It Started with Slime - Part 1

Interlude XIV - Epilogue - Powers Shift

It had taken Boren three full days after his incident with the axe. Those three days had been spent in quiet contemplation and planning out how to use this Berserker power to boost his capabilities. Mostly, though, he had been contemplating how this was going to be his ticket out of weakness. He would use this ability he had learned until he was no longer weak, and then he would stop. With the amount of control he had over his emotion at age nine, it would be easy to stop when the time came. Marasa had said that the warriors in the past had lost their ability to function because of excessive emotion. So he would just need to be careful and avoid that.

Getting up from the bed for the first time with care, he had tried this every day since he had been treated by Marasa, and she had said that while the physical exhaustion had been remedied, his muscular pain would take time to heal. And once his muscles recovered, he would be able to move around and perhaps train again. He would be able to do something in any case.

"Sweetheart, you need to take better care of yourself. You understand?" Isabella walked briskly into the room.

"Yes, mother, of course. I understand, but it is hard to stop myself from thinking that I am so weak, I don't know what to do to remedy my situation." Boren flexed his legs as he stood successfully for the first time in three days.

"Son, I know what happened yesterday, and I know that Marasa spoke to you about something that you unlocked." Isabella was looking down on her nine-year-old son with some disapproval. She was always like this whenever he had tried to do something that ended with him in bed for days.

"Yes...well...I shan't be doing that again anytime soon, I won't." he had been about to promise but something his father had said stuck with him. Never make a promise you don't intend to keep. It will make your word worthless. As a prince, as a man, your word is everything.

Boren had never used the word promise lightly again. "You didn't promise...Boren, there are better ways to accomplish what you are attempting to do, you know? I-"

"Yes! Show me! Why haven't you shown me all of this before? You know how I have been struggling, mother!" the young lad was fuming at his mother being less than forthcoming with information until now. He had felt so alone in his struggle with this weakness, caused by his monumental misfortune that had the knock-on effect on his body weakness and everything physical. That was why the massive boost that he had received in strength was even more unexpected.

"Boren, my child, you have only been alive nine years. I want you to have a childhood before you start on this path. Why do you think I have not been worried about your development all these years? Do you honestly think I would not want my youngest son to grow up strong? The first law of this world is that there is always a solution to every single problem that exists." Isabella spoke with a grave tone, belaying the words she spoke.

"Wait, this sounds like good news, but the way you are saying it –" Boren was understandably confused.

"The second law of this world...every solution comes at a price. Sometimes the solution is money. Sometimes it is something else. Sometimes it is something that you might not be willing to give up, but in desperations, people do. Do you understand what I am telling you, Boren?" Isabella looked down at her son with kind eyes, but the intensity of that stare was unmistakable. "There is a very good reason I have not tried to train you until now. The sacrifice that you have to make is large. With your handicap in starting, you will not even have the baseline that others have. But, what I will teach you will mean that you do not need to resort to this Berserker Class. The only reason I am speaking to you now is that I know you well enough to know that once you found this, you would latch onto this as a way to gain power, but the cost is high. Too high, in my opinion. I would rather begin your instruction earlier than planned if the alternative is you taking the path of the Berserker. It is too unpredictable. Do you understand what I am saying?"