Brimstone was excited. Contrary to most days, waking up at first dawn ended up being an easy feat.

That was because this day was a special one. It marked the beginning of his legend as an adventurer.

Brimstone, The Valiant.

Brimstone, The Paragon of Justice.

Brimstone, The Slayer of Evil.

Ahhhh.

Those didn't sound very good, but that was beside the point: The possibilities were so many! So much he could become! An untold amount of levels to reach and innumerable skills to get!

Of all those uncertainties, there was only one thing that Brimstone was sure of: he was not meant for normalcy. His destiny was greatness! To be recorded in history books and known for generations to come. Someone loved by the righteous and feared by the wrongdoers!

But to fulfill this destiny, first, he had to prove himself by accomplishing a single, monumental task:

Convincing his mother to let him join the Adventurer's Guild.

He had been trying to for over a year now. The answer from his mother was always the same: There was no way she was letting him join.

"You are just fourteen, for God's sake!"

The nerve! Brimstone may have been just fourteen years old, but he was made of sterner stuff than most boys. He understood the life of an adventurer! Having lived his whole life in and out of the town's local branch of the guild, he was used to seeing and talking to all kinds of warriors.

And his mother had to know this! She was the branch's main receptionist, working there every day! She was the reason he stayed there, in the first place!

So today, he would finally break her argument... by turning fifteen!

It was his birthday!

Fifteen was the official minimum age for ingress in the Adventurer's Guild. It was the age with which he would get access to the System and finally learn his first skill!

Yay! Legally, there wasn't anything she could do to stop him now!

Jumping from his bed with a burst of energy, Brimstone got up and rushed to the kitchen. At this hour of the day, his mother would be preparing breakfast.

Slamming the bedroom door open with all his strength and then rushing down the corridors to his mother, he yelled:

"MOM! I AM GOING TO BE AN ADVENTURER!"

His voice was loud, acute, and irritating. The typical grating sound only blooming teenagers can make.

Soon he reached his mother and found her slicing bread on the counter. Her back was turned to him, seemingly oblivious to his racket. She just kept to her task of making breakfast, not even deigning him an answer.

His mother, Vanessa, was a beautiful brunette in her mid-thirties. Brown eyes, heavy eyebrows, and sunkissed skin gave her figure a healthy aspect that hinted of a headstrong woman. Which she was.

"Sit and eat." Said Vanessa, while turning around and putting the basket of sliced bread on the table.

"Huh..? Did you hear what I said?"

"No. Because you have not said anything. At all. Do you understand me Brian Stone?"

"Uhhh... What? No! I said I am going to be an adventurer!" Oblivious to his mother's threats, the boy kept going.

"Today I am turning fifteen! There is nothing you can do to stop me!"

Vanessa burst into laughter.

"Hahahaha! Really? I can't do anything?" If anything, Vanessa seemed impressed by her own son's stupidity.

"Really, Brim? Do you know who I am?" The woman asked, genuinely perplexed.

"Huh... my mother?"

"Yes. I am your mother. Thank you." She rolled the eyes around the room and took a heavy breath.

"In this particular case, however, more importantly than that, is that I am Regalia's Adventurer's Guild Receptionist Head. Do you know what that means?"

Oh. Bollocks. Brimstone could see where this was going.

As if empowered by his silence, Vanessa continued.

"That is right. It means every guild application needs my approval. And yours would never get it. Do you understand me now? Never!" Finally seeming to be losing her famously thin patience, Vanessa raised her voice.

"No matter if you are fourteen, fifteen, twenty, or over a thousand years old!" The last word was said with unrelenting finality as if making it the end of the discussion.

"Now sit and eat your bread. As wrong as you may be, you are right about deciding your craft today. By the end of the day, you will get your first skill choice. Your selection will determine what kind of profession would be good for you to start learning."

She looked at him deeply and said slowly:

"Choose."

"It."

"Well."

More amicably, she continued, "I will not be like some other mothers that force the choice upon their children, but I will be dammed if my son appears here with some idiotic skill meant for nobles or thugs, do you hear me? You will have three choices and I am sure at least one of them will be appropriate for regular, hardworking people like us".

Sulking, Brimstone did as he was told. He sat and ate. The bread was warm, soft, and absolutely delicious. A sign of his mother's [Cooking] skill.

