《Mind Over Matter》 Wonders of childbirth Darkness. It wasn¡¯t pitch black, but it was as close as I imagine it could get. Moving was hard to do, as if I was drowning in honey without the problem of suffocation. My arms and legs felt unresponsive, and my eyes don¡¯t seem to completely work, yet for some reason, I could see. It was a very blurry view, and I couldn¡¯t see much beside some outlines, but I could see. Even with my eyes closed. Somehow. I don¡¯t quite know the how yet, but I might find out soon. Trying to strain my ¡°vision¡± yielded some results, but not any good ones. I ¡®saw¡¯ that I was inside a membrane of sorts¡ªthough, to be fair, I didn¡¯t realize that it was a membrane until I tried to reach out with my hand and felt it touch some sort of fleshy material. Since it looked red, I assumed it was a membrane. There was also a tube attached to my belly, though I don¡¯t know what it meant. I strained my memory for any recollection of what happened¡ªI barely knew what I was. I was a teenager in my previous life¡­ but I couldn¡¯t recall what my specific age was. Around 17? I¡¯m not quite sure. I can¡¯t recall my name and family¡ªbut I can remember some memories. Science, some Math, but nothing else of substance. It felt as pockets of information were floating around my head, only to disappear and never be seen again¡­ with the exception of science and math. I don¡¯t even know why, and I¡¯m not interested to know either. I waited a few minutes¡ªor is it hours? Days? I can¡¯t tell¡ªmy sense of time is wonky inside this membrane¡ªfor the information to settle. Now I can sort of remember some science and math stuff, but couldn¡¯t recall history, or anything that would reveal my home. If I had amnesia, it was a very odd kind of amnesia, and one that hasn¡¯t been recorded by the books¡ªor actually, hasn¡¯t been recorded by anything because it hasn¡¯t happened before. I furrowed my non-existent brows as I tried to rack my brain for any memories of what happened, and several more minutes¡ªactually, it¡¯s probably not minutes. It could be hours¡ªdays, weeks¡ªsince I¡¯ve been out. I wish the rescue teams would come and get me already. Do they know I¡¯m gone? A chilling thought, that was. I¡¯ll pretend I never thought of it. They must have noticed¡­ right? But even I knew that was a fleeting thought. What happened to me? Where was I? Something must have happened for me to lose my memory. Concussive damage, or some sort of hypnosis, hell if I know. It¡¯s just not possible for me to¡­ lose everything like that. What if it is? It shouldn¡¯t be. Something like that¡­ it¡¯s impossible to remove specific memories¡ªit should have been¡­ Magic. Something I knew to not exist yet¡­ It did. I don¡¯t know why I knew it, only that I did. And I certainly didn¡¯t find it before. With this new knowledge inside my head¡ªafter all, I can¡¯t just remember false things, right?¡ªI came to a thought that made me think for the several more hours I stayed inside the fleshy membrane. What the fuck happened to me when I went down? Just as soon as I thought that however, the membrane started convulsing. My world started shaking, and I almost yelped, but realized that I couldn¡¯t. So I just tried to scramble my pudgy arms to grab onto something to stop myself from¡ªwell, falling. I was being pushed out of the membrane and I started to panic. What was out there that needed me? What was out there that could kill me? I scrambled a bit more inside the membrane, trying to stop exiting the thing, but it was no use. Gravity worked against me as I fell off my home for the past few weeks, my eyes wide as I tried to resist. It was no use. Light flooded my blurry vision, my other source of vision not reporting an.. ything¡­ odd.. I came out of a woman¡¯s¡­ well, you get the point. There were other people standing above me, conversing in a language I could only assume was English. Giants, the lot of them. Or maybe not, and I was just tiny¡­ My mind was numb as I processed this. Where¡­? But what really broke me was the screen in front of me.
Congratulations! You have been born as a Human! +15 INT +10 WIS Psion now set as main job. Psionis now LV. 1 Hidden Perk earned: Reincarnated Skill learned: Telekinesis (LV. 1) Do you want to play the tutorial? [Yes] / NoUnauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
And for the first time since I¡¯ve gained consciousness, I started to scream. --- ¡°She¡¯s beautiful,¡± the raven haired woman in the white robe murmured as she stroked her newborn child¡¯s head, seemingly unperturbed by the screams the child was making. An aide on the side coughed and averted his eyes from the mother and her child. ¡°Uh, ma¡¯am? He¡¯s an, uh, boy.¡± ¡°Yes, my boy,¡± she sighed and ignored the previous thing she said as if it never happened, prompting the man beside the aid to snort and snicker. ¡°My boy is handsome.¡± A blonde man wearing glasses sighed as the woman cooed at her child. ¡°Selene, we still have to Appraise the child, please let him go.¡± ¡°Hm?¡± The woman hummed, putting a finger under her chin as she telekinetically spun the baby around, which had stopped the, in the aide¡¯s honest opinion, annoying cries. The newborn still had its eyes closed, but he could feel the newborn¡¯s Telekinesis reaching out and trying to form a visual on them. The aide didn¡¯t know what it meant for the child¡¯s intelligence, and he didn¡¯t care. This job, after all, was already technically above his pay grade, so it would be best if he forgot everything in here after he left. The new mother, however, had still not decided to yet let go of the baby in the time of the aide¡¯s internal thoughts. She had lowered the baby to her face level as she smiled demurely. ¡°My child is so interesting,¡± She cooed. ¡°Oh, how I can¡¯t wait to raise him!¡± ¡°You say that now,¡± the doctor hissed under his breath, shaking his head at the naivety of the woman before him. ¡°Selene, please¡ª¡° The door to the secluded room suddenly slammed open, and a man with black hair and sapphire eyes came inside, frantic and wide-eyed. ¡°I couldn¡¯t help myself,¡± he babbled. ¡°Is she okay? Did the delivery go well? Are they both alive and aretheybothokayandhealthyI¡¯mreallyworriedpleasetellmeshe¡¯sfine¡ª¡° ¡°Keith!¡± The doctor barked as he ran a hand across his hair, the white streaks on his haor becoming more apparent as his hair was swept back, showing his aging features. ¡°They¡¯re fine! Why don¡¯t you, instead of barging in like an idiot, actually look at the bed!¡± The new father sheepishly chuckled as he slowly gazed at his wife, whose emerald green eyes were twinkling with mirth from her husband¡¯s antics. Her newborn¡ªOur, Keith reminded himself, swelling with pride as he looked upon his child¡ªchild set on her lap as she sat up. ¡°Should you be sitting up?¡± Keith asked, concerned. The blood stains on the white sheets were still pretty fresh, after all. He was about to utilize his own Telekinesis to lightly push her back to bed, but paused when he felt a different force¡ªweaker, but yet, familiar. His child¡¯s. The child was staring at him, or well, as best as he can stare with having his eyes closed, but Keith could feel his child observing him with his telekinesis, which made him proud and a little worried. ¡°That¡¯s interesting,¡± he murmured as he knelt to his wife¡¯s side and just looked at the boy. The telekinetic prodding still hasn¡¯t stopped, but it wasn¡¯t really bothering Keith anymore. Instead, he just grinned and prodded the child back, which made the baby flinch a little, before relaxing and stopping the poking. ¡°I know, right?¡± Selene grinned as well, before she yawned in exhaustion. ¡°Today was so tiring, though,¡± she murmured. ¡°Giving birth does that to you,¡± the doctor, Hosef, stated dryly, making husband and wife chuckle sheepishly. ¡°Why I thought you were good for each other, I don¡¯t know. Two airheads just make a bigger airhead.¡± ¡°Dad,¡± Selene whined, prompting her father to laugh and Keith to shake his head. ¡°Still as scathing as before, old man,¡± he complained half-heartedly. Hosef simply smirked. ¡°Of course, I can¡¯t let my daughter forget what kind of idiot you were back in the day,¡± with those words, the three people¡¯s eyes glazed over as they took a little stroll down memory day, before Hosef shook his head and instructed the aide that was starting to lose focus beside him. ¡°Leroy! Pass me the Appraiser.¡± The aide, Leroy, snapped into attention and nodded, his hand stretching out towards the top of a cabinet. A small orb, about the size of a man¡¯s palm, slowly yet shakily made its way out of the top of the cabinet and into Leroy¡¯s hands. The aide dutifully passed it towards the old man, who had simply clicked his tongue and shook his head. ¡°Too slow. Improve your control. Don¡¯t just focus in pure power, Leroy.¡± The young psionic simply grunted as he nodded. Hosef seemed satisfied with the teen¡¯s response and walked over to the couple, who were now engaged in small idle chatter, their eyes flickering to the orb for but a moment before they ceased to talk. Hosef simply raised the orb to the child¡¯s chest and channeled mana into it. The orb glowed blue as it took in the aged man¡¯s mana, the newborn also glowing blue in response to it. After a few more seconds of channeling mana, the orb beeped for the lack of a better term, and revealed the baby¡¯s Status with a blue window, available for all to see (except for Leroy, who wasn¡¯t looking at the Status Window and was instead doing something else worth his time). ¡°This is incredible,¡± the blonde father breathed.
