Valerian walked north. He needed to get away. It was already late afternoon, and he’d need to find shelter before nightfall. He’d given up his peerage but he still had his training. The Steelwurths didn’t pamper their children; he knew how to survive in the wild, at least for a little while. At least until he could get enough distance.

  This is for the best. He was tempted to go back and get some of the stuff from his room, but he couldn’t take anything more from his family. He didn’t deserve it.

  It had nothing to do with wanting to avoid his parents. Cassius was wrong; he wasn’t afraid. Would a frightened man have acted so boldly? No, of course not. He wasn’t needed, and would only make things worse by staying.

  He wasn’t worried about getting lost, not even as it became harder to see through the trees as he walked. His feet were getting sore, unfortunately, but as he was still wearing his ceremonial outfit there wasn’t much he could do. Getting new clothing would be a priority.

  It took him about an hour to reach a small stream. He cleaned himself up, drank some water, and took off the ornamental shoes. This next part would be uncomfortable but had to be done. He didn’t know when Cassius would tell his parents what had happened. But it wouldn’t take long for them to send knights after him.

  Part of him wondered if they would bother, but he knew they would. After all, they couldn’t punish him if they didn’t find him, right? He’d need to ensure he was far enough away that they couldn’t catch him.

  He crossed the stream, drying his feet and putting his shoes back on, then traveled northwest upstream for a bit until he found what he was looking for. A section of the stream went up a steeper hill and a small section of rapids surrounded by large boulders. He veered away from the stream, then leapt onto one of the boulders, making sure not to leave any prints in the forest floor. He hopped from boulder to boulder before reaching the smooth rocks where the stream pooled at the bottom of the hill before continuing on.

  He took off his shoes again, then braced himself and jumped into the water. It was cold. It was barely waist deep but he immediately started shivering despite the warm summer air. He glared at the mountains behind him for a moment before trudging through the stream bed.

  It was difficult to walk. His bare feet struggled to find purchase on the slick, algae-covered rocks, and he almost fell in completely several times. He kept kicking unseen rocks with his toes, the water distorting his perspective, and let out a stream of curses every time. Eventually the stream became shallower and wider again and walking was easier. He had to pass downstream far enough from his crossing point to hide his tracks and scent.

  This was the riskiest part; if his family had sent knights out immediately, they could be approaching at any time. They’d have to move slower than he did as the dogs would struggle to follow; they already knew him and were trained to ignore family scents. The dogs would still follow but it would be slow going, so they’d probably just send knights directly. But Valerian knew some of the knights were good trackers, if not exceptional, so his head start was limited.

  He got lucky. Or Cassius hadn’t told them fast enough. Or maybe they didn’t bother, Valerian thought darkly. Either way he made it about thirty minutes past his first crossing and didn’t hear any pursuit. That should be far enough actually in the water; he would travel to the south of the stream for a bit before crossing much farther down and heading north. It wouldn’t stop a determined tracker, but every hour of delay meant it was more likely they’d lose the trail.

  He planned as he walked. Things would be tough, but he could do it. [Appraiser] had a combat track. The System wouldn’t actually have a combat track that was useless. It went against everything he knew about how the System functioned. The System is fair. He’d heard it over and over. He tried to believe it now.

  Wait, where is my [Identify] skill? Valerian stopped walking for a moment, startled by the thought. He was considering looking more closely at his unique skills and hadn’t noticed that the core skill was missing. As far as he knew, everyone gained [Identify] in a free slot after awakening. You couldn’t even view your own profile without it. But he didn’t seem to have it. Why?

  After a few seconds of panic, the obvious answer came to him: you have [Appraise], idiot! If any class didn’t need [Identify], it would the one with the most powerful identification skill known. Feeling foolish, he continued on, activating [Appraise] on himself. The skill took hold immediately, feeling as natural as if he’d always known how to use it.

  There weren’t any real surprises. He was level 2; level 1 in both tracks. Combat level on the left, civilian level on the right. He tried examining his talent and it was what he expected.

  He sighed at his talent. The System didn’t always have the easiest way of wording things and used percentages a lot. Essentially, he gained double combat experience at all times, but only 1.5x went to his combat track. The other 0.5x was applied as civilian experience, which meant he could level up his civilian track through combat. He’d been so excited about this as a kid; no need to do boring civilian tasks, he’d level up his off-track by fighting!

  The downside was the biggest issue. He only gained half the normal civilian experience from doing civilian activities. It was pure upside—if you followed a combat track. But for anyone focused on civilian advancement, it was crippling. And as far as Valerian knew, nobody with [Appraiser] was combat focused.

