Waypoint statues was one of the most useful features in the game. They had so many uses that helps the players in progressing the game. But unlocking them as waypoints wasn’t easy.

  How would you like to be challenged child?

  By your might?

  By your wisdom?

  By your resolve?

  The statue’s voice rang through his head with a feminine tone, giving him options to choose from. The challenge of might involves a fight, something Ethan wasn’t confident in. Resolve required him to sacrifice something to get a slightly better reward, which was something Ethan wasn’t comfortable with. That left him with the challenge of knowledge, something Ethan felt confidence in since he already completed the game twice.

  What kind of herb is used for the elixir used for the core formation of a Paladin?

  Ethan rubbed his chin in thought for a moment. Core formation was something that wasn’t available until later into the game, so hearing it this early meant the statues no longer considered the stage of the game for their challenges.

  Core formations had different processes for each class in the game. For a paladin, an elixir and a divine ritual was involved. And to make that elixir, the wyrm tail flower was needed.

  “A wyrm tail flower,” Ethan answered.

  The statue clasped its hand together as its whole body began to shine. With a flash of blinding light, the statue returned to normal, and three items floated in front of Ethan. Since the challenged no longer adjusted itself depending on the progression rate of the story, the rewards didn’t as well.

  The first item was the elixir mentioned in the question. The divine elixir that was used for the ritual of a paladin. Next was a scroll with a knight’s vow, an item used to upgrade the swordsman class to the knight class. Lastly, a skill stone for Loyalty to the lord.

  Loyalty to the lord is a skill exclusive to knights that gave them a huge boost in stats whenever they were fighting for the person they served. It was a powerful skill that even Ethan planned on obtaining at some point in the future. He was just lucky to get it now.

  “What just happened?”

  Ethan turned around to see Angela standing at the porch of the house.

  “Looks like I have some explaining to do...”

  The night before his 18th birthday, Ethan sat in front of the stone statue once again, waiting as seconds ticked by before midnight.

  The golden letters of his profile hovered in front of him as he waited for midnight to arrive. It didn’t take long for the moment he was waiting for.

  New Avatar (0%) – Create an avatar of yourself.

  Avatars: 0/1

  He could finally use the skill the god gave him. “I waited 18 years for this,” Ethan muttered as he tried activating the skill.

  Ethan expected as customization screen to appear in front of him so he could create a new avatar. Instead, an exact replica of Ethan appeared right before him. A young man with short black hair, purple eyes, lean fit build, and a handsome face.

  Ethan was a bit disappointed that he couldn’t customize the avatar, but maybe it was an option in the future when his proficiency increased.

  “Can you speak?” Ethan asked.

  “Yes,” the avatar answered.

  Ethan nodded in approval. “Do you have any abilities?” Ethan was pretty sure that the new avatar would have nothing since it counted as a brand-new player.

  The avatar responded by placing a hand on the statue. To Ethan’s surprise, the avatar had the same starting skills as him, except for the divine skill. Additionally, the avatar had no name.

  “Can I name you?” Ethan asked and the avatar nodded. He rubbed his chin in thought, thinking of what name he could give another human being that looked exactly like him. Ethan also needed to consider the future of the avatar.

  The build this avatar would get was likely related to a paladin since he already had the materials to create a knight and an elixir for a paladin, so Ethan put that into consideration as he was coming up with a name.

  An idea popped into his head. In his previous life, Ethan was named after a movie character from a famous movie franchise, giving him the last name Hunt, so why not keep it and add a knight-like name too but keeping it similar to his.

  “I’ll call you Evan Hunt.”

  Name: Evan Hunt

  Race: Human

  Class: None

  Core: None

  Passive skills: 1/5

  Quick learner (Max) – Proficiency gains is increased by 50%

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  Active skills: 0/5

  “Now... how am I supposed to hide you?”

  Ethan thanked the god that sent him here that he could summon and unsummon his avatar at will. Otherwise, he would need to explain another strange occurrence to Angela.

  “Do you have everything young master?” Angela asked.

  Ethan nodded as he glanced at his luggage. The only thing he would be bringing was the last set of clothes that were given to him by his father, the rest would be left in the house that he had been living in for nearly two decades.

  Ethan almost felt emotional now that he was leaving this place.

  “The carriage is here,” Angela said and as if on cue, a wooden carriage came out of the forest.

  The coachman was a middle-aged man with tan skin and a bald head. “Young master,” the man bowed his head.

  Ethan nodded at the man and got on the carriage. It was a pretty average carriage that was commonly used for cargo. It wasn’t something you would expect to be used to pick up someone that was supposed to be a noble, but he didn’t expect much from his father that he hasn’t even met.

  As the carriage went on its way, Ethan finally got a glimpse of what was within the forest that surrounded the place he called home. There wasn’t a clear path, but a trail had been created, probably by the numerous times that a carriage passed here. Ethan also noticed a concerningly lacking number of wildlife, making him wonder about the ecosystem of this forest. Though, he did encounter some animals while living in the clearing, so maybe they were just hiding.

  “How long until we have to get off?” Ethan asked.

  “It shouldn’t be long, young master,” Angela answered. “Our first trip to the house took fifteen minutes.”