After a while, however, he grunted again.

"But mom..."

"No 'mom' for you! Finish eating your food. You have an important decision to make today. There are thousands of things you could become in the future, so why does it always have to be 'adventurer', or 'guilder'?"

Losing her composure, she finally whispered... "You could be so much Brian... there is no need to throw your life away..." For the first time during the conversation, her voice was soft and warm. For a moment, Brimstone thought he could almost see tears at the corners of her eyes.

But Brimstone was having none of it.

"You know why! You... better than anyone, should know why!" he yelled at his mom.

Contrary to his expectations, what his outburst gave him was an infuriated Vanessa. Suddenly, there was fire in her eyes, just like on every other occasion when he mentioned anything related to his father.

"For God's sake! How did I end up with such a fool of a son!? Do you have a death wish boy? Be realistic! Life is not like all the tales those adventurers at the guild spin for you! It is hard, it is ugly and it is extremely dangerous!"

"I know it is dangerous! But I am not a coward, Mom! I swear to you I can protect myself! I have been training with a sword my whole life and I know more about monsters and dungeons than any other man or child in this town!"

Her son's words infuriated Vanessa even more.

"TRAINING? Do you call that, TRAINING? What you do is play around with wooden sticks! Fooling around the town with that chubby friend of yours while causing trouble!"

Brimstone looked appalled. Sure, they may use wooden swords, and they may have gotten themselves into trouble more than once. But to call that simply 'playing'?

He and Bob were protectors of the weak! They roamed the town's streets and swiftly ended any bullying that other children suffered. Since they had been ten years old, when Brimstone had saved Bob from bullies, they had made a pact to group together and save others from similar injustice.

Nowadays, they were known saviors of many outcast children in the town. You couldn't even find many bullies on Regalia's streets anymore! All because of them!

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"That... That is not fair mom! Why do you have to always diminish the things I do? Why can't you just believe in me for once?"

Tears started welling up in Brimstone's eyes, but he wiped them before they could fully form. It wouldn't do for a man to cry. Instead of risking it further by continuing the conversation, he decided that it was enough. She wouldn't understand him until he truly proved himself to her.

Snatching those delicious pieces of bread left on the basket, Brimstone rose from his chair and bolted for the house's exit.

Vanessa made to stop him but gave up halfway. It would be better to give the boy time to think by himself.

Once outside, Brimstone immediately got to sprinting through the streets while shoving the bread remains into his mouth. He went to the only place in town where he always felt things were right.

Toyle's Baked Goods.

More specifically, his secret base, which had been built in the bakery's backyard. It was located on the top of a huge tree, higher than most town's buildings, but not above the bakery.

Oh no. Theodore Toyle was the owner of the biggest and most prestigious bakery in the whole town, having both the [Cooking] and [Sweetening Touch] skills. Those two skills together allowed him to make sweets, cakes, and other delicacies with magical flavors. Things you wouldn't taste anywhere else.

With such products and propaganda, it was no surprise that he had built himself a reputation among Regalia's noble houses. Nowadays, they all got their treats from his shop.

Brimstone knew the man and liked him quite a bit. Even after acquiring his fortune and becoming one of the wealthiest business owners in the town, he still remained a humble and selfless man. He was nice to just about everyone he met and sometimes he even donated to the poor.

The reason the secret base was built behind his shop, however, was not because of the man. Rather, the one who had given the idea was Brimstone's best friend and Theodore's son, Bob Toyle.

The plump boy was big and round, just like his father. His dad's assertiveness and business cunning, however, had been replaced by timidness and sweetness in the son. He was, by all means, what people call a 'good boy'.

Upon arriving on the bakery grounds, Brimstone immediately set to look for his friend. He circled around the luxurious building, went through a small iron gate on the backyard's fence, and then yelled his friend's name.

"Booooooooooooooooooob!!!"

Brimstone looked around the place: there was shrubbery, training weapons and paraphernalia strewn around, and the huge tree in which their base rested. He was about to yell his friend's name again when he noticed a small voice coming from above.

Up at the treehouse - also known as The Secret Base - Bob's big cheeks were sticking out from one of the small windows, calling him with his whisper-like voice.

"... I'm here, Brim..!"