  Depressed, he moved on. His base stats were solid but not particularly unusual. Most people had around 10 in their stats by the time they turned 16. Sometimes commoners would try and train themselves to increase stats, but they didn’t work that way. Someone who never exercised or trained and had high stats and skill ranks would be weaker than someone with lower values who put in the work. The System didn’t make you great. It made you better.

  Next, he examined his unique skills. Both tracks started with a unique skill at level 1 and gained a new unique skill every 10 levels. Each track could only go up to level 100. Theoretically, someone could attain level 200 if they maxed out both tracks, but in practice no one did. The XP requirements for higher levels rose exponentially and you’d need either centuries of time or nation-ending challenges to even get close to doing it.

  He started with [Appraise]. It was pretty straightforward:

  Somewhat vague, but he had a sense for how it worked. As long as his skill potency was high enough, he could get the full details of just about anything as if it was using self identification. The more powerful the target, the vaguer the results—unless his skill potency rose to match.

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  He found it interesting that it scaled for both range and number of targets. While range wasn’t unusual, and the basic [Identify] skill did this as well, increased target number was a big deal. Depending on the scaling factor, he could potentially gain a lot of information all at once. While he was still frustrated with his class, Valerian was still happy to have a skill. “Know your enemy, know yourself, and you will never lose a fight,” Thomas used to say.

  Even if it was a civilian unique, always knowing what an opponent was capable of, at least on their profile and equipment, was certainly useful. It was also useful for making money…something he did not have and would certainly need. He didn’t need to be a prodigy to recognize why people would value this skill so much. And it was one just about everyone knew, which was pretty unusual for a rare unique skill.

  His other skill, [Exploit Weakness], was one he’d never heard of. It wasn’t even in his family’s Class Manual. With a thought, he examined it.

  He had to read it several times and feel the skill in his mind to get a better grasp of what it did. Unlike [Analyze], he couldn’t test it without an opponent, but essentially it would let him passively identify areas with low defense on enemies. That alone was fairly useful but could also be replicated with good training and combat sense. The damage bonus was interesting, though. Usually, if a skill increased damage by a multiplicative factor, it said it was “increased” or “increased by.” The word “additional” meant it was a bonus separate from the attack that triggered it. That could be good or bad depending on the power of the attack and the potency of the skill.

  Another detail was the stacking damage bonus. A “short” time was usually anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute. In a combat situation, that was practically an eternity. Assuming he could reliably trigger the vulnerabilities, the additional damage bonus might stack up to high levels.

  It would have to be enough. His plans depended on it. Maybe every [Appraiser] in history went civilian track. Maybe the rest of the combat track was so bad he’d be laughed at by everyone or die. It didn’t matter. He’d be the first if he had to be.

  He may not be a Steelwurth anymore. His vision blurred. Just for a moment. But he would find his own path. And his former family didn’t raise him to give up.

  * * * * *

  Valerian had a miserable night. No matter how many times you did survival training, sleeping outside without shelter or even a cloak to cover yourself was never enjoyable. He was hungry and his feet were miserable. Dress shoes were not made for walking long distances in the forest.

  He needed food. While the human body could go days without food if necessary, it wasn’t a fun experience, and it would make him vulnerable if he needed to fight or flee. Thankfully he still had his ceremonial saber so he wasn’t completely defenseless. I should have at least waited to leave until I received some skill shards, Valerian thought bitterly. He had four empty skill slots that could have been filled.

  He spent the next few hours foraging. He found a single berry bush and some mushrooms for his trouble, but it was enough to take the edge off. He was not concerned about poisonous food as this wasn’t his first time living off the land in these woods. “An army without food is an army on the brink of defeat,” his father was fond of saying before sending them out with some flint and some string. “If your soldiers can live off the land, they will always be ready to fight.”

  He’d hated “field weeks” as a child, but was thankful for them now. That training may very well save his life until he found civilization. Preferably outside of his family’s land.

  As the sun reached its zenith, Valerian noticed a dirt road through the trees. He must have reached one of the township roads leading into the Frostpeak barony.

  He debated whether to follow the road or not. Ultimately, he decided against it. His clothing was too conspicuous; even dirty, he was clearly wearing clothing appropriate for a noble. He needed to find alternate attire before he could try to blend in. It would have been nice to have his tracks blended with those of everyone else on the road but it wasn’t worth the risk.

  Still, roads led somewhere, so he stayed off to the side. He was confident he could notice someone traveling the road and get out of sight if he needed.

