Trash: Chapter 167 Finding Destiny (Lelia Volica) (Patreon)

Chapter 167

Finding Destiny

(Lelia Volica)

To say that life was tough for Lelia would be an understatement, born to two common parents, both of whom waited until later in their lives to have Lelia, meant that her life would be tough from the start. First, it was well known that parents who have Common Classes, the predominant majority of the world, the jobs they were qualified for were both dangerous, and paid poorly. This is not to say that someone with an Uncommon class working the same job at the same time would not be working in worse conditions, but their pay would start off being a quarter to half more than the Common Class holders. This disparity in wages meant that money was scarce in the Volica household.

Added to this, was the second fact that Lelia had been a mistake. Well not a mistake, as that would be a bit too mean of a term, but to say she was unplanned would not be an understatement by any stretch of the imagination. Already having six mouths to feed, Lelia came pre-equipped with four older brothers. Which made Lelia the seventh mouth to feed.

Worse, while her brothers were born relatively early on in her parents’ lives, they had time to adjust to the fact that Common families didn’t last long. By the time Lelia was born, her parents were already in their mid-thirties, meaning that they passed away before she really understood just how tough this life would be. Her brothers all tried to help, but they all moved out once they were granted Common Classes and forced to go to the worst locations imaginable as needs of the city. Meaning that while her brothers were all starting to embrace their new lives, it meant that Lelia would be left to her own devices more and more.

However, these conditions made Lelia scrappy. While other kids were learning their numerals, letters, and Basic Strengthening, Lelia was developing those along with her Foraging Skill, and a Deft Hands Skill. Why use one of her valuable Free Slots to develop Deft Hands Skill? Simple, because the food wasn’t going to fly from the vendor stall to her hands without assistance.

Some might call what she was doing stealing. But in her mind it was the farthest thing from stealing, for in her mind stealing was a foreign and unexplainable concept. See the problem was that from a very early age, she was told that the world owed her nothing, and that this was why she was considered to be both poor and lacking of personal necessities to live. While most would have stopped there, Lelia had something that proved she was justified in her actions, for she was granted heavenly eyes. At least, that is how the church described her unique ability. For at around the same time that her mother and last surviving parental unit passed away, the trauma was so intense that Lelia was able to unlock very own Personal Skill.

Personal Skill: Karmic Vision (Unique)

You can see clearly items, people, places, and events that you are meant to interact with.

Cost: 1 Mana per ten seconds of insight

Karmic Vision: Mana (+0.1 per level). Str, Dex, Sta, Per, Int (+0.07 per level)

That was it, all she was given to help her guide her way through the world. The more she used it, the more she realized that she could almost force a result to appear. Normally everything would either remain dull, or glow faintly with mild golden hue. It was the golden hue that would initially draw her to items, people, place, and events. But it was one day when she was starving that she found herself using her Karmic Vision Skill to see food that was left unattended. To make the moment more memorable, was the fact that by limiting her search to just food, she could see more of the world than she ever thought possible. Almost as if a weighted blanket had been removed from her, allowing her to use her Skill a bit more freely.

From that point on, life became, not easy, for that would minimize the effort that Lelia still had to put into using her Skill, to modifying what she wanted at any given time. But it gave her a chance, and that was all she needed. Once she had that chance, she held onto it with every fiber of her being.

Simple things like going to school became easier, merely utilizing methods of entering that were not standard. Then there were times when the Skill would seemingly call to her, as it brightly flashed and all but forced her to move and follow exact routes.

The first time, she was forced to follow the whims of her Skill was when she was forced to sneak into the assistant to the principal’s office to rubber stamp her admission to the advance placement courses.

The process seemed simple, but the execution was tougher than she would first expect. For her Skill showed not only the routes to take and what her objective was, but it also showed bright golden silhouettes of where she would need to place her feet perfectly. The sheer fact that she had to place her feet precisely caused her to move silently as she tried not to place any weight on the foot before she knew it would settle into place. From there, she made her way down the hall, silently passing by offices that held numerous teachers, the principal, the vice principal, and even the assistant were all gathered around a table hosting a meeting of sorts.

Normally, Lelia would be curious about what everyone was talking about, possibly risking the chance of exposure if she stopped too long to linger. Yet, she didn’t even have time, for the Skill seemed to be going faster, as her footsteps burned away quickly, forcing her to almost jump step at times to the indicated locations, before the next set would begin to disappear. With this process of constantly dissolving steps, she made her way to the assistant’s office. From there, she was able to take steps at a fairly normal gait to the desk, where she found a glowing pen and stack of parchments.

