Abigail made Lance a sandwich and set up a table in the training room. He had a ham and cheese sandwich with the crust cut off. And a bag of chips by his side.
Abigail set down a platter with a tea set in the center of the table. Tyrus approached the table and spoke. "Abigail, please go fetch the others for the next stage of training."
Pouring the warm tea into one of the cups. The maid smoothed out her outfit and gave a slight bow. "Yes, Master." With gentle steps, Abigail stepped outside the room. Leaving the two alone.
Tyrus walked over to the table and sat across from his son. "Alright then. Let's go over the details before we go to your next training phase. What do your abilities do?"
"Um…honestly?" Lance put down his sandwich and looked over at his dad. "I don't know how to check."
Tyrus rubbed his brow as he heard that. "Ah. Right. You've never had the ability to check. Open your character sheet. There should be some tabs at the bottom. One of them should be accessible now."
With a slow blink, Lance opened his character sheet. And he saw the four boxes he had seen every time he opened his character sheet. Character Sheet. Skills. Abilities. And techniques.
He chose the abilities tab; Lance was greeted by a brand new window screen.
[Natural Leader]
[+10% Personality. +10% to Command Skill affinity. 10% cost reduction to Command upgrades.]
[Fertility I]
[+100% to fertility. You are blessed by the gods above!]
[Character Sheet] [Skills] [Abilities] [Techniques]
Lance had no idea what any of those descriptions really meant. He relayed the descriptions to his father. He hoped that his father could explain what those things meant. He also described how the two abilities were written in different colored text. Natural Leader was purple. In contrast, Fertility 1 was written in amber text.
Tyrus drank some tea while his son described the effects of his abilities. He almost choked on the tea he was drinking when he got to the second ability. But he quickly cleared his throat to not show weakness. "Your 'Natural Leader' ability will come in handy. The Command skill probably won't seem that impressive to you. However, once you are in charge of your own squad, you will see all the perks that the skill offers. You'll see all the perks the skill holds."
That didn't really explain anything to Lance. So he turned towards his father. He then asked his father the two most pressing questions that were on his mind. "What does it mean when it says 'plus ten percent to personality'? And what's an affinity?"
"Both questions are quite insightful. When calculating your attributes, the points you gain from leveling up and improving your stats aren't the only factors. You can also gain percentages through skills, abilities, boons, etc. Essentially your ability adds ten percent of your effective Personality attribute. Does that make sense?"
Lance sat there for a second, deep in thought. He absolutely did not comprehend what his father was talking about. But something else did connect. "Wait. You get attribute points when you level up? I leveled up this morning!" His father blinked as he looked down in shock at Lance. "I finished the last quest you gave me. And it pushed me over to level two!"
Tyrus looked shocked that so much progress could come so quickly for his son. If that's indeed the case, switch over to your character sheet and focus on your stats." Following his father's instructions, Lance moved over to attributes.
[Power: 5] [Speed: 5] [Body:5 ] [Will: 2] [Brains: 5] [Instinct: 5] [Personality: 6] [Luck: 3]
[Character Sheet] [Skills] [Abilities] [Techniques]
"Weird. My personality stat is higher than it was this morning."
"That's the ten percent from your ability kicking in. Focus on your personality attribute." Lance felt a little heat in his father's voice. So he did as he was asked before asking anything else.
[Total: 6]
[Effective: 5.5]
[Base: 2]
[Added: 3]
[Modifier: 1.1]
He was aware of what his son was looking at. Tryus imparted a math lesson to the boy, one he would typically receive in his later years. "Your stats total is the base plus the additional points. And then multiplied by your modifier. At every level, a celestial dragon gets 6 points to distribute to their attributes. I was able to give you an additional point due to the nature of your training quests. After you assign your points, we can discuss the next part of your training."
The notion of just being able to boost his attributes immediately was very appealing. He shifted his attention towards his attributes. What drew his attention was the fact that his will attribute had not been trained at all. That number and his luck being so much lower made him uncomfortable.
