Behind the gate a world of smoke and ember awaited. Hammer blows on iron rang loudly through the forge. The butler tried to gain the attention of one of the smiths by clearing his throat. The butler trying his best still failed against the unrelenting ringing of iron on iron. Finally Juno showed mercy and shouted:"Mr. Gurtheac, are you present?" He put his hand placating on the butler's shoulder.

"Sure, I'm just 'round the corner" a gruffly voice sounded through the noise. "No' need to worry. I was expecting thee. Do tell what did ya call me for all the' way from Sibbiken" A short sturdy build man with short neck greeted them. his hair was stuck flat on the head with sweat. Ker couldn't begin to imagine the hard work that goes into forging.

Juno smiled and shook the smith's hand. "We are here for the personal specified armour"

"Aye, that's what all the want. Do tell what specifics"

"We want to order an armour for my son. Something very special, to give him an edge in the field. The important part is, it has to grow with him."

"Ah, that makes things much more interesting. Is this your son. Let me t' look what we hav' here"

The smith inspected Ker with his keen eyes. Walked around him and noted a few things loud through the forge. The clinging stopped, a sigh followed and a short but stocky build woman appeared with a small note-board. "Why do you nee'd me for things like this. Don't yo' hav' yer disciple for that?"

"I already sayd he is travelling for his journeyman years. He won’t be back for a couple of year's."

The woman looked now at them and bowed in greeting. "Good day esteemed guests, this my brother from the mountains way up north. Don't worry he's always this grumpy." At that her brother snorted indignantly.

"Now a little test, are ye ready boy?" asked the smith as he stopped in front of Ker. "Sure" was the short but certain answer of him. The smith just hold out one hand and planted one foot slightly behind him for stabilisation. "Good, you gonna press with all ye got against this hand, clear?"

Ker, interested at the result of this test and to test his new found strength, instantly accepted. He pressed with his right hand against the smith’s hand. Then he used both his hand for more power and eventually had to resort to using his legs to push forward. He now was using his entire body and couldn't even budge the smiths hand one full inch. His eyes betraying his efforts to stay collected as he felt genuinely weak the first time in a long time.

The smith naturally noticed his disposition. "Oye, you didn't thought that I could be pushed back from a little whelp, did ye?"

At his provocation Ker felt surge of anger and with that power flowing through him. His power translated to strength and now he could push back the smith somewhat, but he was dangerously close to losing himself again. Something dark started to gain hold in him, a glint of darkness in his eyes.

"Alright, alright, that will be enough" the smith suddenly declared as he stopped the test. Much quieter the smith gruffed to himself. "Demons all of them, I swear." To Ker he eventually reached out his hand. "The name's Gurtheac, come from the mountains of Sibbiken, nice to make your acquaintance."

"My name is Ker, coming from the border town of Wellsheid, good to make your acquaintance too." Ker decided to just stick to his forename without title. This man didn't seem to care about honorifics anyway.

"Good lad your strong when you want to be. It will be a pleasure to make a growth item for ye." Gurtheac smiled. Juno also smiled, happy at his son's development.

A growth item, did I hear that right. We are here for a, no, my growth item...

It felt like Ker's earlier anticipation was already rewarded. His anger all but gone, he could hardly wait for his item.

"Mr. Gurtheac, when do you think will it be ready?" Ker asked within a beat. "Ye can't wait, can ye. But those thing take their time. It will need more of a month, specifically for ye lad." With that Gurtheac retreated in the forge to start the smithing process. As he turned he exclaimed:"I let ye take care of the rest, Hefraela"

She pouted at that, but took care of the task nonetheless. "So ye people want a growth item, for ye son. That my brother said he is strong means something, ye know. Saw him seldom that ecstatic at a task." If that was ecstatic than Ker didn't want to meet the opposite.

