It didn't seem as if Lucas had done all that much today, but time had apparently gotten away from him--it was now late evening and the sun would soon be setting. The rain and clouds made it appear as if the evening were even further progressed, as well. All this served to make the paths through the village hazardous to walk.

Lucas took his return slowly and carefully. His body began to ache in several different places and the weariness caused by exhausting his mana had yet to fade. On the positive side of things, the more time he took, the more mud would be washed away from his clothes by the rain.

A ways down the path from Lucas, in a section lit by light from the surrounding buildings, a couple people that might have been guards marched by. Lucas caught sight of a shopkeeper locking up and hurrying home with similar haste, down the rightmost path as he walked by an intersection. Regardless of appearances in areas like the one he'd fought Harry, the village was far from abandoned. However, every single person Lucas intermittently caught sight of outside was quick to move on their way. The obvious source of that behavior--the storm--hung over the village imperiously.

In the direction he was currently heading, strong winds were pushing the rain almost horizontally into his back. The rain itself was developing into a deluge that could not be understated, and as Lucas paused a moment to take in the unpredicted immensity of the weather, a distant flash of lightning briefly colored the sky, followed shortly by a peal of thunder.

This sort of storm was not common near the village. It was the sort that only occurred a few times a year and always left damage to the surrounding forest in its wake. A storm that some villagers reasonably feared and all others did their best to avoid, hence the lack of people Lucas had seen around today.

Contrarily, it was the sort of storm Lucas loved most. One full of excitement and its own brand of comfort, one he tended to stay up late into the night to listen to. Even now he lingered in the moment a bit longer than he could justify, just watching the sky. Lucas almost wanted to stick around, but the weather could be enjoyed just as well at home and it was getting late, so he moved on.

The lightning and thunder were practically overhead by the time he got to the path his home lied on. There wasn't a single part of his body not drenched to the bone, but as a positive side effect of that discomfort, all the mud had been washed from the majority of his clothes. It was fortunate because, while he'd still have to wash them sometime in the next few days, he wouldn't make such a mess when he got home. And just as he finished that thought, Lucas arrived before his front door.

He stepped inside quickly to minimize the amount of time the house was open to the storm, and immediately started taking his outermost layer of clothes off--he didn't want to track water through his mom's clinic. Across the room, light glowed beneath the door to the kitchen and the crackle of the fire could be heard. Lucas crept over and pressed his ear to the door, and when he heard no telling sounds, he peaked through to see the kitchen was empty. He shot through to his room, and the rest of his dry clothes, before that could change.

A sudden knock on his door came as he was donning a new shirt, causing him to jump just a little.

"Hey, Lu," Mary spoke through the thin wood. "Where've you been?"

Lucas opened the door to find his mom standing just to the side, where he approached and gave her a quick embrace. "Sorry, I was working on my Skills and lost track of time," he explained purposely vaguely, before moving back to the front room. "Just a moment, I left my drenched clothes in here!"

He heard her sigh behind him, and saw she'd taken a seat at the table as he ran back to deposit his previous outfit with his other dirty garments. Then he joined her there.

"I haven't missed dinner, have I? It couldn't have been that long that I was gone?"

"No, I've got a stew going, ready whenever," Mary answered distractedly. After a moment, she met his eyes and asked, "How are your Skills?"

"Good. Really good--I only need one more level in [Regeneration] and four more in [Identify]."

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

That cracked her weary demeanor, and her gaze became a bit more serious as she raised one eyebrow. "That is a lot of levels for one day, young man..."

Lucas did his best to keep a straight face and shrugged. "I was working hard, that's why I lost track of time."

"And that would be perfectly believable," his mom said, "if one of those Skills wasn't [Regeneration]."

"I swear I didn't get hurt or anything," he held up his hands in surrender. "That one can level just by me depleting my mana."

"Okay," she accepted, "just remember to be careful with that. I know how smart you are, but I just want to make sure you treat that ability with the caution it deserves." She looked at him with quiet concern before adding, "You haven't been exhausting your MP completely, have you?"