He used five of his seven points to bring those two stats up to five. With those two now at a place he liked. He thought about what he would need most in his training. With how intense it has been. He couldn't imagine he'd need anything more than health. As such, Lance stuck his last two points in the body. Getting him another twenty health points. "Alright, done."
"Good. Then let us get started." Standing up, Tyrus slipped on his gloves. Tyrus placed his cape on the chair he was standing from. "Abigail!" Tyrus commanded.
"Bring in the volunteers." The training hall doors opened to reveal Abigail leading five girls in basic training clothing. Green overalls and white t-shirts and brown combat boots. Five of them in all. They stood on one side of the ritual circle. The ritual circle had been cleaned to form a perfect circle.
"These are five of the new recruits to the guards. I asked their drill sergeant to loan me their services when not training." Tyrus stood in profile in between Lance and the grunts. "Lance. Please stand."
A little confused, Lance finished the last of his sandwich and jumped out of his seat. He walked until he was standing on the other side of the circle. Five young women surrounded him. Most of them probably had five years of age on Lance.
Tyrus began walking around the two groups. Starting by walking around the grunts, he began dictating. "Every day you are going to spar with one of these five grunts. Your goal is to beat each of them in one-on-one combat. They will also not hold back. They will fight you relentlessly until you are knocked unconscious.
Hearing that, Lance looked over the five standing in front of him. All five of them had their hair cut short in the same style. Lance had heard that all the new trainees in the guard received the same haircut. It was a shortcut that didn't leave any room for creativity.
"The five of them will use wooden versions of the weapons they prefer. You will use your fists until you've beaten all of them at least once. Then we'll start training you in the use of axes."
Lance looked at the five girls. Each of the five girls was at least a foot taller than Lance. He would be surprised if he could beat any of them hand-to-hand. He swallowed hard and wore a worried expression about what the next few weeks would bring for him.
Seeing his son's face. Tyrus realized that he was right about his son's lack of drive to train in real combat. He was planning to hold the conversation back. But it was clear Abigail knew more about his son's interests than even he did. "And when you defeat one of them…they will give you a…kiss." Tyrus seemed disgusted by the fact he had to stoop to such a lowbrow tactic.
Lance's heart pounded at the thought. He had never kissed a girl before. And the thought of getting five girls all at the same time… "Y-yea! Ok!" Lance's face changed almost immediately. "Who do I start with?" He looked raring to go. The exhaustion from the rest of the day had faded immediately.
Tyrus almost smirked at how…externally motivated his son was. "Let me see. You, the blue-haired girl." The girl in the middle cracked her knuckles and pulled out a wooden club from her side.
"Yes, my lord Tyrus." The girl approached and began swinging at Lance.
Tyrus took the time to approach Abigail as she watched off to the side. He waited until he was close to speak with her. "I must say I am impressed. You knew exactly how to motivate him."
Abigail smiled as she watched the older girl whack Lance with her wooden club. "Thank you, Master. I take the young master's growth very seriously." She felt her heart beat a bit faster. Her suggestion worked just like she knew it would. So she would take her chance with the question. "Master. I would like to begin training Mary directly. If Mary is to become Lance's property once the young master comes of age, then she'll need all the advantages she can receive.
The Celestial Dragon gave his maid a side eye. She had clearly made a play to garner his respect before she asked for this. He could have her killed just for attempting to do such a thing. But…he would honor his agreement for a bit longer. Besides, if Mary were half as clever as her mother, then it would be all the better for his son. "Fine. But the next time, you attempt to grease me before asking such a question. My wife's arrangement won't save you."
The girl with blue hair pinned Lance to the ground after they shared a quiet moment. As he was sitting with his leg locked, he suddenly looked over to his father. "Oh! Dad, I forgot to ask about my other ability. What does fertility mean?"