Side Story: Vargalas' Life (Patreon)

I opened my eyes to the light of dawn, sitting up in my bed. I was Vargalas, an elf of the Emerald Sea, and an [Alchemist] by trade. This was my bedroom, built high in the branches of the towering Lehibe tree I shared with a hundred others. The air sung with the comforting melodic tunes of flowing mana, and the scents of spring filled the room. I stood up and took in the view from my window, a sea of green below stretching over the horizon. For quite some time I did nothing but stand there and stare, having never seen such a beautiful view before.

I was, after all, only a few minutes old. I hadn't seen any view before.

I found myself frowning as my mutually exclusive memories fought each other. I was already level ten, half way towards my rank three advancement, having spent fifteen years of my life working under a higher level teacher. Recently my teacher had decided I'd advanced enough to set out on my own, and so I'd come here.

It was fake. Transparently so; I had no idea where I was supposed to have been until now, my teacher had no name or face, I had no parents. They weren't memories so much as a backstory. And a poorly constructed one at that. Status, I thought, wanting to take a look at exactly who and what I was.

Name: Vargalas
Species: Elf
Class: Alchemist (Level 10/20)
Class History: [Commoner]
Soul Points: 0
Health: 20/20
Stamina: 20/20
Mana: 37/37
Strength: 15
Dexterity: 15
Endurance: 15
Intelligence: 20
Wisdom: 20
Charisma: 20
Rank 1 Skills: [Inspection 10] [Mana Sense 10] [Foraging 10]
Rank 2 Skills: [Appraisal 5] [Advanced Alchemy 5]
Traits: [Founder] [Alchemic Tolerance] [Astraphilia]
Titles: None

"How lazy is that!!!" I yelled.

"You too?" came an unexpected reply from my next-door neighbour, who was no doubt going through exactly the same experience as I was. It wasn't just me that was only a few minutes old; it was the whole damn city!

"Greetings, my children, the firstborn of this new world. May you find happiness within it and live your lives in peace."

"What?" I said out loud, not really asking a question, just objecting in general to the disembodied voice that had popped up from nowhere and yet told me almost nothing. I waited around in case there was more, but my waiting was in vain. With nothing else to do, I dressed myself in the clothes that were neatly folded in a chest, that I knew were mine despite never having seen them before, and made my way to ground level, down the staircase that had been built inside the trunk.

It was crowded with other elves heading the same way, as over the next half hour we all poured out of a thousand homes. Singles like me, couples, whole families. I saw the confusion on the faces of a couple of young parents as they carried a pair of tiny toddlers who looked barely fifteen years of age. That made me wince; if I thought I had it bad, how much worse must it be for two people to wake for the first time together in the same bed, never having met before, and having such young children?

We all headed to a clearing in the forest, which I knew was the meeting place for citywide events, and there we tried to work out what the hell had just happened. The biggest clue was the trait which every one of us shared.

[Founder] - You are among the firstborn of the world, created from the raw mana that pervades it. Go forth and multiply. You start at an increased level, and with basic memories. Provides increased fertility. (Rank 2)

There were a few elders with [Firstborn], a rank three version, and the children had [Foundling], a rank one version, but the vast majority of our village had a combined level between twenty and thirty. I'd already thought the families had it bad, but their children literally had a trait that said they weren't really blood relations of their parents! Although, looking around, some of the confusion seemed to have left them, and I could see children chasing each other, laughing, while 'parents' watched on with wide smiles. They seemed to be adapting quickly. Or were made to adapt, I added to myself, cynically.

Our classes were varied, we all knew what our jobs were, and our forest city was complete and well stocked. A thin coating of dust gave away that our city had been created some time before we were, but the food and drink was fresh and plentiful. We had everything we needed to get on with our lives. What else could we do? We went home, we had breakfast, and we went about our days.

So passed the next few hundred years. We discovered we were not the only ones; the Emerald Nest lay to the west, occupied by humans and beastkin. The Emerald Caverns stood to the north-east, occupied by dwarfs. There were others, even further away. Few elves paid them mind; the forest was our home, and the plains, caverns, deserts, seas and mountains occupied by the other races held no desire for us. Only our delvers ventured far from the comfort of our trees, seeking valuable resources in the dark, enclosed spaces beneath the world.

