Soren looked at the glowing golden and pink interface in front of his face and thought for a moment.
I still have one legendary pull left...but with how my luck is going I might get another jar.
<<Might is an understatement>>
Seeing even the system...system? agree with him, he decided to hold off on it and try and get some sleep, although he wasn't sure of the exact time he could only afford a few hours of sleep.
He has a few questions about the power system of the world and the ranking of the items he got but that could be resolved later in the day.
Goodnight you two.
<<Goodnight Soren/Master>>
...
This world has two main power systems, one was a magical power system which was akin to becoming a mage or spirit cultivator, often relying on spells, curses and others.
The second was similar to becoming a warrior or a body cultivator, mainly depending on their weapon and weapon arts and techniques.
For what Soren knew from the previous Soren's memories, there were 8 levels of power for both systems, and each stage could be further divided into 10 sub stages.
Vesper was a 2nd Level Adept, which was the second level of power, above the Apprentice Level and she could be called a beginner or a low level Adept.
Her guard, Sera, on the other hand was a mid level Adept, at the 4th stage specifically.
Soren continued to read through the information in his mind to get more used to the world, a terrible night sleep helped him realise he still hadn't fully processed the worlds details well.
He splashed water on his face absentmindedly at the water trough to cool his thoughts.
Before he knew it, Nessa cornered him at the water trough before the sun was properly up.
"You look revolting," she said.
"Thank you."
"You didn't sleep." She said more than asked
"Slightly."
She scooped water and drank out of her cupped hands and watched him over them, and then she said, in a much lower voice, "Are you going to say anything about last night?"
"Which part."
"Soren."
"There were two parts," Soren said reasonably.
"There was the part where I nearly died behind a stable, and there was the part before that. And I'm trying to work out which one you're asking about, because I've got very different answers ready and I'd hate to waste the good one."
Nessa's ears went slightly red.
She looked away, and then back, and then away, and Soren watched her run through about four different faces before she landed on the one she wanted.
"You're insufferable," she said.
"I'm told it's part of the appeal," he quipped with a small smirk.
"Told by whom?"
"Nobody, yet. I'm building toward it."
"You are not the same person," Nessa said, and stalked off toward the kitchens, and got about six steps before she looked back over her shoulder to check whether he was watching her go.
He was.
She made a noise and kept walking.
<<+2 LP.>>
"For what?"
<<Ambient.>>
"I didn't touch her."
<<We are aware. The merge has some side effects...hmm...the lottery odds were also affected...well...neither of get why and we've agreed to pretend we planned it.>>
Well at least that explained the abysmal drops.
Soren let out a sigh, hopefully the odds get better when they sort it out.
He had 400 Fate Points, which the shop informed him was enough to buy roughly nothing.
<<Refined grade begins at 900 FP.>>
"And Mortal?"
<<50 TO 400. You can afford the ceiling of the cheapest tier in the catalogue. congratulations on your wealth.>>
"So how do I get tickets and more FP?"
<<You do something.>>
"Be specific."
<<No. If we tell you what scores, you will farm it, and we will both be bored by midwinter.>>
So that afternoon, while carrying linens across the east yard, Soren walked past the Bindwright's registry post where the household's paperwork was pinned under glass, stopped, read the whole thing at his leisure with a house steward standing eight feet away, and memorised the inspection schedule.
He also snooped around and read a history book around and found some details about the ranking of techniques and artefacts.
Before he could read them properly, he heard a sound and quickly put the book back and left, reminding himself to come back to continue.
<<+2 Rare ticket. Breaking a taboo. Slaves do not touch or read their superiors things.>>
"At least getting tickets isn't hard."
That evening he told Marda, the housekeeper, that the second-floor lamp oil was being skimmed, which was true, because Soren's memory had known and had been too frightened to say.
<<+2 Uncommon Tickets. Humiliating Your Betters.>>
<<NOTE: That was also a kind act. The girl being blamed for it was twelve.>>
"Was it," Soren said. "Huh. Didn't think about it."
<<You did. We were there.>>
"Prove it."
<<We are inside your head.>>
"Circumstantial."
By nightfall he had more tickets, getting 1 more rare ticket and 2 uncommon tickets.
He fused them.
<<5 UNCOMMON -> 1 RARE. NO BONUS>>
4 Rares so far. He needed five. He went and moved eleven barrels of grain for a stablehand who had thrown his back out and got nothing at all for it.
"Nothing?"
<<Nothing. you enjoyed it.>>
"I did not enjoy moving eleven barrels."
<<You enjoyed being the sort of person who moved them.>>
"You are a genuinely upsetting piece of software."
Then, walking back, he took the long way past the paddock and vaulted the fence rather than open the gate, and landed badly, startling a horse that kicked out and missed his head by a distance the system measured aloud.
<<Narrow Escape. Award: 1 Rare Ticket.>>
"Are you serious?"
<<Five Rares. Would you like to fuse, or would you like to overcharge?>>
"Fuse."
<<Coward.>>
"Fuse."
<<5 RARE -> 1 EPIC...Fusing...bonus roll. 2 Epic Tickets awarded.>>
"Wait, really?"
<<5% chance. It happens. Do not let it teach you anything.>>
He pulled both.
The first was a Refined-grade knife with a grip made for a much larger hand.
The second turned over and sat there, and the panel changed colour slightly, and Soren's chest went tight.
<<Item: Mana Siphon (Passive).>>
<<Grade: Refined.>>
<<Curse Tag: None.>>
<<Draws ambient mana continuously at approximately eight times the natural rate. Functions while sleeping. Functions while unconscious. Does not require a cultivation method, though it will feel like filling a bucket with no bottom until you have one.>>
"That's the one," Soren said quietly. "That's the actual one, isn't it."
<<It is a refined grade passive. In ten years you will not remember its name.>>
"And in seven weeks?"
<<In seven weeks it is the difference between you and a corpse. yes.>>
...
In the dead of the night behind the stables, Soren sat on the floor of the slave quarter with his back to the wall, after the lamp went down, and tried to meditate.
Energy came in. Is this mana? He had not known it was there.
It had been there the whole time, in the stone and the straw and the cold air off the yard, and now it moved, all of it drifting toward him .
It filled him up at a rate that would have taken a normal talent most of a year to manage and ran straight out again, because there was nowhere for it to sit.
It took him until nearly dawn to build somewhere. He did it badly.
He did it with no teacher and no method and no idea what he was doing, feeling around in his own chest to make a shape that Soren had overheard Vesper's tutor describe exactly once through a doorway four years ago when he was explaining how Apprentices became Adepts to her.
He got it wrong eleven times, and on the twelfth the mana stopped running out of him and started going around.
A small hard knot settled in behind his sternum.
<<Mana Core Formed.>>
<<Rank: Apprentice Mage, 1st Level.>>
<<Milestone Award: 1 Epic Ticket, 600 FP.>>
<<Total FP: 1,000>>
Soren opened his eyes.
He quickly looked around and sneaked back into the room. He had just collapsed on to his bed when he felt a gaze.
In the night illuminated by the stars, sitting a few feet away on her bunk with her arms around her knees and her eyes wide open in the dark, Ottilie Vann was watching him.
She had not been watching anything for two years.
Neither of them said a word. She turned around and Soren let out a breadth he didn't know he held
After a few hours of half sleep, the door to the quarters opened up.
The door opened at the far end and Marda's voice came flat and unbothered into the room.
"Soren. Up. Her ladyship wants the ledgers done by noon and her brother's coming Wednesday , so she's in a mood. Move."