Reinhardt proved to be an exceedingly average student. Some of the things his teachers and trainers wrote in the yearly reports were; “,” or “,” and “.” This lack of academic triumph was not for lack of trying. He simply did not have the mental bandwidth to dedicate to subjects he had no interest in. He knew that he really should be invested in a multitude of subjects, just in case his was not the most marketable skill or useful trait, but he simply could not focus on the basics of the progression of during Spell construction, when he couldn’t even produce the lightest breath of wind from a basic Cantrip. Much better to spend his valuable mental sweat on learning how the progression of

  That isn't to say that his time was completely wasted, or that he didn't pick up the vast majority of what his classes tried to teach him. It was just that he was simply not exceptional. By the time of his 17th birthday came, he was 5'9"7/16ths - tallish, but not too tall. He was muscular, but not “totally jacked” like some of the boys. He did well in athletics and acrobatics, but was not a competitor for any class awards. He could wield a sword, mace or axe with equal adroitness, both one-handed and two-handed, with a shield and without - yet he consistently lost duels against others in his year. He could move almost as well wearing armour as he could unarmoured, even if he wasn't completely comfortable. He could do running and cross stitch, he could read, do addition, subtraction and most multiplication, even if he struggled with division. He learned little about history, a bit about progression theories, a modicum of arcanoi and a whole lot about

  As Reinhardt’s birthday was toward the end of the year, most of his closest friends and classmates had already had their revealed. It was a big deal, for some. A disappointment for others. Life-changing for all. At noon on any day after a being’s 17th birthday, they can present at a church of AteusInnate will be written. Most people in any civilised area will do this as soon as possible in order to maximise any possible gains and growth available. In some of the smaller villages that had no church, or no cleric high enough to offer the Innates at all - no cleric had ever travelled there. The church, the crown, and the various interested parties have to weigh the value of potentially finding a rare or unique against the cost of supporting a cleric and their retinue travelling throughout the land. Every now and then, some mercenary company - or a military recruitment drive - would pay for the services of a priest, and escort them out to one of these satellite villages to try their luck. It paid off enough that every few years, someone else set out to unearth a diamond.

  People will usually have their family and friends present, as well as any instructors and teachers. The church, naturally, had one of their clerics present, and sometimes in larger towns and cities, a representative from the Villeton, no child had ever received a Innate - only a few of the instructors were . Nothing really to interest the Crown, Army, any Company or the Mages in . To make up for the lack of Royal interest, anybody who was free during the eleven to two O’Clock hours would simply show up at the church to watch the s. As most everyone knew most everyone else, it was a terrific social outing. Even if it added somewhat to the nerves of the now-young-adult. There were some old geezers, and ladies, that simply had nothing better to do than meet up for a bit of lunch and watch so-and-so’s nephew’s daughter receive

  Of special interest to Reinhardt was Magdi, a Dwarf who had his father's smithing hammer in his hand from the moment he was able to lift it - which was very early, as Magdi was actually more akin to a cube in stature than that of a humanoid, and Otto, a quiet Human lad who treated book learning the same way the town strays treated a fresh cow pat. He was a few inches taller than Reinhardt, but reedy and wiry - a good sprinter and surprisingly good climber, but sorely lacking in weapon and armour proficiency. They were his best friends and the two that had always been there - since they were all five, trying to push each other off a log bridge into the river, to 17 and receiving Innates.

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  Magdi received his Innate bonded pair. He had Villeton immeasurably - both in form and in the introduction of alloys. They had high hopes for Magdi, as he had been helping Thor at the forge since before he could walk. Parents always attended their children’s Innates - anything that would keep their baby within the safety of the village, and deter them from taking up soldiering, delving, or adventuring. Fathers usually wanted something , hopefully related to their own - a generational, “passed-down” kind of thing. The worst thing for a parent, at least one in the smaller cities and villages, was a decent armour or weapon skill. That would all but guarantee their little baby will be going off to war, or taking up Vault

  Magdi’s was not smithing nor metallurgic. It was not occupational, nor crafting. No, Magdi had Innate. His mother had wept - her little Magdi would definitely go off hunting trouble now. His father had sighed and presented him the smithy hammer he had forged for the day anyway - it was a well-forged Towers

  Toward the middle of the year, Otto had his birthday. Only his mother was present, his father having died when Otto was seven - a slab of granite had shifted while extracting it at the quarry. didn’t really have healers that could deal with amputations. Even if one did survive, they were virtually crippled until they could get to a major city or Capital. But then in those cases, the costs of regrowing a limb would be crippling in a different way. A moot point, as blood loss and shock had made the decision irrelevant. Reinhardt and Magdi’s fathers stepped up to fill the gap, as Otto spent more time at their houses than even their own sons. Thus Gustav, Hapthor, Hrilda and Adele were all there to support Emmaline. And Otto, of course. Emmaline was a Scribe Innate - he could feel it.

  Otto however, was not destined to have a passive, scholarly Instead, his was both rare and powerful, and caused a little bit of a stir. In the wake of his Innate was a genuine blessing, and would serve him well - as he was delving DungeonsInnate. Villeton. It was, as far as s go, just as much of a description as a title - its function was self-explanatory: one could cast a spell twice simultaneously, but at a reduced effectiveness - which was offset by a combination of the caster’s different spells simultaneously, or

  Otto was also one of the few that had managed to manifest tangible results from his attempted spellcasting, and thus was enrolled in extra-curricular tutored courses with the Arcane Arts instructor. He was head of class in Magical Theory - due to his incredible reading speed and retention rate. It took him all of a day, as well as a trio of graphs and a page of far-to-overly convoluted mathematics, to figure out exactly what he was going to do in order to maximise his effectiveness as a Primary Spellcaster.

  All that was required now was for Reinhardt to receive ,