It always astounded Brimstone how timid Bob was. With a body that big, he could set out to be one of the greatest heroes of all time. If he had the right mindset. Which he didn't.

After hearing his friend, Brimstone immediately set to climb the rope ladder that fell from his base, and in a few moments, he was up there with Bob.

"Bob, I have a pla -- !", before Brimstone could finish he was cut short by the decoration in front of him.

"Surprise!!!" The yell caught him by surprise.

Bob and Ellen stood around the "strategy table" with a colorful and delicious-looking cake.

"Happy birthday Brim!" said Ellen before rushing to give him a hug. Her developed teen body made the teenager in Brimstone self-conscious. He immediately cut the hug short while trying to make sense of the situation.

"What... You guys did all this?" The cake looked expensive like one of those Bob's father made exclusively for nobility. Colored papers were hanging from the wooden ceiling and there was even a big candle with a carved '15' on it, which he heard rich folks used to commemorate the adulthood of their children.

Ellen looked sheepishly at Bob before answering.

"Well, I mainly did the decorating and helped set things up here. Bob got all the stuff. He knew how much it means for you to become 15..."

From behind, Bob had a timid smile on his face.

"...H-Happy birthday Brim. My father made the cake. He said it is very good..."

It was almost comic to see a person so big - Bob was as tall as most grown men and had the width of two - being so sweet and timid, but Brimstone didn't laugh.

Instead, at that moment he could only feel gratitude and love for his friends.

The tears he had pushed down back at his house's kitchen came back with torrential strength and soon he was crying while hugging his two friends.

"Thank you, guys... Really, really thank you..!"

Having grown together, these three were quite close. His two friends thought no less of Brimstone for getting so emotional. They knew how excited he had always been to get his first skill and how important being an adventurer was for him. Especially after what happened to his father.

So they hugged him back and stayed that way with him until he regained his calm and could speak properly.

Ellen talked about the difficulties she had while setting everything up and how she had to skip her duties at the guild's tavern so she could do everything in time. Bob timidly said how he was sure that Brimstone would go directly to their Secret Base after waking up and having breakfast. That was why he contacted Ellen and planned to prepare everything here.

After exchanging a few more words, they eventually got to sing a birthday hymn for Brimstone and finally had him blow the candle atop the cake. He thought of his deepest wish while doing it and was immediately mocked by Ellen afterward.

"You know everyone here knows what you are wishing, right, 'Mr. I Wanna Be A Big Hero'?"

With his brown hair, green eyes, and handsome face, Brimstone would certainly fit the stereotype of a gilded hero from some children's book. And it was indeed his dream. It hadn't actually been what he had wished, but how close her joke hit home made him mildly irritated.

"Hah! I have no shame of my ambitions, Ellen. You should try it someday", and then he continued with a smirk, "You may end up liking having a goal in your life, besides serving drinks..."

It was a game of theirs since they were small children, jabbing at each other by calling childish names and then progressing to more advanced forms of teasing through the years.

Ellen's father was the Tavern Keeper of the local Adventurer's Guild and she hanged around there since she was a baby, just like Brimstone. They had grown as friends over the years and formed a solid friendship. Traded barbs wouldn't affect it.

"Hmmm... You know what? You may just be right. You certainly must know a lot about the joys of having big ambitions, living with a name like that. Really, who the hell nicknames himself as 'Brimstone'? Do you even know how the substance it stands for smells?"

That got a laugh out of Bob, who swiftly stifled the noise. He was happily standing at the room's corner, out of the discussion.

Hearing his adventurer name being mocked, Brimstone showed on his face a mixture of indignation and disbelief.

"Yeah Ellen, I do know what my name means. And I also know it explodes into a blast and blows away all the bad guys. Besides, what is wrong with it? It is a very dignified name that sounds so cool it could be right in the middle of some epic story. Just think about it: 'As he stands amid the bodies of his defeated foes, Commander Brimstone raises hi-'" Brimstone's rambling was cut short by the loud sound of Bob's stomach rumbling for sustenance.

Both Ellen and Brimstone looked with scared expressions at Bob, as he appeared startled and embarrassed.

"Uhh... I kind of skipped breakfast today... So... I mean... Shouldn't we eat the cake?"

Thrown out of their game, Brimstone and Ellen laughed before giving in to the big man's plead of cake.

