27,191.4 Credits
That's was what was left from the sales of the initial core and return stone after Jack paid for the hospital bills and treated his former co-workers to dinner yesterday after being discharged.
Jack kept looking at his bank account and can't help grinning, it was the most amount of money he ever had.
"Stone Bridge. This stop is Stone Bridge, the doors are on your left." The train speakers crackled to life, announcing Jack's stop.
Jack exited the train and walked excitedly towards his parent's house, barely registering the nostalgic sites of his hometown in its blessed snowless winter that he did not see for four years.
"Jack?" A familiar voice made Jack halt, his heart leaping to his throat.
"Lana?" Jack turned back and saw his childhood friend exiting old man Jess's store carrying a paper bag.
Jack's mind blanked when he saw her.
"Wait! Ja-" Lana tried to put her hands between them as she saw Jack rush towards her but he didn't care and lifted her in a tight hug
"I missed you." Jack said, his face buried in her hair. He could feel his heart thumping loudly in his chest.
"I missed you too, stupid." Lana replied, hugging him back while burying her face in his chest.
"You made me drop Pa's apples, I'll tell and he'll make you wash the dishes at the diner again." She said playfully after a while but Jack knew she would follow through with the threat.
"I'll buy Mr Smith half a crate of the good ones." Jack said then stepped back to look at his childhood friend.
"You've grown." was all Jack could say.
"You too, you're taller than me now." Lana said, her lips arching into the sunny smile that would always take his breath away.
"Yeah, uh... I'm back." Jack said stupidly when words fail him.
Lana cupped Jack's face in her hands, her golden eyes squinting in joy.
"Welcome home, Jack."
**************
"Mom? Dad?" Jack called while opening the door and entering his parent's house.
"Jack?!" He heard his mother's voice, followed by running footsteps.
"Jack!" His mother paused in the hallway, looking at him in disbelief for a moment before jumping to finally wrapped her arms around him. "You came back! My son came back!" She was crying on his shoulder and shaking him at the same time.
"Of course Mom, I told you I will come back when the system chose me, right?" Jack blinked his tears back.
"What? but how? The system chose you? My son became a Hunter?!" His mother broke away from their hug and looked at him, her eyes almost popping out of their socket.
"Yes Mom, I've become a hunter." Jack finally said it, the words he had been dreaming to say to his mother ever since he was a child.
The emotional dam broke and Jack and his mother cried happy tears.
A minute passed and the door slowly opened, revealing Jack's Father looking very awkward with red eyes and tear streaks on his face.
"I.. uh. I wanted to give you guys a moment."
"Dad. I-"
"I heard, yeah." His father paused to just look at him for a moment. "I heard it, son." He looked down, seemingly reluctant to continue then wiped his face with his hands. "I'm very proud and happy for you. But I'm happier you're finally home."
What followed was a few minutes of tearful celebration among their family.
"I'll make some food, it's half-past nine so it will be lunch." Jack's mother said, pulling him into the living room. "Go unpack your things in your room and rest, you can tell us everything about the past years while we're eating. I'll call you when food is ready."
"I'll help you mom." Jack offered.
"I'll help your mother, rest for a while." His Dad said, lightly shoving him towards his room.
Jack gave in and went to his room. It was unsurprisingly clean, free from dust and the sheets smelled fresh, Gratefulness towards his parents swelled in Jack's heart once more. He quickly unpacked and changed to more comfortable clothes then left for the kitchen where he saw his parents in comfortable silence, smiling at each other while his mother was slicing vegetables and his father frying something.
"Mom, Dad." Jack said when he entered the kitchen. "I'll help, I've got too much energy to rest."
"Just sit." He said, flipping the meat on his skillet. "We can handle this, we rather you tell us everything that happened to you."
"Yes, we want to hear everything." His mother said pointedly, giving Jack the look.
Jack scratched his head sheepishly then started the tale of everything that has happened to him in the past four years, omitting the almost dying in the dungeon part but answering most of the questions and only avoiding them entirely when it became too embarrassing for him. it went well after they finished eating and moved into the leaving room where they are now having tea.