Name ??? Title --- STR 15 (-10)
Race Human Condition Baby END 12(-10)
Age 4 minutes Jobs LV. 1 Psion DEX 13(-10)
HP 20 / 20 --- INT 42
Mana 420/420 --- WIS 37
¡°Our son¡¯s a genius,¡± Selene murmured, pride evident on her voice. ¡°He shouldn¡¯t have that much INT and WIS yet,¡± the old man muttered, still wide eyed as he looked at the Status Screen, which, even after multiple blinks and rubbing of his eyes, didn¡¯t change. ¡°This is strange..!¡± ¡°Wow,¡± Keith just quietly said. He looked at his child, who had fallen asleep on his mother¡¯s lap. He¡¯s going to have a hard life ahead of him. While that amount wasn¡¯t much in the grand scheme of things¡ªcertainly not comparable to his relatives inside the room now¡ªit was still a lot for a child, and it would only continue to grow as he grew to become an adult¡ªmuch less fight and kill monsters. A small part of him ached for his son to remain childish while he was still around¡ªhe didn¡¯t want him to grow up too fast. Yet another part of him had already steeled itself for the future, one that would probably be rocky and rough for his son, and determined that he would help him go through his trials with little difficulty. Looking at his wife, he deduced that she had come upon a similar decision too. ¡°Kane,¡± He announced. Selene seemed to ponder his choice, before nodding and smiling at Hosef, who was looking at them, confused. ¡°What are you¡ª¡° ¡°Kane,¡± Selene repeated, smiling at her father. It wasn¡¯t an innocent smile either, it was a smile that sent a shiver down even the great Hurricane Hosef, a man whose powers were so immense that entire cities would fall under his wrath in his prime. Not that he did that¡ªand that was among the older times, when people didn¡¯t enchant their protective walls with magic to make it tougher. ¡°His name is Kane,¡± Keith nodded as if the world itself agreed with his choice. ¡°I see,¡± Hosef sighed and grumbled. ¡°Could¡¯ve just said that from the beginning. Brats, troubling me more and more each decade.¡± The three question marks in the child¡¯s status glowed gold, before it faded away to be replaced by Kane Worth, a warm feeling spreading throughout the child¡¯s¡ªKane¡¯s small body. Not that he could feel it since he was asleep. ¡°Kane,¡± Selene murmured as she hugged her child closer, not caring for the blood still on her baby¡¯s body, and falling asleep. Strength 1 It¡¯s been 2 years since I was reborn. During that time, I had gathered information relevant to the world I was in and its various technological and magical phenomenon¡­ Is what I would have wanted to say. Unfortunately, I had idiotically denied the tutorial in a fit of anger during my birth and spent the first 6 months moping and feeding. Feeding was also a terrible occurrence. It feels weird to suck milk from my mom¡¯s breast when I fully know that, even if my age was still a bit hazy, I¡¯m older than I let on. I could get over that, however. What I couldn¡¯t get over, was getting born. I died. I did some stupid thing in my past life¡ªjumped in front of a truck? Fell of a bridge? I don¡¯t know, and I don¡¯t want to find out. I felt something off about it. Why would I lose most of my memory? No, that¡¯s not right. I lost my identity. I lost my name, family, anything pertaining to my identity, just gone and wiped away. I¡¯m a little bit peeved that whoever was in charge of my memories didn¡¯t fully clear out my brain, because with my memory came with my consciousness, and that¡¯s not something anyone would want while they¡¯re getting born. Childbirth was a miracle, in the sense that the child lived while their entire world worked against them to push them away. Not something I¡¯d want to experience again. Anyway, while the first 6 months was basically me being a little baby (literally and figuratively), the following months until the present was me trying to learn basic information about the planet itself. Most of the information I¡¯ve gleaned were conclusions I derived from hearing my parents speak and the expressions they use. I didn¡¯t hear a planet name, but I did hear them use the word kingdom (usually with Viyan accompanying it, which probably means that there¡¯s a Viyan Kingdom in this planet¡ªthat, or we¡¯re living in it), telling me that the culture was probably still in the medieval stages. I didn¡¯t like the sound of it¡ªafter all, the Medieval ages had allowed slaves to be traded. When I look around my house, I don¡¯t see a lot of important valuables, and there were no guards to be found, which means we aren¡¯t nobles. It increases the chances of being caught and being trades as slaves. Dark thought, but it¡¯s not paranoia if they¡¯re really out to get you. There¡¯s also the case of the technology. Simply speaking, it was similar to the technology in my old world¡ªEarth. I was a bit thankful for that, really, until I found out that they didn¡¯t use electricity, but used magic. I was a little bit confused about that, so I asked my new father about it. He just grinned, ruffled my hair and told me; ¡°I¡¯ll tell ya when you¡¯re older, kiddo!¡± I had pouted then, and my mother laughed at my expression and proceeded to smother me and shower me with her unconditional love. That¡¯s one more thing I¡¯ve been thinking about in this world. My family. Lovely and airheaded, but were certainly smarter than they let on. I couldn¡¯t really describe what I felt for them other than the fact that I loved them. Yes, I love my family. It¡¯s not really surprising considering how they treated me. They were wonderful people, and considering my parents¡¯ powers and their occupation, strong too. They were both Adventurers, and both had Telekinesis as one of their main Skills, which I learned was not only restricted to me, and that everyone had them, which made me a little relieved, since I wouldn¡¯t have to worry about exponential growth and everyone looking at me like I¡¯m the next coming of their religion. What worried me, however, is what they fought¡ªMonsters. I had almost laughed then¡ªwait, I didn¡¯t just almost laugh, I did. Thankfully, I¡¯m still a baby and dad just took it as amusement from me as he continued to tell me his adventures to decimate a dragon (I doubted the details¡ªGrandpa has taken to trying to dumb down the things he did. He didn¡¯t seem to refute his claim of killing the dragon, though). Now, don¡¯t get me wrong¡ªthis world seemed to be fine aside from the slavery. I liked my family (Even Leroy, who was a big softy if you get past his grumpiness), liked my home, and I didn¡¯t have much of a problem with the technology. But, considering the fact that dragons were real, and so were most monsters that I¡¯ve figured to be false? I need a goal¡ªto get stronger, smarter with my skill, and be just overall better than anyone in my previous world. But I don¡¯t know what goal I should have. Ever since I was reborn, I wasn¡¯t very ambitious¡ªI was pretty much content with what I had (other than the first few months). I knew I could probably get stronger because there¡¯s a [System] of some sort, but I didn¡¯t really see a point. Sleeping in front of me was a newborn girl¡ªshe was held in my mom¡¯s arms as she cooed and ran her hand across the girl¡¯s head. The girl¡ªmy little sister¡ªwas not at all disturbed at my prodding with my telekinesis and my mother¡¯s touching of her. My mom, however, took notice of it and smiled at me. ¡°Well, Kane, do you want to join me and Jane?¡± Kane and Jane, I tested it out inside my head. I tested out the words with my tongue, making my mother smile and laugh as she dragged me in the hug. Sometime after that, dad had come in the room and dragged us all to him with his own Telekinesis and enveloped us all in a bigger group hug. All was well. Considering the type of stories that usually had these kinds of scenes and backstories, though, I shivered. It might not be long until I¡¯d have to use the knowledge I have to full extent. ¡­ Nah, that¡¯s reserved for anime protagonist, of which I most certainly am not! I¡¯d know if I was an shonen character, I¡¯d have a crazy hairstyle or gravity-defying hair. --- Gunfire. I smelt smoke, and I heard the rumbling of tank treads in the distance. I winced as I heard a particularly loud cannon shot go off, contributing to the smoke the gunfire was producing. I heard a dull explosion in the distance as the ground shook and military personnel barked out orders to their subordinates. Smoke was prevalent, even with me buried under a pile of rubble. I raised my arm to the sky, my vision blurry as I tried to sit up, only to fail as the debris pushed me down. I chuckled. ¡®Guess this is how I die,¡¯ I had thought. For some reason, I thought it was right for me to die here. I smiled as I watched bullets fly and hear sparks crackle. The ground shook with every tank round sent to the enemy, and the army¡¯s footsteps grow louder as they come near me. ¡°There¡¯s another one over here!¡± yelled a random troop. ¡°Dig him out!¡± And they did so with energy. I can hear the loud gunfire much clearly now¡ªthey were right beside me, shooting into the unknown enemies. I can hear the soldiers¡¯ breaths as they dug me out, I can hear the screams of the other soldiers as they got shot down trying to bring me out of the debris. ¡­ Why? Suddenly, everything became clearer. The pain on my chest disappeared as I ¡®separated¡¯ from my body. It was a bit odd phasing through all the pieces of concrete, and even more odd to see that my body was simply¡­ a humanoid mass of shadow. Memories came flooding into me. I was Kane Worth. Six years of age with an unknown amount of years in my previous life. Human psychic, has father named Keith and a mother named Selene, and an adorable little sister named Jane. This was important. I needed to remember who I am. I can¡¯t afford to lose any more memories¡­ and the moment I thought that I could finally glean who I was from this vision, for I couldn¡¯t describe this phenomenon as anything but, I still couldn¡¯t remember. The soldiers, while they weren¡¯t shadows, they were¡­ stock. Like they were stock models from the back of my head. All of them looked the same with their black vests and utilities, guns strapped to their backs and pistols to their sides¡ªthey looked like they came out of some sort of game. It was creepy watching several men that looked exactly the same shoot at enemies that looked exactly the same, too. Why? I watched as the soldiers finally dug me out, and despite being a fair distance away from them, I could hear the ¡®captain¡¯ speak. ¡°So this is one of them,¡± he muttered. Them? What did he mean by that? ¡°Pathetic. I can¡¯t argue with the top brass¡¯s evaluation of your Core, though.¡± Already, I was finding that I hate him. I hate him, his condescending tone, and his attitude, even though he was the same as the other soldiers, I hated his face too. But why? Why did I feel so much¡­ hate? ¡°This was a waste of men and resources,¡± The captain spoke under his breath, ticking me off again. ¡°Alright boys, extraction team is coming for us and the VIP in a minute, so none of you better die or I¡¯m going to bring you back to life and kill you myself!¡± The soldiers under his command roared as they fought back with more vigor, hiding behind tanks and shooting at still unknown enemies. VIP? Was I important? And why am I flashing back to a memory like this? And what was a Core? Already, the edges of my vision was blurring¡ªbut I struggled to stay in it. I needed more answers. Why was I getting dug out by soldiers? Why was I important? Who am I and who was that? But the questions remained unanswered as darkness flooded my sight. --- I opened my eyes. It was dark all around me, but I felt the familiar comfort of my bed under me. I gripped the sheets and sighed as I sat up. Looking outside the open window, I saw the moon just about to start its fall. Apparently, I woke up in the middle of the night due to nightmares. My breathing was ragged and my emotions scattered. On the one hand, I got back some sort of memory from my old life. On the other, it wasn¡¯t what I expected it to be. Just remembering the events sent shivers down my spine, as if the thing that had happened after that wasn¡¯t particularly well.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. I need to calm down and sleep, I thought drowsily. Calm down¡­ calm down¡­ That was the old me¡­ The new me is Kane Worth. As if to affirm the thought, I quietly muttered ¡°Status,¡± under my breath. A transparent window with white text appeared in front of me, showing me my attributes and condition.
