Aaron stood in a green yard surrounded by a white picket fence. Nice cars drove down the roads, and old ladies tended to their gardens. It was the ideal picture of suburban American life. On the surface, everything was perfect.

“Catch.” A tall man wearing a cheap suit threw him a football.

He caught it with his tiny hands then tossed it back to his father with a grunt of exertion. Throwing a ball ten yards was hard! It was practically a mile away!

“What is rule number one of stealing jewels?” His father tossed him the ball.

He caught it then absently looked down at the tanned leather. It was pretty – something like what a cowboy would wear. He wanted to be a cowboy. “Don’t get caught,” He repeated for what felt like the millionth time.

“Good. You’ll make a good thief one day.” Aaron rolled his eyes, knowing something as simple as that wasn’t helpful.

He threw the ball as hard as he could, just barely covering the thirty-foot distance between them. “But what if I don’t want to steal from anyone?”

“You’ll have to. How do you think we can afford this house? It isn’t cheap.” His father pointed all around the nice neighborhood. Aaron liked staying here, but not enough to hurt anyone. Cowboys were supposed to be the good guys. He couldn’t become a cowboy if he was a thief.

“Besides, it’s a victimless crime. The jewelers practically want you to steal from them. All their stuff is insured, so they don’t end up losing any money. They get rid of the jewels no one wants to buy that way.” He considered the information for a minute. Maybe he could be both. A heroic cowboy by day and a master jewel thief - like his father - at night. His five-year-old heart squealed in joy at the idea.

The ball came back to him, except this time it wasn’t a football. His father’s decapitated head landed in his hands. Blood pooled in his palms. With a howl, smoke, fire, and twisted metal invaded the idyllic scene, turning the once peaceful neighborhood into a warzone.

His little heart raced in fear as he watched everything he loved burn down. With a snap, his conscious mind took over. Fear replaced itself with mild annoyance. This was a memory from his childhood, minus the decapitated head; it had haunted his dreams constantly for the last year. At this point, he had seen it too many times for it to affect him.

“At least come up with something original if you’re going to haunt me every night. It’s a little boring at this point. You can only watch a movie so many times before it loses its effect.” Aaron said to his subconscious mind. There was no response.

He took one last glance at his burning home, and dead father then woke himself up. He stifled a yawn and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. Despite the short amount of time he had slept for, he felt good. He climbed to his feet, thankful that he was no longer obsessed with cowboys. That had been a long year. He could only cringe at the memories.

He took stock of his internal condition. He had fully recovered his mana. However, he still was banged up from all the fighting. His hand had swollen and turned a shade of dark purple. Aside from that, his body was in peak condition. His upgraded stats were paying off. Similar injuries would take weeks to heal in the old world. His fast recovery wasn’t all due to his natural regeneration; Tony had used his healing skill on him to speed up the process. He froze as a blue screen popped up.

Thank you for your patience. Stage 1 of World Merge complete. Aliens have invaded your planet; destroy their Nexus Crystal to close their portal and stop the invasion. Points will be awarded for slaying invaders, which can be redeemed at the Prize Tower. Act quickly; more powerful troops will be able to cross through the portal the longer it is open. As compensation for hosting a world merge, a natural resource [Node] will spawn. So long as the invading party’s portal is open; the Node will upgrade itself and replenish its stores at an increased rate.

“Are you seeing this?” Jess asked as she stuffed a handful of raisin bran cereal in her mouth. Loose pieces of paper were strewn across the floor all around her. Countless equations filled their white pages. She had been busy.

Tony smiled widely, revealing his white teeth. “Looks like a whole lot of trouble.”

Aaron quickly read over the message. “Well, that’s not good. If stronger monsters cross through the portal…” he thought back to his encounters with the Demons: their uncanny precision, overwhelming physical power, and control over fire. It wouldn’t end well if more powerful demons appeared.

He cracked a slight smile. The Demons weren’t invincible. Despite their massive level disadvantage, they had already managed to kill a few. With more levels under their belt, it should be possible to destroy their Nexus Crystal - whatever that was supposed to be.

