Singer Sailor Merchant Mage

Chapter 20: As a Man Thinketh

For true success ask yourself these four questions: Why? Why not? Why not me? Why not now?

James Allen

For quick success sometimes you just need to ask Why repeatedly. At least that's what I have discovered regarding opening the dreaded door.

. . .

I'm talking!

. . .

I'm talking!

. . .

My vocabulary is limited and trying to keep things simple anyway but I now have enough to understand roughly what is being said and respond in kind.

I could have been talking a while ago, if it was in English, Spanish, German, French, or Japanese. But I have only just learned enough of my new lingua franca to understand and be understood in return.

However, the most important word for me so far has been what.

"What this?"

" A door."

"What this?"

"The floor."

"What this?"

"A loom."

Aliyah and Aleera (My mother and sister) are happy to answer my morning routine of questioning as much as I can within the room. Mainly because once I run out of what questions they know what is coming next, why!

"Can I out?" I ask in my cutest voice.

"No." my mother responds.

"Why?" I ask curiously.

"You are too young," she answers.

"Why?" I ask confused.

"Because you are only 9 months old," she explains.

"Why?" I ask crossly.

"Because you are too small." she calmly replies.

"Why too small?" I expand my vocabulary slightly.

"Because you are supposed to be a baby." she exhales.

"Granpa Smit out" I argue.

"Because he looks after you." she remonstrates.

"Why Aleera Kai out?" I offer.

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"Because Aleera is busy." she points out, motioning at Aleera.

"Why Aleera busy?" I question.

"Because she is helping spin thread." she

"Why spin?" I shrug.

"To help mother." she exasperatedly answers.

"Why not Kai?" I point out. "My turn."

"Because she is busy, Kai!" She moans.

I know this isn't the best way to go about getting what I want but it is effective and I am limited by my vocabulary and lexicon in arguing my case anyway. Besides whoever heard of a 9-month-old arguing.

The "Why" question is a well-known technique that all children pick up to pester their parents with. I'm simply a little earlier and more pointed in my practice.

I will get there eventually once mother makes a mistake with her weaving from answering my questions she will let us go.

Aleera actually likes being let out of the house too.

But never asks for it.

You can get away with a lot when you are younger.

Particularly if you are a little bit of a prodigy.

I'm still hiding the extent of my talents and development from them. But I am simply unable to say nothing when I have finally worked out most of the language I'm not capable of that.

I'm limiting myself to a smaller vocabulary than I could actually use. Acting as it were to be younger than I am. The cool thing about acting to be a baby is that I actually got the skill for it as well!

Furthermore, it is leveling up quickly as I act like a baby every minute of every day.

Not quite sure why it required talking for it to appear but now that it has it seems that every minute I am in the role I gain experience to level it up.

Having realised that I could gain skills from talking out loud. I tried that in my mental fortress. Quickly gaining the Tier 1 languages, English (Lv 10), Spanish (Lv 10), Japanese (Lv 10), German (Lv 7), French (Lv 5). I wonder if there is Elvish, Dwarf, or Orc here. The extra bonus to gaining the Tier 1 skills was gaining the Tier 2 skill Linguist (Lv 10) and the Tier 2 skill Translation (Lv 10) when having a go at adding some different languages to my library.

Back to asking variations on why.

"Why busy?" I quietly ask

"Because we need to finish this piece of cloth." she patiently responds.

"Why finish?" I question curiously.

As much as I am doing this to annoy her into letting us out. I'm still gaining valuable information about life here.

"It's needed to make a sail." she calmly responds.

Think I spent too long thinking to myself she has calmed down enough that we need to start from the beginning and work our way back up again.

"What's sail?" I clarify.

"A sail is a piece of cloth on a boat," she explains.

"Why cloth boat?" I ask confused.

"It helps to push it through the water," she explains with her hands.

"How?" I innocently question. We're nearly there.

"Well, the wind blows into the sail. The sail catches it and so the wind pulls the boat along." She explains gesturing with her hands to explain how that would work and that is when she makes a mistake with her loom.

