Something cawed, it sounded distant inside the lethargy of my sleep. Fuzzy. A memory flashed, I remember in my past life that roosters are supposed to be like organic alarm clocks or something like that. They exist to wake up farmers and hens or whatever.

  Here, it's something called "Cudgi" that does that, they don't roost though. Cudgi are these weird ass birds the size of a dog. It has a naked face too, all featherless and saggy like some kind of vulture except they're uglier since the skin on their face sags so much it looks like a ball sack.

  Their beaks are also lined with teeth and given their lifestyle of pecking anything that moves and breaking their mouths, these teeth are usually exposed and it gives them this weird smile.

  All in all, seeing one in the morning leering at you with that old man face and perpetual grin? Very effective alarm clock indeed. The sight of them is so disturbing that it kickstarts your nervous system.

  That goes double if you're a child and they're hungry. I've made coffins for children who died to Cudgi. In fact, the first coffin I made was because of the damn bird, I remember crying a lot during that time.

  The corpse was... Yeah...

  I'm used to dead bodies now though, and I like to think that I'm used to seeing the stupid birds too but when I opened my window, I outwardly winced.

  "Ugly bastard." I murmured under my breath, looking away from the bird as soon as possible. I picked up a piece of wood lying around my room and threw it at the stupid thing.

  The Cudgi flew off the rooftop, leaving behind a trail of brown plumage in its haste to get away from me and my morning grumpiness.

  "Rontress! If you have the energy to throw things at birds then you have the energy to go down here and start helping me!"

  That would be my mother: Atterson Bager Owelline.

  She's pretty enough that I openly question how my dad got her, but that type of face also makes me worry because what if I got my dad's genes instead? Wouldn't that mean I would look ugly?

  My brother talks a lot about it, too. He's scared of Dad's genes. Not that dad is ugly per se, but between him and mom? I know who I'm going to pick.

  "Rontress! Get down here!"

  I think I also inherited her grumpiness in the morning, not just her pretty face. Eh, it's a fair trade off, I think.

  Actually, can my attitude get affected by my genes even though I got reincarnated? My personality should be the one from my previous life right? But I've lived here for long enough that this should no longer be the case... That's such a good question–

  "RONTRESS!"

  "I'm coming!" I yelled back, slightly irritated. "I just need some time to adjust! Okay?!"

  "Don't you get snappy at me! Come down here this instant and help me prepare the table! Your father and brother are about to come home so I need to focus on cooking!"

  Even though she said that, it's usually clear what our roles are every morning. I clean and prepare the table, and she cooks.

  Deciding that it wasn't worth the effort to really piss her off, I got out of my room and went downstairs. Our family was one of the rare few who actually lived a decent life here in Flotol, complete with a good income and a nice house. We also lived on a part of the raft that actually had guards patrol it so almost no crime happens here.

  Then again, I never really encountered any crimes in Flotol before. Maybe the guards are just there for the aberrants or something. Not that they have a chance of killing the oversized crayfish to begin with.

  Heading downstairs now, I put on the last pair of slippers at the end of the staircase and hopped down to the living room/dining room. Since wasting any more time will only get me scolded, I proceeded to work on my usual tasks.

  I straightened the chairs, wiped the table, and then went and grabbed plates and placed them in a neat line. The spoons and forks came next. They sat on top of the plates.

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  "I'm done." I told my mom.

  "Good!" She pointed at the drying rack by the open window, where a few pieces of meat were drying. "Take those out, and then grab the brined vegetables."

  "And fish eyes?" I held back a gag as I asked that but if I didn't, Howaph would later and he would go on a tangent about how tasty they are and I'm sick of listening to him talk about it.

  "Yes. And the fish eyes too."

  Sighing, I did all of that and even prepared the bowls to put them in. When I finished, I didn't need to do anything else so I sat at the table eating a piece of jerky while waiting for my dad and brother to finally come home.

  "I know that you have a proper class now, and [Trapper] sounds like it'll be useful. Especially on someone like yourself." My mom's voice carried itself across the kitchen, I guess it's about time I get this sort of talk from her? "Light knows that we don't have enough trappers around here, you don't even have to use it for hunting."