Name Kane Worth Title --- STR 18 (-7)
Race Human Condition Child END 15(-7)
Age 6 years, 4 months Jobs LV. 2 Psion DEX 16(-7)
HP 120/120 --- INT 51
Mana 510/510 --- WIS 44
Right¡­ the child debuff. It was lessening one point every 2 years. It was an annoying debuff, considering that I wanted to get stronger. Stats seem to increase when a person practices one stat for a time, the more strenuous the better. Job level ups, however, give free attribute points to seemingly random stats. My Psion job leveled up from me using my Telekinesis as a secondary eye. There seemed to be tiers for skills as well, but I haven¡¯t gone past the [Simple] tier of Telekinesis yet, so I don¡¯t know if there are any bonuses for them. Oh well, at least with the Child condition, my physical stats advance at double speed! The added fact that my INT and WIS grow with age also helps. I may not know what exactly the attributes do, though I can certainly make guesses, but it¡¯s always a good idea to have a high value on anything resembling a stat. Overall, it doesn¡¯t seem awfully different from my knowledge of Earth. There was just an extra sun at the sky that appeared during the morning, the moon had an obvious crater sometimes and the stars were brighter. An area behind my eyes pulsed, and I shut them as I tried to contain the pain. Not only my eyes were hurting, but there was something inside my head too. I grabbed my temple as I massaged it, trying to stem the pain. It didn¡¯t work. Something was surfacing. A memory? I don¡¯t know, but it probably could be. It didn¡¯t seem to be a good one from the feelings I was getting from it, though¡­ So, deciding that I already had enough angst for a night, I subdued the memories¡­ And it hurt. I let out a scream of surprise and pain. My head felt like it was gonna split apart as I tried to forget the memories. The resurfaced memories from my nightmare came up, and a new one popped up next to it¡ªa scene of me sitting with a shadow person¡ª and I was filled with an immense amount of anger.
Mind Resistance is now LV. 1!
I felt the pressure inside my head lighten, but it still hurt. Moreover, Mind Resist? What did that mean? Suddenly, the door behind me slammed open. My mother, I saw with my telekinetic vision, was sprinting towards me when she broke the door with a tackle. I heard someone curse in the tree line in front of me, and I felt the distinct feeling of a telekinetic grip around my body as I was carried away. ¡°Kane!¡± My mother tried to grab me back with her own Telekinesis, but it failed. It didn¡¯t seem as if I was getting dragged by one person too¡­ there were three distinct telekinetic signatures, not including my mom. I grimaced. Ah¡­ a kidnapping. --- ¡°Shit¡­ faster!¡± One of the enemy psions cursed as he pushed trees aside with his own telekinesis. ¡°I¡¯m trying!¡± Another one was lobbing huge amounts of earth behind them, cursing whenever another one was lobbed back and another simply shattering as a huge amount of psionic force crushed it from all sides. ¡°We shouldn¡¯t have taken this job!¡± The last psion was holding a black haired and green eyed child wearing a white shirt and brown shorts. He was dazed from the mental attack caused by the one holding him. The one holding him was smaller than the two with him, but he had a defining feature of having green hair and red eyes. The other two psions both had brown hair and black eyes, a typical feature of any normal Viyan human. They weren¡¯t any normal Viyan human, though. They were one of the few to have the Psion job, and they weren¡¯t pushovers either. They couldn¡¯t be with who they had to hide and run away from, after all. Selene Worth, the Queen. She will make you kneel with the amount of psionic force she was constantly releasing. Everything around her will flatten, and if you get inside her aura, you were pretty much dead. That wasn¡¯t to say that she was shabby at anything other than crushing her enemies, she also had an unprecedented amount of control, making her S Rank adventurer status understandably undisputed. Then there was her husband. Officially Keith Worth, but previously only known as Keith. Keith the Destroyer¡ªthe one way to describe him was pure power. Psionic beams known to raze forests and magically fortified castles in one go, grips that would make any normal human pop from the sheer pressure alone and a powerful metal fortitude, making any kind of illusion magic or mental attack useless on him. He, like his wife, was also an S Rank adventurer. In short, they had no reason to steal their child away from them and every reason to run away before they had even arrived at their residence. They can¡¯t even use the reason that they just passed by, since the place was at least ten kilometers away from the nearest village! Unfortunately, this information wasn¡¯t revealed to the three kidnappers when they accepted the job. They were just told to kidnap a child to initiate a hostage situation, but when the one holding the child initiated [Mind Blast] on him, they didn¡¯t expect him to keep on standing. They didn¡¯t expect him to scream in pain either. They also didn¡¯t expect the parents to be Selene and Keith Worth. ¡°Go, go! The clearing¡¯s a few dozen more meters!¡± The psion holding the child yelled. ¡°We should be able to call¡ª¡° ZOOM. A thick blue beam raced above their heads, making them all slow down. They gaped as the beam struck the so called clearing in front of them and exploded. Stone flew everywhere as a new crater was formed on the ground. The once large clearing was now one huge hole on the ground, and a vengeful father floated down from the sky and stopped just a few meters off the ground. The mother appeared behind them, and an old man¡ªShit, that¡¯s the Hurricane!¡ªand a teenager appeared to seal off all exits. ¡°Were we sent here to die?¡± The mental attacker muttered. He glanced all around him and then at the crater. Then he looked at the child. Except the child wasn¡¯t quite dazed anymore and was looking around him with wonder. Ah, maybe he should¡ª ¡°Don¡¯t even think about it,¡± the mother scowled. The three kidnappers paled as they were stunned by the bloodlust Selene was emitting. Keith¡¯s face was thunderous, and the two other males were of equal anger. All of the people surrounding them weren¡¯t pushovers, and while the kidnappers themselves weren¡¯t either, it doesn¡¯t look like the matchup was a good one. They were at a stalemate¡ªone with the kid, and the other without. The one without couldn¡¯t force them to the ground with the kid so perfectly held by the one in the middle and the one with the child couldn¡¯t even hurt their foes. Moreover, they couldn¡¯t access a communication crystal since their supplies were buried under the clearing, which was nothing more than a smoking crater now. In other words¡ªthey were fucked. The stalemate finally broke when one of the kidnappers stammered. ¡°I¡ªI can¡¯t, Dirk, let¡¯s go!¡± ¡°Wait, you cowards¡ª¡° the two cowards suddenly pulled out two scrolls and, with a light application of mana, started to glow as the embedded [Spatial Magic] did its work. ¡°Guh¡­¡± The remaining kidnapper was now the full focus of the four psions. They could now do whatever they want with him¡ªbut the man didn¡¯t intend to find out what exactly it was. He was sure they would want at least one thing, though. Information. A knife sheathed beside him suddenly came out and flew to the child¡¯s neck, prompting the child to widen his eyes in shock as the knife pressed against his throat. It was pressed in a way that, even if someone were to grab the knife, he could push the kid into it and still slit his throat somewhat. ¡°N-now,¡± the kidnapper stammered as killing intent filled the air and attempted to choke him. ¡°Y-you better listen to my demands, or the kid dies!¡± That was stupid. He couldn¡¯t make demands. He was, after all, only a LV. 37 Psion and LV. 96 Rogue, while the ones around him were in the high 90s in Psion and some various other classes. He would still die. And that was exactly the point of this farce. --- When I had been taken by the kidnappers, I was mostly dazed and confused as I tried to sort out what memories had been brought up by the mental attack. I had ¡®fixed¡¯ the problem, gaining me another level in Mental Resistance and stopping the regained memories in my head from, for the lack of a better term, jumping around. My head had finally stopped pounding and I had finally regained my consciousness. I had ¡®woken up¡¯ to the sound of a loud explosion and a heavy amount of fear than turned into reassurance. I saw mom, dad, grandpa and Leroy surround the trio. I held my breath as they glared at each other and assessed the situation (or so I figured). But then, the kidnapper had to pull a knife on me. You know, when there¡¯s a knife to my neck, I can¡¯t really help but examine the blade. Pure white. Really sharp. It was burying itself into my neck really slowly. It hurt. I almost cried out, then I realized that it would probably worsen the situation. My parents were horrified, grandparent equally so, and Leroy looking like he was having trouble with his stomach. Why am I joking at a time like this? Ah, that¡¯s right, because I know my parents will save me. My father was just about to jump forward when grandpa held out his arm in a scowl. ¡°Keith! We can¡¯t afford to act hastily!¡± ¡°He¡¯s holding Kane hostage!¡± He roared. The arm holding me shook. Why did you stop him, grandpa? ¡°Look at his weapon! What do you think his Job is?!