Racing through the jungle, a pack of draconewts on my heels, I hurled myself over a fallen tree hoping it would slow them down. Weaving through the dense jungle, foliage slapped my face as I pushed through the burning in my legs. My breathing was loud in my ears, the moisture in the air heavy, until I broke through to a clearing.
“Pilus?”
Spinning and facing my draconic enemies, I lifted my massive gunsword, grinning. The air crackled around me as I summoned orbs of lightning, wind whipping around me as I unleashed my magic, conquering the natural world through sheer force of will.
“Pilus?”
“Hmm?” I said, looking up with a start, pulling myself from my daydreaming. I bounced two-year-old Rodessa on my knee, and she giggled again. “Sorry, love, what were you saying?”
Sera frowned at me, then shook her head. “Just that it’s time for dinner.”
“Ah, right.” I picked up my daughter, tossing her into the air to a peal of laughter, then caught her and placed her on my shoulders. “Boys? Dinnertime.” I glanced around, finding them absent.
“They already went ahead. Are you all right?” she asked me.
“I’m great,” I said with a smile. “Let’s go eat, I’m famished.”
We made our way to the palace dining room, and I found the boys there, already sitting at the table and bouncing in their seats. Each boy had a tamed beast at their feet, waiting to be fed dinner after. I set Rodessa down in a highchair, then joined my beautiful family for a gourmet dinner.
I pushed the expertly prepared food around my plate, stifling a sigh. The palace chef had an expert-level Cooking skill, and it was delicious, but there was something about grilling your own meat over a campfire while on the road that could not quite be captured in a palace kitchen.
“More cheese bread, Your Majesty?” a serving girl asked, offering me a plate of perfectly baked bread that had been toasted with melted herb cheese from one of the local farms. Some of the local farmers had started buying quadhorns from the Tamers Guild and began putting their own spin on cheese production, and this herb-infused cheese was quite delicious.
“Ah… no thank you,” I said, frowning slightly. My muscular body needed a lot of calories, but I had already gained a bit more of a belly from all the sedentary living and a bit too much cheesy bread.
I ended up turning down the ice cream after dinner, as well, which had been an exciting creation of mine from a few years back through the combination of dairy farming and refrigeration magic that was taking the capital by storm. I watched the kids devour their small bowls. Both the boys were already practicing swordsmanship and would burn off the calories the next day.
After dinner and feeding the pets, we put Rodessa down for night, spending some time burning off some of the boys’ energy before getting them to sleep as well. Sera and I climbed into bed, and I wrapped my arms around her, sighing as I closed my eyes.
Instead of settling into sleep herself, she rolled over in my arms, facing me. I opened my eyes, my blue meeting her green, and saw the concern on her face.
“What’s the matter?” I murmured.
Sera bit her lip. “You’re not happy.”
“What?” I said, pulling back slightly and taking in her expression in full. “Of course I’m happy. I’m with the woman of my dreams, my queen who I love, and we have three amazing children. Our family is more than I could have ever hoped for, and I adore it. The Kingdom is strong and at peace, and my projects are helping to improve it even further.” At least, aside from the fact that finding a sustainable source of the blue magical element continued to elude me, which severely limited my scope.
“Peace,” she murmured. “That’s the problem.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “You had peace in your first life, didn’t you? Were you happy then?”
I opened my mouth to answer, pausing as nothing came out. “That’s different,” I finally managed to say. “I was unhappy in my old life for different reasons. Loneliness and the meaninglessness of my individual life in my world’s modern times. Here, I have an impact, and I’m surrounded by amazing people.”
“Hmm,” she muttered. “Happiness might not be the right word, then,” she mused, pursing her lips. “You’re… bored.”
“How could I possibly be bored? The kids are growing every day, constantly learning new things and becoming the people they will grow up to be. Raising them is an incredible adventure.”
“Adventure, huh. What were you doing when you were their age?” she said with raised eyebrows. “As I recall, it involved fighting draconic beasts in the jungle?”
“...I was a bit older than that by then.”
“My point still stands. You came to this world, and you immediately sought out conflict. You trained yourself, learning magic, taming beasts, exploring the wilds, leaving home as soon as you could, throwing yourself into massive conflict, then built practically an entire settlement at the fringes of the Kingdom. Then you were dragged to the capital, fought through a tournament, usurped the throne—”
“That was incidental,” I interjected.
“—and now you’re here, and at peace, and that… isn’t who you are.”
I frowned. “It is. It has to be. I have no interest in abandoning what we’ve made here.”
“You don’t have to. But you don’t have to reject who you are, either. You need some adventure in your life. Go out and seek it.”
“I can’t, Sera. I’m the king, for one. And the kids—”
“The kids will be fine. We’ve got limitless resources here for them.”
I shook my head. “I don’t want to be an absent parent.”
My wife laughed in my face. “You’re the furthest thing from an absent parent. You’re the king and you still tuck your kids into bed every night. You eat all your meals with them, and spend most of your day with them. How much did you see your own parents when you were Siral’s age?”
