An Unborn Hero

A pensive [Field Medic]—hastily retrieved from the mess hall, where he'd been trying to talk the staff into serving him an unprofessional amount of beer—invoked his skills on Kellela once more, this time for a different purpose.

"No sign of a second heartbeat, so there's certainly no parasite in there with a conventional circulatory system. And sorry John, but that means there's no pregnancy either, or if there is, it's well under two months old. As for something else... There's no second source of vitality I can detect, even if that's not exactly my speciality. No abnormalities in your own metabolic processes, either, and picking that up is. I'd expect an immune response, or a lowered blood sugar concentration if something else was feeding from it. There should be something. If you're pregnant, you're within the first couple of weeks. If it's something else, it's damn good at hiding. I suggest you get a second opinion from someone with a better vitality sense than mine if you want to make sure."

"Don't look at me," shrugged one of the guards, in response to a silent question posed by a glance from the [Royal Knight]. "My speciality is looking for people trying to mask their vitality, not people who don't need to mask it on account of hiding away inside a far greater vitality source."

"I think we can rule out a pregnancy being responsible," sighed the [Royal Knight]. "An unborn child certainly has no name, but neither could they possibly be earning achievements or breaking into heavily warded prisons. Even more so at less than two weeks old."

"The timing matches up, though," said Hayedalf. "I first detected the scrying about a week and a half ago."

"What if it's the baby that's possessed?" suggested John.

"Can't say I've ever met an evil spirit who—given the choice between a rich, powerful beauty with boobs like that, or a week old embryo—would choose to possess the embryo," shrugged the [Exorcist], ogling Kellela until Hayedalf grabbed his head and politely but firmly twisted it to point in a different direction.

"Maybe they thought the baby was less defended?"

"Nah, it's the opposite if anything," said the [Field Medic]. "Not only is it completely cocooned inside Kellela, and thus inaccessible, but it would be so weak at that age that anything that tried to interact with it would just kill it instead."

The [Royal Knight] drummed his fingers on the desk, the cups of tea on it long since cold. "So we still have no explanation. Or rather, every explanation can be ruled out by the information we possess. Kellela being a traitor, under possession, parasitised, under mental manipulation or being utilised as a scrying proxy. That being the case, we must possess incorrect information. Logic dictates that the option that requires us to throw away the least number of independent facts is the most likely. Then I suppose we must suspect Kellela of being mentally manipulated into performing acts of espionage while having no awareness of her actions."

"What?!" exclaimed Hayedalf. "What are you accusing my wife of? And how does that explain the achievements? Isn't this drugged-up priest being wrong about the possession more likely?"

"I didn't accuse your wife of anything. In fact, I explicitly acknowledged her innocence. And I said independent facts. After all, if someone got to your wife, they could equally have got to you, so in this scenario your information about the infallibility of the Recorder is suspect. Possession, on the other hand, would imply the spirit in question possessed your wife with zero skills of any rarity, given the acquisition of [First Skill] and [Early Bloomer I] after the event. I do not believe that's possible. The [Exorcist] was merely an independent confirmation."

The independent confirmation burped, having long since lost interest in the conversation, and instead was focussed on the pretty purple hedgehogs that were dancing around the window.

"Now you're accusing me of being compromised?" snapped Hayedalf.

"I'm simply saying it is the most plausible option I can see. I would be pleased to be proven wrong, but until I obtain independent confirmation of the infallibility of the Recorder, I must insist that the pair of you remain under armed watch and do not leave your home."

The hero missed the aftermath of her brief exploration of the inside of an enchantment. Instead, she waited in her blastocyst, recovering.

"Hey, system or whatever you are. Are you listening?" she thought, as loudly as she could.

No response came.

"Look, you snarked at me. You changed your mind about how many skill levels you were giving me, and then got all sarcastic about it, so it's a bit late to start pretending to be a dumb computer now."

There continued to be no response.

"Fine. Maybe you're just not telepathic, and it's not as if I have vocal cords yet. I feel up to moving again now, so I suppose I should check on Mum."

The hero gingerly poked her soul out, checking the coast was clear. Thankfully, no resistance or pain came, so she popped out and looked around. She found herself back in her parents' estate, in the bedroom, with her mother lying face down on her bed, bandages wrapped around her torso and arms.

"Ouch... She looks injured, and it's light out, too, not nighttime. She must have fought to escape after I got her magic back, and now she's resting. Good for you, Mum. Justice prevails!"

Had the hero looked further, she'd have spotted a pair of knights standing outside the bedroom door, wearing the exact same armour as the 'kidnappers'. Alas, for now, she remained convinced that she'd successfully saved her, and wasn't at all aware that she was the cause of all her mother's problems in the first place.

"Being able to see is a good start, but I really need some way of communication. I could have warned Mum. And I need to be able to hear too, because I had no idea what was going on."

Of course, the hero was neglecting to account for language difficulties. Even had she been able to send a message to Kellela, she would have responded simply by sprinting into her home. After all, if someone started hearing indecipherable voices with no visible source, their first reaction would be to get to a place of safety. Or possibly a secure psychiatric hospital.

Nevertheless, the hero wasn't completely incorrect. Being able to hear was the first step to learning the local language. She drifted over to the window, pleased to find that her [Soul's Eye] was now high enough level to see birds sitting in the trees. Watching someone speaking would be better, but her mum was sleeping, so watching birds chirp would have to do. She sat focused on them, watching their beaks open and close, and doing her best to imagine the sounds coming from them.

