Lucas was scared. The attack had come suddenly and without warning. His father was lying unconscious in a pool of his own blood and his void cat, the feline partner who dived into a river to try to save his life, had run away at the first sign of violence like a coward. There was no ogre, dragon, or troll in the beast range that could match the level of danger that was emanating from his mother as she stood over his unconscious father holding a frying pan with a bent handle.

Lucas was pretty sure that if his father didn’t get some pretty serious healing very soon, his father was going to die.

Lucas was completely sure that if he tried to interfere with this fight in any way, he might die.

Lucas decided very quickly that this was a grown-up problem, and that life would be okay if it was just him and his mother. He liked her more anyways since she never beat him with a stick.

He carefully activated [Stealth] and worked his way out of the kitchen just in time to see his mother reach down and lay her left hand over his father’s misshapen jaw. A green glow from her hearth magic was all that could be seen from the dim living room, but Lucas didn’t stop to see what happened. He continued to slowly work his way out of the living room and towards his bedroom. The severity of the situation was reinforced when he received a message.

Congratulations!

Stealth has leveled up.

Stealth Level 5 > Level 6

Stealth Level 6: Progress 0%

(Experience rewards for all levels gained in skill deferred until full System Access is acquired)

The fact that it increased a whole level from just that one use showed just how angry his mother was, previously it was at 18% and he had not really used it much in the beast range. Had she turned her gaze to him, there was no telling what would have happened. Plus, Lucas was pretty sure they were out of frying pans now as he heard a quickly shouted, “Wait, darlin’, I can exp…” from his father followed by a loud “Clang” as the frying pan bounced off of his father’s face and landed on the floor in the living room with no handle.

Lucas quietly opened the door to his room and stepped through but left it open enough to hear what was going on in the kitchen. Since his mom had healed his dad, he was pretty sure that she wasn’t going to kill him, and he wanted to know what they were going to say. Lucas was excited about moving to town and seeing all the kids there more often, but he was sad that he wouldn’t be able to use his skills as often as he was now. He wasn’t sure why his mom was so angry. In fact, he could never remember his mom raising a hand to his father in anger before this.

The voices drifted easily to his room as his mother healed his father again, her anger abated by the destruction of the cast iron frying pan and possible removal of his father’s ability to talk without a lisp.

“What foolish notion got in your head to make you think it was a good idea to move our family into the center of the village where there is clearly a great deal of crown scrutiny?” she asked.

“There’s a migration comin’ and there won’t be a notice sent to the adventurer’s guild. With that new baron pushin’ for me to train his men, there was a chance that I’d be away when it came if he decided to try to ‘script me. I couldn’t risk that. Plus we’d probably need to leave anyways, I’m not sure we could weather a true migration.”

“That’s not certain!” she replied. “Your father weathered several migrations without the adventurer’s guild. What about our writ? What about the stone?”

“I’m not my pa!” he replied with obvious frustration. “I don’t run around pickin’ fights with wyverns cause it looks like fun. I can kill a hundred gobs, or a thousand in the woods, but I ain’t able to guarantee your safety.”

Lucas was captivated. Normally, his parents tried to keep their voices down when they argued, and he didn’t get to hear the good stuff. It was rare for his father to talk about his grandfather and any new information was always interesting. Lucas wondered what it’d be like to run up and punch a wyvern in the nose because it looked at him funny.

“You could have used the writ. You could have posted the notice yourself in Norvos. You had other options, Stan!” she said.

“I pull that thing out and it opens a whole ‘nother bag of worms. What? You think your pa ain’t still gnashin’ his teeth after what I did? He’d trade half his fortune for my head and if I pull out that writ then I’m puttin’ myself right in his arena. That baron was dead set on me workin’ for him. I wasn’t getting’ out of it and he’d have eventually forced my hand.”

“What about Lucas? We can’t risk it, Stan,” his mother said.

“Randolph will be able to work with Lucas directly in the village. Well, it’s a right proper city now. Part of the deal was a house where you could have your privacy. You can still work with him, and he can still use some of his skills,” said his father.

“It’s just too risky…,” his mother started to say when she was interrupted by his father.

