Julia ran around the town like an uncontrollable child.
“What’s this? What’s that? All this is so different, oh my gosh!” Julia shouted as she excitedly picked up a lemon, something imported from the eastern continent, the merchant looking at the overly excited girl and towards Henrek.
“I’m sorry, she’s uh, excited.” Henrek apologised as he pulled Julia back.
“Can you calm down a little? You're scaring everyone.” Henrek chastised, but Julia slipped out, stuck her tongue out at her brother and ran off into an alleyway.
“Currently she just has her legacy skill run away and the tier 1 skills of increased athletics, acrobatics and healing.” Utarou noted as he caught up with Henrek.
“And she’s very over-stimulated right now! Can we slow down a bit please?! Can you tell her to slow down!” Henrek exasperatedly begged as he waved towards the roof that Julia had clambered on top of.
“I’M QUEEN OF THE WORLD! WOOHOO!” Julia shouted at the top of her lungs.
“No can do, as soon as we brought BJ-”
“Junior” Henrek corrected.
“- Back to his parents she’d already wasted some skill points.” Utarou sighed as Julia jumped across buildings and towards the Avoisian Church Vicar John had constructed.
“You weren’t trying particularly hard to stop her.” Henrek grumbled as he ran through the street to try and catch up with Julia.
May’s new recipe had healed Julia’s body fully though it was something of a brutal rebirth for her given how much of her needed to be healed, and Barney Junior hadn’t stopped crying until he was brought home by Hope.
She had the same brown hair and dull eyes as her brother, though her skin was still porcelain white, and her body was no longer emaciated though was clearly on the edge of what could be a healthy skinny weight.
Now they were visiting the Vicar for some guidance, which Utarou was planning on using to help inform his plans. Vicars were important spiritual guides, and spirituality in this world included the skill tree.
“HURRY UP YOU TWO! I’m feeling like a trillion zillion million gold coins right now!” Julia exclaimed as she jumped a particularly large gap, tripped and fell onto the slanted roof of the church.
“JULIA!” Henrek screamed as he quickly cut through the wrought iron gates and prepared to save his sister from falling to the ground.
“Relax, I’m fine…” Julia pouted as she got up and jumped down, landing slightly wobbly as she nursed a cut on her elbow, ears perking up as she quickly checked her menu to see she’d gained another skill point just as Utarou ran up, panting heavily from the slight jog.
“See! Told you that was a good idea!” Julia smirked as she punched Henrek in the shoulder.
“You’ve gone crazy…” Henrek groaned as he ripped off a piece of his shirt and used it to tie the small cut on Julia’s arm.
“I feel alive! I’ve spent nearly twenty years either stuck in bed or in a chair! I want to run! Spin! Jump! I wanna go Dragon hunting with you! I want to see beyond the hills! ARGHHH! I’m soo excited~!” Julia squealed.
“A-a-and you can do all of that… just… please… stop… getting skills without… asking me… first…” Utarou wheezed as Vicar John approached the trio, a disappointed look painting his face as he saw the hole in his nice iron fence that Henrek had just made.
“Fine fine fine! But c’mon you gotta admit that was pretty cool!” Julia said as she placed her hands on her hips proudly.
“I see the young Porak has recovered… Quite dramatically it seems as well.” Vicar John said as he noted the mud on his roof.
“Porak?” Utarou asked.
“It’s our last name, I told you when I… Whatever it doesn’t matter. Vicar, we need your guidance.” Henrek asked, quickly looking back at the broken fence.
“I’ll have the guard repair that right after as well… Sorry.” Henrek sighed as Julia looked around the new graveyard for her mother, to finally pay her respects.
“Of course, young Julia we’ll just be inside.” Vicar John explained as Julia crouched by her mother’s grave.
“Kay…” Julia sighed, tearing up slightly as she started mumbling to the grave. The three men entered the Avoisan Church, a simple stone building with a circular glass window depicting a figure of the first Blessed Being, known as the Savior being quartered, giving the church its symbol of an X-like shape.
Vicar John took the two into his room and office just to the side, preparing a pot of tea for them both.
“Now, Julia is an interesting case, I’ve never heard of someone healing so dramatically after such a long life of illness. I’m sure you have some plans for what you’d like her to invest in however.” Vicar John sighed as he looked at Utarou take out his notebook.
“You know it, don’t want to just copy Henrek here since he’s pretty much just on the path isn’t he?” Utarou asked with a smirk.
“For the most part.” Henrek shrugged, opening his skill tree, revealing his legacy skill Run Away was the same as Julia, also sharing increased athletics and increased healing.
His path towards the Tier 3 skill, Dragon Slayer began from those two, however there were several branches Utarou was interested in.
“Such variation is expected, the church has trained me to verify what skills are dangerous, we can’t expect everyone to live on the Holy Path.” Vicar John explained.
“Yeah yeah, but what makes a skill dangerous?” Utarou perked up, he wanted the most dangerous and risky skills for the biggest rewards.
If they wanted a hope in hell of reaching a new Tier 4 skill, they’d have to go where no one has gone before.
“I’d rather not tell you, however given this was a direction from Templar Adm…” Vicar John sighed, pointing towards a skill that branched from Increased Athletics and Increased Healing, called “Battle Regeneration.”
“Notice how its border is filled with lines?” Vicar John asked.
“No?” Utarou said, looking at the seemingly ordinary skill. Vicar John zoomed in, revealing several hair thin lines that were cut into the border of the skill.
“These are cracks, fractures, they lead down to more unstable skills, more liable to create disharmony in the soul and lead to physical annihilation.” Vicar John warned Utarou, as Utarou continued eagerly writing notes.
“Alright, so they’re the skills I’m gunning for then.” Utarou nodded.
“Noway! I’m not letting you put my sister in danger intentionally!” Henrek protested, quickly closing his skill menu.
“Relax, I’ll be fine.” Julia exclaimed dismissively as she joined the three men, opening up her skill menu.
“What’s going to make me the strongest and let me do the most, Vicar?” Julia asked eagerly.
“Urgh, if it were up to me I’d have you go down the Matrilineal Path like your mother, primarily skills relating to knowledge that would benefit child rearing and-”
“Yeah no thanks, Utarou what are you thinking?” Julia interrupted, turning to Utarou who was examining her skill tree as best as he could.
“I think Battle Regeneration sounds fun.” Utarou smirked as Vicar John shook his head.
“I’ll pray you will be forgiven when this goes wrong.” Vicar John sighed.
“Julia I don’t-” Henrek began before being silenced by Julia putting a finger to his lips.
“C’mon! What’s the worst that could happen? Why would God give us these skills if he didn’t want us to use them huh?” Julia smirked.
“The same reason we have free will, though you don’t seem particularly interested in theology at the moment.” Vicar John lamented as Utarou and Julia began plotting what abilities to unlock for her.