¡± ¡­ Ah, wait, we can have more than one job? I thought this guy was a Psion? Dad frowned as he glared at my captor. The man simply gulped as he pressed it harder on my neck. I finally felt the fatality of the situation and promptly panicked. FUCK HE HAS A KNIFE TO MY NECK! was the general direction of my thoughts. My mind flew at incredible speeds as I tried to process several ways of escape. I could wriggle out, but the knife would go in my throat. I could kick his nuts, but I doubt I would hurt him. Considering the speed he went while running, I doubt he was some sort of weakling. My mind came up with more solutions to my problem, but in the end, it came up blank. What could I do against a superior opponent? The answer came immediately. Trickery. And so, I gathered up my mana. --- ¡°A-alright,¡± the kidnapper started, steeling his nerves. ¡°My demands¡ªI want to come out here alive, alright? I also want 100,000 GP!¡± Keith¡¯s breath hitched. 100,000 GP was enough for a commoner to buy a mansion, build a village around it, hire servants and maids, and fully staff it with guards while paying their full salary for at least two years. It was a lot. It shouldn¡¯t have been a hard choice for Keith. He was, after all, a family man. He would have caved in to his demands had the old man not been here, as Hosef would berate him about not using his massive amounts of INT and WIS to analyze the situation before him. Selene had gone silent as she stared at their son¡¯s captor with shock, Hosef was clenching his fist tightly and was probably waiting for the right time to strike, and Leroy had gone back to the house to make sure that no kidnappers would be going for Jane as well. It was a situation that was all too good for the three, and while he understood that the kidnapper was a Rogue, he was feeling guilty and frustrated that he couldn¡¯t save his son. He could simply crush the man and get on with it, but Hosef would object to it. They needed information. Who was this man and why did he try to kidnap Kane? Was there any motive other than money? They mentioned being given a job, so who gave them the job? They certainly weren¡¯t anyone the family recognized, so the kidnappers themselves weren¡¯t the ringleaders of this operation. So Keith was torn between his family side and his intelligent side. He was told that love was illogical, but it felt plenty logical before this situation happened! But then, something happened. There was a pulse of mana, and the kidnapper suddenly slipped. That pulse of mana¡­ It was from his son! He would be overjoyed if the kidnapper¡¯s knife had moved away from the knife, but considering the situation, all he could do was roar out in despair as the knife dug deeper. ¡°NO!¡± Selene screamed, then there was another pulse of Telekinesis, pushing the kidnapper off the child, originating from Kane as well. The kidnapper crashed against a tree, making it make creaking sounds as it tumbled down. The kidnapper started to crawl backwards as Keith flew forwards in anger, but found that he couldn¡¯t anymore. He was held in place. Selene held her hands over Kane¡¯s throat and chanted ¡°[Heal]!¡±, making soft green light appear from her palms and touch her child¡¯s throat and knitting the wounds back together. It hurt, if Kane¡¯s expression was any indicator, his mouth and eyes wide open as he tried to scream. Keith really wanted to kill this man right now. ¡°Please, hang in there, Kane,¡± Selene murmured as her hands glowed green. Hosef stood beside his daughter, as still as a statue. His expression was stony, but there was no mistaking the fury held in his eyes as he watched the kidnapper. ¡°I¡¯m going to hurt you,¡± Keith warned the man softly. ¡°I¡¯m going to hurt you. A lot.¡± The man whimpered. Selene finally pulled her hands away from Kane¡¯s throat. There was now a horizontal scar present on his throat, Selene choked back a sob as she hugged her son, overcome with relief. Kane opened his mouth to comfort his mother. No words came out. --- It¡¯s been a day since Kane was found to be mute. His little sister, Jane, had been confused for a bit, before she sobbed as she hugged her brother and tried to comfort him. Smart girl, she knew what happened after we told her that Kane was probably going to be silent for a long time. Permanent injuries to the throat were some of the wounds that could never be healed unless healed by a [Hero], and those are rare and in between. Keith doubted that a [Hero] would heal a random child, anyway. He was losing hope. That¡¯s no good. He was scowling in front of an exhausted and wounded kidnapper, who revealed his name to be Batholomew. He walked out of the temporary prison that Hosef made and left the old man there to do his job. A stormy expression constantly covered Keith¡¯s face as he waited for Hosef to drain information from the man. I could have protected him, Keith thought sorrowfully. I was incompetent and complacent. Damn it, if I¡¯d been a little faster..! Keith heard the soft padding of child feet on the wooden floor. He looked up and saw Kane walking up to him, the scar on his throat a constant reminder of what Keith had failed to do. Oddly enough, he didn¡¯t seem scared. No¡ªthat was wrong. He was scared, but instead of being weak like Keith, he was putting on a brave face. He was holding a piece of paper and looking at Keith resolutely. The father wiped away any kind of weakness from his face and settled to smile at his child. ¡°Hey kiddo, what¡¯s up?¡± Kane replied with a nod. Keith¡¯s heart ached as he realized he wouldn¡¯t be able to talk any time soon¡­ Before Keith could devolve into a series of self-deprecating thoughts, however, he was presented with the piece of paper. Keith almost laughed as he felt his spirits lighten. Please make me stronger, Dad! Strength 2 My hand clenched as I concentrated, my Telekinesis encompassing a rock and trying to Crush it. I frowned in focus as some sort of a light blue haze covered the rock, though it was unstable and fluxed every now and then. It was very unlike my mom¡¯s, whose I remembered to have covered a whole boulder and crushed it nigh instantly. Meanwhile, here I was, having a little trouble trying to crush a pebble that wasn¡¯t even a hundredth of the size of the boulder lobbed at her. I was a little peeved, but I understood that these things don¡¯t come quickly. Quite literally, too. My father had accepted my request to be taught how to fight, claiming that it was about time I started knowing how to use our skill (or skills) anyway. He went the extra mile too and decided to teach Jane as well, but after a week of trying to teach us both, it was too obvious that dad didn¡¯t know how to teach, so he delegated mom to teach us both. ¡°Nnggh¡­¡± and if I was having trouble crushing the rock, then my four year old sister was having trouble trying to lift it. ¡°How did you even lift it, Kane?¡± She complained as she pouted up at me. Her own haze¡ªa light color of pink¡ªcovering the pebble in front of her, which was still stuck at the ground. I just shrugged and tried to focus at my rock. To be honest, it¡¯s probably the new thing I discovered after I went mute. The Telekinesis skill got a new part added to it. Other than the description, there was now Power and Control. I had gotten 4 in Control and 6 in Power after that night. It¡¯s been two weeks since then, and now I have 13 in Control and 15 in Power. It wasn¡¯t progressing as fast as I wanted it to, nor was it as strong as I expected. I¡¯ve been getting a little frustrated about it. The feeling of uselessness. My mom told me it was normal to be this slow, but I don¡¯t really want it to be this slow. There could be another set of problems coming any time, and when it does come, I don¡¯t want to be caught unaware and with my pants down. I want to be strong for myself, and if I can, for those around me. Instead of trying to Crush the rock, I instead dropped it. Jane looked at me curiously. Mom wasn¡¯t supervising our training right now, Dad was doing something I still didn¡¯t know¡ªmom said something about him exploring? I¡¯m not quite sure what she meant by that¡ª Grandpa and Leroy were inside the house preparing lunch. I looked at the pebble. It was cracked in the middle. I used my Telekinesis on it again and applied pressure on the crack, making it widen, spread, and then crumble. Ah. That¡¯s right. I don¡¯t need to apply strength to the whole thing. I just have to exploit the weak points of the design if I want to destroy it¡ªthat is, if I didn¡¯t have enough Power for it. Idly, I noticed that I got 4 more points for Power and 6 in Control. That¡¯s a lot¡ªmaybe it was a breakthrough for my level? Jane was looking at me with sparkling eyes as I let the pieces fall to the ground. ¡°Wow! How did you do that?¡± I just smirked and pointed my finger at her pebble. It floated with a light blue haze, and I noted that it was far easier to lift the rock¡ªI suppose that¡¯s the new points in Control and Power working¡ªand I applied pressure. It was also far easier to destroy too. Jane pouted at me as I quietly laughed. That¡¯s a downside to being mute, I suppose. I can¡¯t laugh at my sibling whenever they¡¯re pouting at me¡ªno matter how cute they are. I pat her on the head and grab another pebble with my Telekinesis, roughly around the same size as her last one. She greedily grabbed the pebble out of midair, making me release the pebble and allowing her to cover the pebble with her own Telekinesis. I noticed that I got 2 more Control points from destroying the pebble, but no Power. Does that mean that things give less points when I keep destroying and or using them over and over? I mean, I suppose that makes sense, but that limits me a bit. I guess I can¡¯t grind rocks all day long to increase my Power and Control. My Telekinesis hasn¡¯t gone up a tier, too. What do I have to do to change that, I wonder? It¡¯s the only skill I have that doesn¡¯t have a level. Then again, my only skills were Mental Resistance, which gave me a free gift of 10 INT and 5 WIS and Physical Resistance that just like Mental Resistance, gave me free attributes¡ª10 on END and 5 on STR, which was really useful. They weren¡¯t Active skills, though, so they don¡¯t count much. My sister finally managed to make the pebble float, albeit shakily. Her face immediately brightened, and her bright blue eyes looking as if they were shining at the morning suns. I ruffle her black hair¡ªthe one thing we have similar¡ªmaking her pout and whine again as I just smirked. I heard grandpa shouting as metal clanging was heard inside the large house, making me smirk again. Jane just tilted her head at me, and I made her go back inside with a shooing motion. She shook her head. ¡°I¡¯m not going in without you!