I, The Anomalous God

Chapter 4 Choosing a Path

A week after being born in the Sprite Village, the newborn sprites are brought in another place to study. A sprite school of sorts.

“Come now, son! We do not want to be late, don’t we?” Tatiana urged Reborn to hurry.

“I am coming, mother!” He answered. He took a knapsack made of strung leaves from the mother tree. “Do you have to take me there? I can walk on my own.” He complained.

“The school is on the 50th branch of the Father tree. Are you going to climb to there?” Tatiana smiled to him.

“I…” Reborn was going to say he can float to there, but he changed his mind. Over the week after they were born, he observed the other newborn sprites. Other than the one newborn sprite who acquired a title during the naming ceremony, no other sprites learnt skills. The skill learnt by that sprite is also a passive skill called, ‘Eyes of Truth”. It made his eyes always see the truth.

That is also a reason Reborn is avoiding that sprite. He might see the truth that he is, in fact not a sprite, but a human. He still remembered what Elder Shiina told him before.

Tatiana told Reborn to ride his carpet. She used her float skill on the carpet, and it carried Reborn in the air. “Hold tight!” she warned.

“Mother, can I ask you a question?” he said.

“Sure, son. What is it?” she replied as she guided the carpet in the air. She greeted some of the sprites they passed by as well.

“How high is your float skill. Will I be able to learn it?” he asked.

“It’s level 7. Of course, you can learn it. That is why you are going to school. They will teach you skills there.” She said. It made Reborn puzzled. Does everyone here learn skills only in schools? Why can he learn them so casually, then?

“Can skills only be learnt in schools, mother?” he finally asked.

“Oh, no. Schools just make it easier to learn. Some of your teachers already have the skills. They just need to write it in a magic scroll and pass it on. You can learn skills by doing it yourself, but it is hard and takes time to learn.” She explained.

Reborn nodded in understanding. “I already learnt a skill, mother.” He revealed.

“You did? But you are only a week old, how can you learn skills that easily?” she wondered.

“I did learn. I have a float skill, its only level 1, though.” He said. There was a little lie in what he said. His float skill is already level 2.

“Wow! That is a surprise! I am proud of you, son!” She laughed. She did not think his son is gifted. In fact, she pities him although she does not show it. Every night, she cries thinking of what will happen to her son. He will be scorned by their people because of his size. He is even wingless. She is more worried that he might not be able to learn their magic.

“Reborn!” a voice called from behind the mother and son.

“Oh, hi, Diana!” Tatiana greeted.

“Hello, Aunty Tati!” she greeted back. “Hey, Reborn, are you excited? We are going to school and we are going to learn skills! I want to learn telekinesis!” she said excitedly.

“Yeah, I am excited as well!” he replied, forcing a smile. It did not escape Tatiana’s notice. She averted her gaze and continued guiding the carpet in the air.

“What skill do you want to learn, Reborn?” Diana asked.

“Let see… is their flight skill?” He said.

“I do not know. Sprites can fly with or without that skill, we have…” Diana did not finish what she was saying because she noticed Reborn. “I am sorry!”

“It’s okay, Diana!” He said smiling.

“There is a flight skill. All adult sprites have that skill, even though we have wings.” Tatiana affirmed.

“That is weird. We can already fly with our wings. Why do we need the flight skill?” Diana wondered.

Tatiana smiled to them, “Tell me, Diana. How fast can you fly with your wings? Are you able to take sharp turns? Can you do complicated maneuvers?”

“I… I…” She was stumped. She realized; her Aunty Tati was right.

“Flight skill is essential for us flyers. All flyers must have it.” Tatiana added. “Even birds have a flight skill. If not, they will be flying like a newborn chick.”

“Oh, then, I want to learn that skill!” Reborn said firmly.

“Hm. I hope you would learn it too, son, but it is hard. You need to learn two kinds of skills and max the levels to acquire the flight skill. The easiest way to learn it is through a Skill scroll.” Tatiana explained.

“So, I need to go to school and hope to ask the teachers to hand a Flight skill scroll to me.” Reborn said hopefully. Tatiana answered him with a smile.

After some minutes, they reached the 50th branch of the Father tree. “I will pick you up later, okay?” Tatiana kissed Reborn in the forehead and went off.

Some of the newborn sprites snickered when they saw Reborn carried by his mother. Diana glared at them angrily. “Leave it, Diana.” Reborn said to her.

