Over the course of the next month, I continued my training schedule, though I spent most of my time in the dungeon these days.
My first visit back to the dungeon had been somewhat nostalgic, though I was disappointed to find out that the boss was just a weak tier 2 goblin, instead of the more powerful duo boss I had encountered here about a year ago. I abstained from killing the thing, since I didn't want to unbalance the dungeon's ecology too much while I was training there. The boss left me alone as long as I didn't approach its chamber, so we came to a mutual understanding to stay out of each other's way.
I had found a secluded spot near the edge of the circular network of caves, which saved me from constantly being badgered by the near-mindless goblins that roamed the dungeon's many nooks and crannies. There, I spent my time training my skills, which were coming along nicely.
So nicely, in fact, that two of the four skills were inches away from tiering up. They were each just 1% away from completion. Unfortunately, the final percentages tended to be the most excruciating to overcome when it came to skill progression. Both skills had been stuck at 99% for the past few days, which frustrated me to no end. Seeing no other option, I decided to take a short break from training. My dad had been asking me to go out hiking for a few weeks now, probably in an attempt to get away from the wailing banshee that was my sister, Amber. Since we both needed a break, I decided that now would be a good time to take one.
A few minutes later, I was jogging over to our house, where I found my father washing some clothes while mom entertained the cute little tyrant.
"Hey dad, about that hike... how about we leave tomorrow? We can camp out in the mountains for a night before returning." I proposed.
My dad perked up when he heard it, and a relieved smile appeared on his face.
"A break from training will do you much good, but..." he said, before looking over at mom, hesitating.
She waved him off.
"Oh, it's fine, Cliff. Take him on the Helios-damned hike. Sun above knows you both need it, I'll be fine alone with Amber for a while. We'll have some mother-daughter bonding time, won't we?" she said, directing that last part at the little bundle in her arms. Amber giggled in response to her mother's cooing, and attempted to grasp the finger of the large creature looming over her.
My father chuckled as he witnessed the scene, before dropping what he was doing and heading off into the house, no doubt looking for the old tent and camping equipment he liked to show off but never used.
The next day, my old man and I headed off into the woods. We were going to the top of one of the nearby hills, which actually ended in quite a steep cliff, if my dad's tales were to be believed.
Throughout the beginning of the journey, we bantered back and forth and enjoyed the scenery. There was something to be said about being in nature without actually needing to be there. Something about the concept of doing something because you wanted to rather than because you needed to was rather appealing.
After a while, though, I got a bad feeling. The path into the mountains had been quiet, too quiet. No animals or monsters in sight, which was rather unusual for this time of year. Still, I couldn't pick up on anything actually being wrong, and I didn't want to ruin this one opportunity that I had to bond with my dad, so I decided against mentioning it. Still, there was something that had been nagging me.
"Say, dad. What happened between you and uncle Robart?"
My father, who had had a big smile on his face before he heard my question, stilled, before sighing.
"I... I guess I was going to have to tell you eventually, huh?" before looking at me with a sombre smile.
"Unfortunately, there's not much to tell..." he said, sighing again, as if he wanted to relieve himself of the tension in his body.
"To put it simply, me and Robart had different paths set out in front of us. My brother is younger than me, so I was set to inherit the little farm you grew up in. He was fine with this, though, since he wanted to become a soldier. Of course, not all was set to be so simple. When we awakened, I received the class [Wheat farmer], while Robart received [Pressure militant]. Suffice it to say, your uncle received a significant amount of attention. The thing is, getting attention is a double edged sword. Robart quickly realised he could put us 'weaklings' in danger by continuing down his previous path, so he left his ambitions behind and joined me in the fields, despite being wholly unsuited for being a farmer. Still, things were going good, for a while."
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My father said, while reminiscing of those times.
"Then what happened?" I asked, unable to repress my curiosity.
"What always ends up bringing ruination to the kind fools of the world. Robart fell in love. Sadly, the the young man he had his eyes on was of a higher status than him. Their relationship was found out by the boy's family, which led to the death of Robart's beloved, as well as our parents."
I quietly gasped, not having seen this coming. It wasn't so much my uncle's sexual preferences that caught me off guard, though. Rather, the loss of my grandparents was the biggest shock.
"After the death of nearly everyone Robart held dear, he set out on a path of revenge. Your mother and I wisely stayed hidden and uninvolved as best we could, since you were about to be born. 20 years later and look where we are now. Robart got his revenge and advanced from tier 3 to tier 6 in just 20 years, a meteorically fast rise by every standard. The noble family responsible is now only a footnote in history. Yet, our parents stay dead. When Robart came here as a tier 5, offering a strange crystal as recompense, I almost shut the door on the bastard. Hadn't he hurt our family enough?"
