Wayward King - 010 (Patreon)

Chapter 010 – Library, Instinct

[289 AC – Winterfell]

"You may join your brother in his training today, a bit of exercise will help you regain your strength. But only for two hours so that you don't overexert yourself. The same for tomorrow and the day after. You will also join your brother in his lessons with me again, starting today.", Luwin stated after checking up on Jon's condition.

Agreeing with a nod since the arrangement seemed reasonable, Jon thought of something else and addressed the Maester with a request: “I have looked through the books that you had sent to my room, Maester, and I do intend to learn its contents. But would it be possible for me to request a blank notebook and some ink for the steward to procure for my studies?”

Jon especially asked the Maester, even though he should have discussed this with Steward Poole. But the steward wasn't really fond of Jon due to his bastard status, which wasn't something particularly rare.

And even though he would never openly slight him since that might incur the anger of the Lord of Winterfell, Jon didn't like dealing with him as he could be quite obnoxious.

Asking the Maester for a blank notebook, which was not a cheap thing to buy since paper was expensive, was thus Jon's way to circumvent the steward since he could not refuse the Maester's request.

It wasn't that Luwin stood higher on the hierarchy of the household, which was a bit unclear on that point, but that a Maester always occupied a special position, and any expenses on their request were much more likely to be approved due to their own importance to the household.

Maester Luwin for example was the only true healer, the one in charge of the ravens, and a trusted advisor and confidant to Lord and Lady Stark.

A blank notebook with a worth of around fifty Silver Stags, considering the thickness that he wanted it to have was on the thinner side to still be practical, would not even cause any discussion if ordered by the Maester.

But for Jon, who only had an allowance of five Silver Stags a month, it wasn't an easy to satisfy request even if it was for his studies. The Steward would most likely bring this up with Lady Stark since his uncle wasn't in Winterfell and the outcome might then be unfavorable.

Smart as the Maester was, he understood the underlying reason for Jon's request but didn't comment on it. Instead, he simply replied with a smile: "Well, there is no need to bother the Steward Poole with such a request. I have an unused notebook in my study still. I will hand it to you after our lesson."

"And I will also order Orik to place a small table in your room, for you to read and write at. Now come, your brother is sure to be at my quarters already for his lesson. We do not want to let him wait, do we?", he added, causing Jon to give the elder man a grateful look and follow behind him with a smile.

…

['History – Apprentice(15)']

The lesson with the Maester was just about the sigils and words of the Northern noble houses, and a bit about the history of Westeros, especially during Targaryen reign. Nothing too extensive since the lesson only lasted around an hour and a half.

It still increased his 'History' skill by another point though and provided him with some pieces of knowledge that he had not known before, which was nice enough.

Luwin also handed Jon a leather-bound notebook from his drawer with plenty of blank pages, as well as several small vials of ink and some carved feathers. It was rather obvious to him that the Maester had given him these things from his own collection and he guessed that the Maester would most likely have to request Steward Poole to procure replacements for himself.

Thanking the older man, Jon had brought the things back to his own room and placed them in the chest at the end of his bed, somewhat eager to use them already.

But he had held himself back and went to dinner in the Great Hall, sitting next to some household guards and servants as he ate since the Lady Stark would not let him eat with his siblings and herself at the main table on the raised platform as he was not a Stark by name.

Jon though didn't mind this any longer as he now knew about his true heritage, which had resolved his internal conflict about being a bastard. That didn't mean that he was okay with being treated like a bastard, he just knew that he wasn't one, and for the time being, that had to be enough.

Looking at the main table, where the Lady Stark sat with a small bundle in her hand, Sansa, Arya, and Robb by her side with Septa Mordane there to help take care of Arya while Catelyn held onto the infant Bran, Jon suppressed the twisted feeling in his heart and quickly finished his meal before leaving the Great Hall.

Walking through the archway of the wall that separated the part of the castle where the Great Hall was located from the training courtyard for the household guards, Jon saw the courtyard, light snow fluttering down as a veil of white was laying itself over his surroundings.

The ground of the courtyard was mostly muddy, a sign of the mass of people that trampled over the earthen ground while training. The stone paths winding through the rest of the castle were mostly clean though since there were people tasked to take care of that.

The existence of stone paths was only natural since this was Winterfell and not some swamp castle. The courtyard was muddy since a field with stony ground wasn't a good idea for sparring purposes since every fall would be that much harder and more dangerous.

At the moment, the training courtyard was still sparsely populated with only a few dozen guards of the over two hundred and fifty that were still in Winterfell.

He knew that a good part of them was guarding the walls while the others were still in the Great Hall eating their dinner. Rather glad about this fact since he wasn't one for crowded places, Jon was ready to register some combat skills in his Support System.