“You know, you are a giant. Why don’t you just swat them or something!” Diana grumbled. Reborn just smiled to her.

“Alright! Listen up, kids!” a guard sprite approached and announced. “Follow me and be quiet!” he said. Reborn and the newborn sprites followed the guard into a huge hall.

There, an elder sprite is waiting for them. When all the newborn sprites are gathered, he announced, “Welcome to the Lecture Hall!”

The sprites clamored in the hall. Some of them are excited, some nervous and some hopeful. They all wanted to learn skills and use them. “Simmer down!” The elder shouted. Three sprite guards appeared behind the elder. “We will test you to see where you fit best. There are five classes that you will take. Two of these classes are general learning, and history. The other three classes are specialized class.” The elder said.

One of the three sprites behind the elder came forward. “I am Bash! I will be your instructor in military strategy and fighting. I will teach you Sprite Fighting skill.” He introduced.

The second sprite came forward next, “I am Shoto.” He was smiling to the crowd while introducing himself. “I will be your magic instructor. I will be teaching you magical related skills.” He said calmly.

The last sprite came forward and introduced, “I am Val. I am a Sprite Scholar. I will be teaching you general learning, history and some passive skills.” Out of the three sprites, Val sounded more astute than the other two.

“Alright! These are the three paths you are to be placed in. The paths of a Soldier, a Magician, and a Scholar. Alright, one by one come forward.” The elder said.

The sprites started to approach the elder one by one, guided by a guard sprite. The elder revealed three items. They floated in front of the elder sprite. “These items will help to sort you, kids.” The elder said.

The elder pointed at the first floating object, a small blade. “This is the ‘Sun blade’. It is forged from the roots and leaves of the Mother tree. If it glows when you touch it, that means you are fated to be a soldier.” He explained. Then he pointed to the next object, an orb. “This orb is the ‘Shacanna Tears’. Forged from the sap of the mother tree. If it glows that means you are fit to be a magician.” He said. After that, he pointed at the last object, a book. “This book is the ‘Centennial Book’ made from the Mother tree’s leaves. If you can read the content, then you are fit to be a scholar.”

One by one, the sprites went forward and touched each of the objects. Some of them made the blade glow, some made the orb glow, some were able to read the book, and there some who made the blade and the orb glow at the same time. They were considered special and were assigned to a special class.

The newborn sprite who had the title and skill ‘Eyes of Truth’ made the two objects glow and he was able to read the book as well. The elder was surprised at that and he said, “You are a blessing to the sprites! Ju-mo, you will be studying under me.” Everyone gasped when they heard the elder. The elder is the royal teacher. That means, Ju-mo will be studying under him with the sprite princess.

“Next!” the elder then said. Everyone looked at Reborn’s direction. It was his turn. He slowly walked forwards. Reborn stared at the floating objects. They were so tiny. He looked at the blade first. He slowly lifted his finger and touched the blade. After a few minutes, the blade did not glow.

“You are not fit to be a soldier.” The elder declared. He took his finger off after hearing the elder. He placed his finger onto the orb, next. The orb did not glow as well and the elder declared he is not fit to be a magician. The other newborn sprites started to make noise. Most of them are jeering at Reborn.

Lastly, Reborn flip the cover of the book and looked at the first page. “Secrets of Shacanna,” he read. Diana jumped in joy. She was worried that Reborn might not fit to any class. The elder, on the other hand, was very surprised.

“You can read it?” he asked. The content of the book changes every time. So, there was no way of cheating.

“I can, elder.” Reborn replied. The elder knew about Reborn, that he is a human. It was supposed to be impossible for another race to read the book. It was written in ancient sprite language, the language of Shacanna. Only Sprite Scholars can read the book until now. A few quiet minutes, the elder finally declared Reborn to the path of Scholar.

After a few hours, all newborn sprites were assigned to a path. 656 sprites are in the Soldier path, more than 250 are in the Magician path and 84 are in the path of Scholar. 9 of them are in the special class.

“Go home, everyone. Tomorrow will be your first class.” The elder said and left.

“Okay, soldier sprites, we will meet at the field tomorrow!” Bash announced.

“Magician sprites, we will meet here.” Shoto said.

“Scholars, meet me tomorrow in Knowsborough.” Val announced to them.

After the announcements, the three instructors left. The newborn sprites slowly fly out of the lecture hall.

“Our wingless brother is a scholar. Suits you, you are weak!” Bono, one of the bigger sprites mocked Reborn.

“Hey! Scholars are not weak!” Diana scolded.