“Most important, he’s getting the baron’s token to the Royal Academy,” Stan said.

There was a gasp and Lucas heard what he assumed was the handle of the frying pan drop. This Royal Academy must be pretty important. I wonder why they want me to go so bad? He thought to himself as he pulled Stick out from under his pillow and popped the latch on his shutters. Mr. Snugglepuss was waiting on the other side, not at all contrite at abandoning his master to the mercies of the angry woman. A quick flick with Stick reset the latch while he held one knob and the void cat held the other in its jaw, trained well on this procedure over the past year.

Lucas booped him on the head then settled down to snuggle with his furry friend while wondering how he could subdue a wyvern and make it a pet. He bet that it wouldn’t run away from his mother if she got angry. His head tilted to the side as he pictured his mother beating a wyvern with a frying pan and decided that if it was smart it would, in fact, run away from his angry mother.

The voices from the kitchen had dropped to a murmur and Lucas knew they were making up. His Perception was getting better, but he still couldn’t quite make out what was said. His parents making up meant that his mother would make pancakes in the morning, so that was good.

Lucas dozed off holding his void cat to dreams of wyverns fighting over pancakes.

He was woken the next morning by the smell of breakfast cooking. When he made his way to the kitchen, all signs of his parent’s argument the night before were gone with the exception of the cast iron skillet sitting on the counter with a broken handle.

His mother was in an excellent mood as she prepared breakfast and spoke when he entered. “It’s been a couple of weeks now since we’ve sparred, I hope you haven’t forgotten any of your forms. Once you are done with your chores, we’ll go out and have a light workout,” said his mother with a chipper voice.

“Yes, ma’am,” Lucas replied.

“And your father wanted me to remind you not to slack off on your mana training. If you have enough mana to cast your [Combat Focus] then you should do so,” she stated matter of factly as she leaned over to kiss him on the forehead after placing a small stack of pancakes on his plate.

Lucas let out a small sigh and activated the ability before starting to eat. The synergistic increase to his perception with his [Herb Lore] skill wasn’t as severe inside, but he still smelled a hint of iron from the blood his mother spilled the night before and the world slowed down significantly. Since his level up in the skill, he could keep it active a little bit longer and saw a noticeable increase to the strength of the skill, but he still only got a few seconds before being struck with a splitting headache and having the world come back into focus at full speed.

Lucas shook his head to clear it and dug in to his pancakes with gusto. His chores were waiting and if he put it off too long he wouldn’t be able to play at all today. He also wanted to get out of the kitchen as soon as possible because after his parents made up with each other they were always too kissy and huggy to be around. Lucas loved Helga, but he didn’t think he’d want to have her hugging and kissing on him all the time.

He moved out the door to feed the animals. Goats and chickens were easy to feed. The chickens received exactly 4 cups of feed from the big bin. The goats received two buckets from the bin. The donkey was lead out of his stall, so Lucas could clean it. It wasn’t a particularly onerous task, but it stank.

An hour later Lucas was in the cellar counting items. This always took longer than it should because his father came down here and took stuff intentionally. Each week when his mother went over his books if he had missed something he got punished. Luckily for Lucas, the punishment was generally pretty light even if his father had pushed for extra sparring sessions.

Each time his ability was useable, he cast [Combat Focus] and occasionally would play with his [Increase Weight]. The ability was definitely interesting and a lot more complicated than any other ability he had, few though they were. It seemed to work better on stone or metal than it did on the hay. He’d tried to cast it on a chicken, but nothing had happened. A feather plucked from a chicken could be increased, but it didn’t get as heavy with the same amount of mana. It was funny to watch the feather stab into the ground like a knife though.

After finishing the inventory of the homestead, finding 10 kilos of chicken feed, one box of nails, and a hammer missing, and working with his mother on the forms, the rest of the day was his. His goal was to increase his understanding of his [Mana Control] skill, first by reading about it and later by practicing with it. The skill seemed like the first step he needed to take in order to better modify mana, spells, and skills like his [Keen Edge] to work in different ways.

He sat on the bed in what his mother called a neutral position, legs crossed under him and hands relaxed at his side. With a deep breath in and out, Lucas began to circulate his mana.