Cursed Explorer of the Arcana

The whole complex-sounding story with wacky twists and reasoning is fairly simple in the end. You can shape your future. The System knows what you wish for and follows your journey giving you what you desire and the harder you work the greater the outcome. That’s it.

This conclusion came from Nia’s mom who, seeing our confused faces, decided to explain things in average people’s terms. Less thinking is sometimes more thinking.

“And what about magic?” Connie asks.

She’s right, every class has an element. More on that. MORE!

“Haha, right. I’m no mage, neither am I a researcher but...” A small and weirdly loud cough from Nia’s mom cuts him off. “i-it’s getting late so I’ll keep it simple.”

“Aww, c’mon this is the best part.” I voice my complaint.

“And the knowledge won’t disappear just because I didn't tell you today. Besides, you could just ask your parents, this is basic know-how.” He dodges my attempt at goading him into spilling what he knows.

“So, there are fifteen types of mana that we know of. Yes, I said it like that on purpose, you can never assume you know everything. I won’t go into too much detail on this, just the part about every class coming with an element. There are no impossible combinations, just more useless ones. A Swimmer could have the fire element as wacky as that sounds, or a Blacksmith wielding the water element.”

Those are some really stupid examples, although… Is it possible to swim in fire? Or craft water? Who says it can’t be done?

“There are better and worse matchups of course and every element has a distinct strong point.” He stands up and prepares to leave. “Oh and one more tip, kids. We might not know where the Journey Guide originates from and the Gods are unwilling to share this secret with us, but one thing is for certain. Its limits are beyond our mortal minds. Be daring, allow yourselves to dream as those dreams might become reality.” He winks. “Have a good night.”

He leaves, just like that? We demand more stories, and more juicy tips, this is about our future for the love of the Gods. I had my hopes up that his explanation might help me find what I expect from my future. Yet here I am, maybe even more clueless than before.

“Up and into bed, ankle biters. It's plenty late already.” Nia’s mother arrives, enforcer of discipline, destroyer of fun.

Is it like a motherly responsibility to ruin fun and dish out punishment?

It might actually be…

Dad rarely does it and every time he’s dissatisfied with me he doesn’t scold me directly but by threatening to tell Mom about what I did.

We wordlessly scuttle into the guest room, where some fluffy furs and blankets are placed on the ground for us to sleep. It’s basically a kids' paradise, with blankets and pillows everywhere. Pillow houses, blanket mounds, Eden.

“No playing around, sleep time is for, as in its name, sleeping! If I hear anything louder than one of you snoring we’ll have problems. Sleep well, children.” The woman closes the door and we’re enshrouded in absolute darkness.

Well, there’s still a bit of moonlight forcing its way through the curtain and some brightness sneaking in under the door… Still, if someone describes it like that, it feels totally uncool.

We huddle together, using the others as pillows or just to have a tickle fight and see who can last longer without making a sound.

“What element do you like the most and why?” Frans whispers, starting something cheeky as usual.

The discussion dodged the topic of elements because reciting the fifteen of them is more basic than being able to read. Quite literally, a lot of people never make the effort.

They are Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Light, Dark, Space, and Time, sheesh there are way too many of them, Life, Void, Lightning, Metal, Gravity, and Nature. Oh and lastly pure, unattuned mana. Arcane.

Wielding magic comes down to three main things namely Skills, Element and Visualisation. Without your class being a certain element, without Skills to guide your mana and without having the thing you want imagined properly stuff doesn’t work.

“Metal, or Space.” Jappo says. “Metal for Gold Magic and space to store my money.”

Okay, that’s lame as hell. There are infinite things you could do with magic and that's your answer?

“Dark for sure and… Wind or Metal… maybe Gravity.” Connie muses. “To do things stealthily obviously. The Queen of the Darkest Nights… yeah.”

And I thought her brother was cringe, I literally have goosebumps just from listening. The image and goal are fine, I’m not one to judge but the way she described it… Yuck.

“Wind, maybe Nature, and shut it, I’m pretty sure mom can hear everything.” Nia whispers as quietly as she can.

“You’re damn right about that.” An unexpected yell comes from the kitchen.

“Fire or Lightning.” Frans splutters his part.

Me? I don’t know.

I don’t even know how the others can choose. How can one put one element above the others… It’s like having to choose between mom and dad. Like, okay, someone high enough level can wield three elements… out of the FIFTEEN!! Whoever created the System must have no friends, forcing this stupid choice onto people. They must be a lonely sour grumpy goblin.

“Eli?” Frans asks, as daring as ever.

“All of them.” I say half-heartedly to make him shut up.

I don't actually feel tired, the question about which element I’d choose living rent-free in my head, bumping around and causing mayhem inside.

The internal debate continues for Gods know how long before the steady breaths of my friends finally drag me to sleep.

***

Being woken up by someone elbowing you in the rib isn’t among the methods I consider sweet or gentle, yet that’s exactly what happens. Nia was always restless even in her sleep.

I groan and turn over in the kid pile trying and failing to fall back to sleep. Since I’m already up my body functions kick in.

“I need to pee,” I mutter and free myself of the limbs around me.

I’m not careful whatsoever when moving around, if I’m up it's only fair that they don’t get to keep snoozing either. I open the door to leave and catch a glimpse of all the parents sitting in the kitchen chatting over tea.

“Finally, it’s almost noon.” Dad shakes his head. “Your mother is going to skin us alive if it takes any longer. Oh and good morning Eli.”

I’m familiar with that list of priorities, I wouldn’t have done it any differently either.