“Shut up, Diana! Why are you protecting this abomination? Leave him alone and come with us.” He said.

“Hm! Watch when I learn some magic skills, I will first experiment on you!” Diana threatened. She was in the Magician path.

“Ha! I will wait for that!” Bono and is friends laughed out and left.

“Come on, Reborn. Your mother must be waiting now.” She said.

“Alright.” He smiled at Diana, “Thank you, Chip. You always have my back.” He said.

“You are my best friend! Of course, I will watch your back always!” she cheered.

======================

The next day, Reborn went to Knowsborough. It took a while to convince Tatiana to let him go by himself. He convinced her that he can just run to there and he can climb the tree by himself, besides, he has a float skill he can use.

Knowsborough is another big tree but not as big as the mother tree or the father tree. There are 12 branches on the tree. “Alright, worms! Go to the 7th branch. Your instructor is waiting for you there.” Said a scholar sprite to the newborns.

“Worms? Did she just call us worms?” a cream-colored haired sprite commented.

“Its what they call us new scholars.” Another sprite answered.

Again, amongst the 84 people at the foot of the Knowsborough tree, Reborn stood out. He was a boy surrounded by small flying sprites. The sprites started to fly up except for Reborn. He looked up the tree and sighed.

“Do you need help, son?” the lady scholar asked.

“Oh, no, thank you. I can go up by myself.” He replied. The woman tilted her head to the side. She looked up, “Is he going to climb to the 7th branch? That is so high. He will be late for lecture.” She thought. “Okay, suit yourself. Good luck, son.” She said.

“Okie dokie!” Reborn clapped his hands and grabbed the side of the tree. He activated his float skill and started to climb. “Oh, this is quite easy.” He muttered. Reborn climbed the tree speedily. The lady scholar looked down and saw Reborn. She was surprised. “What? How can he climb so fast?” she whispered.

In just a minute, he reached the second branch. He caught up with the lady scholar. “Uhm. Hello, ma’am.” He smiled.

“How did you do that?” she asked.

“I can float.” He said. He smiled at her and continued climbing.

The lady scholar watched Reborn climb in breakneck speed.  “Did he just say he floats?” The lady scholar immediately flew up and followed Reborn.

“Hey, kid. Did you just say you float?” she called to him.

“Yeah. I have Float skill.” He answered while still climbing.

“You already have a skill? Did you acquire it during the naming ceremony, or did you just learn it by yourself?” She asked him.

“I learnt it myself.” He said. The lady scholar stared at Reborn’s back in amazement. “Grand Scholar Val scored big this time!” She whispered.

After 10 minutes or so, Reborn reached the 7th branch. “Glad you could join us, kid.” The Grand Scholar said.

“I am sorry, sir.” Reborn apologized.

“Oh, don’t worry. I am not mad. You climbed all the way here. That is effort.” He said. “Go on, make yourself comfortable.”

Reborn sat down in a corner while the instructor proceeded with his lecture. “Okay, I will tell the rules again for the sake of our tardy friend.” He said, which made the other sprites complained. “Calm down, calm down. I would do the same if one of you were tardy on the first day, too. Just, do not make a habit of it.”

“There are five rules that I want all of you to strictly follow. First, respect one another. You are going to become scholars and scholars are dignified, and respected individuals. You must learn to respect others before they respect you. Respect is earned and not given. Second, follow the rules. Scholars are keepers of sprite records. There are rules that we need to stick to most strictly. If you break those rules, two things will happen. You might get banished and the worst, you will be put to death. Third, protect the weak. Never stomp others because they are weak. The strong must protect the weak.” Reaching that part, most of the students grumbled. Some whispered, ‘Why do we need to protect the weak?’, ‘Are scholars strong?’, ‘Are scholars stronger than soldiers and magicians?’.

Reborn nods his head in agreement to that. He hates it when someone underestimates the weak. He is a victim of that before. “Was I a victim before?” he wondered why he had that thought. Anyway, he is being discriminated now, because he is the only giant in the sprite village, most of all, he is wingless. He can imagine how will he be treated if they ever found out he is human.

“Fourth, never go out beyond the borders by yourself. If there are tasks that requires to go out, you go out in groups. Fifth, this is the last and the most important rule that you must put to heart. Protect Shacanna, protect the Mother tree.” Val continued. “Any questions?” he looked at his students. “None? Then, we proceed.”

