Chapter 52: Happy Birthday
Encrid woke to the sound of a system notification.
That had never happened before.
In the last month and a half, the system had never spoken to him first thing in the morning.
So he actually had come awake with his heart pounding, already reaching for the knife beneath his pillow.
[ Happy Birthday. ]
Encrid lay in the darkness, his hand still wrapped around the knife.
He read it once.
Then again.
And a third time.
’What the fuck?’
Another line appeared.
[ Host: Encrid Gannon ]
[ Age: 23 → 24 ]
The text faded.
Outside, the sixth bell rang somewhere along the Wall.
Encrid slowly put the knife down and lay back.
’Twenty-four?’
He stared at the ceiling.
’So today is his birthday.’
He had never thought about it before. The thought had simply never entered his mind with everything that had been happening.
And even if it had, there was no way for him to know Encrid’s birthday.
He hadn’t inherited Encrid’s memories and nobody had mentioned it.
A thought settled into his mind before he could stop it.
’Did anyone remember?’
In his old life, his birthday had fallen in the middle of a quarter.
Which meant it landed right in the middle of the worst four weeks of the year.
He hadn’t had anyone close enough to remember his birthday on their own. The company remembered, mostly because his date of birth was entered into some automated system.
Once the mail arrived, his team would usually buy a cake and eat most of it themselves.
There would be a small gathering.
A few wishes.
Nothing particularly sincere.
Then he would go home around eleven, buy himself a beer and a plate of fried chicken from the place on the corner, eat both standing up, and go to bed.
That was the birthday he remembered.
It wasn’t exactly pleasant.
But it wasn’t terrible either.
Now he was lying alone in a small room on the Wall.
For the first time since arriving in this world, he felt completely alone for some reason.
And Encrid felt something that belonged entirely to Jin.
He felt cold.
Not the northern cold that froze water and numbed fingers.
Something deeper.
The cold of being alone.
He sat on the edge of the cot and tried to compose himself.
Then he made a sound that wasn’t quite a laugh.
"Thank you," he said aloud.
He wasn’t sure whether he was thanking the system or simply acknowledging that, somehow, it had remembered.
The system responded immediately.
[ A Gift has arrived! ]
A new panel appeared.
A small box wrapped in paper appeared on the screen.
Encrid stared at it.
’A gift?’
The corner of his mouth lifted.
’How generous.’
He clicked it.
The box opened in a brief animation.
Then the screen changed.
[ Temporary Proficiency Token ]
[ Use this token to raise the Proficiency of any owned skill to its maximum mastery for one minute. After one minute, the skill’s Proficiency will return to its previous mastery. ]
Encrid froze.
He read it again.
He had no words.
’Maximum proficiency?’
He made absolutely certain he hadn’t misunderstood.
Because the implications were far greater than the simple description suggested.
Maximum proficiency meant there would be no restrictions caused by his current level of mastery.
Two skills immediately came to mind.
Gannon Family Swordsmanship.
And Appraisal.
Encrid couldn’t even imagine what would happen if he pushed Gannon Family Swordsmanship, which was a six star skill to maximum proficiency.
He could potentially perform all six forms of the Gannon Family Swordsmanship with complete mastery.
His current realm would still limit the raw power behind them, of course.
But even then...
It could become something he kept in reserve.
An ultimate move.
Then there was Appraisal.
Encrid was someone who firmly believed that information was power.
Even at F-rank, Appraisal was incredibly useful.
With maximum proficiency, he might be able to see things he couldn’t even imagine right now.
Abilities.
Weaknesses.
Perhaps even information about people far beyond his current understanding.
For someone like him, that one minute could be worth more than any amount of gold.
His thoughts kept racing.
Then he forced himself to calm down.
’Not yet.’
He only had one token.
And it lasted for one minute.
He had no idea what he might need it for in the future.
’I should save it.’
The longer he waited, the more valuable that one minute could become.
So Encrid closed the panel.
He got dressed.
He had work to do.
He didn’t realize it then, but for the first time in either of his two lives, he was genuinely happy because of a birthday gift.
And the reason was a glitchy system that somehow remembered his birthday.
✧ ✧ ✧
The morning was as ordinary as any other, and Jin was grateful for it.
Gus cultivated on the frozen training ground before returning to his lessons. He slowly worked through the letters, sounding each one out under his breath - he really was a fast learner, be it the sword or pen.
’Talented bastard,’ Encrid spat out a few curses as he started his work.
Merta arrived during the eighth hour to argue about oil.
Vess came shortly after, looking like a man carrying bad news. He left an hour later looking like a man who had been handed a solution to his problem, though he clearly didn’t trust it yet.
Jin signed forty-one requisitions, rejected several others, and sent polite notes to the commanders explaining why their requests had been denied.
At noon, while he was busy with his usual work, a boy arrived carrying the post satchel from the Span crossing.
Most of it was ordinary Wall business.
Letters from merchants.
Invoices.
A bundle of tally-sticks from a station that still refused to use paper.
And then Jin noticed one heavy envelope.
The paper was thick and expensive, and the handwriting on the front was neat and deliberate.
His name was written across it.
"For me?"
Jin took the envelope and sat down.
He turned it over in his hands.
He recognized the handwriting immediately.
He had seen an entire bundle of letters written in the same hand back in Encrid’s room after all.
He looked at the name written on the front again.
’From your dear sister, Zuri.’
✦ ✦ ✦