Just like her time in the hallway, the moment she got close, the glowing golden energy began to dissolve. Frantic with a need to move forward, she quickly grabbed the pen and began filtering through the stack of parchments until she found it, a glowing page that almost began to dissolve before her eyes. Well the page didn’t dissolve, but the golden hue that had highlighted the page began to fade, revealing rows upon rows of student names. Names of rich and wealthy students that came from wealthy families that contributed generously to the school’s annual funding. These were names that Lelia knew all too well, for they were the entitled children of Epic and Rare class holders that made their position in society well known. As the lines disappeared, there was one left that still glowed golden, but pulsed with an almost impatient pulse of energy.

Seeing the line, it was clear why Lelia had been drawn to the currently blank line. A line that had a golden outline of a perfectly maintained hand, showing a level of penmanship far beyond Lelia’s ability to write. But with the outline she didn’t have to write well, instead all Lelia needed to do was trace. Trace the faint glowing outline and replace the golden hue with her own ink coverings. By the time she was done, a line that would forever be etched in her mind remained.

Special Admission Student: Lelia Volica

With her task done, a quick reverse timeline began to appear before her eyes. All while her mind began to feel the fatigue of constant energy use. Still she followed the steps by quickly placing the parchment of papers back in its original form. Then placing the pen back in its original place, that was again silhouetted by a golden hue. Once done, she began making her way out the door, into the hallway, where she was all but forced to sprint her way down the hallway and off to safety.

That was the first major event that her Skill had alerted her to, and one that formed the basis for all of her later growth. From being placed as the special admissions student in the classroom of the elites, Lelia was given training, supplements, and above all access to someone capable of badging her maxed out Skills for free. Well not for free exactly, but for a fee that every student was allowed to use quarterly.

From there, Lelia managed to speed through her basic Skill badges and ultimately focus on more necessary Skills that would help her stay alive.

The Second time her Skill demanded her attention was when she was directed to sneak onto an unassuming train, one that appeared overly ornate and not local to the region at all. At a glance, Lelia knew this was important, and that if she was caught she would be punished severely. Yet, she trusted in her Skill completely by now, letting it guide her in almost any decision she had to make. Then at times like these, she used the Skill to make decisions on her behalf. Once on the train she was directed to storage shelves containing unused mattresses that served as her temporary bedding, she was also directed to a dining cart that had not one, but two discarded sandwiches wrapped in wax paper. Just seeing the food apparently left to waste by the rich students riding the train, Lelia felt sick. Then she did what she always did in these cases, she took both. Only eating one sandwich, while placing the second sandwich in her pouch. A pouch that she nearly forgot about, until her Skill all but screamed at her.

See the third time her Skill screamed at her was to volunteer to join Catarine Blooms team. While Lelia was just as confused as the other kids who just got off the train about what a healer candidate was, and why it was so important, she did know one thing, that the golden light of her Skills told her to get close to the healer.

Then when her healer stumbled about on wobbly legs, Lelia saw the clear signs of hunger ravaging the healer. That’s when the second sandwich came into use, a meal that she almost had to discard from keeping it almost too long, suddenly got used at the right time and place.

Scanning the area, Lelia saw that most of the places here were covered in a dull golden hue. A sign that she would need to interact with those exact places, but not now. Like watching a budding fruit, she had to wait for the growing hue to bloom, and only then would she be ready to go and view what was calling her attention. For now, she just had to sit back and watch.

Well watch and hold back her healer’s hair when she clearly showed signs of vomiting. Vomiting that her senses told was being caused by a source off to the center of an abandoned city. Lelia knew the city was abandoned as there was no food, no shelter to be had, and everything here screamed to stay away.

Then to her fear, Lelia saw something that made her blood run cold. For there at the center of the city sat a dark void-like patch of dirt that all but screamed that death awaited anyone who came near.

Fortunately, the team was taken back and away from the dreadful place, but not before Lelia could see dark tentacles reaching out and snapping their way around each and every member of her new team. Reaching out, she tried to touch the tentacle, only to see that these tentacles were ephemeral, just like all the other strings made visible from her Karmic Vision Skill. While she had never experienced dark karmic tentacles like this before, she knew her Skill didn’t seem to like them, which meant she too didn’t like them.

The only problem was, what should she do about the problem? Should she tell the new team lead and all but admit that she crazy and basically asking to be banned from the team? Or should she do something on her own to try and fix this, before it became a true problem?

With no good options available, Lelia decided to take matters into her own hands. Later tonight, she would act and try to understand what exactly they encounter in that abandoned city. As she needed to figure out what could make her team lead crash to the ground like that. But that was a task for later tonight, for now she needed to not make waves and try to blend in, even though every inch of her psyche screamed that something bad was waiting for them all.