“That… was different.”
“If he wasn’t a prince, he’d be running through the capital all day, eating lunch at the Church, maybe learning some stuff at the Guild.”
“Yes, but—”
“Pilus. I’m not telling you to abandon your children. Obviously. I’m just saying… you should consider taking a trip. Go on an adventure. You need it. We will be here waiting for you when you return.”
My open mouth lacked a response, so I closed it, and considered her words carefully.
Yes, I had spent my second life almost constantly having adventures, but it was always in search of something. In particular, it was usually in order to gain more power. Admittedly, my progress of late had slumped to almost nothing. I was twenty-eight years old in my second life. In the five years since Boshan had been born I had only gained a single level, bringing me to Level 49. I had not even known what to do with the skill points, and ended up sticking them into Strength in hopes of mitigating my softening waistline, which was extra frustrating because it brought the skill to 9.9% and I would need a single skill point to get it to an even 10%. I would not get that point until I reached Level 50, since there was no more skillfruit harvests since that single harvest, either.
To be frank, I did not need more strength. At Level 49, I was already powerful, but with a skill-based level that approached Level 80, I was probably in the top fraction of a percent of the Kingdom, and that did not even account for my tricks and secrets.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
And yet…
Of course I wanted to be stronger. Ever since I woke up in this world and figured out that levels, experience points, and skills were a thing, I had tried to advance them.
I had been able to sit still and work on developing my community over myself in Freehold, but I was still gaining a lot of experience from new skills at the time, like learning things that would help construction, iterating on wagons, making saddles, and so on. I also had a reliable source of skillfruit then, so even if I was not gaining experience, I was still progressing those skills.
The pursuit of progress had been a staple of this life, and Sera was right in that having discarded that part of myself, I had lost something. When my pursuit of progressing the Kingdom itself had stalled, as well, I had fallen into a rut. It was a very nice rut, with a lovely family, a fantastic circle of friends, prestige and popularity, and almost anything I could ask for… unless what I was asking for was novelty, challenge, and progression.
“I suppose… I suppose there are those dungeons around Haklan,” I said with a sigh. I could restock on red crystal from their dungeon cores, face new beasts in combat, and finally see the south. “It’s a long journey, though, even by tarandback. I don’t want to be away from our kids that long.”
“Haklan?”
I shook my head. “No, it’s too far, I—”
“Well, it’s far, but by ship you can get there pretty fast. How long would it take you to explore the region?”
I blinked at my wife, who was looking at me earnestly. I had not even considered taking a ship, but she was right, as usual. By sea, I could make the trip in no time, cutting the bulk of the travel time. She was being earnest, too. She really meant for me to do this.
“I’m… not sure. Not too long. With a ship, I could probably be there and back within… a season?” I said, getting excited.
Sera smiled warmly at me, cupping my cheek with her hand. “So go. Have an adventure and recenter yourself. I hate to see you like this.”
I grinned. “With a ship, we could all go. That way we don’t have to—”
“Um, no,” Sera said. “I appreciate the thought, my love, but it’s already spring. Safety issues for the children aside, I have no interest in visiting Haklan in the summer.”
“Oh. Well. We could wait until winter.”
“Can you?”
I paused and realized I was practically squirming with excitement. Sera shook her head and laughed.
“You will already struggle to convince your advisors to allow you to leave, but they almost certainly won’t let you take all your heirs, as well. Truthfully, I’m not sure I would, either. Sea travel is still somewhat disrupted. I have no doubt you’ll be safe, but it would be a bit dangerous for the children. Go,” she said, placing her hand on my chest. “Go and have an adventure. And then hurry back to us.”
“All right,” I said with a small nod, my eyes watering a bit. “Thank you, Sera.”
* * *
“No,” Nodel said flatly. “Obviously, no. Do I even really need to say it?”
“Nodel…” I groaned, looking around the table at the small group of trusted friends and advisors I had gathered. “I really think I need to.”
“The Kingdom needs you here,” she said, crossing her arms. “Your children are still too young to replace you if you die.”
“I’m not going to die,” I said, rolling my eyes. “I’m pretty strong, you know.”
“Well. You’re only Gold Rank,” Horg said, suppressing a chuckle.
“And yet,” I said, spreading my hands. “Does anyone in this room think they could take me?”
“I’m still willing to find out,” Nodel growled.
“Please. The man melts metal with his mind,” Atlessoa said.
“He’s also quite possibly the strongest tamer in the world,” Rena added.
“Not to mention his swordsmanship, his illusions, his—”
“I get it,” Nodel said, cutting the room off. “But people may act in your absence.”
“Not if I’m still here,” I said, gesturing to Atlessoa, who became my illusory clone. When I told her I was thinking about going to Haklan, she had initially pleaded to come with me, citing an ancient promise I had made to her as a child to go south together. I felt bad about that, but I needed her in the capital, protecting my family and acting as my double. When I told her there was no one I trusted more than her, she conceded.