Seeing a few racks of practice weapons, wooden ones and blunt ones made out of steel, Jon didn't hesitate long to pick up a wooden longsword.

He cleaved at the air in front of him with a diagonal downwards slash, his two hands around the handle twisting, the muscles in his arms exerting force, directing the wooden blade to draw a quick arc before he slashed forward again, this time horizontally, aiming at the throat of his phantom enemy.

It was a smooth set of movements for an eight-year-old but Jon had always seemed to have possessed a talent for the blade. In fact, he was a better swordsman than Robb, though the latter was the better rider.

['Longsword – Apprentice(13)' has been registered in the first 'Weapon Mastery'-Vein. The 'Weapon Mastery' main crystal has been activated.]

['Longsword' has advanced from Novice to Apprentice, strengthening the vein greatly. Your physical potential has been enhanced.]

[You have registered your first skill in the main crystal, thereby activating your main crystal for the first time. As a reward you can choose between a one-time enhancement of your physique or a single perk based on the current progress of the Support System.]

[Please choose. (Enhancement)/(Perk)]

The messages that silently appeared in his mental space were no surprise to Jon, though their content did cause him to be taken aback for a moment while he felt a mild warmth coursing through his body.

The most surprising thing was that advancing a skill from the main crystal did not give Jon a direct enhancement, instead, it just increased his 'physical potential', which was a rather vague-sounding reward but as he focused on the heat that flowed through his veins for a moment, understanding 'bloomed' in his mind like an epiphany.

Guessing that this was the way the System 'explained' the given reward, Jon now understood that his physical limits had been raised so that he could grow stronger, faster, and more perceptive than an ordinary man.

Additionally, it had also become easier for him to develop his body with a higher ceiling to his physical characteristics, like adding depths and width to a well not only increased the amount of water in it but also made it easier to pull water from it.

This was apparently the difference between the rewards from the sub-crystals and the rewards from the main crystal, which made sense as the main crystal could register infinitely more skills. The mark for his 'Longsword' skill had become just a point of golden light on the otherwise transparent surface of the main crystal.

Jon had thought about this beforehand but 'seeing' the first vein appear on his main crystal made him realize that he had guessed right.

After all, geometrically speaking, it wasn't that a sphere had no edges and sides.

In fact, one could explain a sphere geometrically by calling it an n-sided polygon with n being equal to infinity because that was what it was in terms of pure mathematics, with every side and edge being just a 'point' on its surface.

Jon wasn't sure if he could really register an 'infinite' amount of skills since he was rather sure that there was a finite number of weapons to master. But the simple fact was that the main crystal's rewards would still be much much more numerous than those of the sub-crystal, so a certain balance had to exist.

Not to mention that the Support System also wanted him to focus on becoming a warrior since its sub-category was named 'The Armed Warrior'. With that being the case, it was no wonder that the System rewarded him with 'potential' and not 'enhancements' so that he would be forced to work hard on his combat abilities to excavate said potential.

Jon didn't really have anything against that and even thought that this was better since he feared that he would have a hard time stopping his mind from becoming twisted if power would just be delivered to him on a silver platter constantly.

He had also thought that the chances for a reward for registering his first skill in the main crystal weren't zero, given that this was the main function of the Support System. The nature of the reward though surprised him.

But after thinking about it for a moment, Jon guessed that this reward might be important for the survival of others that had awakened such a System and found themselves in dangerous situations that required immediate strength, which was why this reward appeared upon the registration of the first skill in the main crystal.

The second option was most likely for those that did not require immediate strength for their survival like it was the case for Jon.

Predictably, Jon thus choose the second option even though he hesitated for a few seconds since the first reward was appealing, granting immediate strength. But he was also curious about the perk.

Having made his choice, a change appeared in his mental world as his 'Knowledge' and 'Language' sub-crystals suddenly shifted and settled on the same orbit while a third object appeared and started spinning around the main crystal in the same orbit as well.

The third object was glowing with an intense golden light before dimming progressively and revealing what looked like a cube with doors.

[You have chosen the perk and gained a 'Crystal Library', capable of storing ten books at any time.]

[Books stored in the 'Crystal Library' cannot be damaged or stolen in any way, even through natural decay, since the 'Crystal Library' exists in a temporal and spatial vacuum.]

His eyes widened uncontrollably as Jon read through the message, though he forcefully schooled his expression again quickly to make sure that nobody noticed anything.

In a world where storing anythingfor any length of time was a massive hassle and where even books were at the risk of rotting away, this perk was basically god-sent. Not to mention how practical this would be during his travels.