Without saying a word I go and relieve myself before stumbling back into the kitchen still half asleep.

“Home?” I ask.

“Are the others up?” Calan asks.

“Yeah? Maybe. They should be.” I mutter while rubbing my eyes.

This is none of my concern anymore, getting home is.

We say our goodbyes and thanks for yesterday's dinner and make our way back home.

“Did you have fun and learn anything interesting?” Dad asks since I no longer yawn constantly.

“Yeah, although I’m not any closer to figuring out what I want to be.”

***

Mom was surprisingly chill even though we arrived home a little late. My assigned chores won’t do themselves and she’d probably want in on the discussion we had last night.

It’s like a parent’s thing to be jealous if others teach something to their child. Even between couples. Especially mom.

The laundry duty consisted of me hauling the clothes and a washing board all the way to the nearest well since I can’t use seawater, some soap the old woman sells at the market and scrub. It’s tiresome and boring work even with the added company of mostly women, like nine out of ten times.

Some other chores were also delegated to me, nothing too complicated or outside of my capabilities. Basic cleaning, helping with cooking, cleaning the dishes and so on.

Neither of my parents are well versed in actual laborer work. Mom can sew a bit and that’s it. Anything outside of our scope of skills is done by hired workers, people with actual classes and skills for the job.

We don’t look down on them or anything, quite the opposite. I often wish I could have their Skills to help with my day-to-day life.

Dad is also just as good at housework as you’d expect any other hunter to be. Although, his cooking skills could be considered slightly above average. Mom… she earns well, that’s all there needs to be said. I’m not good with money, as in I’ve never even spent a single copper on anything. I was told that any merchant would scam even the hair off my head if I tried to haggle and so I can only guess on the grand scale of things.

Although If it was really that much I wouldn't have to do laundry work…

Do better Mom! C’mon!

On the topic of mom’s job, it does come with its own benefits. If I were to become an adventurer or whatever she is, I could use magic, I could explore and… I don’t like the rest of it.

The pay is uncertain, the luxuries are straight-up nonexistent and worst of all it’s dangerous. I don’t mind getting hurt, I’m no pansy but if I have the chance to avoid pain I’ll sure as hell take it. Besides, there’s little to no creative aspect to the work. Making things sounds just… cool. Spell scrolls, magic gear, or even less combat-focused and magical things. Just stuff where you can be proud of your handiwork.

Dad’s job is off the table, straight away, not even considered. Boring, dangerous, and messy. I have no idea why someone would even consider being a hunter, although if Nia was less of a softie it would kinda match her ideals.

The fun in the park and most of my free time are canceled for two more days, the repercussions of carelessly fishing. Was it worth it? Eh, not really, no. The food and company were good and I had a lot of fun. On the other hand, losing multiple days of free time is… more, timewise.

Dinner time is fast approaching once again and mom is preparing to flaunt her cooking skills. This is my chance to redeem myself and earn some cookie points. Praise her effort, some affirming words about the quality of her food can make any woman melt, especially mothers. I have to be careful though not to overdo it, as that can backfire.

And so after washing myself and cleaning up the table I just sit there like a good little girl chewing over the words to sweet talk mom into lessening my punishment.

She’s good at dealing with me doing stupid things, I'm good at avoiding consequences, we’ve both been doing this for seven years now after all.

Dad plops down next to me and stretches. He’s acting all old and tired, despite doing no more than the bare minimum today and being an elf. He’s incredibly young by elf standards, being only sixty… something years old when their lifespan is closer to seven HUNDRED!

He leans forward, and props his head up, looking at Mom with dreamy eyes as she dances around the kitchen. This part is still cute; but when they take things any further than this… that’s when it gets gross.

It isn't long before tonight’s main attraction is revealed.

“Meatballs?” I ask, a bit confused.

This is what took her so long?

“Don’t judge yet. Fill your plates and give it a try.” She looks just like a kid showing off.

We do as we're told and both take our first bite. Inside… there’s… jam? The sweet raspberry jam mixed with the salty meat, well, I like to keep things clean and simple. And even so, this somehow works.

As it is an unwritten rule in this house we eat in silence. No chit-chat, nothing.

This leads to us wolfing down the food even faster and leading to more time for conversations after the meal.

“Mom, that was heavenly.” I start off strong.

“She isn’t exaggerating honey, you’ve done it this time.” Nice one Dad.

Mom tries to hide her satisfaction and to act nonchalantly. Her acting skills are piss poor.

It’s blatantly obvious how pleased she is and how much these words mean to her. This is one of the examples of why I think a crafting class is valid. I wanna feel like that, have that satisfaction, the proudness.

“Enough of the verbal bribery. Tell us, Eli, what wonders did you learn about?” Mom veers the conversations off with the smug smile still clinging to her face.

I tell them everything I learned from Nia’s dad even though they surely know them already they still attentively listen to my words.

“And did you manage to come up with any good options?” Mom asks.

“No, not really. Fighting is… acceptable I guess but I’d also like to explore things and make stuff. I still don’t have anything specific in mind.” I shrug.

“What about being an enchanter or scholar?” Dad proposes.

“Or adventurer?” Mom asks carefully.

“Dad, your ideas are mostly sitting jobs and Mom… I’m still thinking about it.”

“It’s okay sweetie. Our parents didn’t force anything on us and we don’t want to with you either.” Mom says.

“We just want you to have a goal so you don’t regret your choice, you still have time and we're here to support you.” Dad adds.

I’m lucky to have them.