Jake rarely felt nervous these days. He was the Chosen of the Malefic Viper, Harbinger of Primeval Origins, and now even the top performer on the Nevermore Leaderboards. Yet he couldn’t deny his own trepidations before arriving at Skyggen.

There was no doubt that Jake was a pretty sucky son and now also uncle. Even before the system, he had been bad at calling home or visiting often enough, and with the initiation, he had become far worse. What made Jake feel even worse about everything was how he didn’t really feel that bad for not visiting as often. Just the knowledge they were doing well was enough for him.

His father’s words before he left last time also helped a lot, having pretty much given Jake permission to not worry about them. There was also the fact that Caleb was with them at all times and would ensure they were kept safe alongside Maja and Adam – his wife and son, also known as Jake’s sister-in-law and nephew.

Mixed in with his slight anxiety was also a lot of excitement. The last time he saw Adam, he had just been a baby, while now he should be solidly out of the toddler years. He naturally also looked forward to seeing his parents and how they were doing.

He was also determined to get some way of contacting them this time around, if not for nothing else but the ability to at least call home once in a while to check in on things. Though, rather than talking about some promotion or a funny anecdote of what had happened that day, Jake would talk about how he had met some frost wyvern or helped create a Demon Lord.

Nearly at Skyggen, Jake decided to have a bit of fun and check the local defenses. Activating his stealth skill, Jake wanted to see if he could sneak in without anyone noticing him. If he could, he would definitely have something to tease his brother about.

Sadly, the moment Jake arrived floating above the city, he encountered one of the outer barriers covering the city that served as the headquarters of the Court of Shadows. It became pretty damn clear Jake couldn’t sneak through without triggering it. There were over a dozen layers of barriers, most of which were only primed to the activated to defend against attacks. There were still three different ones designed for detection, though, as well as five, maybe six, made to help hide the city.

“At least Caleb made sure the city is properly defended,” Jake nodded. Haven also had defensive barriers, but far fewer than this. Instead, the city was primarily defended by two people: Arnold and Miranda. Both had placed down their own protective measures, and Jake knew that Arnold had launched a number of satellites to keep a lookout.

Entering through the barrier, Jake instantly knew he was detected. He could have taken the main entrance but decided it was more fun to fly down from above. That way, it would also be easier to find where his parents stayed, something he used a quick Pulse of Perception to discover.

As with most other cities on Earth, Skyggen had grown a lot over the last many years. Despite only really being a city for members of the Court and their family members, it looked surprisingly normal, especially the area where he spotted his family. It looked like the regular suburbs of old, with modern-looking houses on a closed-off street and big gardens. It didn’t look very defended either, which Jake perfectly understood.

Caleb and Jake didn’t want to keep their family in a cage with the justification they were just protecting them. That would be insulting and unhealthy for everyone involved. No, Jake would rather make it so the entire planet was a safe environment for not only his parents but everyone else. Despite never having spoken with his brother about this explicitly, he knew Caleb also felt the same way, which was why he had done things like this.

Flying toward the suburbs, Jake felt a few presences check him out, but the moment they realized who he was, they backed off, resulting in no one bothering him. He saw that his parents were currently both at one house, with his mother sitting in the back garden reading a book while his dad was in the house watching a projector – the system version of a TV. Assuming there weren’t already normal TVs.

There probably were normal TVs, especially if Arnold could walk around with a tablet.

In the house next door, he saw Maja with three other women, as well as a group of seven kids. It wasn’t hard to spot Adam, either. He looked uncannily like Caleb did when he was small, making Jake smile. The decision where to go first wasn’t hard either because there was no fucking way he was going to intrude on his nephew’s playdate. Especially not with his current get-up, as he had a slight suspicion a hooded masked man with glowing beastly eyes wouldn’t be that popular with the kids.

Landing in front of his parent’s house, Jake made his mask invisible, pulled down the hood, and tried to look as representable as he could. Knocking on the door, he was a bit nervous as he saw his father react inside by getting up and walking to the door before opening it.

Jake’s dad froze for a moment when he saw Jake who just stood there smiling. “Hey, Dad, I-“

“Debra, there’s another of those alchemist salesmen at the door!” his dad yelled, surprising Jake.

“Again!?” he heard his mother yell from the other side of the house as she made her way over to the door.

For a moment, Jake’s mind worked at high speeds as he considered what had happened. Could karmic magic affect the memories of people, or was it-

“A fancy one from that snake club, too,” his mother said as she walked over and smiled. “Doesn’t he also seem oddly familiar, Robert?”

