*Knock-Knock*
…
*Knock-Knock-Knock*
…
*Knock-Knock-Knock-Knock-Knock-Knock-Knock-Kno…*
“Wha…?” a puffy eyed disheveled woman no one would recognize for the church’s youngest looking nun, opened the door groggily.
“Good morning Mother Dana!” came Nate in a chirpy voice.
“Nathan?!” she blinked, “What are you doing here? The sun isn’t even up!”
“The sun? Pfts…! Who cares about that lazy cretin? I been waiting for him all night, but I lost my patience about an hour ago.”
“You… Are you alright child, you look…?”
“Unhinged? Over-stimulated? Downright giddy?! Yes! I am all of those things and more…! Now begging your pardon.”
“Wait! Wha…?” Sleepy as she was Dana wasn’t fast enough to prevent him for entering her room.
“Weird choice for a coat rack. Someone could hurt his feet with that bulky base it has" Nate commented while stepping over the odd piece of furniture, "where was I? Ah, yes! So, correct me if I am wrong but, from my experience and the repeated study of the books you lend me, I have theorized that all Bronze skills have at least two properties, two superpowers, so to speak…”
“Nathan you can’t just barge in…”
“For example, one skill called Eavesdropping may help you parse out the sounds of human voices from ambient noise and also reconstitute these sounds into recognizable speech! Then another skill called Read, might give you tireless eyesight and help you focus while reading!”
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“Child, please stop and lis…”
“At level one both skills would come with an instinctive understanding of how they work, buuuut as you discover these features and start using them consciously your skill appears to grow in power. This is what levels represent! Not an arbitrary power, but your individual capability to make the best of your skill…!”
“NATHAN! SHUT UP AND STAY STILL!” Dana thundered.
Nate froze like a deer in the headlights. Dana sighed and massaged the bridge of her nose.
“Sit.” She ordered, and Nate jumped to obey, gingerly sitting on the less messy part of her bed, “Now answer me a question and take care to think very carefully before you do; Don’t you see something wrong about this situation?”
Nate looked around, at her bed hair, and the sky barely clearing up outside the window, then winced… He opened his mouth to say something, but someone else charged through the door.
“What is it, Dana!” Olga screamed, brandishing an iron pan against the dark corners of her room, “Monsters?! Kidnapers?! The Imperial cult…?! Oh… is him again… I should have known…”
Olga scowled at a sheepish Nate.
“Lest just… Move this conversation to the kitchen…” Dana sighed, “I need my morning tea for this.”
*
“So,” Dana breathed after a long sip from a steaming cup, “Which deranged god possessed you to believe you could barge into my room like that?”
“Uh… y-yeah… You see, the thing is… Y-you said my next task was to rest until I got better and my arm is still twitchy but my leg isn’t hurting anymore, so I thought that technically counted for…” he risked a glance to the nuns, saw the dangerous looks they were throwing at him from the other side of the table, gulped and changed gears completely, “I stayed up all night thinking about skills and got carried away… I am sorry…”
A deep, loaded silence ensued.
“I am starting to regret making that deal with you.” The red hair nun grunted while massaging her face.
Then something Nate would never had expected happened; Olga laughed.
“What do you find so funny?” Dana squinted at the older woman.
“Nothing much!” she breathed between chortles, “is just…I haven’t saw you this worked up in years! What happened with our unflappable mother?”
“Oh, shut it. It has been a couple of rough days, you know? I can’t always be…”
A deep powerful growl reverberated inside the kitchen, and the bickering women turn to see Nate, whose bewildered face at the unexpected interaction had turned into red embarrassment.
“Ah… Yeah… I also missed dinner last night… and I was kind of hungry…”
