It had been about three weeks since I refocused efforts on practicing our family ability and I had finally managed to make Mary produce a small amount of black fire which awarded me my first family point.

I grasped the pendant which I now kept on my person all the time with joy.

I could feel a small sense of satisfaction coming from the pendant through my Awareness something I had been practicing at every opportunity I had.

The souls of Mary and I were connected ever since I successfully used the Minor Soul Control skill on her for the first time.

Despite my joy, my sense of accomplishment was a bit bittersweet as I still ended up being the last of my siblings to gain a family point.

Emma had managed to gain hers literally the day after I started seriously practicing and Rina had already managed to gain it beforehand.

I mean I was doing more stuff than them and had more things to focus on but the fact that I wasn't the very best at everything made my heart ache a tiny bit.

An idea that I knew was logically irrational but still felt in my soul.

Another hit to my inflated ego came not too long after that when I had very little to show in the mana craft department once the deadline Kent gave me came up.

I knew I wasn’t going to be able to complete all the exercises in the book before my time was up.

That was obvious to anyone with half a brain but I at least thought that I would have something to show like a skill or even a bearly completed spell construct but no, I spent too much time trying to catch up to my sisters in the use of our family able to have accomplished anything significant in that area.

Then the third and final major blow to my self-esteem came when Rina managed to actually beat me in a sparing match.

Yes, I was tired, yes I was caught off guard and yes, she definitely had better natural combat instincts than me but god damn it, I’m her big brother how the hell could I have shamed myself like that.

The problem was clear. I was spreading myself way too thin doing too many different things that I was falling behind everywhere.

The main reason Rina was able to beat me in our sparing match was that I had barely picked up a single melee weapon since my fight with Kent so not only had I not improved I was also rusty.

A deep sense of dissatisfaction filled my soul but I didn't let it show on my face as I finally walked downstairs to the tree room to meet my teacher and sibling.

They were already sitting down on the floor in a circle waiting for me with a couple of books stacked in the center.

I took my place sitting down aware of the stares that seemed to say you're late even though I arrived right at the agreed-upon time.

I had a reputation of laziness and delinquency to uphold so I couldnt have arrived any earlier than that.

Kent sized all the children in the room before he started to speak.

“Congratulations, all of you have successfully completed the first mission given to you by your father, gaining your first family point by working hard and slowly leveling up your skills,” Kent said with a smile.

“That beginning said where the is an end there is also a beginning. All we will be doing today is going through what specializations you can pick, what can they do, and what future options you may have with them” Kent announced in a steady voice.

“This will be a lot longer of a journey than the last one you faced but I still want you to remember that with steady progress and determination you will look back at where you started and be shocked at how far you have come.”

With that Kent then handed us two books.

One was an empty hard-cover notebook with each of our full names at the front and which all gave off a strange mystical feeling and another thin book that contained a basic description of each of the specializations as well as up to three sets of future options you could get from that specialization.”

I grabbed the thin book off the floor turning its contents page by page trying not to miss a single detail before finally reopening something I had almost forgotten about.

It had been months since I looked at the [Family Tab] for the first time.

It was a cascading tree stemming from five major options each costing a family point and a certain amount of souls to use.

Now that I had gained a family Point I could finally see what the five main blocks looked like as well as the name given for the specialization they represented.

The first five specializations with a basic description as given by the small book Kent gave us were:

Soul Forger - Uses the raw power of souls and processes it into more useful forms.

Soul Transfiguration - This allows the user to change the shape of a soul.

Soul Worrier - Uses the power of souls as a weapon to increase the user's attack power.

Soul Control - Gain further control of your soul and the souls of others.

Vistage Lord - Take on attributes of the dead.

Did they really hand us a book to explain what the specializations actually did only to give us these useless as hell definitions?

It went a bit more in-depth with each specialization later in the book but it still really gave specific examples of what we could do or how or even what the complete paths were.

I looked at Kent with a glare. My emotions must have been clear in my eyes because he gave me a cheeky smile that said, “What were you expecting”

Detailed information must have been another perk of being the family head.

Well, at least they gave us more information than the system itself which was just a name.

Picking one of the icons in the family tab was similar to learning a skill, in that one would gain a massive amount of information injected right into their brain.

Unlike a skill however you would not be able to level up anything that you picked but would instead have to go beyond the information you were given strictly through research and testing.

As a matter of fact, you could even learn how to use abilities from specializations you didn't choose as long as you were a part of the family.

Of course, not having the assistance of the system to help you would make the process almost ten times harder but it still could feasibly be done.

Let’s say for example you picked Vistage Lord as your specialization you would now be unable to pick say Soul transfiguration but you would now have three new options to pick from under Vistage Lord once you obtain your next soul point.

Connected to the Vistage Lord icon you would now see three new icons light up called Vistage Assimilator, Vistage Summoner, and Vistage Consumer once you picked one of these options the other options would also disappear giving you three more options under the one you chose.

This process would repeat again and again until you reached the end of that particular specialization pathway.

“How do we get more family points?” Rina asked.

“You either get them by reaching a new level of skill in one of your family skills or specializations or by completing a quest where family points are rewarded” Kent answered.

“Any other questions?” we shook our heads.

“Well, before you pick your first specialization I would like to inform you of the purpose of the second book I handed to you, the one that is empty.”