Aaron rubbed his forehead. “We need to kill the demons before they can create a fortified position. Right now, they are vulnerable, but if we let them prepare for a week, we won’t be able to deal with them. The less time we give them for more powerful monsters to cross over, the better.”

Jess gathered her papers into a pile. “I wouldn’t say they’re vulnerable; the last time we fought them, you got your eyebrows blown off, which, I may add, haven’t grown back yet. Besides, it’s the middle of the night. Shouldn’t we wait till morning?”

The old man lazily got up and sat next to Aaron. A warm green glow surrounded Tony’s hand as he healed Aaron’s injured arm. “The cover of the night will help us; stealth always favors the smaller party. It’s like the story of little red riding hood: the girl was able to hijack America’s satellite systems because she was acting alone. She was even able to escape to Mexico and retire with her Grandma without getting caught.”

“I don’t think that’s how the story went,” Aaron said.

Tony shrugged his shoulders. “The details don’t matter. I’ve been waiting all day for a rematch with those little imps. Having to run away from them left a bitter taste in my mouth. Let’s go right now.”

Jess sighed. “Fine, I’ll go. Just give me five minutes to prepare.” She stormed off to god knows where to do who knows what. Aaron shrugged his shoulders and opened his skill path screen. He had earned four points while fighting Sasha and the warriors; it would be a waste not to use them.

Skill Paths: 7 Power 1 (0/5): Break through your obstacles. There’s no need for strategy when brute force will suffice. Moderately increases Mana Bolt’s damage. Barrage 1 (0/5): Two is better than one. For an increased mana cost, send out multiple mana bolts at once. Speed 2 (0/10): You have taken the first step; are you ready for the second? The long road you diligently follow stretches into the snowy tundra. Here your vision is obscured, the freezing cold seeps into your bones, and the falling snow slows your footsteps. What do you do? *Branching Path! Path Rewards are based on your decisions. Complete at your own risk.* Shaping 1 (0/10): One by one, the shackles of early mage-craft fall away around you. You can now freely change the size and shape of Mana Bolt. Mp cost scales with the severity of changes. Overload 1 (015): At the cost of an increased charge time, Mana Bolt can now contain more energy. Warning, forcing too much mana into the attack will cause it to prematurely explode. Pathless 1 (0/15): Stray from the provided path. Allows for the manual aiming of attacks. Mana bolt is no longer limited to a straight line. However, this newfound flexibility comes at a cost. Minor decrease in accuracy. Mana Bolt 1 (0/15): The first step down the path of magic. Improves all aspects of mana bolt and opens more upgrade options.

Aaron blinked; he had gained four new paths in the span of a couple hours. They were all good. However, there were two he immediately knew he would not pursue. First, Shaping 1 was expensive, and it didn’t give him any immediate utility that Minor Metamagic didn’t already. The path would be a waste of skill points at this point.

In the same vein, the Overload 1 path didn’t seem that useful. For starters, it was expensive, and it wouldn’t give him any immediate benefit, which was an important consideration. He had to stop the demon invasion before they became too powerful. Prioritizing expensive paths wasn’t something he could justify at the moment. Additionally, the skill just seemed like a worse version of the Power 1 path.

Speed 1 had almost doubled Mana Bolt’s speed so, he thought it was safe to assume that Power 1 would have a similar effect. Mana Bolt’s main weakness was its lack of stopping power. More raw power would turn the skill into an attack that opponents, like the warrior he fought earlier, couldn’t ignore. From what he read so far, the path fit the bill to a tee.

The last path, the continuation of the speed path, also interested him. Its description alone caught his attention. This was his first time being offered a branching path. He wasn’t sure what to expect. It could be amazing, but it could also be terrible; there was no way to tell without taking it. He was leaning towards the mediocre side. However, he did learn one thing from the skill’s description: the next step of a path wasn’t automatically offered. Unlike the speed path, he was not offered the next step on the Minor Metamagic path, which perplexed him. There are probably prerequisites for unlocking continuation paths, just like initial paths.