Frustrated she snapped. "Fine Aleera take him out." as she started to undo the last weave of the loom.

Outwardly cowed but inwardly exhilarated I head for the door. Quietly waiting as Aleera unlatches the hook that is still out of my reach.

Ready, steady, Go!

Catch me if you can.

Can't catch me I'm the baby, boy, man.

I start to leg it out the door when I am promptly grabbed by the neck by my older sister.

"Not so fast. You are holding my hand." she smiles down at me.

"Why?" I moan.

"Because I am not chasing you around the town or losing sight of you. I know you too well by now." she frowns at me.

"Would you like us to get anything?" She asks mother before leaving.

"Some more rice, vegetables, and fruit if they have any, Father will bring home some fish." She replies.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Not . . .

shopping!

I wanted to explore.

Bored out of my mind, hand firmly clamped by my sister, I retreat into my mind and let my body move forward on autopilot. Disappointed and discouraged by the failure of my close escape.

Next time.

I'll get away next time.

Name: Kai

Level: 3 Experience: (700/800)

Health: 220/220 Stamina: 147/147 Mana: 110/110

Vitality: 23

Endurances:11

Strength: 11

Dexterity: 11

Senses: 14

Mind: 15

Clarity: 12

Magic: 13

Free Points: 20

Skills: Humming (Lv 5) Swimming (Lv 4) Singing (Lv 2)

Skill experience: 500

My stats are still improving as I have grown over the last couple of months and I managed to add another trait when my mind reached 100.

Mind reached 100 before age 1 awarded the trait, Fast Learner.

I was hoping for something similar to when my vitality reached 100 before turning 1. So was thrilled to see this. I haven't quite worked out its impact on my learning but with some new skills hopefully, I will be able to see a difference in the speed of leveling or time it takes me to get them.

The surprise came afterward.

Mind reached 100 before age 1 awarded Hidden Resource Psi: 1000

That was a shock.

It looks like not all resources are available for everyone.

No matter the quizzing verbally or mentally the system refuses to give me any more information other than the usual any time I try to allocate my free points.

It still says.

Status locked for 151 months

Does this mean there are other Hidden Resources available? What are they and how do I get them? Maybe others don't have the Magic stat and the resource of Mana. Once again I am limited by my understanding of this world. Are there hidden stats? Like Charm or Luck?

The next challenge is to see if I can get my Senses stat up to 100 before I turn 1. Doubt I will be able to do it as I only have 3 months left but nothing ventured nothing gained.

True Status

Level: 9

Name: Kai

Experience: 66,300/ 102,400

Age: 9 month 3 week 5 days 10 hr 0 min

Health: 1050/1050 Stamina: 470/470 Mana: 370/370 Psi: 1000

Trait: Long lived, Fast Learner,

Vitality: 105

Endurance: 18

Strength: 18

Dexterity: 18

Senses: 45

Mind: 100

Clarity: 33

Magic: 37

Free Points: 10

Skills: Time sense (LV 16) Listening (LV 15) Meditation (LV 15) Sense Mana (LV 15) Swimming (LV 15) Eavesdrop (LV 15) Memorisation (LV 15) Echolocation (LV 15) Recall (Lv15) Composition (Lv 15) Mind fortress (Lv 15) Expel Mana (Lv 15) Absorb Mana (Lv 15) Mana Drain (Lv 6) Pain tolerance (Lv 5) Humming (Lv 15) Sneak (Lv 15) Whistling (Lv 15) Singing (Lv 15) and Drumming (Lv 15) Piano (Lv 15), Violin (Lv 15), Trombone (Lv 15), Saxophone (Lv 15) Running (Lv 5), Acting (10), English (Lv 10), Spanish (Lv 10), Japanese (Lv 10), German (Lv 7), French (Lv 5) Linguistics (Lv 10) Translation (Lv 10)

Skill experience: 17,300

Origin experience: 10,000

Combat experience: 0

Crafting experience: 0

Level 10

Why?

Why not?

Why not me?

Why not now?

Let's get cracking.