"Do you mean to say that you were chosen by the system but not as a Hunter but as the Guardian class?" his father asked with a confused frown.
Instead of trying to explain, Jack smiled widely then excitedly said. "Show status sheet."
SYSTEM WARNING:
STATUS IS BEING SHOWN TO A HUNTER
[STATUS]
[NAME: JACK HALLOWEEN]
[CLASS: GUARDIAN LVL?]
[SUBCLASS: SHIELDBEARER LVL?]
Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.
[TITLE: PROOF OF COURAGE]
HEALTH: ? (?/HR)
MANA: ? (?/MIN)
STAMINA: ? (?/MIN)
PHYSICAL POWER: ?
MENTAL POWER:?
DEFENSE: ?
VITALITY: ?
AGILITY: ?
CONTROL: ?
-CLAS SKILLS-
GUARDIAN(PASSIVE) - PLUS ? TO ALL STATS
-SUBCLASS SKILL-
SHIELDBEARER(ACTIVE) - ENABLES THE USER TO CONSTRUCT A GUARDIAN SHIELD BARRIER TO DEFEND OR ATTACK.
-TITLE EFFECTS-
PROOF OF COURAGE(PASSIVE) - ABILITY TO ACT IN SPITE OF FEAR +?%
"That's new." Jack said, surprised by the system warning. "Why would it warn me against a Hunter seeing my status?"
"Not odd, just old school." His father said, scratching his beard. "Hunters can't show their statuses to others like Guardians used to, but I remember my field mentor, Guardian Marcel, showing his status to me, it also showed us a system warning. From what he told me, it only showed the warning and hid the numerical values when showed to Hunters."
"Did he tell you why?" Jack asked.
"The Guardians have no real answer for that, but the popular belief among them is that the Hunter system came from someone or something different from who or what bestowed them their system."
"Well, I don't think we can know more than the old Guardians knew about it now." Jack's mother said, a little dismissively. "What I want to know is, will our son be able to register himself as a hunter? and if he can, won't being a Guardian," She turns to face Jack with concern on her face. "Make it very dangerous for our son to work as one?"
"Mom!-" Jack tried to protest but his father spoke first.
"Mary." His father started. "It is true that Hunters are stronger and more handsome than Guardians." He added with a wink to his wife, attempting to lighten the mood with a joke but was shot down with a glare instead. "Okay, in all seriousness though, the difference in power between Hunters and Guardians are exaggerated beyond reason simply because Guardians became reliant on guns, but it was just common sense since monsters used to be vulnerable to them, even when the monsters evolve to have mana infused skins and other defences, making firearms useless against them, Guardians dealt with them easily enough."
"John.." She said, her voice full of warning for Jack's Father.
"What? I'm telling the truth! On the grand scale of things, Guardians appearing in this day and age will be a welcome development for the world. Hunters were stronger when you compare their stats and skills but our mortality rates on the job were double that of the Guardians, even when you put into consideration that we fight stronger monsters now, the difference would not have been that big if we have the same defense and regeneration of the Guardians. They were all high ranking tanks based on our modern standards for crying out loud!" John stood up and lifted his wife from her seat, embracing her. "Look at our son Mary, He's built like a Hunter already, and he is special, He might very well be the only Guardian of our time. He is chosen by the system for a reason."
"But, John." Mary said softly, still unconvinced.
"Mary, our son will become a hunter with or without our blessings, but without it, he will worry and that might lead to a mistake inside a dungeon." John said seriously. "I will train him, he will be the best damn Guardian in the world."
"Okay, yes. Okay. Jack, baby. Promise mom, you will be very careful, okay?" Mary said, looking at her son while wiping her tears.
"Yes mom, I promise." Jack stood up to hug his Mom then mouthed 'Thank you' to his father who only grinned at him.
"I made a little money, I'm thinking we go out tonight, I missed eating at Tom's place." Jack said, trying to change the topic.
"Or you missed little Lana." His father teased.
"That girl came home for the holidays, she's helping at Tom's last I saw her, beautiful thing, looks nothing like her Pa." His mother commented and collected their cups. "I'll need to water my plants, you boys talk about dungeon stuff."