"Sure, buddy... We certainly should be already eating! It is a cake made by the great Theodore Toyle, after all!" Answered Ellen as if talking to a child.

Brimstone didn't like how people tended to treat Bob like he was dull or something. Ellen was no exception to this rule, but he let it go. There was nothing to be done. As much as Brimstone loved his big friend, it was also partly his fault for not making his personality - which was just as big and strong as him - clearly apparent.

As the one turning fifteen, Brimstone got to split the cake. He was positively surprised by how the cake was both soft and consistent as the slightly dull kitchen knife drowned itself among the cream, chocolate, and other delicacies spread on the cake's top and insides.

Once he had successfully handed plates to everyone, he slowly took a bite.

It was... exquisite. As much as he loved reading fantastical tales written by nobles, Brimstone tended to leave their fancy vocabulary out of his day-to-day speech. This cake, however...

No simple, day-to-day words would be enough to make justice to just how great it was.

Flavors and textures exploded inside his mouth, perfectly blended ingredients arranged into pure harmony.

It was perfect.

All his life, Brimstone had heard people talk about how Bob's father had become rich due to his luck of getting to choose both the common skill [Cooking] and the extremely rare and magical [Sweetening Touch], but now he was sure those people couldn't be more wrong in their lives.

There was no way this level of quality could be reached with just skills. Theodore Toyle had to be a bakery genius!

He looked around to see the reaction of his friends and was astounded to find the aloof and sarcastic Ellen with big eyes full of tears.

"It is so good..." she whispered, shocked. Moments ago she had been all bravado and now she looked like a crying baby.

Pfffffffft! Brimstone almost spat the second bite he had been taking. He fought to swallow it before leaning on the table while laughing.

"Hahahahahahaha...!!!"

Bob, however, was unfazed by their antics. He just kept a kind smile on his face and said "Don't let him make you embarrassed Ellen... I am told by my father that this is a completely normal reaction to his Grand Magnum Cake, even among nobles. It is his highest-rated product!"

The damage control performed by Bob just made Brimstone laugh even harder. He was almost out of breath when he saw the look in Ellen's eyes.

Uh-oh. He knew that look. It was a prequel to many scuffles they had had over the years, as kids. Better not to cross that line, or they would be rolling on the floor in no time.

Thinking of himself as being not just brawls but also brains, Brimstone swiftly stopped laughing and changed the subject.

"Holy shit Bob! This cake must cost a fortune if not even nobles are accustomed to its taste. Did your father just give it to you?"

"Well... I had to explain it was for your fifteenth birthday and how important it was. And you know my father likes you, right?"

"Yeah... right..." Brimstone was pretty sure Theodore only liked him because he was the only friend Bob had. When he was younger Bob was pretty spoiled and ended up being bullied a lot. It was only due to Brimstone's hero complex that the other boys stopped making fun of him, after getting beat. That was when they first became friends. Still, it was a great gesture for the man to simply give it to him, even if he was rich.

"It is really delicious, Bob! Please give him my thanks!"

Bob just smiled and nodded as he took another piece of the cake.

In that way, they spend the rest of the day's morning: chatting, joking, and eating the magically tasty cake.

It was almost noon when Bob asked "Hey Brim... Your System will start in a few moments, right? What kind of skill do you want to get?"

The world gave access to the System precisely fifteen years after the time of one’s birth. When Vanessa gave birth to Brimstone, it was around midday, so he knew to expect his System around that time. He had already told Bob that.

"Yeah..." Bob's question made Brimstone remember his talk with his mother that morning. Should he give up his dream and listen to his mother's desire? Should he forget his father's legacy and live a normal life? He understood her. After losing his dad, she didn't want to lose her son the same way. But still...

"Hah!" As Brimstone thought about his answer, Ellen had it ready for him.

"Why do you even ask Bob? Ain't you his best friend? You should know better than anyone what kind of skill our golden boy here will get: something flashy, heroic sounding, and totally over the top!" She exclaimed with a grin.

And hearing it, Brimstone knew she was right. That was who he was. He was the son of "The Stone Knight" Richard himself. A hero. And he would continue his legacy, no matter what.

And just as Brimstone strengthened his resolve, he heard a 'Ding!' from the depths of his mind.

It was time to choose.