“The information you are reading from did not appear out of thin air but is a small part of the accumulated knowledge of every past member of this family exploring their abilities.”

“Most of the information given to you by selecting an icon is just there to build a foundation that doesn't actually allow you to do anything too useful on its own”

“In fact, most of the usefulness of the family clans ability will become apparent through your own personal experimentation and realizations”

“Is that why you guys never teach us anything useful when it comes to the system? You want us to develop the ability to figure stuff out on our own.”

“Yes and no, you should have enough information to answer that question on your own already so I’m surprised someone like you is even asking” Kent answered in a slightly shocked tone.

I already have enough information to find the answer?

Ignoring my confused face Kent continued what he was saying before I interrupted him.

“There is a cheat for this however as instead of working hard to figure out your own ways of optimizing your specialization you can simply look at what your predecessors built on their foundations and copy that.”

“You can't be stingy though, you also need to pass this good fortune forward to your successors by writing down your own discoveries and unique ways of using your specialization”

“It is through this method that families grow stronger and stronger through the years like a seed slowly developing into a full-grown tree”

“What happens if we aren't able to bring the book back or it gets destroyed?” I asked calmly.

What I really wanted to know is if I accidentally spilled tea on the book with my butter fingers what the punishment would be.

“Don't worry the book you have in your hands is connected to the library from the moment it is made and a copy of whatever you have written inside of it will be copied and organized into a mirrored notebook,” Kent replied softly.

“Even if the notebook you currently have is lost or destroyed the mirrored version will be safe in the library. Even still, If I find you to be reckless with your notebook you will instantly be disqualified from becoming the head of the family.” Kent added in a harsh voice.

“While we are on that subject since you are still children you will only be able to gain the most basic of records from your predecessors the full breadth of knowledge our family has to bear will only be available to you once you gain that illustrious position which your father currently holds” Kent added meaning I was right that we were getting shafted.

After Kent was done speaking it was up to us to decide what specialization we would be using.

As of right now, the choice that I was leaning toward was Soul Warrier.

The main benefit of this specialization at first was that it allowed one to gather the souls of their enemies eventually converting them into temporary buffs which was the weakest effect in my opinion by far compared to the other specializations.

On the other hand, the future specializations that stemmed from this option were very interesting which was something one had to keep in mind when making this decision as you would not be able to take it back later if you changed your mind.

After Soul Warrier, the next options were [Soul Item, Blood God, and Life Destruction].

The one I wanted to pick from the pool was Blood God which allowed the user to form a blood orb inside themselves that would not only absorb the souls of others once the user killed them but also what was left of their vitality.

This storage was also permanent unlike that of the Soul Warrior and would slowly increase the strength of the person using the blood orb as long as it continued to be filled to and past its limits.

This essentially meant that one would grow infinitely stronger the more creatures they killed and would continue to grow stronger even after they stopped as long as the blood orb was maintained.

The blood orb could also be used as a power source for numerous attacks and abilities.

But the real gems were on the next layer down from Blood God [Bonded, Catalyst, and Transform]

The one I was looking at it particularly, Bonded; allows the user to transform their blood orb into a living creature who they could control similar to the familiar formed when the tier three conjuration spell “Find Familiar” or the pact boon gained by some warlocks.

This creature would grow bigger, stronger, and smarter as it consumed the vitality and souls of other creatures.

This bonded creature was versatile, could learn magic and skills, and even fuse with its creator, grating them much more strength than either of them would have as individuals.

As crazy as all this sounded there were still far deeper specializations one could go down in that particular path that provided even more insane benefits.

The book we had only showed us the first four layers of specializations and it was already enough to drive one mad with ideas.

While I was already leaning toward going down the Bonded route the option just next to it, Catalyst, was also incredibly alluring.

This specialization would allow the blood orb to absorb a particular element, say a fire, and then produce that element out of the vitality and souls of others essentially allowing for you to shoot massive fireballs and create flaming tornadoes easily without having to cast spells or use mana.

You could also upgrade the flaming blood orb simply by allowing it to consume hotter and hotter flames as well as the souls and vitality of others.

Finally, the orb would slowly increase the affinity one had for the particular element they are bonded with.

Going a bit back up the tree we had the Soul Item specialization which allowed one to gain access to a Soul Weapon specialization one step down which allowed the user to connect their soul with a weapon of their choice allowing the weapon to grow stronger with each creature you killed with it.

It would also allow the weapon to transform into any shape you wanted it to which synergized perfectly with my Advanced Melee Generalist.

There was even the other possibility of getting the Tome Of Wisdom Specialization which would massively help with my study of magic.

The long and short of it was that all of the best combat options for me were in the later stages of Soul Warrier and it was definitely the best pick for me both in the long and short run no matter what route I ultimately decided to go down.

I continue reading through the book about our family ability like a raving bloodhound trying to find any other broken powers hidden at the end of long specialization pathways, having the knowledge of my ancestors to guide me in this endeavor was a truly priceless gift even if I was only given basic information to go with and not an in-depth explanation of what each individual pathway could do

In reality, while I was only told that the Soul Warrior could give “buffs” by using the power of souls I had no idea what these buffs were, the cost, how long they would last, and the kind of buffs I could expect to achieve or how long it would take for me to learn how to gain each individual buff.

Depending on the answer to the questions above this specialization could either be incredibly powerful or nothing to write home about.