¡± Cute. But I¡¯m not taking no for an answer. A light blue haze covered her back, making her yelp as I forcefully turned her around and gave her a light push towards the door. She turned her head at me and pouted even more¡ªand I¡¯m sure that if I still had vocal cords, I would be on the ground laughing¡ªuntil I gave her another push. ¡°Alright, fine! I¡¯ll tell grandpa! You better follow, though!¡± It was an odd thing¡ªshe was the one being protective of me. I dare say she¡¯s more protective of me than I am of her, and I don¡¯t exactly know what to make of it. She¡¯ll hopefully grow out of it. I don¡¯t need any protecting. Hopefully. I heard the door creak and slam as Jane went in and yelled for grandpa. My TK Vision had expanded during the past few years¡ªwhen I was born, it probably just extended for 5 meters¡ªnow, I can accurately see within 50 meters. I can technically see past it, but it will be blurry any further than 50. The maximum I¡¯ve tried was 200 meters, anything after that was just impossible, like stretching out an arm past the limit. And unlike using my telekinesis to grab things, this one didn¡¯t expend much mana either. My mana regeneration far outstripped the usage cost, so I could use it anytime. I¡¯ve resolved to constantly using it after the incident, determined to not be caught off guard again. Of course, my brain couldn¡¯t really process anything past 20 meters, so I could only constantly see 20 meters around me, with 30 more meters outwards as an extra that I have to focus on. 20 meters is plenty distance though, so I haven¡¯t been focusing on expanding my vision yet. I¡¯ve been noticing something, though. I feel like everything I¡¯m doing right now is¡­ Familiar. But that¡¯d be impossible, right? No one on Earth had Telekinesis¡ªat least, that¡¯s what science told me. I already know that my nightmare and the odd vision that popped up before I was dazed were memories, and neither of those conform to my knowledge of my former planet. For all I know, my knowledge could be wrong. I really hope it isn¡¯t. The memories of my old world¡¯s scientific and mathematic knowledge were some of the few things still keeping me going¡ªatoms, wind, the reasons on why the sky was blue. Science keeps me smart¡ªand I believe it¡¯ll give me an edge soon. I lightly toss a pebble upwards and watch it fall back into my palm. I look up the blue sky and avoid looking at the two suns to not get blind and think about my current situation. I need offense, I mulled as I flipped the pebble again. Pushing and Crushing is good, but they cost too much mana. Push and Crush don¡¯t cost much when used on inanimate objects, but on living things, they cost at least twice as more. They were certainly good on a pinch, but it was probably the reason why dad used the Psi Beam attack instead of pushing or crushing his enemies¡ªit was far more cheaper and far more effective. I believe mom also didn¡¯t use those as her main attacks as well, but if she has anything else hidden up her sleeve, she hadn¡¯t shown us yet. I probably wouldn¡¯t show kids lethal attacks too, but my paranoia isn¡¯t really helping me make a reason as to why mom should show me an example of her main offense.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Nonetheless, I need to either copy dad¡¯s way of attack or make up a new one, preferably of a ranged variation. I could probably coat myself in Telekinesis to extend my fist. Hm, that¡¯s a start. I stretched and, with a telekinetically assisted hop (I pushed my feet upwards), I jumped over the fence covering our backyard and into the forest. This was where I was taken through when I got kidnapped. I could still see residual mana¡ªthat¡¯s another perk of my TK Vision¡ªI could see mana with it. Typically, it was a mass of light blue color in the vision, standing out of the typical monochromic color with a blue tint of everything else. I take my attention away from the mana residue and into the forest¡ªspecifically, a tree at the edge of it. It had a few dents in it from pebbles that I threw while enhanced with Telekinesis, but was otherwise unharmed. I have been trying to find a new type of offense for a few days now, and I found that ¡°throwing things with Telekinesis¡± is a good offense since anything I throw with telekinesis is stronger than the ones that I throw on my own. I, however, am going to try something else. I set myself on a brawler stance, and, while readying my Telekinesis, punch out, while also sending out the Telekinetic energy stored up in my fist. Nothing happened. I was disappointed. I expected at least something to happen! Maybe I was doing something wrong. I dismissed the window that said I got a point in Control and Power, I instead stopped trying to force the energy out. In hindsight, I shouldn¡¯t have done that¡ªTelekinesis is telekinesis, not some sort of laser thing. The laser thing is probably something else that I¡¯d have to ask dad about later. I took a deep breath, and I stopped gathering pure Telekinesis into my fist, and instead forced out a Push. My fist hit air, and my Push became a lot more focused. The Push¡ªno, it was a Punch¡ªcollided with the tree. I heard a crack, but when I saw the contact point, no hole was made, only a slightly bigger dent was made. I raised a brow. I made a dent with my Telekinesis. I could simply Push a hole into the tree, but that would cost more mana than what my Punch did. I walked closer to the tree and saw that the dent was at least 2 inches deep, making me suck in a breath. I had essentially compressed several kilos of force at a single point and shot it to a tree. Holy shit. It wasn¡¯t left unrewarded, thankfully. A box popped up, which awarded me with 15 Control and 20 Power. It was a lot¡ª it just doubled my Telekinesis¡¯ power output and put my Control at 37. I wanted to test it, and so with a giddy smile on my face, I punched. I hit the dent on the tree, and my punch went right through. My eyes widened. I came closer to it tentatively, looking at it as if it wasn¡¯t real. I didn¡¯t expect it. I thought the hole would just deepen, not that I would punch a fucking hole through it. That¡¯s a lot of power¡­ I mused. I¡¯ve essentially doubled my Telekinesis¡¯ strength today. I should do this more often. In fact, I should resolve to experiment with my powers more often. I had lazily conformed with my mother¡¯s training exercises, and God knows that conformity just isn¡¯t my thing. I¡¯ve always been a practical learner. I think? It just popped into my head. At least I know what kind of person I was before I died. I¡¯ve been getting more and more memories after I got dazed by the psychic. I should ask my parents what kind of attack that was¡ªmaybe I¡¯ll be able to lift the haze over my memories. Then again, after feeling the hate that came from my nightmare, maybe not. Maybe there¡¯s a reason that I only forgot my identity, and if there was, maybe it¡¯s safer to just leave it alone. I noticed another prompt after I punched through tree¡ªa level up to my Psion job, granting me 5 INT and 2 WIS, and¡­ A tier up on Telekinesis? Giddily, I open up my skill list¡ªa list that can¡¯t be checked with Appraisal Orbs, which was apparently what was used on me when I was born¡ªand see that the tier did change, but was disappointed.
Telekinesis [Sting]
Power 40 Control37
I was disappointed because my points didn¡¯t change, only the tier. Does anything change per tier? I don¡¯t know. For all I know, it¡¯s just a pretty name change, but I can¡¯t test it right now. I have to go inside the house to eat lunch before mom drags me back in herself! And so, I hurriedly hop over the fence again¡ªnoting to myself just how easier it¡¯s become to the point of almost being effortless, unlike my shaky hop a while ago¡ªand then quite literally, freeze at my tracks. Crap¡­ ¡°Now,¡± she purred, making a shiver run down my spine. ¡°You¡¯re going to tell me exactly what made you think you can escape my sight.¡± --- The next day --- I couldn¡¯t do any more experiments with Telekinesis yesterday after being caught, my mom having chewed me out then grounding me after. I protested, but I only got forcefully dragged with her telekinesis to the dining area, forced to eat, then dragged while I was protesting to my room. Whenever I tried to leave, I was just pushed back inside, making my mood a bit sour. The punishment was thankfully lifted today. I silently cheered as my comparatively tiny feet padded out of my room, running down the stairs before pausing at the third step before the ground. A test for my new tier! The bright idea that formed in my head almost made me grin. I jumped off the third step, but I miscalculated and simply tumbled forward, making my eyes widened as my mouth set itself into an ¡®o¡¯. I flailed my arms around as I fell, trying to find stabilization, before catching myself with Telekinesis. I still fell. My telekinesis broke almost immediately, making me land on my face and breaking a nose.
Nose broken! -10HP!