Lucas, who had at some point started to melt into his seat, sat up with a start. He rubbed the back of his head before giving a light, guilty chuckle. "Maybe?"

"How are you even awake right now?" Mary asked in clear confusion, and reached over to rub his back. "Let me get you a bowl real quick, then it is straight to bed with you."

"Thanks," Lucas nearly mumbled, fighting to keep from slumping over onto the table. The stew turned out to be delicious and gave him a brief spurt of energy as he went about sating the hunger he hadn't realized he carried. The energy didn't last long, however. Shortly, he bade his mom goodnight and was heading back to his room on the verge of a food-induced coma.

----------------------------------------

Lucas woke sometime the next morning, not on his bed, but between it and the door. With a groan, he picked himself off the hard floor, his ribs and muscles and legs in particular aching. In his exhaustion last night, he evidently didn't even make it to his bed before sleep claimed him.

[*ding Congratulations! [Regeneration] has reached level 10!]

Huh, level ten, he somewhat absently noted. The soreness in his body dampened his excitement for the level a bit, and he'd also partially been expecting it, but Lucas still broke into a smile as he read it over a few times. Not long, now.

Slowly, he started his morning routine, and despite the disturbance to his schedule, he found it wasn't all that later than when he normally would wake up when he left his room. Still, he met his mom in the front room where she'd already started on his usual morning chores.

"Good morning!" He cheerfully greeted as he joined her, grabbing a wet rag and starting to scrub down the muddy footprints before the front door.

"Morning, how was your hibernation?" Mary laughed.

"I slept well, actually. The floor was surprisingly comfortable," he said airily, getting another laugh out of her.

"I thought I heard a thud when you went to bed. Now you know what happens when your mana is exhausted: at the very least, you'll get the deepest sleep of your life, but often headaches and fainting accompany it."

Together, they bolted through their morning duties, preparing for the day before moving on to preparing breakfast. A hot, filling porridge was all that made up the morning's fare, but a bit of brown sugar and milk made it quite good. Lucas hadn't had much to eat the previous day, so he went back for seconds and even thirds before the pot was polished off.

"So," his mom set aside her second bowl and said, "if I recall correctly, you mostly need levels in [Identify] now?"

"Mm, hmm," Lucas grunted around the last mouthful he'd been savoring. "Actually, it's just that now. I got another level in the middle of the night."

"Nice! That's a great way to start the morning," she grinned and tousled his hair. "Then today, you definitely need to focus on that last Skill. With any luck, you could be evolving your Class as early as tomorrow."

Lucas gulped. "That's not too early? I feel like I still have so much I need to do before I'm ready."

In response, she held up her hand and tilted it back and forth. "Maybe, but there isn't really a customary amount of time spent between a person's unlock and first Class selection. If you feel that is too early, then listen to your instincts, but what else is there to do than maxing out the last of your General Skills?"

"I want to talk to Eugene about his augmentation Skill, and maybe one of the other guards as well," Lucas explained. "There is also my blank Skill--I can't imagine it being a bad thing to discover more about it."

She took that in quietly before speaking up. "Talking to Eugene is easy enough, of course, but Lu, there is no way of predicting when you'll learn more about that Skill. Don't let it hold you back unnecessarily."

"I know," he nodded, "but there are still a couple things I want to try with it. Just around a couple more days, at the most?"

"Ok, that's not too long," Mary accepted. "Now," she slapped the table and stood up, "leveling [Identify] is bound to be long and boring, so let's not waste any time and get it over with."

"Both of us?" Lucas questioned.

"Of course! What, you don't want my company. I thought we could take a walk around he village, run some errands, and just hang out while we're at it."

"That sounds great!" Lucas quickly added. "It really would be boring going on my own."

"Alright," Mary smiled radiantly, "go get ready. Grab your dirty clothes while you're at it--might as well take care of that before the weather turns again."