It was dark out now. The spring weather meant that the night was quickly growing chill. A brightly lit shop on his left tempted him to enter and warm up.

Deciding to splurge a bit, Hugo stopped off at his favorite patisserie. Like most nox businesses, it was open very late. The proprietor, an older nox with spots on his scalp, greeted him warmly by name. Hugo wished he could return the favor, but he had forgotten the man’s name and it was well past the time when he could ask for it. Instead he smiled and gave him a generic greeting with a ritual hand wave.

Hands together and then sharply apart, and a slight flutter. Hugo did his best to keep his movements symmetrical, nox really cared about that. The shopkeep returned the gesture, his four hands making the greeting much better than Hugo did. Still, Hugo could tell his own attempt was appreciated.

Hugo got himself a few pepper steak pies for a copper. He eyed the honey crispels, but decided not to pay the extra coppers for the expensive desert. The two hand pies were enough for tonight. They were flaky and warm, spicy and chewy. He had them eaten before he even walked a block.

The trip to his part of town was slightly depressing. The shimmer train station was in the nicest part of town. Next to the noble section, where all the nicest shops were. Further downhill was the city center and merchant quarter where he had bought his dinner. The majority of the city was below that, people that considered themselves poor, but didn’t really understand the word. Hugo’s Mom rented an apartment in the truly poor part of town, the narrows. It was a thin strip of land on the southern part of town.

It was called the narrows because they were in a narrow strip of land between the walls and the rest of the city. The original design for the town didn’t have anyone living here, it was supposed to be a safety buffer in case the walls ever fell in a monster surge. But over the years the town’s population grew, but no one wanted to expand the walls. So the poorest of the poor found themselves right up against the walls, in shoddily built apartment buildings.

He kept passing through areas of light and dark. He had long since left the part of town with street lamps, but occasionally the light from the houses or apartments was enough to see the street by. He was fairly close to home when a masked man stepped out into the road in front of Hugo.

“Rebane! My kin. So nice to see you again,” the man in the fox mask said.

Hugo frowned, it was a man he recognized telling a joke that had long since stopped being funny. He was joking about Hugo’s last name, apparently it meant fox in a language no one spoke anymore. This was the fox gang territory and he probably wanted a payment just for walking by. Hugo didn’t want to associate with the gangster, but he needed to play nice. At least until he got a little stronger.

“Hello fox, how pleasant to see you,” Hugo said insincerely.

“Long time no see, Rebane. Why is that? Have you been avoiding me?” the masked man said.

“Of course not. How could I avoid the foxes? They have eyes everywhere. I have just been out of town,” Hugo said and fished around in his pockets.

“Out of town for the mountain’s heartbeat, makes a man think,” the gangster said.

“You keep on thinking, tell me how it goes,” Hugo said and pushed a few coppers into his hand. Hugo patted his shoulder and stepped past him.

The fox mask looked down at the coppers in his hand. Hugo had been a little cheeky with that answer, but he had paid his toll as he should. The gangster shrugged and stepped back into the shadows.

The rest of the walk home was mostly in the dark. Luckily the stars were bright tonight. He thought he saw a rat as he got to his block and threw a stone at it. The animal hissed at him but didn’t run away. It was probably a spy for the fox gang. They said that the leader was a shadow mage, and he could take over the minds of animals. It was the reason that pets weren’t allowed in the city.

Hugo found himself subconsciously holding his breath as he entered the narrows proper. The shimmer fog was light today, but it was always present. They said that the off-gas from shimmer production was harmless, but Hugo didn’t believe that.

The city powered itself from the magical shimmer veins running up to the mountain, but the process that turned shimmer into power cores produced a low lying fog. It didn’t escape his notice that only the poorest of the poor had to put up with the fog, and no one lived on the ground floor in the narrows. His mother always complained about not having an apartment on a higher floor, in fact.

Finally, he was home. As soon as Hugo walked in the apartment, he slid the backpack off his shoulders. He was so glad to be rid of that thing. He walked around, tapping the glow lights to get them to shine again. Then he yelled out, “I’m home mom.”

He didn’t know if she was still up, but he didn’t want her to think he was a robber or something.

She walked out of her room with a big smile, “My son! I am so glad to see you. I was so worried.” She came up to him and gave him a big hug. She grabbed his face and said, “When you didn’t come home on time, I was so worried.”

Hugo gently extricated himself and said, “I’m fine mom. I even got soulmarked.” He gave her a half smile. His mom wasn’t normally this nice, it made him nervous.

“That’s wonderful,” she said, perhaps a bit too loud, considering the time of night. “You have to tell me all about it.”

“Perhaps tomorrow mom. I am so beat,” Hugo said.