Shut up, system. I groaned internally, which showed itself in my face, and rubbed my nose. A red welt was forming on my forehead, which had taken the brunt of the damage. Grandpa was in the living room already, cocking an eyebrow as he watched me rub my broken nose, before chuckling. ¡°My my, what did you do this time?¡± he chided. He walked over to me and held out his hand. ¡°[Heal]!¡± Green light flowed from his hands and then into my face, setting it back into place and restoring my lost HP. ¡°Tsk, you should be more careful,¡± but even as he said that, he was shaking his head, smiling and muttering something about children as he walked away. My eyes flickered to the door, which had just started to close. ¡°We¡¯re heading out, old man!¡± shouted Keith. Ah, right, they did say that, right? ¡°We¡¯ll be at the usual place if you need us!¡± Usual place? My curiosity was piqued¡ªI had always wondered where my dad went whenever he was gone. ¡®Hunting¡¯, he claimed. I don¡¯t exactly know what he was hunting, but he usually brought home a lot of gold coins afterwards, digging up a hole with telekinesis to bury the gold in and constantly reminding me that it¡¯s there if I ever need it. I don¡¯t know how I¡¯d dig it up, though. There¡¯s at least 6 feet of rock and dirt between the surface and the vault, so I¡¯m still unsure if I could even try to lift the thing. Maybe I¡¯ll try again when I get stronger. Heh, ¡®when¡¯. It¡¯s not even a choice now¡ªit¡¯s basically a necessity. I was too passive before. My growth was slow, no matter how much mom tells me that my growth was anything but. I needed more stats, more levels, more skills! Power to protect myself so that I would never be helpless again. Being helpless sucks. I¡¯m also not quite keen on dying so quickly after my first time. I want to live long in this life, preferably at least 60 years and with quite a reputation. Hopefully. So when I saw mom and dad leave for the cliff that was behind our house, I snuck past grandpa and Leroy (to be fair, it wasn¡¯t hard to sneak past Leroy), opened the door, and dashed for where I last saw my parents went. Maybe if I follow them, I¡¯ll find power. --- Selene giggled as Keith slapped another branch away from him, making it wind back and slam into his face again, making him curse. ¡°Damn branch!¡± He tore it off and, with a telekinetically enhanced arm, threw it into the air. Selene squinted as she laughed, seeing the branch fly off and still not arcing back down. Her husband was just that strong. Her mirth faded a bit as she remembered the kidnapping incident. Strength is useless without a brain, She lamented. She was devastated when she found out that her son was mute. She was scared that he wouldn¡¯t be quite the same, either. She had found happiness in the fact that, while he wasn¡¯t the same as before, her son had changed for the better, with more drive and motivation, unlike before, where he was content to mingle with his parents. She still didn¡¯t like the circumstances of how he got that drive, though. She was happy with his exceptional¡ªlegendary, even¡ªgrowth. She was proud of him for learning things that she herself hadn¡¯t been able to teach him, and she was proud of his goal to better himself. It did not stem her guilt of failing protect her first son, but it did make her resolve strengthen to never make it happen again. Which was why, after her bout of laughter at her husband¡¯s situation, she asked him a question. ¡°Is this really wise?¡± She was worried for Kane. She knew that he was following them¡ªthat was the intent, after all. Keith would have just left and not said anything if he was doing his job normally. Her father hadn¡¯t been alerted of the plan, since he would try to stop them. Selene herself had been initially against them, but caved in once she demanded she join him and observe her son. ¡°We¡¯re here,¡± Keith announced. In front of them was the mouth of a cave. It looked pretty ordinary, but Selene, being an adventurer, had already recognized it. ¡°Now¡­¡± Keith smirked. Selene turned her head behind her when she heard Keith, before yelping as she was pushed to the wall. ¡°He¡¯s still several dozen meters, so let¡¯s have a bit of fun before he comes, mm~?¡± Selene¡¯s only response was an embarrassed moan. --- My parents came into my vision¡ªdad pushing my mom to a cave¡¯s wall and stealing a kiss, before letting go and dragging her inside. Mom looked to be dazed¡ªI couldn¡¯t see if she was blushing or not, thankfully¡ªand let herself be dragged inside. First of all, that was disgusting and I don¡¯t want to see it again. Ever. Second of all, the cave must be my destination. That, or it¡¯s my parents¡¯ love cave. Worst case scenario, I walk in on them having a bit too much fun, best case scenario, I find out dad¡¯s source of income. And so, I jumped out of the foliage, and dashed for the cave. My parents had already gone inside a few minutes ago, so if this was what I expected it to be, then they¡¯re already deeper inside. From the stories I¡¯ve heard from grandpa¡­ The first floor of a dungeon should be decent enough for a beginner, right? I heard a mix between a roar and a screech inside, its owner unknown for someone like me. I took a deep breath to steel my nerves, closing my eyes as I readied my Telekinesis. I re-did some of the movements for Punch and Crunch, trying to motivate myself. I pick up a few pebbles and extend my TK Vision. There¡¯s so much mana around here¡ªit¡¯s definitely a dungeon! And so, at six years old, I became one of the youngest people to step in a dungeon in the world, not that I knew. Strength 3 The moment I entered the cave, I was hit with a wave of mana. For a while there, I was a bit overwhelmed as the mana seeped into my body and went into the air at a faster rate, I felt that my head was about to explode, and my TK vision went static. Thankfully, the effect faded right away. I breathed out a sigh of relief. I was probably overwhelmed by the mana in the dungeon¡ªmy parents had hinted that mana concentration was far more potent inside dungeons than anywhere else, and it¡¯s because of that mana concentration that dungeon cores and monsters are formed. My dad claimed to have seen one, but was prompted by a god to leave it alone. Apparently, gods are real. Who figured. I don¡¯t know if I would get to meet one¡ªapparently, moments like the one dad had were rare¡ªbut if I did, I felt a strong urge to either kick the god¡¯s ass or find a way to tie a noose to their neck. Intense anger was welling up, but I suppressed the irrational anger and instead tried to think of any reasons why I was angry at them. ¡­ I wasn¡¯t? I had no reason to be angry at them, at least. Should I be worried and go to a therapist? I¡¯m getting a bit worried. I hope it¡¯s just a phase and nothing too serious. The worry disappeared from my mind as I heard a screech further in. My body tensed as my hand that was holding the pebbles trembled, but I shook my head and took a look at my surroundings. The mouth of the cave was simply an entrance to another entrance¡ªexcept unlike the natural cave mouth, this seems to be a simple wooden door, albeit cracked and mossy in places. Patches of grass grew under it, as if there was a lot of grass behind it. The cave¡¯s walls had growing vines on it that, oddly enough, didn¡¯t seem to be going for the sunlight at the cave¡¯s mouth, showing the oddity of this dungeon. The door slowly opened, as if it wasn¡¯t properly shut in the first place, so I decided to cautiously walk towards it. My TK Vision wasn¡¯t working properly inside the dungeon¡ªit was too mana dense. I couldn¡¯t get any proper images, which made me worried for my battlefield awareness. I don¡¯t fancy the idea of being caught with my pants down, so caution is a must. I peek through the door. It was slightly disappointing¡ªa large, square room of stone. There was some sort of grass near the door¡ªor was it a herb? I can¡¯t tell. I¡¯m not an alchemist, and I don¡¯t plan to be one, I think. I would have liked to be a mage, but there was a severe lack of offensive magic that didn¡¯t require a chant. That¡¯s a big downside to being mute. It sucks, I wanted to do magic but because of some stupid guy, I got my vocal cords slashed and went mute. It was probably my fault. If I had waited a few more minutes, someone from my family would have thought of something to take me out of the situation¡ªit was because of this lack of trust in my end that I went mute. Probably. I don¡¯t want to dwell on it much. I enter the room without much problems. The grass flattened under my boots¡ªwhich I had the foresight of taking before leaving the house. My stomach grumbled, and I cursed the lack of foresight to bring food. Well¡­ I guess I¡¯ll have to come back later. ¡­ probably wouldn¡¯t hurt to explore a bit, though. There were two corridors on the left and right of the room¡ªthe left smelled slightly of grass and wooden things while the other reeked of bad hygiene. Since I didn¡¯t want to stay too long or explore too far in an area I couldn¡¯t handle, I decided to go for the grassy smell. As soon as I stepped into the corridor, the ceiling lights up, making me snap my eyes towards it. Dotting the roof of the corridor I was in, patches of grass seem to glow a soothing shade of green. My mouth opened slightly as I see it go further in the corridor, the lights getting brighter as it gets closer and closer to the end of the rocky hall. I did not, however, rule out the possibility of it being a trap. It could be a lure, like those light things from anglerfish. It could be emitting a toxin of some sort to make me more complacent and easy to kill. I don¡¯t know¡ªbut it¡¯s better to be safe than sorry. I shake my head to get rid of the growing fascination within me. I walk forward cautiously, watching the walls and the floor in front of me. There were a couple of small holes and mushrooms growing at the sides, but there doesn¡¯t seem to be a single monster in sight yet. But then, the dungeon pulsed. The mana inside the dungeon stirred awake, and I felt a disturbance at the flow of the mana, as if some things were actively starting to use it instead of fading into the background. At the same time, the mushrooms I saw innocently just planted there turned to me, revealing two beady eyes and a scary mouth. They uprooted themselves and started encircling me with their thin root legs. The mushrooms that were stuck on the wall faced me, but instead of their cousins¡¯ sharp teeth, they had a cannon-like protrusion where their mouth would have been. Damn it, Murphy. I tried to see behind me with my TK Vision, but the dense mana in the atmosphere was still interfering with my radar. I tsk¡¯d and whipped my head around quickly. There were only cannon-shrooms, but no melee-shrooms. I had an escape route if I ever need to run. I yelped as a ball of something hit my back, shaving off 21 HP due to the effects of a [Backstab Bonus]. I quickly faced the monsters again and frantically waved my hand horizontally. A wave of psionic energy pushed the incoming projectiles and melee-shrooms back. The projectiles, which I finally saw as green balls of goo-like material, suddenly stopped for half a second in midair before going backwards on a downward arc. The melee-shrooms who were unfortunate enough to be in their path were hit, making the walking cap monster screech in pain. The goo thing was melting through the afflicted ones mushroom caps. I shivered as my hand instinctively went for my back¡ªmy clothes were sizzling, but my flesh was, thankfully, fine. Whatever the goo was made out of, it was dangerous. An acid of some sort¡ªmight be too weak to affect human flesh, or maybe there was some magic stuff going on here. Nonetheless, I can¡¯t let it hit me, else I find out the acidic effect stacks up the hard way. My TK Vision thankfully still worked within a meter of me, but it was incredibly fuzzy. Now that I wasn¡¯t using it passively, I was getting somewhat alerted of things approaching me. The path to the exit had at least four cannon-shrooms stuck on the walls, while the path to the grassy smell numbered at least eighteen. This is bad, I should just run away, The logical side of me muttered. However, it wasn¡¯t quite as heard as my relatively new side. BEAT THESE FUCKERS INTO THE GROUND! GET THE GOD DAMN POINTS AND STOP BEING A FUCKING PUSSY, ME! My new power-hungry side roared out. The loud shouting coupled with my situation almost made me grin, but I need to