Dirk's body went stiff as his mother embraced him.

"I'm so sorry, my baby. Everything's going to be okay. You have nothing to worry about. You're not in the wrong here."

Cecilia's voice was emotional as she tightened her grip on Dirk. Feeling her warm hug and reassuring words, Dirk felt a huge weight lifted off his shoulders. He found himself smiling with a bit of emotion as he hugged her back. To him, this was one of his happiest moments in a while. Despite the things he had done at such a young age, his mother didn't resent him. This was the greatest confirmation of trust that he had ever received.

Suddenly, with a worried face, Cecilia pulled back, looking at Dirk's body. She could see his armor that was now obviously damaged from the battles he had been in.

"Are you hurt anywhere? Do you need healing?"

"No, I'm okay."

"That's good... What about you, Ava?"

"I-I'm okay."

Ava waved in reassurance. Cecilia nodded at this, but the next moment, she moved over to Ava, giving her a hug as well.

Ava was surprised and a bit confused until Cecilia spoke gently.

"No matter what, you were there with my son. I'm sure it was scary, having to go through all that."

"...Y-yea."

Ava choked up a bit. Each time Dirk had to go out and kill bandits, she had been filled with fear and anger. She was scared that she would be faced with a threat to her life, and in those moments she just wanted to curl up in a hole and hide. But this was also why she was angry at herself. While Dirk had made her promise to let him handle everything, she still felt hateful of her weakness. All those emotions had been bottled up though, sealed away while she trudged forth and continued following Dirk. In exchange for having him handle everything, she forced herself to at least keep up with him. She wouldn't allow herself to fall behind. That would truly make her weak.

But those emotions still placed a weight on her heart. Now, as Cecilia poked right at those emotions, she felt herself break down. Toward Dirk's mother, she felt great security and tenderness.

Cecilia held Ava as she started to silently cry, letting out the great toll those bottled emotions had taken on her mind. Meanwhile, Ryker stood up, walking over and placing his hand on Dirk's shoulder.

He spoke.

"I know it's not something you may be proud of or happy to have done, but you still did well. I'm only sorry that you've been faced with such a thing at your age. No child should have to bear the burden of death before they've come to understand what it means. Your brother Ethan who is almost 20 years old and has already entered the military is only just beginning to understand what it means to take a life. I'm proud that you were able to get yourself through it. Both of you."

Ryker looked between Ava and Dirk. He was proud of his son for being able to step up to the danger and not only preserve his life, but help others. While it was indeed a bit odd that Dirk had been so untroubled about it, not showing any sign of distress when he had come back after the first incident, that didn't matter to Ryker. All he cared about was his son's safety and wellbeing.

And he was also proud of Ava. While she apparently didn't take any lives, Ryker could guess that she wasn't allowed to. His son had stepped up in her stead, likely wanting to protect her from it. He was fine with this. But he was happy that Ava had stuck with Dirk through it all, not cowering away and detaching herself from him.

Ava nodded to Ryker as she gradually stopped crying in Cecilia's arms. She was feeling a lot better hearing his words. Only, she still hated how Dirk was the only one to bear that burden. It was why she had come to start tending to him more often on their trip. She cared for him and didn't want him to be traumatized by what he had to do.

After a bit of silence, Cecilia frowned before taking a deep breath.

"Dirk, and you too Ava. I want you to stay in the academy for a while. That means don't leave the walls of this place. Just continue studying here and improving for a while. And take this."

Suddenly, Cecilia brought something out of a pocket ring, handing it to Dirk. He grabbed the object that was a necklace with a black marble hanging on it.

"That is a warning beacon. It maintains a connection to a beacon I carry with me. If you crush that marble, I'll know that something is wrong and come to you wherever you are. From now on, always keep this on you. Okay?"

Cecilia looked into Dirk's eyes, her tone serious. Dirk felt the marble as he nodded with a frown. Now, he was really concerned about what was going on. With his temporary grounding to the academy walls, he could only assume that he was still in danger even within the academy, enough to where his mother had to give him this.

After that, Cecilia didn't talk much more about the topic of Dirk's encounters, and he didn't ask. After he gave a little recounting of his time in the dungeon, he left with Ava to go back home. The two would wait until the next day to turn in their job.

Ryker saw the two off, watching as they left the residence together. Then, after closing the doors, he went back to his wife who was still in the kitchen.

Cecilia had a pale face, and her hands trembled.

"He... He wants to take my baby away from me..."

She mumbled, her lips quivering. The next moment, her face contorted in rage.

"That bastard! He wants to take my baby away from me!!"