He checked Explosive Mark before making a decision. The skill’s description had changed significantly since he had last checked it. In the process of leveling the skill, the mark’s duration had increased, and it gained a few new skill paths.

Skill Paths: 5 Multi-Task (0/20): The magical equivalent of rubbing your stomach and patting your head at the same time. Allows other spells to be cast while Explosive Mark is being prepared. Quick-Charge 1 (0/25): It’s not the strongest gun that wins the fight, but the fastest. Halves the time it takes to place an Explosive Mark. Everlasting 1 (0/25): The great Mages of the Zekari Forrest built bombs that are still armed and ready to detonate over 10,000 years later. Though the pinnacle is still far away, their achievements are within reach. Just like the big bang, your Explosive Marks can ring through space and time for all of eternity. Doubles mark duration. Recursive 1 (0/30): A tapestry of death. Place multiple Explosive Marks down at once. The location of subsequent marks can be different as long as they are touching part of an existing mark. Elemental 1 (0/35): An explosion is not limited to just Mana. Alone you stand in a broken world. Great plumes of flame devour the east. Large clouds of toxic smoke block out the sun to the west. The ground is torn apart by blades of sonic vibrations to the north. Ravenous tendrils of darkness patrol the south, not letting even the smallest particle of dust pass through. What direction does your journey take you? *Branching Path! Path Rewards are based on your decisions. Complete at your own risk.*

Just like last time, the paths Explosive Mark had to offer were too expensive. He wanted nothing more than to complete them. Their rewards sounded immensely useful, but he needed an immediate boost to his power. The imps wouldn’t peacefully wait for him to gather 30 skill points.

He put four skill points into the Power 1 path, earning himself two points in Magic and Strength. In the end, he was one point short, but that was a problem he could quickly remedy. He entered his inner world of switches and inputted a pattern that his increased Mind stat helped him remember. He walked down the tunnel, away from the others, then released a blinding bolt of mana.

Congratulations! Mana Bolt has reached level 17. 1 Skill Point Awarded.

For some reason, using metamagic increased the rate at which the skill leveled. The increased difficulty probably played a role. Whatever the reason, he wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. He finished the path.

Congratulations! Power 1 path completed. Strength is not gained overnight; it takes a commitment, and most importantly, time. Day in and day out, you must rise and do the work, whether you feel like it or not. By taking the first step down this path, your mana density has infinitesimally increased. Mana Bolt damage moderately increased.

An ice-like sensation shot through his veins for a moment then disappeared without a trace. According to the system, his mana had changed, but he couldn’t tell the difference. Unfortunately, he hadn’t figured out how to sense his mana yet. It danced on the edges of his awareness, always just an inch out of his reach. He felt like it was something he should be able to do.

“Don’t look so glum. Hunting down the demons was your idea,” Jess said as she readjusted her cracked glasses. “By the way, you look better without your glasses. They made you look like an underweight panda.”

He rolled her eyes at her strange comment. There was no point in reading too deeply into the things she said. “Thanks. I think the animal you’re thinking of is a raccoon. They’re like smaller, more aggressive pandas.”

Tony popped up behind him; his footsteps were silent. “No, don’t sell yourself short. If anything, you’re a majestic and regal animal, like a mole rat.”

“Thanks, that means a lot coming from you.” Aaron paused to give his passive-aggressive comment time to shine. It either didn’t affect the old man, or it went over his head because he was still smiling. Unlucky. Next time he would skip passive-aggressive and go straight to aggressive-aggressive. “Let’s go before I start calling people’s mothers whales.”

They shared a short laugh, then stepped out into the pouring rain. Just as they left the tunnel, a bolt of lightning impacted the ground not too far away from them, briefly illuminating the dark island. In the brief flash of light, he could see bricks flying through the air, forming a large tower. Due to how far away it was, he couldn’t make out very many details, but from the looks of things, it wasn’t even halfway done.

They trudged through the chilling rain, their feet sinking into the muddy ground. The earth shook periodically, a constant reminder of their apocalyptic situation. Well, this sucks. He increased his pace, eager to get out of the rain.