After I told my parents the whole story of my awakening, an awkward silence ensued. Both my mother and father were stumped, finding it almost unbelievable. Yet there was no lie to be found in my words, and they knew that. My father ended up being the one to break the silence.

"I knew my brother giving you that stone was bad luck. If you didn't have it during your awakening, you probably would have received a knight class. You would've been able to go to the capital and eventually become a royal guard. If only Robart didn't put that into your little head at the time."

My father shook his head sadly, with a look of disappointment on his face that I had never seen before. My father was always one to look to the future. Optimistic and laid back, he would always have advice for me when I needed it. Now, even he didn't know what to do. In hindsight, I think he was more disappointed in himself and my uncle, rather than me.

My mother didn't look much better. Usually she was the one to steer the family and make the decisions. Now she looked meek and lost. It only lasted a few moments, however. She pulled herself together and got a determined look on her face.

"Well, there's nothing for it. From tomorrow onwards, you'll be helping out around the bakery. Problem solved."

Happy to have arrived at a solution, my mother moved over to fill my bowl with meat stew. I stayed quiet for a moment, and gathered my confidence.

"Mom, I don't want that."

"W-what? Y-you don't unde-"

"I don't want this, mom. I've been restless for as long as I can remember, I always felt unsatisfied with our quiet lives. I need to do something, anything."

"...Do you even realise how much your father and I have done for you? Do you understand how much work we put in every day to give you a good life?! Do you remember how many struggles we had to go through to get the royal grant to open the bakery?! How much we sacrificed so that you could follow your dreams? Why can't you be happy with this? With what we've given you?"

"...I can only repay you by becoming happy, mom. I can only do that by following my dreams. I'm sorry mom."

"Enough!! You're under house arrest! You better head to your room, and stay there if you know what's good for you!"

Tired of the fight, I acquiesced. Filled with mixed feelings, guilt, rebelliousness, dissatisfaction, I headed to my room and shut myself inside. This room was far larger than my alcove in the village had been. There was enough space to comfortably move around. I grabbed the wooden practice sword I had received for my 15th birthday from under my bed.

For the rest of the evening and night, I swung it, to get used to my swordsmanship skill. I didn't dare to use my other skills in the house, so I left those alone for now.

The day after, apart from small food breaks, I stayed in my room and swung my sword.

The day after that, I swung my sword some more.

For the rest of the week I did nothing but practice.

Then, after a week had passed, my parents entered my room. I didn't even notice their presence until they said something.

"Art, your father and I have been talking. We...decided that you should follow your dreams."

I jumped up in glee hearing her declaration, but she interrupted me.

"However, only if you write letters regularly. And visit home as often as you can. And take care of yourself, oh and don't offend powerful people. And..."

"That's quite enough, Eliza. Art knows what he's doing by now. We should put some trust in him. Son, clean up and let's have one final family dinner. I'll have some supplies ready for you tomorrow morning. Then you can head off on your adventure. Just don't forget about your mom and dad when you make it big, alright Art?"

Giving him a good-natured smile, I pulled them both into a hug. That night, I went to bed full of expectations, fear and excitement. Tomorrow would be the big day.

The next day, I woke up early, only to find the house empty. On the dinner table laid a number of objects. A pouch filled with coins, a letter, a satchel filled with dried food of varied kinds, some leather garments and a....sword in a scabbard? With some hesitation, I decided to read the letter first.

Dear Son,

As promised, we've prepared some supplies for you. To be honest, your mother and I have saved up some coin over the past few years since we've opened the bakery, just for this day. We knew the time would come when you started training like your little life depended on it.

By now you'll also have noticed the little present we ordered to be made a week ago. Consider it your eighteenth birthday present. Don't lose it, we've properly burned through our savings now, we can't afford another one.

Perhaps you'll also have noticed our absence. Forgive us for not seeing you off. If we had stayed, we'd never have been able to see you leave. Until next time, son.

With love,

Mom and Dad.

Teary eyed, I lifted the bastard sword out of the scabbard.

Ding! You've come into contact with an ownerless sword. Accept bond? Bond accepted. Calibrating....Done.

[Dark-aligned Bastard Sword]

Tier 2 Sword.

Made by an experienced blacksmith as a favour to an old friend who had it ordered for his son. This sword is made from especially durable material and dark mana-aligned material. As a result it will respond particularly well to dark-aligned skills.

With a serene sense of completeness, I walked out the front door, into the sunlight of a new day.

A few hours later, I stood at the dungeon checkpoint of Rolla, my hometown, where I had spent half my life. To enter the dungeon, I needed to have a proof of identity to show the guards. Luckily I had remembered to bring my citizen identity token.

POV. Guard 1:

Another day, another slog. The appraiser came to town a week ago. As a result, the last week has been busier than any other time of the year. Newly awakened kids coming here with a subpar party, trying their hand at adventuring. More often than not, they come back out covered in blood and screaming. There's something about slaying other pseudo sapient creatures that goes against a human's base instinct. It's not an easy feeling to get used to, and it requires many years to fully adapt to.

It doesn't help that three quarters of these kids have classes completely unsuitable to be adventurers. No you can't be an adventurer if you're a gardener or a scribe. It takes more than some mental stats to fight monsters, even mages are usually in shape.

The few that have been semi successful and tried their hand at the boss haven't returned. Supposedly there's been something going on with the new boss the past few weeks. The bigwigs hired some witch hunters to take care of it, but we haven't heard back yet.