  "I know." My response was dry because I know what my profession can do, I've also given it a lot of thought last night and the potential of such a class, especially in the context of the game, is very overwhelming.

  According to the lore of Firelight Chronicles, the game that this world is set in, or is it a game set in this world?

  Either way... Firelight Chronicles had a lot of flavor text when it comes to various stuff, including classes. One of those explains that a Class is only limited to the wielder's imagination.

  At least in the lore. Classes and subclasses, even after level 10, were very limited in the game.

  Another thing is that a person can get "passives" if they do something for long enough or fulfill some kind of arbitrary criteria. It was the explanation as to why the player character can get the [Sword Master] passive– a very unique passive all things considered. I don't think it's possible to get unless you have the [Light Borne] class. – even though the cutscene for guild training is just them hitting a dummy over and over again.

  I would have loved to be able to do that at my age but sadly, that can only be done after the system unlocks the stat page– which happens only after reaching level 10 – or that an organism reaches a specific age. For humans that's 10 years old or so.

  Back to my class and its possible applications. [Trapper] variants, including my own class, aren't just limited to trapping animals or whatever, if that's the case then it'd say something like [Animal Trapper] like a proper specialist class would.

  A lot of things can be "brutally trapped", like criminals if I go by the implications that my mother is putting out with her not so subtle tips.

  Not only that, I can also trap gold. For example, I can place a "gold trap" (or a sieve.) on a river and I'd be able to passively earn money. My class is giving me a blueprint for it even. Funnels included.

  Dust, leaves, light, and even magic can be trapped by me. Though I'd have to make the contraption that does that first. Hell, I don't even need to trap gold to earn a lot of money, I just need to make a flashlight. A functional one. That'll sell like hot cakes to adventurers I'm pretty sure.

  Something that can trap sunlight. I considered it while chewing on another jerky. I'm getting blueprints on how I can feasibly do it, which is good. But the things I need are too much.

  I can also make cameras as well, since that's just trapping light. Or capturing it rather. Same thing.

  But again, to do that I need expensive materials.

  My class, while useful and incredibly versatile, isn't exactly a cheapskate at asking me for items, which I find annoying. I'd have to slowly learn how to use substitutes for certain items within the blueprints it's giving me in order to get the most value out of it.

  After thinking about it some more, I decided that I might as well just work on trapping swamp creatures for now since all my other ideas are simply too expensive to pull off at my current financial status.

  To start, I waited for my father to come home and once he's here, I put on my most innocent face and blinked cutely at him. "Dad? Can I start working on my class?"

  "Oh yeah, you have that now." He sounded shocked, I was slightly miffed at that. Did he forget that I– his own daughter? – got my class yesterday? Really? "You're an adult now, Rontress so I guess it's only right that you start helping out."

  My dad paused for a moment, thinking. Before he could say anything else though my mom stepped in to help him.

  "You can go to the storage shed later and get whatever you need to make your first trap, just be sure to pay it all back at the end of the week okay?"

  "R-right, I was gonna say that yep." My dad nodded like the idea was his. I love him but he's always doted on my brother, which is good for our household but that doesn't mean I like it. "Go make your first trap and make us proud Rontress! I know you'll do great!"

  "Thank you!" Right, guess everything went exactly as I expected? I get the freedom to make whatever I want and the permission to use the stuff in our storage shed. Even if I didn't consider the latter before this.

  "Why can't Rontress just join us dad?" My brother really didn't have to open his mouth while chewing on salted fish eyes. I shuddered at the scent of it. Why do they like that stuff? Mom loves it too! "She can just sit at the boat waiting for a catch while we spear fish."

  "Trapping isn't like fishing, Howaph." Our mom chided, "it's completely different, sometimes you need to wait for an entire day before something bites you know?"

  "Sounds girly, I guess it's perfect for Rontress."

  I raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything. He's not wrong, but also? He's going to eat his words.