“Of course, of course. You can tell me all about it in the morning. My friend Marius will be so happy to hear you got soulmarked. I have to know though, did you bring me any souvenirs from your trip? Perhaps a mana stone?” she said with a smile.

She said it like she was joking, but he knew she really wasn’t.

“No mom. I didn’t kill any monsters. And the mountain guides aren’t going to just hand out mana stones like that,” Hugo said.

Her face fell, but she quickly recovered and said, “Well, then you will just have to get me a souvenir from your next trip when you are a harvester.”

Hugo gave her a small pity laugh. He knew she wasn’t really joking and actually expected him to give her whatever he earned. He looked past his mother and glanced around the apartment. He hated it here. It wasn’t just that the apartment was dingy and in ill repair. It was stifling.

All of the narrows was like that. Full of people without hope, without the ability to choose anything better. He had seen countless neighbors move into the narrows, intending to make some money and move back out. Then over weeks and months, the light in their eyes would die. They would accept the fact that they couldn’t escape, and they would give up.

That wouldn’t be him. Hugo knew how lucky he was. Not only did he have connections with richer people that his neighbors would never have, he was soulmarked now. That opened up a world of possibilities.

He knew that his mother wanted to ride out on his coattails, but all she had ever done was belittle him and his friends. She never wanted him to befriend Sofia, and actually stole from her at one point. He shook his head. He was going to focus on making money, but not for his Mom. For himself.

He could go with the original plan and become a harvester like dad’s friend Marius. But that life was full of danger, and always two steps away from the narrows anyway. Hugo wanted to shoot higher. He craved true freedom. He wanted a job that would give him enough money to actually choose what he wanted to do with his life.

He needed to be a mage. They had true freedom. Their talents were in demand no matter where you went, and their status in society was almost as great as the nobles.

There was only one mage academy in town, Blue Lion Academy, and it was supposed to be one of the best around. They said it was very expensive, but maybe he could get a scholarship or a loan or something. He had to at least try.

“I don’t know mom. I was thinking of maybe becoming a mage instead. Being a harvester is dangerous work,” Hugo said.

“We can’t afford the academy, you know that. Our budget is hedge mage or harvester. That is it.”

“Hedge mages are illegal. Shimmer corpsmen kill hedge mages. Why would you even suggest that as a choice?”

“Which is why I said you should be a harvester. It takes a little longer to get your domain, but you can earn money while you do it.”

“I think I can make more money long term if I go to the academy instead.”

“That isn’t important right now. Right now you need some sleep, and we can talk in the morning,” she said.

Nodding, Hugo grabbed his bag and took it back to his room. He stripped and plopped down on his bed. He chuckled when he realized that his bed was just as nice as the last one he slept on. The one in a cave on the mountain. It didn’t matter though. He was exhausted.

Sleep didn’t come.

Perhaps because he was overtired, he just couldn’t sleep. The events of the last two days just kept repeating over and over in his head. The ritual, Marion’s death, the train jacking. As soon as he got one thought out of his head, another intrusive thought popped in.

To distract himself, Hugo opened up his stat screen. Nothing had changed. He noticed that he had more than enough points to rank up once. He focused on the points. He wondered how he was supposed to initiate the rank up. Then his screen changed before his eyes.

Hugo Rebane [Domainless]

Strength 11

Dexterity 10

Resilience 9

Regeneration 11

Intelligence 10

Wisdom 9

Charisma 11

Perception 8

Rank 1

110/200 Points

Health 11/11

Mana 1/1

Skills: None

He had ranked up. Well, that was easy. A lot easier than figuring out how to access the screen in the first place. Shortly after the rank up was effective, a new screen popped up in his view.

Improvement Points Awarded

You have been awarded two (2) improvement points. Select where you would like the points to go.

He wanted to wait until he chose his domain to allocate his stats points, so he dismissed the screen. It went away, then appeared again. This time it wouldn’t move.

The system wanted him to decide before he closed the screen. Now he had to sit there and figure it out. Maybe that is why leveling up wasn’t automatic. You shouldn’t do it until you are ready to add a point onto your stats. Maybe he should just add the points into wisdom so he didn’t make a mistake like this again.

No, he didn’t want to waste a stat point on a whim. He knew strength and dexterity were the main stats for formation and barrier domains. Regeneration was for life magic, but the rest of the domains were jumbled together in his panicked brain. Then he remembered one more fact. Charisma was related to the shadow domain, but that wasn’t much help here, he couldn’t pick that domain.

The box blinked and showed:

Improvement Points Awarded

You have been awarded two (2) improvement points. Select where you would like the points to go.

Following a short interval, unspent points will be allocated for you.

Hugo swore out loud. He had to decide right now.