After a quick analysis, Jon figured that this perk had definitely been triggered since he had manifested two knowledge-type sub-crystals, which had room for five skills each. Simple addition told him that he could now store a book for every subject that he wanted to learn.

It was a rather logical conclusion for such a marvelous perk and Jon was glad that he hadn't chosen the first reward since that would have been a major loss.

Still, he quickly shook off any distracting thoughts, even though he could hardly wait to try out his Crystal Library, and focused back on the task at hand as he placed the wooden longsword back on the rack.

Jon wanted to register as many weapon skills as possible to see if there was a difference in rewards and to gain a better understanding of his own strength through the System's evaluation of his skills.

Picking up a spear next, he went to work. A few minutes later, he had his results.

…

['Spear – Novice(5)' has been registered in the second 'Weapon Mastery'-Vein.]

['Shield – Novice(1)' has been registered in the third 'Weapon Mastery'-Vein.]

['Longbow – Novice(54)' has been registered in the fourth 'Weapon Mastery'-Vein.]

['Short Sword – Novice(48)' has been registered in the fourth 'Weapon Mastery'-Vein.]

['Greatsword – Novice(1)' has been registered in the fifth 'Weapon Mastery'-Vein.]

…

Frowning a bit, Jon realized that the variety of weapons on the racks in the training courtyard for the household guards was rather limited. This should not have surprised him considering that most regular guards were only trained in the use of the longsword, the spear, the shield, or in rarer cases the bow.

The weapon culture of Westeros was focused around the use of the longsword, after all. And only special troops were trained in the use of other weapons like cavalry knights and their lances, or foot soldiers and their spears and shields.

Dedicated bowmen were even rarer since their importance in the field where everybody was wearing armor or had a shield was only to disrupt the enemy lines, not to cull whole armies from the distance.

As such, the quantity of arrows in the air was important, not necessarily the accuracy of each shot.

From his last life's memories, Jon found out about the assumptions of archers being expensive and hard to train, which made him smirk since it was mostly untrue.

Good longbows and a quiver of quality arrows were cheaper than a longsword in the North since wood was abundant while steel was not. And while archers had their role on the battlefield, especially during sieges, being a sharpshooter wasn't a requirement.

It was much more important to be able to fight with a sword and shield on the field since that was where the battles were usually decided.

This though became somewhat of a problem to Jon now since he had to find other weapons to register and train his skills, like daggers, axes, and war hammers.

Though given the fact that he could hardly make a single accurate slash with the training greatsword, Jon knew that his training with the likes of warhammers would have to wait until he was older and stronger.

He also guessed that this was why his proficiency with the greatsword was basically non-existent since he simply could not use it effectively in comparison to the short sword, which felt light and allowed him to transfer some of his skill with the longsword to it.

Looking at his proficiency in his other registered skills, Jon also realized that learning to use more weapons at the moment might not be a good idea since his only noteworthy skill was with handling a longsword.

Even the longbow was far off, which was normal since he usually only trained with the sword as it was seen as the most important skill to have. He had hardly used the bow for serious practices until now.

Thinking about it some more, Jon decided to not be hasty and focus on a few skills for the moment that he could train with reasonable efficiency. It wouldn't do him any good to spread himself too thin after all.

The longsword and the shield paired nicely and would help him develop his strength and stamina if he trained them together, though remembering that it was his lacking strength as a child that had been the cause for only training with the sword until now, Jon contemplated how to circumvent this limitation.

He also wanted to put more effort into the longbow since it was the only long-range method that he had for the moment, and being an expert sharpshooter was definitely something that he wanted to accomplish.

Thinking about it some more, Jon reminded himself to visit one of the carpenters in the castle town later to order a pair of wooden daggers too. It was a type of weapon that worked best in enclosed quarters and close proximity, after all.

And just as his thoughts turned in another direction, another notification popped up.

[You have registered five skills in the 'Weapon-Mastery'-Vein. You have gained the skill 'Weapon Instinct'.]

Jon hardly finished reading the message before unfamiliar knowledge appeared in his mind, explaining to him the inner workings of this 'skill' and surprising him with the System's willingness to share any information with him at all about its rewards.

And a moment later, a smile appeared on his face as this was exactly what he needed.

'Weapon Instinct', unlike its name might suggest, didn't give him some kind of fighting instinct. Instead, it gave him an instinctive idea of how to wield anyweapon that he touched. It didn't enable him to do so, it merely showed him how it could be done.

Jon naturally understood the immense value of the skill since he had already been thinking of who he would have to seek out to be taught to use the different kinds of weapons that he wanted to master.

Now though, all he would need was time, putting in effort according to the intrinsic understanding that he would gain by simply taking a weapon in his hand.