Chapter 1 – To Steal A Skill Shard

“You’re destined for greatness, Max… If you survive long enough! Your father would see you dead soon… if he remembers you exist.”

Max shook his head, still remembering the mocking laughter his mother had given him on her death bed. He had been nothing but seven then, and now six years later, he was thirteen and a half.

He stood at the gate of the Little Hearts Mended Orphanage and stared out into the busy streets of the border city. It was busy, busier than usual, with the arrival of so many townsfolk and villagers from the surrounding farm lands, hills, river bends, and mountains, for the annual ceremony to wake their Patron Inheritances.

Everyone wore thick clothing and hoods over their heads. It was snowing lightly.

Kids his age huddled closer to adults. Parents fussed over their children and made sure they were nice and warm. Elders led entire village populaces.

Max had neither a cloak to cover his head or thick enough clothes to efficiently fight off the cold, much less everything else they had. He swallowed the sudden pang of envy that threatened to make him puke before he did anything stupid.

It was pointless anyways, wanting what others had never changed anything nor did it help him.

He took another deep breath–

“Make sure you come home early, Maximilian,” a familiar voice shouted from the inside of the orphanage.

Caretaker Isabella was a kind soul that did nothing but smile and care for them.

He turned to look back through the open doorway and caught her attention.

Max cursed under his breath.

Instantly, her golden eyes, the same color of her hair, narrowed. “I know that look, Max.”

“What look?” he immediately fought off the irrational urge to rub the scar running through his eyebrow. A bad habit he was working on eliminating. “I don’t know what you mean.”

Isabella walked up to him briskly and leaned forward, almost bowing to bring her face to his. She studied him for a long moment.

“You got that look again. Same one as last month when you opened the stable’s gate and caused Mr. Hampton a week long headache. He was not happy about all of the paperwork you made him go through just to get his horses back.”

“He deserved it–”

“Doesn’t matter. You got that look and you intend trouble. Don’t–”

Max frowned.

Trouble tended to find him wherever he went. Mr. Hampton had been stealing coin from the stablehands, threatening them with loss of their livelihoods if they didn’t hand over half the coin they got as tips and gifts from the customers they helped.

Trouble would find him today out of necessity to escape his fate. He refused otherwise.

“–they’ll catch up to you eventually. All it takes is once and you’ll find yourself in the jail house. You hear me? Max? Max?”

“Yes, Ma’am. I understand.”

“It doesn’t sound like you do…” Isabella sighed and kneeled fully on the ground.”Listen… I know you’ve had a tough life so far a-and I’m not your mother–”

Max’s eyes narrowed and fists balled up. That was always a touchy subject for him, enough that he had gotten into multiple fights with the older children. His mother had not been perfect. No. She had been flawed and a horrible mother, in the grand scheme of things, but she was his.

She was–

“–but I worry for you. You have so much pent up anger. One day it will explode out of you and you will end up doing something you regret–”

Max blinked as the reason for his impossible mission, and the look he apparently had, appeared in his vision.

Please use a Skill Shard to unlock your Patron Inheritance.

That was the crux of the matter.

Somehow, someway, he had gotten this notification a few days ago.

He wondered why his current skills couldn’t unlock it but a Shard could. Why did his Patron Inheritance need one? Why did he unlock it now and not before or after? Was there a specific reason or was it random? Is it possible to rechoose and hope for a better three options next time forward? Why did he get one that was nothing but random symbols and letters that made no sense to him–

That had Max start on a frenzied hunger to learn about Patron Inheritances and Skill Shards.

He knew the basics, of course, everyone unlocked them at the age of eight to get the best possible outcomes.

Those that were poor unlocked them later on in life and with much worse options.

Max had woken up to this message five years late, and with only three options to boot. Each one worse than the one before it. Having a timer the second he woke up didn’t help him make a better decision either.

Bastard system only gave me thirty-two seconds!

He still remembered the ridiculous options as clear as day.

Tier E- Farming Patron

Tier F+ Hoe Smithing Patron

Tier ? Patron T̶̠͆h̵͙̓r̵̬͂ö̶̜́ň̷͎e̶̫̍V̷̗͌o̵̜͠i̵̥͌d̴̖͘

Each one worse than the previous one.

Tier E- Farming Patron

A very low tier Farming Patron Inheritance that provides a marginal boost to normal farming practices.

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+ 0.7% boost to crops

+ 1% to crop life

Tier F+ Hoe Smithing Patron

Unlock a natural affinity to making farming tools, primarily hoes.

3% boost to consistently create chipped and weak hoes and farming tools

55% negative to creating anything of higher quality

Neither one was an option he could use.

Worse yet, the third one was equally as hard to select simply because he hadn’t known what the hell it was. It had given him nothing but question marks.

Tier ? Patron T̶̠͆h̵͙̓r̵̬͂ö̶̜́ň̷͎e̶̫̍V̷̗͌o̵̜͠i̵̥͌d̴̖͘

The Skill (The Ledger) is unlocked…

???

???

Max had no clue what the ledger was nor did anyone he asked–

Isabella flicked his forehead.

“Ow!”