*BANG*

Cecilia brought down her arms. The table under her exploded into splinters, chunks of wood flying out everywhere. Some of the wood even disintegrated under her power of darkness.

"Damn him! I was supposed to be out! I got away from him! It's been decades! And now he's going after my child! I'm going to kill every last one of those fucking asuras! I'm going to gut every last one of them alive!"

"Cecilia!"

As the power of darkness crept up around Cecilia's body, Ryker suddenly stepped in, grabbing her shoulders.

"It's okay! We can-!"

"No! It's not okay!"

Swinging her arms, Cecilia broke Ryker's grip.

"Do you not realize? This situation is almost hopeless! He's coming after Dirk!"

"I know! And aren't we ready for this? I'm a Tier 7, and Hillshire is on our side, a Tier 8! We can protect Dirk!"

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"...Okay, and how are we going to do that? We can't keep Dirk in the academy for the rest of his life! He needs to grow, fighting in dungeons. He needs to meet people, and make friends, and be a normal person! But if we do that, then he'll be taken! He's already been evaluated! Those attacks are meant to measure his talent! And he's passed! Do you understand what it means for that bastard to go after him? That means that there is nothing that is preventing him from doing so! Sooner or later, he's... Dirk's going to get taken..."

Getting to this point, Cecilia turned even paler. She fell to her knees, her fingers clutching her hair.

"My baby is going to be taken..."

"...Cecilia."

"He trusts me... But I can't protect him... I... I don't want my baby to be taken..."

Her entire body trembled on the floor, tears streaming from her eyes. Ryker knelt down, wrapping his wife up in a hug.

"No, don't say that. We're going to protect our son. I'll talk to Hillshire. We'll use everything at our disposal. We can even go on the offensive and find them first. We can take care of the problem before it strikes."

"..."

Cecilia was silent as Ryker spoke, her hands gripping his clothes. The more he said, the tighter her grip became.

Ryker grit his teeth. He knew what she was thinking. It was useless. And he also knew deep down that this was the case. He didn't know as much as his wife, but he was very familiar with the people behind this. They were the darkness of his wife's past, and not even the empire could get rid of them completely. This was due to the man behind them. A single man who operated in the shadows of the empire, and one who had once stood over his wife's shoulders like some kind of evil god. Back then, she had escaped him and his clutches. But now, this darkness was surfacing once more, and it was prepared to claim a sacrifice.

"We'll... We'll get through it. We all will."

Ryker could only speak these words. For a while, he held his wife as she cried, her grabbing his clothes as if trying to hold on to hope.

...........

.......

That night, Dirk and Ava went to his house. They were both in a better mood, but Dirk couldn't help but feel as if something was watching him. He could sense something in the darkness. His intuition told him that things were not okay.

And it wasn't often that Dirk doubted his intuition. His gut had gotten him through his life on Earth, a life of constant battle and extreme danger. So he trusted his judgment greatly. The fact that there were alarms going off in his head was discomforting.

But there wasn't much he could do. By telling his mother of his problems, he was entrusting them to her in a way. She wanted him to stay in the academy now, and he would listen to her. And with the warning beacon she gave him, he felt somewhat secure.

With that, he could only wait and see how things would develop. After arriving at his house with Ava, the two stripped their armor before cleaning up. After making a late night dinner, they both went to bed, Ava following Dirk to his. Like that, they cuddled until they fell asleep.

Come next morning, the two woke up late and went together to turn in their job. At the mission building, they pulled out the job paper and the elemental king's core with the mana crystal still inside. The receptionist was surprised before accepting everything and paying them out.

For the job to retrieve the king's mana crystal, they were paid 330 gold coins. With the high quality core on top of that, the two came out with about 430 gold. This surprised both Dirk and Ava, and they happily took the money. They walked out of the mission building with smiling faces.

"Let's see, we got 500 gold from that merchant as thanks for saving him, and now 430 gold from this job. After the 100 or so gold we spent for the ride back and food, we've profited over 800 gold. That's rather amazing for a less than two-week-long trip."

Ava skipped happily as she made these deductions in her head. Dirk couldn't help but bob his head.

The academy really did pay handsomely. This was one of the other reasons why the academy was so popular. It obviously commanded a vast amount of wealth, and it made sure to pay its students nicely for completing jobs. By doing this, students would be able to effectively grow into a force for the empire. Over many years, the amount of competent and powerful mages that had been and would be created by the academy was too many to count.

And the academy had no problem doing this either. Its student body wasn't any more than 1500. No matter how many jobs students completed or how much higher than market price the academy paid them for their services, they wouldn't run out of money. Sure it came out to cost them a great sum of wealth, but in exchange, they strengthened the empire with hundreds and thousands of mages and warriors. Without the academy, the empire wouldn't be the force that it was.