  That didn’t seem far considering how slow the carriage was going. Ethan patiently waited until they were out of the forest. And once they exited the forest, Ethan saw a grand mansion that made his old house look like a hut in comparison in the distance.

  Though, they weren’t going towards the mansion, instead, they got on the path that followed the edge of the estate walls. They were getting closer to the gate of the estate, where Ethan could see a group of people. There were three people wearing extravagant clothing and a bunch of servants behind them.

  Once they were a bit closer, the carriage stopped and allowed them to get off. “Madam,” Angela bowed at the woman at the front of the group.

  The madam was a mature woman with long brown hair with spirals and wore a frilly yellow dress.

  “Young masters,” Angela greeted the young woman and young man that stood on each side of the madam.

  Judging from their appearance, they were his half-siblings. Both had black hair and purple eyes like him. The young man wore a white suit and black pants with the emblem of a silver wolf on its shoulders. The young lady wore a similar suit but with a white skirt instead.

  They didn’t seem to care about Angela as they didn’t even react to her greetings, instead, they were keeping their eyes on Ethan who just stared back without a care.

  “So,” the madam spoke first. “This is my husband’s bastard.”

  Ethan didn’t bother to respond to the clear insult and just glanced outside of the estate gates. Unlike the people standing in front of him that looked at him with disdain and disgust. There was another woman outside of the gate that was watching him in concern and longing as she stood there nervously fidgeting. If Ethan had to guess, that woman was likely his biological mother in this world.

  The fact that she even showed up gave a good first impression.

  “Mother is talking to you!” Ethan felt someone grab him by the collar of his shirt.

  It seemed that while he was focused on observing his surroundings, the madam had been yapping about how he was just some bastard and Ethan hadn’t been listening and took offence to that. His half-brother seemed to be quite strong as he lifted Ethan off the ground.

  But Ethan had a larger mana pool.

  Ethan sent out his mana like a wave. One of the guards reacted and immediately pulled away his half-brother to a safe distance. Nobody else reacted, so the guard was probably the only person present that could sense mana.

  The other people present seemed confused by the guard’s actions, while the guard himself just kept his eyes on Ethan. What Ethan did wasn’t exactly threatening, but it would have resulted in disorienting anyone nearby that couldn’t control their mana yet.

  Ethan only learned how to control mana, so even if he wanted to cast magic, he didn’t know any spells. But that didn’t stop him from making them think that he was going to use magic when being threatened. That's why the guard reacted.

  While everyone was confused, Ethan walked out of the estate gates where the woman who had been watching the scene in concern finally rushed towards Ethan and trapped him in a tight hug.

  “My son!” she sobbed.

  It was bit of an awkward situation since they were still visible through the estate gate and the other group was still present. But that didn’t last long as the madam and her children left with a disgusted look on their faces.

  When his mother finally released him, she led him to a much nicer carriage than the one that he rode on the way here. “Let’s go home son,” his mother said as she wiped some of her tears. “And don’t keep her waiting,” his mother said while glancing behind him.

  Ethan turned around to see Angela standing behind him. In all honesty, Ethan expected that Angela wouldn’t leave with him since was originally a servant of the Raystrom family and was only tasked with taking care of him. She never even stopped referring to him as “young master” even when they started sleeping together.

  He was definitely happy about this development though.

  During the carriage ride, Ethan got to know his biological mother. Her name was Leah Carmine and was seamstress in a small village outside of the Viscounty.

  She had short brown hair and black eyes. She wore casual clothes but still looked quite presentable as she drove the carriage. She definitely had the looks to seduce a noble like his father, which explained his birth.

  She saved up a lot of money to buy the carriage they were on and learned how to drive it just so he was comfortable when she picked him up.

  It was a bit awkward when they tried making small talk. His mother asked a lot of questions to try get to know him better, but Ethan didn’t have much to say since he did nothing but train and answering anything that was related to his past life would make Angela suspicious since she had been with him nearly all the time in that prison of a house.

  After about six hours in the carriage, they finally arrived at the village where his mother lived. A log wall surrounded the village with guards standing at the entrance.

  “Welcome back Leah,” one of the guards greeted them. “This your son?” he asked as he glanced inside the carriage.

  Leah nodded.

  The guard shrugged. “At least he looks more like your old man than that prick that got you pregnant.”

  That was news to him. Ethan actually didn’t know what Viscount Raystrom looked like since in the game, he always wore a helmet in the few times he was shown, and he never met him in this life. He thought that he actually owed his handsome face in this life to him. Turns out it was from his mother’s side.

  Once they passed the gate, Ethan was greeted by a simple village with wooden and a few stone houses. Only a minute later after entering the village, they arrived at their new home.

  “I’ll return the horse to the stables,” Leah told them as they got off the carriage. “I’ll be back shortly.”

  Ethan nodded. As his mother left with the horse, he looked around his new home. The house itself was made of wood and had two stories. There was a large window by the door and seemed to resemble a counter.

  Everything else was pretty simple. Still, Ethan felt like he’d have a better life here compared to the house he was confined in for nearly two decades.

  “I can live with this.”