"Photographic memory. It wasn't the first thing I took, but it should have been. I highly recommend it, because it will make everything that much faster to learn."

(SEE LIST OF AVAILABLE ADVANTAGES?)

(YES) (NO)

"Yes," he said without hesitation.

As a huge list began scrolling in his mind's eye, his dad spoke up.

"You don't have to answer out loud. If you think in your head, it will hear or understand. That way it's easier to keep a secret."

"You keep saying it's a secret, but it hasn't mentioned that yet."

"Trust me, you don't want to make it have to mention it. The System prefers to have a mentor available for new users. My mentor was a jerk and ran off without telling me anything."

(CORRECT)

The list was replaced for a moment, by the one word, then returned.

"I want photographic memory," he said, a little overwhelmed by all the options.

(PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY – COST 10 LIFE POINTS)

(PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY – REMEMBER EVERYTHING IN YOUR PAST, YES EVERYTHING)

(ACCEPT?)

(YES) (NO)

Of course he wanted to accept it, hadn't he just said so?

(DON'T TAKE THAT TONE OF VOICE WITH ME. I HAVE TO BE CAREFUL THAT YOU REALLY MEAN IT, SO THAT YOU DON'T GET SOME STUPID ADVANTAGE AND THEN TRY TO GET ALL MAD AT ME!)

If he wasn't sitting, he may have fallen out of his chair. He looked at his dad with wild eyes.

"Oh ho! It's started talking to you now, hasn't it? Don't worry, I went through it, too," he laughed.

(PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY ACQUIRED)

This time as images flashed through his head, they didn't fade from his memory. Joseph remembered another time and place. A place that had no magic, but technology instead. A time when he grew into an adult, and had a job as an accountant, and another time when he was a dentist. He didn't remember family or names, but the skills he had learned were there.

(SKILLS AQUIRED)

ACCOUNTING

ADMINISTRATION

ECONOMICS

FINANCE

MARKET a.n.a.lYSIS

APPLIED MATH

MERCHANT

BIOLOGY

CHEMISTRY

DIAGNOSIS

FIRST AID

GEOLOGY

PHARMACY SYNTHETIC

PHYSICIAN

DIPLOMACY

FAST TALK

PROPAGANDA

SURGERY

"Dad?" he asked just above a whisper.

He recognized the look in his father's eyes, and knew. It was age. He understood that he must have lived a previous life, too.

"I wasn't sure if you would have memories, too. Do you remember much?" He wasn't laughing anymore. There was complete seriousness in his eyes.

"I remember being an accountant and a dentist. And there wasn't magic…how is that possible?"

"I'm not sure, but I remember a place like that, too. I was a job recruiter. I helped other people find jobs. Though most of those memories are fuzzy. I don't know what my name was, or if I had a family."

Joseph mulled over the memories that had been unlocked. He could remember everything that had happened to him from the time he was three. Everything before then was fuzzy.

"Can you remember when you were a baby?" he asked his dad.

"No, only from about three or four. Before then it was like my brain wasn't capable of remembering things."

"So, what do I do now?"

"Missions! For every mission you complete, you get points that you can save up to buy things. If you do a really good job on a mission, you may get bonus rewards that aren't mentioned. I think it's the Systems way of trying to make us work harder."

(OF COURSE)

(MISSION – CHOOSE LOCATION OF FUTURE KINGDOM)

(REWARD – 5 LIFE POINTS)

"I think I need to see a map."

"Well, the only cartographer is on the other side of the castle. It would take a long time to go there, and I have a lot of things I need to get done before the end of the week when we have to leave. How about we swing by there before we leave?"

Joseph liked how his dad didn't even ask why he needed to see a map, just accepted it and went with the flow. He could probably get away with asking a lot of weird questions because they both had the System.

His dad was finished talking to him, so they left and spent the rest of the day traveling around. Joseph was amazed. He noticed so much more, only because it remained in his memory. If his father mentioned someone's name, it popped up above that person's head in his mind's eye.

Because so many babies had been taken in, his father had to make arrangements to have each baby given a nurse maid. That nurse maid would care for the child like it was her own. She would see to it that it was well nourished and would begin teaching it the basic things his dad had laid out for each child to learn.

To make sure that each baby had enough to eat, he had a herd of milk goats that followed the caravan around, to ensure they always had enough milk.

The baby that was rushed to the healer survived, and his dad was very happy about it. The ones that needed minor healings for birth defects were also healed.

"It's very rare that not a single baby I bought died. I normally lose at least one. Maybe he's taking better care of them to ensure they survive so that I can buy them. See? Good actions do have good consequences. It may take time and a special perspective, but it can happen."

Joseph was still uncertain, but didn't comment.

As the week pa.s.sed, he followed his dad everywhere. They always returned to the same inn to discuss the things he had learned that day about the System, but until he completed his mission, there wasn't much to talk about.

During the days, they checked up on his dad's former slaves that lived here, to let potential buyers know that he cared about the slaves even though they weren't his anymore. They visited his long caravan to check on the new babies. Joseph loved seeing some of the more exotic ones. They also checked up on the older slaves who were busy learning the tasks and knowledge that would make them some of the elite. This was nothing more than a normal stopover for them.

Joseph learned that as they progressed, his father moved them from one location to the next on purpose. When they were sold, it wouldn't be such a shock for them being in a new place, like it would be for most slaves that are kept in one location the majority of their lives and then moved when sold. It made the sell traumatic for them.

He listened as his father explained how he had long conversations with mothers about the proper methods of punishment and teaching proper manners. Apparently, one of the first abilities he acquired was to be able to walk up to any mother at random and start talking to them about how to raise children. He loved hearing his stories.