Another assumption the hero was making was that just because they looked like Earth birds, they made the same noises as them, too. That assumption turned out to be correct, and had the hero thought things through a little further, she'd have wondered how this planet had humans and birds and generally looked rather Earth-like.

ding
You have devoted several hours of your life to giving yourself synaesthesia, upgrading [Soul's Eye] with [Sense Sound]. Level cap of [Soul's Eye] increased by 10.
For observing a new aspect of reality, [Soul's Eye] advances to level 16.

The hero peered out at the birds, which now appeared to be spewing deeply coloured clouds from their beaks. A large, black-feathered bird emitted big puffs of blue and purple. A smaller, red-breasted bird fired staccato bullets of yellow. The trees they were sitting on were bathed in a green haze, increasing in intensity each time the wind blew, rustling their leaves.

"What the hell?!"

Sense Sound (Common)
Not all the life on Vyluurn is blessed with ears. For those who are deaf, or have no physical form at all, interacting with the less-magical races that depend on the crude vibration of air to communicate requires alternative arrangements. This sub-skill will let you detect such sounds.

Of course, not all life on the planet was Earth-like.

"Okay, it's nice that every time I try to do something it works, but it always works wrong. I wanted to be able to hear, not to see sounds!"

The complaints of the hero—who herself was still some time away from owning functional ears—went unheard.

"Also, what's Vyluurn? Is that the name of this planet? I suppose I should be thankful to the system for feeding me little snippets of information like that."

If the system was listening, it would have complained that she should also be thankful for all the ridiculous skills it was giving her.

The hours it had taken to earn that sub-skill were enough that Kellela had started to stir, feeling the call of nature. Of course, her condition was such that she couldn't move on her own, so she called for Hayedalf, instantly grabbing the hero's attention with the complex patterns of colour that filled the room.

Hayedalf entered shortly afterwards, helping her upright and giving his support as she walked slowly to their en-suite. And, of course, they spoke as they walked.

The hero stared at the patterns, flickers of a hundred colours swirling from each of them. Of course, she had no idea what any of them meant, but that would have been equally true even if she could hear normally. She stared at their lips, trying to grasp the sounds that corresponded to the patterns, but comprehending them seemed like a distant dream.

ding
For sensing language for the first time, [Soul's Eye] advances to level 17.

"I'm very familiar with language, thank you very much," complained the hero, before pausing and making the obvious connection. "Which you bloody well know; you keep sending me messages! Why would you do that if you didn't think I could read them?"

What the pair were actually talking about were their plans for the future. They both knew they were innocent, and there hadn't been any suggestion that the guards of the capital thought differently, but they were still suspected of being compromised. On top of that, Kellela had been paraded through the streets of the capital in chains, escorted by an eye-catching collection of guardsmen. She should be in work, but was stuck under house arrest. Likewise, as the kingdom's foremost enchanter, Hayedalf's time was in high demand, and he was being forced to miss appointments too. Innocent or not, the reputations of both of them were in tatters.

"A nice, quiet life in the country is sounding good right now," opined Hayedalf.

"Yeah. Away from royal guards, Artefacts and anything anyone might want to spy on."

"Hey, you're assuming there's some ulterior motive. Maybe spying on us in bed was the whole point? Someone just wanted some tips from the experts?"

Kellela snorted. "You? An expert?"

"Talented amateur?"

"Keep pretending. But at least you put the effort in."

"If we're both out of our jobs, at least I'll get more time to practise."

"Hah. Always one to look on the bright side. But yeah, the way people were looking at me earlier... I'm not sure I can face going back to work, and the research wasn't getting anywhere, anyway. Heck; maybe that's what this is all about. It's not as if anyone could have got valuable intelligence from me, so maybe getting rid of us is the point. I can't think why anyone would want me gone, but you? There's a dozen enchanting shops in the capital that would probably give good money to see your reputation destroyed."

"Nah. I thought of that, but I don't see how any of them could pull this off. This isn't their style, anyway. When one of those lower nobles decides I'm eating into their profits, they try bribes and very ambiguous threats. They're always careful to stay on the correct side of the law, however finely they tread it."

"Well, if you're sure... That makes me feel less bad about leaving. Wouldn't want to give them the satisfaction otherwise. Whereabouts, though? Somewhere nice and quiet sounds good. Don't you have family south of here? Warmer down there, too."

"Yeah. Actually, I was thinking Karn's Vigil."

"What? Why there? I know it's peaceful at the moment, but it's still the border of the demonic forest."

"Actually, monsters have been roaming out of the forest more often the last couple of years. It's got a lot of farmers down there spooked, so land prices are way down. But they're only weaklings. I could ward the place easily, and there's nothing there that would be a threat to either of us. We could get a massive estate with acres of land for the price of this place, and the higher mana leaking from the forest would benefit us both. Not to mention the adventurers working there will be a good market for me to sell to."

"Okay, they're very good points, but still, demonic forest. Neither of us are fighters."

"It's not like we're going to go in there ourselves," he shrugged. "Besides, if a new demon lord had been born, a new hero would have too."

"Perhaps they have. It's not like any kingdom would publicly announce discovery of a new hero prior to them levelling enough to fight."

"No, but we'd have seen signs like increased army recruitment and training."

"Fine. I'll think about it."

Spoiler

Unnamed Human
Age: -9 months
Occupation: Hero (L)
Skills:
- Soul's Eye (U) (17/60)
>> Sense Vitality (U)
>> Sense Soul (R)
>> Sense Mana (U)
>> Sense Light (C)
>> Sense Sound (C)
- Astral Projection (U) (9/20)
>> Sure Navigation (U)
- Robust (C) (7/30)
>> Hardened Soul (R)
>> Secured Mana (U)
Achievements:
- Early Bloomer I (U)
- First Skill (C)
- Novice (C)
- Survivor of Zarklaxxos, the Arcane Infernal (R)
- I Broke The System, And All I Got Was This Lousy Achievement (E)

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