively use the concepts]

134

Aura Force[The ability to force your will on your surroundings]

119

Combat[The speed of one’s reactions, ability to process situations and other general combat abilities]

124

Magic Affinities

Fire[One of the greatest sources of Light and Heat in the universe, you have Greater Affinity for Fire]

97.14%

Earth[Essential for life, earth is what renders things solid, you have a Greater affinity for Earth]

99.87%

Mind[The consciousness and its relation to reality, you have Lesser affinity for Mind]

17.35%

Chaos[Everything shall be anything but what it should be, no thing shall remain as it should, you have a Lesser affinity for Chaos]

19.76%

Grandmist[The base substance that all subatomic particles are made off, you have Lesser affinity for Grandmist]

27.39%

Space [The building block of dimensions, you have an Outrageous affinity for Space

199.998%

Time[A mysterious force, you have a Minor affinity for Time]

01.15%

Will [The force that propels you through life, you have Minor affinity for Will]

9.81%

Force[The building block of Kinetic interactions, you have Minor affinity for Force

9.81%