We both fell into thought for a while. I considered the implications of what he had said.
"Dad. Do you... resent the fact that I'm heading down the same path as uncle? That I might put you all in danger if I draw more attention?"
My father smiled and patted my shoulder to comfort me.
"Don't worry about that, Art. When you told us your class, we already knew you had turned into a trouble magnet. Still, we weren't concerned for our own lives. As long as you were happy... When we found out about your mother's pregnancy, though, we were scared for a while. Which is why I wrote your uncle, explaining my concerns. Our family is now guarded 24/7 by a retired tier 5 soldier and a dozen tier 4s." he said, laughing when he saw my expression shift to one of shock.
"What?! But I haven't felt or seen anyone around our house!" I spoke, in denial. Dad flicked my forehead in response.
"Did you think that you would be able to notice tier 4s and a tier 5 just because you wanted to? Don't forget that you're only tier 2!" he admonished.
I rubbed the back of my head, embarrassed, before changing the topic to a lighter one.
Like that, we spent the rest of the day's walking by laughing and conversing, sharing childhood memories and tales of our family.
When night fell, we set up our old tent and a campfire. I thought about pulling out my expensive tent to sleep in, but wisely kept quiet when I saw how carefully my father treated the old dust bag that he called a family heirloom. Grumbling, I agreed to sleep in there, instead.
After a roast dinner, we both drifted off to sleep. I left Revan as a guard outside just in case. The sight of him no longer surprised dad, who had long gotten used to the over excitable lizard sucking up to Amber whenever he could.
After I had calmed my mind, I drifted off to sleep.
-scene transition-
I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of two weapons clanging. No, rather the sound of a weapon clashing against Revan's bones, which gave off more of a 'thud' than a 'clang'. In a panic, I shot up and moved to wake up my dad. Instead, I found his side of the tent empty.
Now, my panic shot through the roof. I drew my sword and launched myself out of the tent, destroying it with Aura step as a result. I raced to the sound of the battle, where I found a rather desperate scene.
Revan was surrounded by a horde of ghouls, ghastly undead barely intelligent enough to wield a blade and shield. Ghouls spawned when a large amount of corpses were left near each other without burial of any kind. Seeing a horde of this size all the way out here meant that a large battle had taken place somewhere nearby, one that I had been completely unaware of.
For a moment, I wondered why Revan would just sit still and let there pathetic creatures whale on him with their weapons, until I found my dad at the centre of Revan's rib cage, which he had planted into the ground to act as a shield. My familiar tried to get a few of the ghouls with his claws, but was stuck protecting my dad and couldn't do much.
Seeing this scene, I flew into a manic rage. I readied my sword and channelled all of the mana I could get my hands on, before bringing down a fully charged [Overloaded sword] arc onto the few ghouls that had noticed my arrival. A dozen of the creatures were cleaved into variable pieces, while the raw mana pressure my aura gave off was enough to attract the attention of the remaining few hundred moving corpses.
I wanted to go wild and wipe them all out in one go. Thing was, I couldn't be sure whether or not there was a necromancer nearby. As a result, I had to take defensive measure first. I jumped on top of Revan and activated [Dark blade maelstrom], which made mince meat out of the endless stream of ghouls that walked into the grinder.
Then, I went on the offensive and used [Relentless orbs] and [Overloaded sword] to thin their numbers bit by bit. As the battle went on, I felt lighter and lighter. My mana flowed more smoothly and I noticed that I was starting to use skills near-simultaneously. By the time my orbs were ready, a sword arc would fly, before my maelstrom became reinvigorated.
'Is this the effect of [Blackened essence]?' I wondered.
Soon enough, all of the undead were... well, dead. I used every single way I could think of to search for a necromancer, or any other classer, for that matter, but couldn't find a thing. In the end, I sheathed my blade but decided to stay alert.
Revan got off of my father, who looked ghastly. He was responsive, but it was clear the shock of the whole situation had left him rattled.
Sighing, I put him on Revan's back and brought us back home, in the middle of the night. Thankfully, mom and Amber seemed to be fine. This hadn't been a targeted attack. None of us slept for the rest of the night, but by morning, everyone seemed a little refreshed.
And hey, it wasn't like the trip had been completely pointless. [Overloaded sword] and [Dark blade maelstrom] had both finally reached 100% completion. Time to tier up!