After enjoying the sound of clanking gold and the feeling of heavy money bags, Dirk and Ava decided to spend their day relaxing. Since they were now confined to the academy walls, they couldn't go and eat at a restaurant or tour the beautiful capital city. While the academy did indeed have its own restaurants, Dirk and Ava decided to wait until night to go to one. Thus, they spent most of their day just sitting around the house. They would lay across the couch, snuggle a bit, cook some food they had never tried before, almost set the house on fire, and then go back to lazing around.

This lasted until the sun started to set. At that time, the duo made their way to the nicest restaurant in the academy. They tried to get a seat on the highest floor, but as the quality of this place was far higher than the place in some random dungeon town, they were limited to one of the middle floors. Still, the place had a nice view of not only the sunset, but the Magic Pyramid that glowed with enchanted lights.

Finally, when the two went to pick out food to eat, they gawked. Some of the food on the menu cost hundreds of gold for a single serving. Looking at it, they saw that these foods were made of meat from Tier 5 monsters. Dirk and Ava had never even seen a Tier 5 monster, let alone eat one.

Unfortunately, neither of them were willing to spend so much money on food. Thus, they ordered some delicacies made from Tier 4 monsters. They even specified which elemental type they wanted. Their total bill was around 140 gold, causing Dirk to curse at how easily money could be spent.

When the food came out though, both of them felt their mouths water. The servings were large, and the aroma was heavenly. Sticking a piece of meat into their mouths, they shuddered at the magnificent flavor.

"...Oh my god, I have never tasted something so... good..."

Ava's eyes seemed to roll back as she savored the flavor. Dirk wasn't much better than her. His eyes were closed, focusing only on the intense flavor of the meat.

The meat he ordered was from a Tier 4 fire monster. Thus, the food was filled with fire mana. Upon swallowing the first bite, Dirk could feel a warmth spread through his body. Fire mana was absorbed by his stomach, injected into his body where it entered his blood.

Feeling this, Dirk focused on his mana lungs. By now, he had noticed that breathing mana was not only effortless but natural due to his skill acquisition. If he didn't actively stop it, his body just absorbed mana on its own, constantly filling and draining his lungs of mana.

While this didn't allow Dirk to passively accumulate mana and form something like his mana heart automatically, it did fill his blood with increasingly high concentrations of mana. Dirk felt like he was constantly full of mana, giving him feelings of comfort. And if he ever wanted to, he could draw on all this mana to concentrate it and form the mana heart like he needed to.

And right now, as Dirk focused on his mana lungs, he found that it was bringing in large concentrations of fire mana from the food he ate. After pulling some of the fire mana from his lungs, he focused it in his chest, right next to his heart.

Faintly, a red orb congealed. This orb was located within his heart at the bottom left corner, almost right next to his earth mana heart. According to his Mana Heart Technique, he would form a triad of mana hearts right next to each other in a triangle formation. The earth heart was the tip of the triangle and was located slightly higher than the center of his heat. Now, he would form the fire mana heart that was the left corner of the triangle. His dark mana heart would be the right corner.

All three mana hearts were within the physical heart, and together, they would all saturate the blood with mana. As Dirk moved the fire mana within him to form the next mana heart, he could feel the fire mana diffuse into his blood. This made it more difficult to form the heart, but only temporarily until the blood got its fill. After a while, Dirk would find forming his mana heart much easier.

Like this, he sat and ate at the dinner table while cultivating. A warm feeling spread through his veins, making the dinner all the more enjoyable. As he ate more, more fire mana was made available to him. While it wasn't high in quantity, Dirk found it to be high in density, making the absorption process easier.

After a while, Dirk and Ava finished eating the last bites on their plate. They both sat back against their chairs, their bellies full.

"Ahh... Hey, why can't we cook stuff like this?"

Ava raised her head and looked at Dirk. He also raised his head and thought for a second.

"Because... We have to kill Tier 4 monsters."

"I think that will be my reason to get stronger for a while."

"Agreed. Ask the waiter for water."

"If I eat or drink any more I'm gonna puke."

Ava shook her head as she reclined further into her seat. The food was so good that she ate more than what she should have been capable of. She couldn't even move.

Dirk let out a breath before laying back too. They waited for about half an hour like that as their food digested.

After finally recovering enough to move, the two went home for the night. The next day, their classes would start back up, and for the foreseeable future they would be practicing magic. Dirk also planned to continue his destruction cycles. He had neglected them for a while as he had always been fighting, but now that would change.