Summoner’s Ascent – A Power Leveling Isekai Litrpg - Chapter 2 (Patreon)

She sighed, standing up from behind the small wooden desk that had come with her office.

Maria stretched her arms out lightly and glanced at the small empty chairs and stools used as makeshift desks lined up in front of her own.

There were seven in total and on each of the desks, lay a worksheet with sentences repeated over and over.

All except one which was empty.

"He didn't come again." She sighed, shoulders slumping. It hadn't been that long since she'd arrived at this orphanage, taking on the duties of a teacher to the young ones. Merely a few months had passed and while becoming a sister hadn't been her first choice of career, she could not lie – it was rewarding.

The children were simply lovely little balls of sunshine and she could not at all deny the surge of pride she felt as she watched them grow and learn.

All except for one child.

Faeran was his name.

An odd name at that and one she was told the child picked for himself when he started speaking at a frightfully young age. And a child that had apparently no need for her whatsoever.

He was already well versed in not only reading and writing, but mathematics and more. In fact, the way he spoke of things, Maria sometimes felt that she was the uneducated child.

But, peculiar as those things were about him, they barely even registered in comparison to the other … oddities he got up to.

"He's probably in the garden right now," Maria mused. While she still had to review the children who actually attended her class's worksheets, she couldn't help her curiosity getting the better of her.

She supposed she could check them later.

With that thought in mind, Maria left her office behind and made her way through the stone halls of the orphanage.

Once upon a time, the orphanage had been a church. That was until roughly twenty years ago when the city was attacked and the church, which was near the outskirts of the city, was one of the first places attacked.

After that, with a rise in the number of orphans, the Queen herself had made a decree, having the church repaired and turned into an orphanage run by the pious.

From what she was told, the Queen herself even paid the orphanage a visit every few years. Maria hoped she would one day get to meet her.

In not too long, she arrived at the garden, pausing under the stone archway leading out to it.

There, she found the target of her curiosity.

And as usual, she had no idea what he was doing.

He was holding an oddly fashioned item in both hands, no doubt made by himself. It consisted of thick branches woven together with vines, making something akin to a handle, and two roughly circular rocks tied to either side of the handle.

She had no idea what the purpose of it was for, nor why the young boy was currently holding it in both hands over his head before dipping it behind his neck, slightly down his back, then raising it back up again.

And it was hardly the only one of those odd items he'd made. He'd foraged in the small forest not far from the church for many vines, thick branches and rocks to suit his purposes.

For instance, there were multiple versions of the same item he was using currently, if not a little bit larger or smaller.

But there were also much larger ones with rocks easily as big if not bigger than her own head!

And speaking of –

Faeran lowered the contraption he was using and began stretching out his arms.

He kept that up for around thirty seconds before bending down to pick it up again, only this time he grabbed a second one and held both by the middle of the branch handles.

Then the young boy spread his legs apart and lifted the contraptions up over his shoulders and to the side, before lowering them diagonally and crossing his arms, holding there for a second, then  raising them back up again.

Maria watched the boy, utterly confused yet at the same time having trouble looking away as he continued to toil at whatever it was he was doing.

While she did not understand why Faeran was so dead set on performing these odd actions, she respected the drive and dedication he put into it.

While it wouldn't affect anything in the end, it had done wonders for the young boys physique. He was already a bit larger than the other boys his age and much more robust in build.

Perhaps he's planning on attracting the eye of a noble girl? she wondered idly. Not the most respectable ambition in life, but as Faeran was a commoner who was born with no class or blessing, the most he could hope for – despite his intelligence – would be to learn a trade.

Still, becoming the kept man of a lady noble would allow him to earn much more.

Maria grimaced at the thought. It was an uncomfortable thing to think about, but with as intelligent as Faeran was even at his age, she could see him already thinking about his future outside the orphanage.

He definitely had all the makings of one who would grow up to be a handsome man. With his bright blue eyes, perpetual confident grin, and his fine, albeit messy black hair, he could perhaps rival many a noble boy's looks in the future.

Just then, the young boy dropped his stone contraptions to the grass below with a groan of exertion and began stretching out his arms again.

As he did, he turned and his eyes met hers.

They stared at each other for a moment before Faeran grinned at her, "Oh, Sister Maria, what's up?" he greeted her.

His voice allowed her to break free from the staring stupor she had found herself in and she sighed before giving the boy a disappointed look, "I came to see what was so important you would skip my class," she responded, "Again."