Existence was pleasant, but unchanging. In the past centuries, what events of note had occurred? The founding of the city of Synklisi was perhaps the only one that concerned elves, being the only settlement outside of a forest that had attracted us in any significant number. I'd steadily gained levels, having long since reached rank four. Would I live for long enough to reach rank five? Those firstborn who had been created at rank three had long since died of old age. They 'remembered' living for up to two hundred years prior to our creation, implying our lifespan to be somewhere in the region of four hundred years.

I'd stuck with my alchemist profession, despite having no great love for the subject. My true passion was the sharp, cutting flows of lightning, my room now decorated with rank four crystals bathing it in their prickly mana. I lacked the affinity to wield lightning as a mage, so the production of these crystals was the closest I could get to controlling it.

And then the letter came. A missive from Dawnhold to the east, a small and inconsequential town built around a small and inconsequential dungeon. They had someone who knew how to tame lightning. To control it without the aid of magic. They wanted to share that knowledge! I'd packed my bags before I'd even finished reading the letter, which was in retrospect a mistake, because in my excitement I mistook the date and ended up arriving a week early.

I taught an alchemy class to a group of human children while waiting,  for no reason other than to kill time. There were four of them, each at  an age where an elf would have only recently learnt to walk. Humans live  such fast, fleeting lives by comparison, but it would be a boring world  indeed if we were all alike.

I made it only a few steps into the room before realising that something  was wrong. The mana in the room was... off key. One of these children  wasn't human? I fired off [Eye of Judgement] on each pupil in turn, to  see what I was dealing with, only to freeze on the last and youngest  child. What I was seeing simply made no sense...

For a start, [Eye of Judgement] didn't work. I only saw what [Analysis]  would provide, and even then three of his four traits were not visible.  He had far too many skills, not to mention a rank two mage class. And  sure enough, that child was the source of the discord. His mana had none  of the common notes I would normally have associated with humans, yet  his status clearly marked him as such. There wasn't enough time to  question it right now though; I had the class to teach.

I took another look after class was over, only to find that I could no longer see his rank two skills. [Privacy] had levelled. I'd never heard of that skill before, but did it have something to do with blocking appraisal type skills? I'd ask, but if he valued his privacy, I should respect that.

He came in again for our next lesson, and this time I couldn't resist saying something. He'd gained another two skills since the first lesson, but his remaining soul points hadn't changed. He claimed it was from a trait called [Researcher], which I'd heard of, and was plausible. It was a powerful trait, but no amount of soul points could overcome rank and class limitations, so while being great for hobbies, it wouldn't allow him to spread his abilities too widely. That probably meant he was here learning for a hobby, which was interesting; I didn't see what was so great about alchemy. I didn't need to pay it any mind. Although, I was reminded that the first time I appraised him I could only see one of his four traits. If [Privacy] worked in the obvious way, that meant he had three traits of rank three or above. That was... unusual.

Eventually the actual starting point for the seminars came around, and much to my surprise the same boy entered the room. After pausing around by the entrance to look around, presumably trying to find a free space to stand, he started walking through the rows of desks. Where was he going? There were certainly no desks free, but he didn't stop, and in fact walked all the way to the front.

Wait, he was the one holding this class?!

[Eye of Judgement] now showed nothing but regular appraisal results, but [Privacy] had already been level ten when I saw him a week ago. Was he hiding it some other way? He'd had the [Skilled] title, but a week was too soon to have levelled it further, surely?

Despite my disbelief, Silvanus Reid, the ruler of this settlement, vouched for the child, and once Peter started speaking, I knew Silvanus's assurance had been valid. It did, alas, take several days for him to get onto the good stuff, but once he started talking about electricity, which was basically tamed lightning, I made sure to note down his every word. Once I got back home, I was going to have fun.

And then Silvanus Reid announced the creation of a research institute and offered to pay me to play with lightning! I obviously took him up on the offer immediately. My home in the forest wasn't that far away, given my rank four stats. I could even make day trips, if I rushed. The Emerald Sea had no great need for a [Master Alchemist], and my absence could be filled by the lower ranked next generation.

This combo of Peter and Silvanus Reid, I soon decided, were my new favourite humans.