“What is so important in the south that… necessitates this journey?” Morgun asked, steepling his hands as he sat back in his chair.
I hesitated slightly before giving my prepared answer. I had not wanted to tell them that my wife requested it so that I would stop being depressed, but if not that, I needed to share some kind of explanation, which meant revealing another long-guarded secret.
Placing my last fragment of dungeon core on the table, I looked around the room. “Does anyone know what this is?”
Murmurs in the negative came from around the table, save for Rena. Nodel leaned towards it. “I can feel… something from it. A minor repulsion, but also…” she frowned.
“Is this the source of your power?” Morgun asked, more academically than that of ambition.
I saw a few of the people shift around the table, some of them leaning in to look at it more closely.
“Yes and no,” I said honestly. “It’s… complicated. It comes from a dungeon, a type of corrupted cave that can be found in the wild. Have any of you seen or heard of this?” No one spoke up, so I continued on. “They’re fairly dangerous, but generally self-contained. They tend to overwhelm the area and draw in beasts, where it corrupts them and keeps them as guardians of a core made of this crystal. I found my first one in the jungle when I was eight.”
Horg groaned, bringing his hand to his face. “I was the captain of the guard and my son was sneaking out to mysterious caves in the jungle. Sharma is going to kill me.”
“Maybe… don’t tell her. Anyway, I’m pretty sure this is, in some way, related to the beast crystal that transforms some beasts. It’s almost like the other side of the magical coin. Or maybe the other half of a whole? I’m not sure, honestly, but I’m pretty sure both come from what I believe is the source of magic in the sky,” I said, tapping my magic meter. “When combined, I know of at least one function for the result.”
I nodded to Rena, who spoke up. “The resulting potion can speed up plant growth, and is a necessary fertilizer for a specific type of tree. Pilus and I have been farming the fruit of that tree for years, since Freehold.”
“And that’s how you got so strong?” Nodel asked, a glint in her eye.
“Again… yes and no,” I said, giving Nodel a look to cool off. Not everyone in the room knew about my memories of a past life, which Nodel knew was a factor in my power.
“I’ve eaten some, and they don’t really help me,” Rena said with a shrug.
Nodel looked at Rena like she was insane. “Rena, you’re one of the most powerful tamers in the Kingdom, and have been since you were barely an adult,” she said to the Guild Master.
“No, she’s right,” I said. “That’s just because she started young and focused, not unlike your own skills as a mage. The benefit of the fruit is more about diversification, especially for children. They may allow for faster, unfocused growth in the young, but it will rapidly stop having an effect after that.”
After all, having extra skill points as a child meant they could pick up however many skills they wanted, even as early as Level 1. They could not apply additional skill points to their skills without training, not like I could with my metasystem, but just having the skill points means the faster acquisition of whatever skills they learned naturally. Having more skills while young meant they could more quickly gain experience, across those different skills, expediting their early progress, but ultimately they needed to acquire the one hundred points worth of experience in a skill to naturally apply an additional skill point and develop their talents.
“I see. So you need more for your heirs?” Morgun asked.
“That’s… part of it. There are other uses for it as well.” I placed the true healing potion I had made from the gold version of the purified red crystal on the table. “This is a potion made from the crystal, when purified by 6-point magic. A healing potion.”
Rena leaned in. “How much more effective is it than our healing draughts?”
“Significantly more effective. This is a high-level healing spell in a vial. It has roughly the same magic cost for a healer to purify the crystal to make it, but it’s something anyone could carry in their pocket and use on demand.”
The room fell into a stunned silence as they took in the gravity of that. Admittedly we could only produce a limited amount of healing potion if I also wanted to grow skillfruit, unless we continued finding dungeons to run, but even a small stockpile of these potions would be incredibly valuable.
“Why not just send soldiers to retrieve the crystal?” Mogrun finally asked.
“Two reasons. One, the danger of a dungeon is variable, and linked to the size of the crystal within. Sending soldiers into a powerful one would be a slaughter, unless they were all Gold Rank adventurers or stronger.”
“You weren’t Gold Rank when you were eight,” Horg said, then paused and squinted at me. “...Right?”
“No,” I said with a chuckle. “Fortunately, the first one I found was pretty easy. I have reason to believe that some of the ones in Haklan are more difficult, though.” I had used 3-point magic to scry and confirm the dungeons in the area.
“And the second reason?”
“It’s a secret resource that the king wants,” I said plainly, raising my hands in a shrug. “With incredible potential value. If that information gets out, people are going to go for it. Some might die, but others might succeed. I’m not sure what those people would do with it, or how dangerous those people could become. Or they’ll ransom it. Better to keep this close to the vest for now.”
I saw people thinking things over around the table.
“Look,” I said, standing. With all my cards on the table, I would not change my mind. “I’m afraid this is a case of me telling, not asking. Work out what you need from me to make sure things keep running smoothly in my absence, which won’t be more than a season.” I grinned. “I’ve got to find a boat to book passage on.”