Any other child would have been chagrined by her disappointment in them. Not Faeran though.

The young boy merely shrugged his shoulders almost uncaringly, "As much as you light up my day, Sister, it would just be a waste of time that I could spend on other things," the boy replied, grin not decreasing in size at all as he made his way over to her, "I don't need to learn how to read and write."

As he approached, Maria noted the fine sheen of sweat covering his body, letting her know he'd been at his odd actions for a while already, it drew her eyes slightly to his chest, or to be more precise his collarbone and shoulders, despite his age they were rather prominent and his shoulders seemed to curve up to his neck like small hills.

It was something she'd expect to see in the shoulders of a trained knight or adventurer who focused on melee fighting and not a child like Faeran.

Maria sighed, putting those thoughts out of mind and pinched the bridge of her nose, "I know you don't, but it's still disrespectful. You should let me know in advance if you are not coming to my class," she replied and then wrinkled her nose as she noticed something else. "You reek of sweat; you should go take a bath."

"I will when I'm done. I've still got quite a few more reps to do," Faeran replied, crossing his hands behind his head casually, "Though I don't mind going right now if you want to come in with me."

Rep?

That was something else that confused her. Every now and then the boy would use words that were utterly foreign to her.

"No, that would be improper," Maria denied him flatly, in reflex. It was almost instinctive at this point. Every now and then when she told him to take a bath because he smelled, usually the same as he did right now, he offered her the chance to join him.

She knew he was only joking given his age and was just smart enough to tease her with it, but she was already twenty-one. Bathing with a boy, child or not would be highly improper.

It took a concentrated effort for her shoulders not to slump in defeat. At this rate she was never going to get married and have a man of her own. The only men that had given her any interest had been sleazy vulgar men…and Faeran, just a young boy.

Perhaps a love goddess had cursed her for amusement?

"You’re quite a prude aren’t you sister?" Faeran continued teasing her.

Maria pouted at the boy, "No seconds for you at dinner tonight," she promptly replied, before turning her nose up at the boy and turning to walk away.

Make fun of her would he? She would just be an old cake left on the shelf to rot by the time he was old enough.

"Eh, wait, not that!" Faeran predictably sputtered, "How am I supposed to bulk without the extra calories!"

Once more, she had no idea what he was talking about.

                                        __________________

Sister Maria ignored his protests right up until she was out of sight. As soon as she was though, Faeran dropped the act.

"Guess I'll have to make something for myself tonight then," the boy mused to himself with a shrug.

While it saved time to have the orphanage staff cook for him since he lived here, it wasn't too much of a bother.

Actually to be honest, Sister Maria was too much of a softie; she'd probably allow him to eat seconds if he wanted later on, which he did a lot. With how young his current body was and with the amount of exercise he got, he needed to eat quite a bit for his age.

Building muscle was quite hard at his age, especially when taken into account everything he had to use for it was made by his own, currently very tiny hands.

Granted, building muscle was more of a side benefit rather than the actual reason he was training his body so diligently … and obsessively.

What he was really truly after was increasing his stats.

Because as crazy as it was to him sometimes, this world he'd found himself in after being consumed by bright blinding green light at Loch Ness was a game world.

From a game he had played in his previous … life, in fact.

Hellion Online.

Pronounced Hell-eon Online.

The distinction was quite important for the overall setting. And also one of the reasons why he was training his body as best he could right now.

“Speaking of …” Faeran hummed.

It had been a while since he'd checked his stats. He'd gotten into the habit of not checking them every day, or even every week now, so he could hopefully be pleasantly surprised.

It had been nearly a month since he last checked, so he may as well check them out now.

"Status," Faeran said simply, focusing and calling up his 'status plate' as the people of this world referred to it as.

Because he wasn't unique in this regard. Every single person in this world had one and could call it up with a single thought.

Name: Faeran Odhar

Level: 1

Class: -

Blessing: -

Affinity: -

MP: 100/100

Strength: 3

Endurance: 4

Durability: 3

Agility: 3

Status Points: 0

Skills:

Faeran sighed in disappointment.

Not because his stats had not risen, oh they had. Every single one of them had risen by a single point each.

It was just disappointing seeing such meager numbers, that was all. A stat of five was the average of a grown adult man.

After all, eighty percent of the population of this world could go their entire lives without leveling up a single time.