It has been a long week for the Smith family, mostly for Bertholdt and Anastasia, the loving parents of The Anomaly. They were both now watching as their children were playing with each other and some of the toys that Bertholdt had bought when he went to the capital one month ago.
Both Bertholdt and Anastasia have enlisted in the Empire's army and have fought their own share of battles, but now that they are both in their thirties, they have decided return to their village and raise a family together. The Gods have blessed them with three beautiful and healthy children and they couldn't be happier.
-"Do you think Vamas will also want to enlist in the army dear? He really likes hitting the ground with his little rattle. Who knows? Maybe we have our very own General Leonidas growing in our home."
Anastasia was letting Lana play with her long, flowing brunette hair while Bertholdt was making sure that Vamas was not hitting Neiro with his rattle.
-"Who knows? But I am sure that our Neiro will grow up to be a great scholar or teacher, he is taking care of his siblings so well that you would think he's a father himself."
Bertholdt chuckled a bit at his joke while his wife only rolled her eyes at him.
-"Please do not joke like that dear, I want at least 18 years to pass before I am called 'Grandma'. But I do agree that Neiro is very smart for his age, why he even called me mama yesterday! Then when Lana tried copying him he started trying to teach her how to speak as well."
Stephen stifled up a nervous laugh as he glanced at Neiro, the young Anomaly trying to figure out what was so fun about slamming that piece of wood on the floor.
He gave Melissa similar toys but she also didn't find it fun and so Neiro placed the wooden rattle toy on a tree, which it then fused with and turned into a normal branch.Stephen had several questions but he decided to not question The Anomaly's capabilities anymore.
-"Why am I just hearing about this? Please don't tell me that Lana called you first."
-"Mother privileges. Maybe if you would play with them more instead of looking at that newspaper you bought from the capital then maybe Lana's first words would've been 'Papa' instead of 'Mama'"
Anastasia had a very smug expression while Bertholdt gave his daughter a betrayed look and then went to pick up Vamas and hug him.
-"You won't betray me like these three right Vamas? Look how your mother is treating your poor old father after he worked so hard to buy you these toys."
Anastasia just shook her head at the sight of her husband acting like that and then trying to get Vamas to call him 'Papa' for the rest of the day, all while Vamas was currently thinking about hitting his father on the head with his rattle.
Neiro watched all of this with an expressionless face while Lana tugged on his mother's hair like a monkey pulling at vines. He then got picked up by his mother and put besides his sister, with his mother whispering into his ear.
-"Don't mind your father, he simply feels guilty about not being present when you three were born. I don't know if you can understand what Mommy is asking of you right now, but could you try and get Vamas to say 'Papa'? I'm sure that will make him happy."
-'Very well mom, I will make sure that happens by tomorrow. Although I am curious about this newspaper. Stephen did you take a look at it?'
-"No I did not sir, but I think I now know what task I will be giving you!"
Stephen body then slowly moved in front of Neiro's face, with writing appearing on his body.
[Ding! System task initiated.
Task Name:Look at your father's newspaper!(If you want)
Task Requirement: Your father has recently bough a newspaper from the capital when he went there in order to buy toys for you and your siblings. Find out what is so interesting about it!
Task Reward:5000 Stephen points
Task Penalty:5000 Stephen points
Task time limit:None
Accept/Refuse]
In order to understand what 'Stephen points' are, we will have to go back one week, when Stephen just finished his second training video.
Since Stephen had to choose his System Name in order to get his next training video, and he thought that this task would be the easiest to complete, he asked Neiro on what his System Name should be. In response, Neiro tilted his head in confusion and said:
'? Isn't your name already Stephen? I think it is a fine name'
And so Stephen just decided to name himself the 'Stephen System', letting Neiro gain access to 'Stephen points' and 'The Stephen Store'.
When he tried simply giving Neiro as many points as possible, his attempt at trying to win him over, The Anomaly told him that he shouldn't give out his money without reason as he would end up broke.
Stephen didn't know if that was a poor attempt at a joke or if Neiro was actually serious.
And when he tried telling Neiro that he could simply buy Melissa toys from the Stephen Store, he looked displeased and said:
'I want my daughter's first toy to be something I made myself.'
Needless to say, he was saddened by the fact that Melissa didn't like her toy, but then they both hunted and ate a squirrel together, feeling happier afterwards.
-'While I am not a fan of invading other people's privacy, dad's interest in this newspaper is making me very curious. Very well, I accept this task.'
-'HELL YEA! I was seriously contemplating making the task be something like 'Play with your daughter' but I wasn't sure if the company knows what tasks I am issuing to him, plus I am sure I would be told something like:
'I do not see playing with my daughter as a task, I simply want to spend time with her. If you give me a task like this again I will put you inside of a stone and then throw it into a river.''
After the task was accepted by The Anomaly, small confetti particles and fire works came out of Stephen's body.
Neiro simply looked at Stephen's hard work unimpressed and then started clapping his hands happily like a regular child before going back to being expressionless.
-'...I'll take what I can get'
[A few hours later, once the Smith family had gone to sleep]
The crescent shape of Melos was slowly moving in the sky, her purple light barely visible to the naked eye. Among the many houses illuminated by her light, one particular house still had some light coming out of one of its windows.
It was not particularly eye-catching but it was not ugly either. It was made out of imported Vodor wood instead of Vintu, giving it a light brown color. It had a nice stone base upon which wooden logs rested.