However, Hefraela explained in raw how the process of forging a growth item worked and then dedicated herself to explain in detail the costs. "To sum it up, ye owe us now a sum of 3321 guilders. That is exactly 84460.2 shilling. How do ye wish to pay?"

At that Juno nodded. "We wish to pay the full sum upfront. We have it with us at our disposal. Don't want let my son wait any longer than necessary."

"Really, I swear business with nobles and high adventurers is the best! In that case, good to make business with ye." she exclaimed spit in her hand and shook Juno's. They bid farewell and set off on their way. Ker's parents explained, they would stay less than a week. The actual armour would be delivered to them via messenger.

⚝──⚜─⚜─⚜──𖤍

They spend the week experiencing the main city. They looked at the weirdest to most imposing buildings. In Ker's case it was more ogling at the strange awesomeness of the city. It started at the never truly straight roads and continued at the creative assembled shops and workshops. From the little he had heard about running a city he didn't even dare to imagine the impossibility to run the main city.

His father pointed out that this city had an additional mayor while being the area of the main residence of the crown. There were still a lot of parts of the city that were overlooked and not taken care of. Those were simply left to the citizens that had the luck or misfortune to live there. Those parts were also often slums or devolved to those.

There was also one famous exception, a self-governed part that was ruled by rich merchants. They decided how their district grew, who were allowed to enter and the specifics of the rules inside. But in the end it still needed authorisation of the crown. It could only be speculated what kind of sum had flown in between those involved.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Juno explained that he was to the main city before, that it has changed was constantly changing, but never lost its charm. Hellena on the other hand laughed about her time here. She had lived in the main city for a short period and apparently made it, to her parents demise, to her playground.

Among other things they were headed towards a training area, optimised for sparring.

"Is it truly necessary that you have to spar" asked his mother annoyed.

"Of course, I have to see how far my son has come. Ker also needs important lessons from an advanced adventurer." his father commented with a certain glee to his voice.

"Oh sure, just that your adventure days are long over, just like my patience for people who come to late for dinner. So make sure that you come home on time."

"Sure, just let the men have some fun. We will be home on time." his father joked.

The training hall was a wide area parted into several smaller areas. They had to pay 8 shilling just for their personal area. That would have been a small fortune back home. For training gear they had to pay additional 4 shilling, while 3 shilling were pledge in case the gear got damaged.

"That was good" Juno huffed. "Let's see how good your parry is, strength is not be all end all" So they continued with a set of parries and follow ups. "Your left side is weak to a short swing, remember to fully turn your blade and catch my blade with your parier" But actually doing all the moves exactly as his father said were a completely different kind of matter. Ker struggled even keeping up with his father. His limits were very apparent to him. He also noticed that his father rather wanted to test his limits than teach him. His father was a very capable fighter, but not a great teacher. Which doesn't mean Ker didn't learn anything.

"I can't look at this any more. Is he trying to exhaust him or just messing with him?" said a huge burly man while shaking his head.

"You have to admit the boy is quite persistent. And he adapts to every fighting stance and attack." noticed a woman beside the man.

They both stood aside from the training area, observing the father son duo spar. "Okay I have enough. Let's go over there and teach the kid some proper techniques." The woman retorted to the man "Sure, but your responsible for our cut time."

The two people interrupted their training session with an introduction. "Good day, I am Jiero and this beside me is Amelia. We had the unfortunate luck to look at your sparring. How about we teach the kid some techniques in a proper way. So that he can take them home instead of just dodging them."

Juno was getting slightly tired from the training, while Ker's exhaustion was far greater. "That would be nice, I am Juno and the kid your referring to is my son, Ker. What kind of input could you give us?"

At that Jiero snorted. "First, stay at one technique and train it till it sticks. Give the boy some breathing room, he's fully exhausted, he can't learn this way. Then stay in your stance and don't change like a nervous cat. How can he ever learn the basics of stances if he has to adapt at a whim."

"Oh, does that mean you want to take over the session." Juno furrowed his eyebrows.