Jack's father watched his wife leave then whispered to Him when she was out of earshot. "So tell me how you manage to kill a hobgoblin with just a pickax?"
"How did you-"
"Come on son, you think that I'd let you leave my house without knowing what's happening to you? also, why the hell did you keep on sending us money?"
"Mana infused pickaxes were used to mine mana crystals." Jack said absentmindedly, answering the first question. "But what do you mean by, why I sent money? it is to pay for our debt."
"What debt?" His father looked genuinely confused.
"What debt? Our debt!" Jack exclaimed. "The morning after the monster attack happened, Half of our house was destroyed, I heard you and mom arguing about 'how are we gonna pay our debt'."
"Is that why you left?"
Jack felt a growing suspicion. "Wait, we are in debt, right?"
"Son, I thought you were smarter than this." His father shook his head in obvious disappointment. "Answer me this, Jack. What do I do for a living?"
"Uhh.. you are a hunter..?" Jack suddenly felt unsure.
"And what level am I?" His father continued egging him into the answer he wants.
"I mean you were one fifty when the attack happened.. so one seventy?"
"Two hundred and twelve Son, in fact since father is so awesome, he was promoted by his guild to become the captain for the highest leveled raid party. We are, in fact, one of the best in the country."
"But the statistic for the average hunter level up is only five a year after reaching the one fifty thresholds!" Jack was astounded.
"Well, you see. My only beloved son abandoned me and his poor Mother, so I, an old man who suddenly lost his purpose in life, spent many days in bloody battles, honing my skills at death's door, Killing demon spa-"
"Dad!" Jack shouted weakly at his father, feeling guilty. "I'm serious!"
"Uhum." John cleared his throat. "Jack, my stupid son. I'm only thirty-four years old, your mom and I had you when we were fourteen. I was already level one fifty when I was thirty." John looked at Jack smugly. "I wasn't bragging all those years ago when I told you that compared to your regular hunter, I was considered a genius."
"So no debt?" Jack asked feeling embarrassed.
"We did borrow money years ago, but it was used for your late Granda's surgery. my guild was also in disarray when the dungeon break happened and there were talks of disbanding, but even if it did, your father still had a lot of offers from other guilds, you should have known that there was no way in hell I will let my family be beggars. I paid back the debt a year after you left.
"I feel conflicted." Jack said with a sad smile. "I am happy that we are not in debt, but back then, when I thought I could do something for our family, I suddenly have a noble reason to leave."
"Why did you need to have a reason to leave, son?"
"Because, when I wasn't chosen by the system when I turned sixteen, I felt.. ashamed. I felt like I was letting you down, I needed an excuse that I could make myself believe in, I told myself that I was being a burden when you have to feed an extra mouth when we are in debt and our house was destroyed. that I could at least save our family even when I can't do that to everyone else because I was not a hunter." Jack paused, shaking his head. "Now that I'm saying it, it sounds stupid."
"Wisdom comes with age." His father said after a while, becoming serious. "I knew your mother would cuddle you until you get spoiled or get tired of her and rebelled, so I let you go and trust that you would come back after seeing the harshness of the real world." He stood up and went behind the mini bar in their living room. "What I did not expect was that my sheltered son would make a living for himself and afford to send money to us each month without fail." He grabbed a bottle of his favorite whiskey and poured two fingers worth into two glasses. "And that it would last for four years." He handed one glass to his son and they clinked glasses. "A cheers for my stupid son, who left my house a broken boy, but returned a Guardian."
Jack tasted alcohol for the very first time that afternoon, somehow, it didn't taste bitter.
************
Mary was eavesdropping from the kitchen wall and felt a rainbow of emotion as she heard her husband make their son talk about the reason why he left.
John gave her the signal earlier and she excused herself to water her plastic plants,
She cried, laughed and felt pride bursting from her as she listened to her boys, but above all, she felt pure bliss because they were bonding better than ever. Although, she might give her husband a scolding for making her baby drink the devil's piss.