Fiona

Fiona turned the page of a very thick book (she was always reading). She looked up and then back to her book. Magic Formula's, symbols and runes covered each page.

"If you get a skill from—you know—above. Do you really need to study?"

Fiona closed her eyes and shut the book. She was only four years old than me and two years younger than Matilda, but she was far more intelligent than us.

"James," she said (was lucky enough to keep my name), "If you believe everything that dull priest tells you. Your mind is going to rot."

I leaned in. "I did some more experiments."

Her eyebrows perked up. "And?"

"I learned everything in seconds. No practice nothing."

"You learned everything they knew you mean?"

"Yeah, yeah."

"Interesting."

"Can I try on—"

"No!" She stood up and then nervously looked around and sat back down. "I mean no. I don't have any skills. That's why I'm studying."

She picked up the book and headed off down an aisle. The library in our village wasn't extensive, but it had a sizeable collection. Most of the books were donated by a head librarian (a retired wizard).

I don't know why Fiona was so adamant against me copying her skill. She was okay with me copying from others, but she was off-limits. That didn't stop me, though.

"Status," I whispered, and a blue screen appears before me. I glanced at my level, which was stuck at one. My stats covered six groups (everyone's stats covered these five groups)—Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Growth.

The first five are your usual RPG stats. Strength dictating how much muscle strength you have. Dexterity, how much muscle endurance and agility. Intelligence is a bit tricky, and the same can be said for Wisdom. Intelligence dictates how well you can take in information, understand it, and then put said information into practice. Wisdom deals with experience, how much you can pull from your experience and learn from it.

Growth is the only one that stuck out to me. It determined how fast you levelled and how many stat points you gain from each level. Remember when Genesis said that the god of this world needs to uphold a balance. He couldn't give me anything I wanted even though he said he could. That still applies now. Most people's growth is about one to 1.5 times, but mine is negative four times. A pretty fair balance, compared to what would have happened if I asked for the ability to be talented in everything. I'm pretty sure it would have affected my life expectancy.

I tapped the skill tab. Three folders appeared; Life skills, Battle Skills, and Magic. I needed to organize my skills; they were growing a bit out of control. I pulled up the skill [Ultimate Elemental Magic Control]. It was the only skill Fiona had aside from [Mana Manipulation] and [Mana Mediation].

It was an S rank skill that controls all elements down to their basic level. This is a big deal because when one is born, they have a particular affinity with one element; Fire, Water, Wind or Earth. Learning any other elemental spells that weren't your birth element proved to be a difficult task. Fiona's skill allows her to learn all element spells with increased talent without drawbacks. In my hands (with a negative four growth), it was the equivalent of an overweight man trying to lose weight, but he doesn't change his diet.

My dear sister was hiding quite the skill. You probably noticed by now that some skills are earned, and some are blessed. The local priest prefers people to believe the latter. Matilda didn't have any secret skill, just swordsmanship she learned from our father. Fiona was the only one I knew that was blessed.

It was the only skill that I copied that I couldn't use. I tapped the skilled, and another screen appeared. It usually told me what I needed to use the skill, but now only question marks appeared on the screen.

If had known what Fiona was going to do. I wonder if I would've told her anything. Keeping secrets is what destroyed my relationship in my old life. I told myself I wasn't going to do that again.

I told her what I had done, and that sealed my fate. Remember, this is a growing story, and you only grow when you've experienced your first death.