"Yes, that what this is. So make some place, I gonna make certain your son actually learns something today."

The following session was far more structured, left Ker time and place to concentrate on one stance and one technique after the other. Overall he learned far more than before. He even had a quick sparring with Amelia. While Jiero showed him how to stay defensive at one place as well as how to make attacks count, Amelia taught him how to avoid cuts and adapt better to fast paced blades. Jiero was a mixture of a tank and a sword fighter, which showed in his style. Amelia was sword fighter with short sword through and through.

Afterwards Ker and Juno thanked for the learning session. On the way home they summarized what they learned. Ker was focused on the first basic stances, while Juno had different discovery. "I think I am getting rusty on my old days. I am not any more that fit. Also we should hire the sword teacher back, to get you regularly lessons"

"You are really not a good teacher, dad"

"Well, let's just say I was always more focused on fighting than teaching"

⚝──⚜─⚜─⚜──𖤍

"Finally, the two men come home. Dinner is ready but only after you showered!" Were they greeted by Hellena. As they sad down after making certain not to reek any more of sweat, their butler remarked. "She wouldn't let me or anyone help at all. It seems to be a personal meal. Please enjoy your dinner, I will be available in the stuff room" With that the butler excused himself.

"After all, I should be allowed to make food for my family once in a while" commented Hellena, while putting down a large bowl with steaming food. They dug greedily in. Especially after their hard training they had all right to be hungry.

Saturated Ker slept in. This day was full of events and experiences. Specifically the training would help him in the future. As his consciousness faded he entered his dream world. This time felt very similar to last time when he evolved. He entered first his own room in his home, ventured out into a forest, walked right into the familiar lake until he reached its centre. But there were no advances from there. He felt emptiness inside his stomach. An emptiness no food, no matter how good could ever satisfy. Instinctually he knew what he had to do. He wilfully exited this dream place and slept without further disruptions.

As he awoke he already made plans to venture out and slay beasts. At best he could take some guild contracts, maybe long term culling and overseeing quests. Since those contracted him to one area where he was supposed to hunt a larger amount of beasts and no one would asks questions why he would hunt more than his designated target.

"Good morning, my Lord. It seems we had a good long sleep in" greeted him their butler.

"Yes, thank you. Did I oversleep?"

"Do not worry yourselves, young Lord. This is a pleasure stay arranged by your parents. Therefore oversleeping is impossible. To regard your question, you slept till early noon."

"Oh, that long" Ker found himself self conscious at the time he needed to sleep. Maybe his evolution always needed far more time. That could cause some problems later on. Especially when his parents wanted him to get out of bed. They might have questions. And he was definitely not ready to disclose his secret.

To that matter, he still had no class, no name and no new skill. At this rate he would become desperate. As Ker sat on the dinner table eating his launch he thought how beasts would gain skills. Actually those skills were all bound to natural abilities which were in turn given through the body. So what could a human do, probably hit, maybe scratch, definitely kick. he had to try out those.

Then there was the more concerning part of his latest title he avoided to look at, because it remembered him at the painful events of the hunt.

Kinslayer: You killed another human being. Due to your actions your double-nature gets strengthened.

The contents of this title were also worrying. What did that mean explicitly. What are his double natures exactly. He could not really make head or tail out of this. So he started his day by looking into training places nearby. He let their butler Nellson look particularly into places where he could train privately.

The next days he trained every day different things just to unlock another skill. After excessive training he couldn't achieve a single skill, not to say that his training would have been without use. But one day, as he returned from his training he walked down a side road which was more on the shady side. There a few equally shady figures leaned at the wall of a desolate building. Ker didn't try to think too much about it and just passed by. Sadly it was hopeless endeavour to slip by unnoticed. Three of them gathered in front of Ker and one closed of the way behind him.

Ker sighed, of course a bunch of lousy thieves had to pick a fight with him.