  Valerian frowned. I’ve always noticed details. Is that why I awakened as an [Appraiser]? He wasn’t sure. Nobody knew if classes reflected the nature of the person or caused them to become the sort of person that reflected their class. But it was the first time since the ceremony that he saw a connection between himself and his class.

  Ultimately, it didn’t matter. He needed to keep moving. After a few more hours of travel, he began foraging again before it got too dark. His small breakfast wasn’t nearly enough to sustain him and he would rather not be hungry and miserable tonight. He had been making worse time than he hoped since he had to stop and rest his feet every few miles. I’ll never wear dress shoes again.

  Foraging was more successful this time. He found a large bush full of black berries. It would’ve been perfect…if a large boar hadn’t gotten there first. He used [Appraise] on the animal to see if he should move on.

  The boar had five levels on him and significantly better stats, but Valerian had a weapon and years of training. He should have a realistic chance.

  Valerian carefully moved upwind and behind the boar. It seemed heavily focused on the bush. He wouldn’t have a better opportunity.

  As he focused on the boar, he felt his [Exploit Weakness] skill activate. As it moved and adjusted, he saw areas of the boar that felt brighter, like they were calling to the saber in his hand. The back of the head near the neck, underneath the boar’s stubby legs in the joints, and the boar’s stomach all faded in and out of his awareness.

  Valerian couldn’t help but smile. For all the pain his class had brought him, it was still awesome to have a class. He had dreamed of this so long. Valerian refused to let his class hold him back.

  As he felt the most vulnerabilities sharpen, Valerian charged. The boar noticed soon after and spun to face him, squealing out in range. Valerian had hoped for this; if he spooked the boar too much it would have just run away and he never would have caught it. But it had a prize and was going to fight to defend it.

  After a moment of hesitation, the boar charged. Valerian kept coming, focused on the boar’s feet and shoulders. There! The boar dipped slightly, muscles bunching—[Charge] incoming.

  Valerian dived to the side as the boar accelerated forward with a sudden burst of speed. He rolled to his feet and rushed towards the boar’s back. The back leg came into focus and Valerian stabbed forward with the saber, slicing into the boar’s leg and piercing its side.

  Valerian felt [Exploit Weakness] activate, and the small puncture wound and cut spurted out blood and widened slightly. The boar screamed in anger, turning to him, trying to reach him with its tusks. The wounded leg was slowing it down, however, and Valerian was able to keep his distance, steadily losing ground as the boar tried to rush him.

  Valerian fell into a trance. Step. Step. Jump. Step. Feint. Every time the boar got too close, he’d use the saber to threaten its head and drive it to try and attack from a different angle. He was getting tired, but unlike the boar, he wasn’t bleeding.

  Finally, the boar made a mistake. It overextended in an attempt to hit Valerian’s knee. Valerian felt the vulnerability almost as a flash as both his instincts and the skill aligned. He flicked the saber forward into the boar’s left eye, blinding it. Then, almost at the same instant, the skill activated, and the boar stiffened and collapsed.

  Valerian stepped back cautiously. Even a fatally wounded animal could be dangerous at the last moment. But the boar didn’t move. It was dead. A few moments later, Valerian felt the notifications.

  Valerian had to fight to keep from falling to the ground. Now that the fight was over, exhaustion washed over him in a wave, and he tried to calm his breathing. His stomach growled, clenching painfully.

  He’d won. He’d won. No one was here to help. If he’d messed up enough, he could have died. He could feel his whole body trying to shake. Even if it was an animal, even if he’d ambushed it, he had still defeated something over twice his level.

  More importantly, his class worked. He was worried there was some flaw with [Exploit Weakness] that made it worse than other level 1 combat uniques. But it was fully in line with what he’d seen with his siblings utilize when they awakened. If anything, he felt it was even stronger. That last hit shouldn’t have been a killing blow. The boar was already trying to pull its head back and it wasn’t nearly a deep enough strike to cut through the eye socket. He hadn’t even felt bone. But [Exploit Weakness] clearly caused additional damage at the point of the weakness, and an eye was low enough defense to cause damage directly to the brain. It turned a glancing blow into a killing strike. That was more than useful—it was powerful.

  Sure, he had to actually hit those vulnerabilities. If he’d just slashed wildly, he doubted the skill would have helped at all. It was more like [Sneak Attack], which required a distracted or unaware target, than the sorts of damage boosts a martial or magic class received. So he’d have to work harder to take advantage of it.

  That wasn’t a problem. His class worked. It wasn’t broken. It was still going to be hard, no doubt about that, but a concern he didn’t fully realize he had lifted. A part of him thought may the System had actually made a broken combat class, despite everything he knew.

  He couldn’t move forward with broken.

  But he could move forward with hard.