stay focused if I were to survive this fight. The mushrooms weren¡¯t attacking now, instead, they were focusing on me and watching me for any sudden movements (probably). They screeched and growled at me, as the melee-shrooms pawed at the stone floor with their thin legs. Well, there¡¯s an idea. The mushrooms screeched as I set myself in a beginner¡¯s form¡ªthat is to say, a form so bad that it was obvious that the child using it has never fought a fight before¡ªreadying my Telekinesis. The melee-shrooms charged at me with their relatively big arms raised to hit or trap me. I almost froze when they charged, but the imminent threat of getting beaten and or eaten by mushroom men made me snap back into reality and fight. I pushed my Telekinesis downwards to the ground, imagining that it was as thin as a sheet of metal. My body followed this, kneeling as I pushed my palms into the ground before raising them up. I then pushed that sheet of Telekinesis forward, right into the charging mess of melee-shrooms. There were twelve melee-shrooms. Of the twelve shrooms, three of them lost their legs, making them howl in pain. The rest were pushed backwards, screeching in anger and frustration. I couldn¡¯t celebrate my small victory yet, however. I quickly whipped around and ducked as I dodged four globs of acid. I Punched a cannon-shroom stuck in a wall, flattening it. It couldn¡¯t even let out an ¡®eep¡¯ before it died. I took my attention off the flattened mushroom, noting the spider web of cracks forming at the contact point, and swiped at another cannon-shroom, making it screech as I tore it off the wall. I threw it at the floor in front of me, then I lifted my foot and quickly brought it down onto its stem. I squashed it easily, green blood then splatting underneath my boot. Eugh, I wrinkled my nose, before I suddenly stumbled forward as I felt a weight press onto my back. It was a melee-shroom! I cursed as I struggled against its hold. It just screeched as it held me down. It was surprisingly strong for a being that barely reached my neck¡ªthough my current age probably had something to do with it. I felt another weight pile on top of me as another mushroom added their weight onto me. I saw a red number appear out of thin air, signifying my decreasing HP. I struggled uselessly against the growing pile of mushrooms, but I couldn¡¯t push them off. Get¡­ I growled inside my head. My HP was continuously decreasing, and my HP Bar was now in the red. OFF! A pulse of psionic energy came out from my core, making the mushrooms screech as they went flying all over the corridor. I stumbled to my feet, my back bleeding from various bite marks that the mushrooms gave me. I glared at them angrily, the mushrooms who piled on me and the ones on the walls suddenly stopping as they watched me glare, bleeding, but alive and powerful.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! Or perhaps I was always powerful. To them, anyway. I was simply holding back because I still had the mindset of an innocent child. I know that I¡¯m hardly innocent. My nightmare that appeared before my kidnapping proved that well enough¡ªI¡¯ve probably seen death in my last life, and I have a feeling that some weren¡¯t necessarily because I happened to be at the same area. I¡¯m not going to die! I defied them. I defied this dungeon, I defied its inhabitants, and I defied myself. I will struggle until the very end, I won¡¯t fall¡­ At that point, it clicked. I was fighting monsters. I¡¯m not going to fucking die to some pathetic level one Mushrooms! There wasn¡¯t any kind of power up after my internal enlightenment. A fierce light showed itself into my eyes, and I stopped trying to fight like I was fighting another human. I fought monsters, and monsters deserved to be killed. I dashed forward, surprising some of the mushrooms. There were three in front of me, one was still dazed from the psionic shockwave. My hands imitated claws, and I swiped it in front of me. The mushroom couldn¡¯t let out a strangled cry as it separated in 3 different areas, falling to the floor with a wet plop and a pool of green blood. The other two beside it couldn¡¯t let out much as I immediately followed up with a Punch, flattening one to the wall and glancing a blow to the side of the other. By that point, it didn¡¯t matter much anymore. I kicked it right in its face, making it stumble back, and I finished it with a Crush, crumpling the mushroom into a tiny bit, feeling the magic leave its body. I threw the crumpled body into a cannon-shroom, flattening the thing and relieving me of one of my enemies. By now, the shrooms have snapped off their daze, now glaring at me with even more anger than before. I recall the weapons back on Earth¡ªguns. Superior ranged weaponry to anything this planet can do on its current technological level. And I¡¯m about to somewhat use it. I pointed at the rushing mushrooms with a finger gun and applied the same theory I had with the Punch¡ªwhich was basically the compression of psychic energy and ¡®letting it go¡¯. However, instead of using my entire hand as a focus point, I compress it to the tip of my pointer finger. It was a bit harder to do as it required more control, but it worked. And it missed. Clicking my tongue, I shoot four more times, two of which missed, one scoring a headshot and instantly eliminating a melee-shroom, and one dealing a glancing blow to a cannon-shroom. My aim was shot, and I was sure that I was just too stressed to aim properly¡ªafter all, the bullets were of my own creation, and I was sure that I could guide where they went if I practiced hard enough, but the fact that I could was amazing on its own right. I was giddy¡ªmaybe next time, I¡¯ll do an assault rifle. That¡¯s right. I¡¯m going to have a next time. These monsters, however, are not. One of the melee mushrooms got close, but I simply socked it right in the face with a Punch, sending it flying a few meters back before I Pushed it to the floor, flattening and killing it immediately. The few mushrooms that were in the range of the Push were also affected, making them stumble during their weak charge. I took advantage of their predicament and darted forward, my right hand imitating a claw again. I slashed, but instead of the clean cuts like the ones from earlier, I only made a few surface wounds on a mushroom¡¯s face. It also took far more mana than using a Punch, so I guess the thing a while ago was a fluke¡ªthat, or something magical happened and I didn¡¯t notice. I didn¡¯t let the injured monster recover though, simply flattening the monster at the wall with a Punch and then ducking under a hail of acid. I ripped out a cannon-mushroom and threw it to another to flatten both¡ªthey were ridiculously fragile. I aimed my finger pistol again and fired. Using this technique wasn¡¯t quite draining my mana, but it certainly occupied me. I can¡¯t keep using this on a horde situation, making it null inside a dungeon unless I had a range advantage like right now. Moreover, guiding the invisible projectiles also took more concentration, making me an unmoving turret. It didn¡¯t matter, though¡ªI immediately shot down the remaining cannon-shrooms, leaving me with at least twelve or so melee-shrooms to kill. I wasted no time¡ªI Pushed the mushrooms back, making them screech as they flew backwards. My mana was dangerously low, so I have to be a bit creative here. I ran towards the fallen mushrooms, stomping my feet on the stem of one, ending its life quickly. I levitate a few pebbles that I had and threw them at some charging melee shrooms¡ªthe combination of their momentum and the strength of my psionic throw proved to be too fatal for the idiotic mushrooms, proven by the hole in the middle of their ¡®heads¡¯ and the green blood dripping down it. I back stepped as a melee-shroom got too close then Punched it, sending it back and toppling a few mushrooms like a bunch of bowling pins. I took a deep breath and threw a few more pebbles, slowly whittling down the dozen or so mushroom monsters into a scarce few. My mana was slowly getting depleted with every pebble I threw, with every Push, Punch, and Crush that I did, some taking more mana than the others, and it was showing on my body. My stamina had already been depleted a while ago, and my HP was in a similar state to my mana. Thankfully, the remaining mushrooms were also quite wounded¡ªgashes on their sides and low screeches instead of the annoying screams earlier, showing me that they¡¯re probably just as tired from dodging the pebbles as I am. There were three melee-shrooms left, and we were stuck in a stalemate. They can¡¯t get too close to me, and I ran out of stray pebbles to throw¡ªstretching out my Telekinesis would drain out mana, and I can¡¯t afford to expend any more lest I fall unconscious¡ªmom told me that I shouldn¡¯t waste all of it, and I intend to heed her words. I stared at the small monsters, and they stared back, baring their teeth. I took a small step backwards, watching the slow trickle of mana regeneration with despair. If they decide to charge me now, I just might run out of mana right after the first Push, leaving me vulnerable right after. My mind was racing just as fast as my heart as I watched the mushroom men take a tentative step forward, their fists raised again. I took another step back, but then internally curse as I hit a rock wall. I looked behind me¡ªthis was the end of this tunnel. There was a rotting wooden door beside me, and I could smell the strong aroma of the grass I found at the entrance of the dungeon. This was probably what was causing the smell, but considering my position right now, I doubt I¡¯m in any shape to do an investigation inside. I took a deep breath and glare at the mushrooms. I stretch out an arm to them and motioned at them to ¡®come hither¡¯. I have no idea if they understood it or not, but they screeched as they charged far quicker than before, trying to overwhelm me with their speed and taking advantage of my dazed state. My eyes sharpened as I Pushed the mushrooms back again, making them screech in an unholy manner as they stumbled to their nonexistent asses. I charged forward, my mana now depleted to only 1 point. Exhausted physically and mentally, I make it to the mushrooms in a few seconds and attempt an axe kick towards one of the fallen mushrooms. It wasn¡¯t quite an axe kick as it was a stomp, but it worked well enough. The mushroom¡¯s face caved in, proving to be quite weak and tearible, getting some of its green blood stuck on my boot. I forced myself to turn to my side to end another mushroom¡¯s life quickly, and send an obviously desperate punch to the mushroom that was coming about. It didn¡¯t have the same force as my stomp, considering that I didn¡¯t have gravity helping me this time. It simply staggered back, a dent on its soft face, before I penetrated it with the last of my mana, making a large amount of blood gush out as the body staggered back. Back to one point of mana again¡­ The remaining mushroom screeched in anger, and I sluggishly turned towards it. The mushroom was charging at me again, this time holding the advantage in strength. I weakly raised my arms to try and defend myself and make the mistake of looking away. I hear the screeching suddenly stop as I hear a thud. I peek at the mushroom. It had tripped. I have no idea how it tripped, only that it was trying to get up again and failing to do so. I shakily stumbled over to the mushroom, my blood still trailing down my back. It screeched as it pounded on the rock floor, trying to get up. I didn¡¯t let it get up. As soon as the fight was finished, a status message popped up.
Congratulations! You¡¯ve defeated a horde of lesser mushroom men. Choosing to fight a horde of monsters above your capabilities has granted you a title! The title ¡°Foolish Warrior¡± has been awarded. Defeating a horde of monsters with the Child debuff has granted you a title! The title ¡°Born Killer¡± has been awarded. Level up! Level up! Level up! You are now a LV. 6 Psion. + 6 INT, + 6 WIS Telekinesis has gone up a tier! [Sting] ¨C [Stab]. + 15 INT, + 10 WIS + 64 Power + 72 Control Physical Resistance is now LV. 3! + 10 END, + 10 STR Your dodge training paid off! + 7 DEX A special skill has been created through your actions! Intuition LV. 1 has been granted. +10 DEX, +5 INT A special skill has been created through your actions! Unarmed Combat Mastery LV. 1 has been granted. 50% damage boost in unarmed combat, +10 DEX, +5 END.