It had three rooms in which the Smith family did their daily activities. There was the bedroom, in which the parents were resting on a wool stuffed mattress and three smaller beds for their children, put on the stone floor.
Two out of these beds was occupied by Vamas and Lana, Neiro's 'younger' siblings. Vamas had started resembling his father, Bertholdt, with his growing brunette hair while Lana took after her mother, with her blond hair remaining unchanged since her birth.
While his family was peacefully resting, Neiro was inside the kitchen, reading the newspaper that his father had bought the month prior, using a candle for illumination. The sight of a six month old baby reading a newspaper with his legs crossed would've been quite comical for most, but Stephen had already gotten used to his shenanigans.
-"Have you found anything interesting sir?"
Stephen was also moderately curious about the contents of the newspaper, he was just hoping that there wouldn't be an article about the sightings of a nightmarish creature in GreenWood forest.
-'I cannot read.' said Neiro as he then flipped to the next page, his eyes now a deep shade of caramel brown.
-"...But you have been reading this for a few minutes sir, and do you not have fragments of your mother's memories?"
-'Oh I suppose I forgot to inform you. I have removed the majority of my mother's memories from my mind so that I may enjoy learning how to write, read and count, among other things, by myself.'
A small gust of wind slowly entered through the open kitchen window, making the candle flicker for a short moment. Neiro then uncrossed his legs and then crossed them back as he continued 'reading'.
-"...May I ask what you have been doing these past few minutes while looking at the newspaper then?"
-'Looking at the words and thinking about how weird some of them look, quite entertaining when you do not know what they mean.'
Stephen inhaled slowly and then exhaled, or at least mimicked the sounds of doing that as he did not posses neither a mouth, nose or lungs.
-"May I read the newspaper then? As a system, I can understand all languages used on Midor, that way you can still learn the contents of the newspaper while also being able to learn how to read once you are older."
-'Oh good idea Stephen, go right ahead.'
As Stephen was about to move himself besides Neiro's head in order to read, The Anomaly let go of the newspaper, but instead of dropping to the ground, the newspaper instead remained stuck in place and then slowly moved itself in front of Stephen while the pages moved so that the confused System could read the first page.
-"I...How...When...Nevermind. Let's see what are the not so recent news."
Stephen then manifested a pair of glasses on his 'face', something he learned how to do quite recently and felt quite proud about, and started reading.
-"The Midoro Empire celebrated the birth of their crown prince a few months ago...Aurora Academy is looking to hire new professors in a few years due to all of the foreign students that are rumored to join in the coming years...some of the southern noble families are starting to have financial difficulties due to many months without rain, leading to them having to import food from other territories in order to feed their subjects..."
There were news about mysterious disappearances, a few minor scandals, talks about food prices increasing and a few other miscellaneous things like advertisements for local shops or slave houses.
"The other Empires are calling for many enslaved criminals of other races to be given to their respective empire, calling it a disgrace for their race to be enslaved by humans instead of their fellow man... That is an interesting way to think to put it nicely. Oh look at this sir! There are even short stories written by different Authors included as well!"
Stephen felt like he needed to change the topic fast, before The Anomaly started thinking that it would be interesting if he were to release all of the Aurora Empire's slaves.
-'Oh? Tell me more about these stories, I was just thinking about telling Melissa stories in order to help her sleep.'
-'Note to self, if I ever need to divert his attention from something, mention his daughter.'
"Let's see...Adventures of the young Empress Aurora...The lonely elf and the talkative dwarf...The creation of Midor for children...The tale of the Crimson Cloaked girl?"
-'Oh the last one sounds like something Melissa would like, but why did you sound so confused?'
-"Oh it's nothing important sir, I just thought it sounded similar to a different story I previously read."
Stephen then started telling Neiro about how the Crimson Cloaked girl had to run an errand for her mother, which was to deliver some potions to her grandmother that was recently injured from hunting a large wolf. While the Crimson Cloaked girl walked through the forest in order to get to her Grandma's house, she stumbled upon the very same wolf that injured her grandmother, and after she managed to defeat it by taking advantage of the lingering wounds on its body, she delivered both the potions and the pelt of the wolf to her grandmother.
The moral of the story was to exploit the weaknesses of your enemy, which will enable you to defeat enemies stronger than you without needing to use expensive healing potions.
-'...I do not think it is wise to tell young children to fight wolves, no matter how injured the wolf may be. Is this how the story you knew went as well?'
-"Not...quite sir. The good news is that I think I now know where the transmigrator is."
After Stephen finished reading the rest of the newspaper to Neiro, he now knew what Bertholdt found so interesting. He was thinking about how Lana will surely grow up to be as good at fighting animals as the Crimson Cloaked girl from the story, with this story even starting to get popular among young girls in several villages.
As the task was now technically completed, Stephen's body appeared in front of Neiro's face yet again as writing started appearing on his body.
[Ding! First system task completed! Sir will now be given 5000 Stephen Points!]
-"Congratulations on completing your first task si-"
-'Please stop using that 'Ding' sound effect from now on, it is very annoying.'
-"Of course sir, have fun playing with your daughter, I will be watching my training video."
Neiro gave Stephen a light nod and then walked out of the Smith home, with the door opening and closing itself for him, with the candle extinguishing by itself the moment the door closed.