Grand Scholar talked for 3 hours straight. The sprites were sucked dry of their energy. “Man, college class is so stressful!” Reborn got quiet after saying that. “What is college class?” he asked himself. Over the week, he noticed that there are some weird words he suddenly blurts out like RPG, OP, there was even one time when he and his mother was eating a noodle-like food, he blurted he missed the taste of curry noodles. He kept thinking what it is, but none came to mind.

“Alright, you can take a rest. Be back at one this afternoon. I will be assigning advisers to you. Oh, Reborn stay for a while.” He said.

“Yes sir.” He replied.

==========================

“Reborn, do you know why I made you stay?” Val asked Reborn while sipping on some tea. Reborn shook his head. “The elders, they talked about you quite a lot.” That comment surprised Reborn a bit.

“Some of them take you to be a threat. Why is that?” he said.

“I do not know sir.” He answered although he had an inkling.

“I think you do.” Val flew and approached Reborn. He hovered at eye level. “I know what you really are, Reborn.” The two of them stared at each other.

“Are you going to tell everyone?” He asked.

Val smiled at him, “No. I do not care about what the elders think. Besides, there are a few elders on your side, too. That includes Elder Shiina and Elder Takankan.”

Reborn breath out in relief when he heard that. “I also know that you already learnt a skill.” Val said as he flew back onto his small chair.

“How did you know?” he asked.

“You survived from a confrontation with a level 10 Saber-tooth Panzer. Soldiers talk, you know. And, you climbed this large tree in minutes.” Val pointed.

“I…uhm…” he sighed. “I have learnt some skills.” He revealed.

“Oh, skills? So, it is not just one? Tell me.” That caught Val’s attention.

“I thought…okay. I learnt telekinesis, float, sprint, fear resistance, divine light, universal language and force shield.” He revealed.

“Wait! You have seven skills?” that surprised the Grand Scholar. “And, did you say universal language and divine light?”

Reborn nodded his head, “I learnt Universal language the moment I was born. Divine light skill is a broken skill I learnt during the naming ceremony.” He said.

Val grew quiet in deep thought. Then he asked, “What levels are your skills?”

“Universal language is maxed out. Telekinesis and float skills are level 2. Except for Divine light skill, which is broken, the other three skills are all level 1.” He answered truthfully.

“You even have a maxed level skill? No wonder half the elders are afraid of you!” Val muttered in disbelief. Then he realized, “So, that is the reason you can read the Centennial book! You maxed out the universal language skill!”

Reborn thought so as well. How can a week-born human able to read some ancient text? It must have something to do with his skill.

“Sir, may I ask? What is this Divine light skill?” Reborn asked.

“I have heard about that skill, but I am not clear on the information. It is a powerful skill and one of the rarest ones to learn. As its name says, it is a kind of light. A light stemming from the divine, the gods.” Val said.

“From the gods?”

“The light you see from the Staff of Myoire during the naming ceremony? That was divine light. In our history, it was said to be gifted to us by a deity named Myoire. She is a friend to the Mother tree.” The Grand Scholar explained.

“Are you saying that the Mother tree is a god?” Reborn was startled hearing that. The Grand Scholar smiled at him and said, “What do you think?”

“Honestly, I do not know what to think!” he answered.

“Mother tree is not a god, but she existed along with the gods in the beginning of years.” Val said. “In fact, she is planted by a god. Although, the name of that certain god is not written in our records.” He added.

“Alright, I have decided. I will be your adviser.” Val declared.

“Uhm, is that okay sir?” Reborn was hesitant. He was worried about what his classmates would think.

“Why are you worried about what others think?” Val asked. “Alright, for your first task.”

“Wait, you are giving me a task already?” Reborn interrupted.

“I am your adviser now.” Val smiled. “For your first task,” Val took a scroll from the shelf using telekinesis. “You must read this scroll and learn its content.” He ordered.

“Is this a skill scroll?” Reborn asked.

“It is not. You think I would give you a skill scroll right off the swing after I became your adviser? It is a document about Sprite Magic.” Val said.

“Magic? Why are you making me study this? I am going to be a scholar not a magician.” Reborn pointed that to the Grand Scholar.

“Son, it does not mean you cannot learn about magic because you are a scholar. We are scholars, we are knowledgeable about everything there is.” Val explained. “And also, you are not a scholar yet. Just to correct your thoughts, you are a Worm!”

“But…”

“No buts! Go home and rest. Get back here at one in the afternoon. You will have your first lesson then.” Val said and waved at Reborn to go out.