“He does look a bit like our younger son, doesn’t he. I wonder what happened to our estranged older one; we haven’t seen him in-“

“Ha ha, very funny,” Jake said in a dry tone. “Also, calling the Divine Order of a Primordial a snake club would definitely be considered heretical to most people.”

“Ah, sorry, I’m just happy you finally found a club you wanted to join since getting you to join any when you were a kid was a real struggle,” Debra teased him as she went outside and didn’t really give him any time before she pulled him into a hug. “Welcome home.”

“Thanks, Mom,” Jake smiled as she practically dragged him inside. His father put a hand on his shoulder as they walked in, giving him an approving nod and a look that said it was good he had finally visited.

“Do you want anything to drink?” his mom asked. “We have coffee and… a lot of different teas. Actually, you may know this, how come tea is so popular now?”

“Tea was always popular,” Jake argued. “But as for why it’s popular in the multiverse in general… well, think about it. Tea is just dried pieces of herbs and can come in a variety of flavors and forms, allowing whoever is making the tea to aim for certain desired effects. Meanwhile, for coffee, it needs to come from coffee beans, right? Limits the variety.”

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“I see,” his mom nodded. “So I take it you’re big into tea now?”

“Not really, do you have any hot chocolate?” Jake asked with a grin.

“I’m sure I can find something,” she answered with a smile and went into the kitchen. Jake looked after her as he quickly used an Identify to confirm how she was doing.

[Human – lvl 144]

He also used one on his dad, confirming a similar level.

[Human – lvl 141]

Both had reached mid-tier D-grade and were on their way. Neither leveled fast at all, but they were still leveling as far as Jake could tell. Actually, he was pretty sure that many would be jealous of his parent’s ability to level despite neither of them being fighters.

If this keeps up, they should at least reach C-grade at some point, Jake assured himself as he took a seat at the dining table with his dad. Robert, his father, didn’t look a day older than his last visit and still looked a lot healthier than he had been before the system. All good things to see.

“I hear you’ve been quite busy,” his dad said after a brief pause. “Something about you placing first on the best Leaderboards in Nevermore?”

Jake was surprised that his dad knew about all that, considering how disconnected they seemed from multiverse stuff the last time he visited. Still, if he was interested, Jake saw no reason not to answer. “Yeah, I managed to snag the top spot above everyone else.”

“Very impressive based on how I understand it,” Robert said. “I won’t act like I really understand how big of a deal it is, but Caleb seemed a lot more impressed than usual… so good job.”

“Thanks,” Jake smiled. “Say, where is Caleb?”

“At work,” his mom answered as she came in carrying three mugs with hot chocolate, having made it a lot faster than Jake expected. “He is quite busy these days, and while he tried to take a small holiday after he returned from this Nevermore place, he was quickly dragged back to work. I guess his desk was full after more than three years of absence.”

“Sucks to suck,” Jake grinned, happy it wasn’t him. In some ways, it was also good to have some one-on-one time with his parents.

“Don’t bully your little brother for having a job,” Robert scolded him in jest before he turned a lot more serious. “I know that to us, you’ve only been gone for a few years, but for you, it’s been decades… Caleb was quite affected and stuck to Maja and Adam like a magnet for the first day he was back. How are you doing?”

“I’m doing good,” Jake said with a reassuring smile.

“No, you’re not,” his dad said with an exaggerated sigh. “Charity workers do good. You’re doing well.”

“Way to spoil the serious mood with grammatical pedantry,” Jake shook his head. “And how do you know I didn’t do good? I recently helped someone transform into a Demon Lord, and just on the way here, I talked sense into a murderous and ignorant wyvern on top of a mountain while freeing a group of vampires from the fate of dying as popsicles.”

“The first one doesn’t sound like it counts,” Debra muttered.

“That’s just your bias against demons born from media misrepresentation,” Jake said in a matter-of-fact tone. “Most demons I’ve met have been pretty nice and chill.”

“You’re also part of what many call an evil snake club, with this Malefic Viper not striking me as a figure many would describe with the adjective good,” his dad couldn’t help but point out. “That may color your view a bit.”

“Is it just me, or do you two seem more educated on matters of the multiverse than last time I was here?” Jake asked with a raised eyebrow.

“We didn’t really have much of a choice, now did we?” Debra asked while Jake took a sip of his hot chocolate, which, for the record, was superb.