Oh look, here comes another one, on his own this time. He has a high chance of dying if he's caught unawares.

"Hello there sir. I would like to enter the dungeon. This is my identity token."

"Sure kid, just hand your token over so that I can inspect it, will you."

He gives me the token, and sure enough, a baker's son. Another one trying to become an adventurer.

"Alright, everything seems to check out. Arthur, is it? Say, Arthur what class do you have? I can't really recommend that you go in there without a combat class. More than enough idiots try and get seriously hurt in the process."

"I have the [swordsman] class."

"Really? Huh. Well colour me surprised, someone with actual skill shows up for once. Well, it's still not safe to go in there alone, but don't let me stop you. Just do what you want."

"Thank you, sir. Until next time."

"Goodbye, young man."

A few minutes later, I realised I had forgotten to warn him about the issue with the boss... Oh well, as a solo adventurer I'm sure he won't even attempt it. If he does, he can only blame his own stupidity.

As I entered my first ever dungeon, I felt my nerves settle, and a certain morbid determination took its place. I would defeat this dungeon and conquer my fear. This was the first step.

The environment of this dungeon was rather unremarkable. A standard cave like you would find anywhere, with longer tunnels and chambers. No special environments were mentioned by the guide at the entrance, and only common monsters could be found here. There was, however, one major difference that made this dungeon more dangerous than others of its kind. Everything was pitch black. Torches wouldn't work as a general rule in the dungeon. Only magical fire could be lit here, despite there being no dampness. This was a dungeon rule that could only be circumvented through skills. One of these I just so happened to have. [Elementary dark sight] allowed me to see by using darkness, rather than light. You couldn't ask me how it worked, since I retained the ability to see using light as well, but in the dungeon I could see perfectly well. I wonder if my parents grew worried about me after my awakening because I shut myself in my room in complete darkness? Hmmm.

Soon enough, my thoughts were interrupted, as a group of 5 green little men came around the corner of the tunnel I found myself in. It was time to put my newly trained swordsmanship to the test!

[Novice swordsmanship](16%)

I drew my bastard sword and decided to first try defeating my opponents without my augment skill active. I was convinced I had all the necessary physical stats to defeat these little goblins.

The goblins noticed me and took up a combat ready stance. I rushed forward and started my assault with a horizontal swipe, aiming to take down a row of gobs in one slash. The first goblin attempted to block my swing with a thick wooden club. While the club proved surprisingly durable, and the goblin surprisingly strong for its size, it wasn't enough. My sword cleaved through and cut off both the arm and the head of the first gob.

The other gobs had not waited for me to finish my swing, however. Seeing my strength and speed, they jumped back and tried to make some distance. Two of the remaining goblins took out slings and hurled a few rocks at me, that would ordinarily have broken bones. I just dodged them and approached, careful to take out the melee gobs first. They put up almost no resistance and were soon cleft in half as well. Finally I rushed at the rock throwers, which I had dodged each time until now. I killed the first, but right as I killed the second, I felt an abnormally sharp heat in my lower abdomen, coming from my back. Pain soon followed.

I turned around in a rage, swinging wildly, but the offending party had backed off just enough to dodge my swing. When I looked over, I found a larger goblin, covered in black cloth from head to toe, wielding a bloody dagger. I recognised it as a hobgoblin scout! A wandering rare monster, these rogues look for unsuspecting targets to stab in the back.

In my fury, I decided to throw caution to the wind. I started pushing my dark core into overdrive as I called upon my only tier 4 skill [Dark augment]. As I activated it, a rush of dark mana rushed through my body, from my fingers to my toes, I felt immense power with each small movement. The pain from my lower back disappeared, and I could feel the wound closing at a speed that was probably visible to the naked eye.

My leathers and bastard sword saw the biggest transformation. Now covered in black smoke that held its shape, they looked far more menacing than before. They gave off an eerie hum as the smoke became denser and denser, until they were left a deep black colour.

Not wanting to waste anymore time, I once again rushed straight towards my enemy, feeling my core thrumming with power. If before my rush could be compared to a horse at full gallop, then now I was rushing at my opponent like a rampaging water dragon. In what felt like just one step I arrived at my opponent and swung down in full force. The rogue tried to block using his well made dagger, but it was futile. Neither the dagger nor the rogue himself put up any resistance to the pitch black bastard sword as it cleft the goblin and its weapon cleanly in half.

Ding! Combat finished. Congratulations on reaching [Death Knight] level 3!

Reach level 25 to advance to tier 2. Stat points allocated. 3 free stat points per level awarded.

Name: Arthur Titles [Dark prodigy] Class: [Death Knight] LVL 3 Strength 49 Constitution 52 Dexterity 47 Intelligence 22 Wisdom 10 Affinity 181 Free stat points 9

Skills:

Passive: [Simple dark core](0%), [Elementary dark sight](11%), [Novice Swordsmanship](17%), [Novice lifespan](N/A)

Active: [Dark augment](1%), [Shadow apparation](0%)

Ding! 50 constitution reached. Awarded the [Novice lifespan] skill.

[Novice lifespan](N/A)

Tier 1 skill.

Increase the lifespan of the holder by 50 years.

Increase constitution to the next milestone to increase skill tier.

I inspected my new skill, but waved it aside when I saw it had nothing to do with combat. I wondered for a moment if I would be rewarded new skills if my other stats reached 50, before focussing on the task at hand.

It was time to grind out this dungeon. Afterwards, I would head for the boss and attempt to defeat it!