“What do you mean,” Jake asked after a good sip.

“You had a ceremony or something announcing yourself to the world a few years ago, didn’t you?” Robert chimed in again. “It isn’t anything new for the parents of famous people to get some attention from the public, now is it?”

Jake’s smile faded as he turned serious. “Have people been bothering you because of me?”

“I wouldn’t say that,” his mom sighed. “It’s more that there have been some odd types who’ve approached us, and sometimes it can be hard to judge who is there because of us or you. It isn’t that big of a deal, though. We were already having similar issues because Caleb is the Judge of the Court of Shadows. Maja, too, and Caleb is doing a good job of making sure we aren’t too bothered.”

“I… see…” Jake muttered. “What kind of odd types have appeared?”

“Most people from these new factions who arrived, and they are mostly very polite,” Debra answered. “There is this group of very weird people, though… what were they called again?”

“Primordial Church,” Robert answered.

“That’s right, the Primordial Church. There are these three in particular who are quite peculiar, though they don’t seem dangerous or deceitful in the slightest. They’re actually very straightforward about what they want, if a little pushy and overexcited,” Jake’s mom continued.

“What is it they want?” Jake asked with some concern.

He had no idea why it had never crossed his mind this could happen. Even if Jake had things like Shroud of the Primordial to hide him, people could still just do good old detective work to easily find out who his family was. Shit, the fact Caleb was Jake’s brother was far from a secret, so all they really had to do was find Caleb’s parents, and they would find Jake’s.

“They just ask questions,” Debra continued, shaking her head. “Their questions are just odd and kind of intrusive. They asked a lot about you, how you grew up, where, who you knew, what you were like when younger…”

“I think one of them mentioned something about writing a book?” Robert added. “Or a biography?”

“Are you sure? One of them tried to show me her poetry collection about Jake…” Debra muttered.

Jake stared at his parents as she scratched the back of his hand. “To clarify… you didn’t actually tell them anything about me, right?”

“Not anything bad!” his mom quickly made clear, which didn’t make Jake feel better. “But they were really polite and without any bad intentions, especially in the beginning.”

His mom’s words made a shiver run down Jake’s back. He knew enough about the Primordial Church to know they were fanatics, and he really hoped she hadn’t told some embarrassing stories he could now look forward to spreading all throughout the multiverse.

“Don’t worry, they didn’t get much useful,” Jake’s dad tried to assure him. “And a lot of what they got was just nonsense that will make them laughingstocks with no creditability if they actually try to share it.”

“I’m sure they will just ignore the outrageous things you said,” Debra sighed. “No one’s going to believe any of that stuff you told them.”

“What… what did he tell them?” Jake said, clenching his fists.

“As I said, nonsense,” his dad kept waving him off. “No one, not even people as unreasonable as them, is going to believe a five-year-old fought off a shark or that a ten-year-old became the world record holder for ultramarathons on accidents just because he wanted to have a long run.”

His dad laughed a bit at the last part, as Jake just had a look of horror. His father had no idea what he had done as Jake looked up at them.

“They are that unreasonable.”

Robert looked confused and stopped laughing before shaking his head. “Even so, if they try to share it, no one will them them seriously.”

“Dad… you don’t understand these people,” Jake said as he looked his father in the eye. “I accidentally showed a projection to a guy depicting a beer bottle and the words danger noodle, and the guy dedicated a significant portion of his life to creating a mythical rarity statue…”

“Wait, are you talking about Felix, the High Priest in Haven?” Debra asked. “I heard he was a sculptor who gained your favor…”

“That’s him, and the fact he is now a High Priest should tell you everything,” Jake said with a serious look.

“They aren’t actually going to write down and publish everything I said, right?” Robert said with a tinge of nervousness.

“Every. Single. Word,” Jake assured him.

Silence hung in the room for several seconds before something vibrated on a small table in the corner of the room. Debra hurried over to it as Jake contemplated if he should try and track down the members of the Primordial Church.

“Caleb is coming over,” his mother said as she held the token with a smile. “He said he’ll stop by and grab Maja and Adam on the way.”

Jake wasn’t surprised Caleb was coming, as someone had definitely reported to him that Jake had arrived, and he was happy to hear he was bringing Maja and Adam. Next door, he saw that Maja had definitely also been called by Caleb as the other women were packing up and leaving, as Maja herself got ready with Adam.

I’ll deal with that damn Primordial Church later… for now, let’s just try not to mess up my nephew’s first impression of his uncle.