The box was the last thing I saw before I passed out. --- The married couple were quiet. Selene stopped siphoning off mana to her Invisibility Cloak skill, showing their positions at a few dozen meters away from Kane. They had been quiet and hoped to help Kane when he got body piled, but it appeared he didn¡¯t need much help. ¡°I mean, I expected that he would do well, but¡­¡± Keith muttered, amazed. Green splotches of blood was everywhere. Mushroom matter were stuck on walls, on the ground, and some were even on the ceiling. The two Psions were watching his fight from afar, Keith determining that this would be a great way for his son to level up and get stronger. Selene was pained while she watched her son constantly get hurt, struggling for his life while they simply stood back and watched, so she decided to at least help her son right at the end of the fight, just so he canwin. She rushed forward to her son. ¡°It¡¯s okay,¡± she murmured. She saw Kane stir a bit as he reacted to her words and the green healing magic emanating from her palms. ¡°It¡¯s okay, momma¡¯s here.¡± The scratches and bruises began to fade as her healing magic did its work. Keith inspected the walls¡ªthere was a spider web of cracks on one side, making Keith whistle. ¡°Our little tiger¡¯s progressing fast¡­¡± He traced a hand over the cracks. ¡°I don¡¯t think I ever did this much when I was a kid.¡± ¡°You weren¡¯t born a Psion, though,¡± Selene rebutted. However, she too, had to be impressed. Their son¡¯s growth was extraordinary. She herself had only started cracking rocks at six, while her son had started cracking monsters at age six. His sister was considered a genius as well, but he should be considered far above that. His battle sense was something that she had only seen in some experienced adventurers, and his will to fight was far stronger than any C-class adventurer she knew. The healing light faded from her palms, and she telekinetically lifted Kane. He stirred again, but remained unconscious for the time being. Selene just sighed as she dragged Keith with her, making him sputter as he stretched out his arm to try and inspect more of the mushroom gore that happened. ¡°Kane really is something,¡± Selene murmured. Her green eyes flitted over to Keith, who was rubbing the back of his head while he prodded his son telekinetically. ¡°Yeah,¡± he replied absent mindedly. ¡°He¡¯s gotten a lot stronger, too. Physically, and from the way he was throwing around psychic attacks back there, I bet mentally as well. And magically.¡± Selene nodded and fought the urge to smile. Her son getting stronger was always a good thing¡ªit meant that her enemies¡ªand her husband¡¯s enemies¡ªwould be having a little problem if they abduct her child again. It didn¡¯t mean that she agreed with her husband¡¯s method¡ªshe¡¯d rather keep Kane at her side and protect him from the dangers¡ªbut it means that she won¡¯t be against it from now on. She brought Kane close to her and lightly tousled his hair as they came out the cave, the dungeon sending a warm gust of wind towards them to thank them for their ¡®patronage¡¯. The sun shined down on them as they stretched, the light seeming to shine on Selene¡¯s skin. ¡°So¡­ are we going to talk to him about it?¡± Keith then asked her. Selene smiled sweetly at him. ¡°Sweetie, you¡¯re going to explain everything to your son. This was your idea, and if you dare not take responsibility for it, you will be sleeping on the couch for a month.¡± ¡°¡­ Duly noted.¡± Interlude Jane yawned as she set about her morning practice, her mind straining as she tried to heed her mother¡¯s instructions about Power and Control and all that stuff. Frankly, she didn¡¯t quite get exactly what her mother meant, only that if she really squeezed the rock hard enough, it¡¯ll crumble like a biscuit. Her face screwed up cutely as she tried to squeeze the rock again, but failed to shatter it like her brother had yesterday. She groaned openly as she stopped supplying mana to her telekinesis, the rock dropping with a dull thump on the grass as she fell back first on the grass. ¡°I don¡¯t get it!¡± She complained. She glared at the rock that just didn¡¯t break like a good little rock and threw it at the fence. The sound of the rock hitting the plank echoed as she glared at the rock again, ignoring the prompt that she got two points in Power. She heard a chuckle behind her, making her whip around to a tall teenager with spiky black hair. He was wearing a white shirt with a brown jacket that had fur lining, black pants that had bandages wrapped on the knees and black iron-toed boots. He had a utility belt strapped to his waist, of which Jane had no idea what was inside. His brown eyes sparkled with barely hidden mirth, but his facial expression betrayed his internal emotion. ¡°Having trouble?¡± This teenager was Leroy Dekis. He had helped as an aide on the birth of the two children. He was registered in the Adventurer¡¯s Guild as a B-rank adventurer, nearing the prestigious A-rank, and officially the apprentice of the retired A-rank adventurer, Hosef Worth. These were the only things that Jane knew of Leroy¡¯s public life. Everything else came from the annoyances he did whenever she and her brother were training or just in general. It didn¡¯t mean that she disliked him, though. Kane told her that he was only doing it to poke fun at their expense and didn¡¯t really mean much about it when she cried about it a few years back. Her brother was smart, almost as smart as her parents! She could believe him. He knew a lot more than she did, and he was obviously a lot stronger too. Maybe he could help her with her Power problem when he came back from whatever he was doing. She still had to deal with Leroy, though. Just because she knew why he did what he did doesn¡¯t make him any less annoying. ¡°Yeah,¡± she grumbled. Some of her annoyance stemmed from the rock, and the rest from the person talking to her. ¡°I am.¡± Leroy just chuckled. She wasn¡¯t looking at him, but she could just feel his annoying smirk as he levitated a rock in front of her. She watched it as it cracked under the strength that Leroy was putting it through, making her eyes twitch as he completely shattered the rock without any major trouble. She almost screamed then, but then she remembered her dad¡¯s words. Tantrums are for bad kids, He had said off handedly. No one likes bad kids! She was still a child, though. So she didn¡¯t pay any attention to those words. ¡°Leroy!¡± She half-shrieked half-cried. ¡°How did you do that?!¡± ¡°Easily,¡± Gods dang it, he¡¯s smirking again. She could just feel his annoying smirk burning its way through her skull. Her face burned with embarrassment as she furiously levitated another rock and tried to crush it to no avail. She could hear Leroy chuckling at her expense, but she didn¡¯t pay any mind to it. I¡¯ll show him! She fumed. He¡¯s not the only one that can shatter a rock! Trying to show the elder Psion up, she doubled the power output she had on the rock. I can do it! I can do it just as fast as Kane did! That¡¯ll show him! She got another point in Power, but she quickly dismissed it in favor of the rock in front of her, droning out Leroy¡¯s voice as she completely focused on trying to crush the rock in front of her. It cracked, but it didn¡¯t crumble. Jane let out a huge smile as she dropped the rock, showing it to Leroy. ¡°See! I can do it too!¡± She didn¡¯t shatter it, but it was still something to brag about, right? Apparently not, as Leroy just shattered the cracked rock while it was still on her hand. ¡°Sure you can,¡± Jane, frustrated, simply let out an annoyed sigh and flopped back down on the ground, her vibrant blue eyes not even looking at the annoyance and simply looking up at the sky. ¡°Why do I even have to do this rock thing?¡± She complained. ¡°I want to do what mom and dad and Kane do!¡± And she really did¡ªshe sometimes saw Kane doing his experimental techniques. She saw him punch through a tree yesterday, and she bet that she could do it too! She doesn¡¯t have to crush a pesky rock to do it, either! If her brother can do it, she can too! ¡­ is what was on her mind. ¡°You have to do it because you don¡¯t have enough Power,¡± Leroy patiently explained, an infuriating smirk still on his face (to Jane¡¯s point of view, anyway). ¡°Your Control is decent for your level and age¡ªyou can already lift a handful of pebbles, you just need more Power to destroy them.¡± ¡°How would crushing rocks help?¡± Jane sniffed, a bit gloomy. She didn¡¯t see it, but Leroy had winced, a little concerned for his own wellbeing if he let Jane cry and sulk. ¡°They don¡¯t even do anything.¡± Leroy paused. ¡°They should be helping you. You are getting prompts, right?¡± She should be. Leroy vaguely remembered his own training with Hosef¡ªhe was first taught to try and crush rocks. Every failure to do so added a small amount of Power to his Telekinesis. In time, he learned that Power and Control went up according to what they were doing with Telekinesis¡ªlike trying to rip a tree off the ground would contribute a lot to Power, and that trying to trip multiple people would contribute a lot to Control. In this exercise, crushing rocks would be adding a lot of Power all around the rock¡ªthat, or picking out a weak spot and applying pressure there. Either works. ¡°Prompts?¡± Jane echoed, a little confused, until her eyes brightened. ¡°Oh, you mean the blue boxes! They¡¯re annoying so I just wave them away.¡± ¡°Figures,¡± Leroy muttered, running a palm on his face. ¡°Alright, check your Skills list. It should have your Telekinesis levels.¡± Jane nodded slowly. ¡°Status!¡± A blue box appeared in front of her, showing her attributes, name and anything the status box shows. Not much has really changed, but she noticed that her INT was at least a point higher. She knew her brother focused on INT and WIS, and her parents were encouraging her to do the same as well, but she was confused on why he still tried to raise his physical stats¡ªexercises seem to be tiresome and boring.
Name Jane Worth Title --- STR 19 (-8)
Race Human Condition Child END 15 (-8)
Age 4 years, 2 months Jobs LV. 2 Psion DEX 17 (-8)
HP 120 / 120 --- INT 37
Mana 370 / 370 --- WIS 18
¡°¡­ but the skills aren¡¯t here!¡± Jane exclaimed as she pointed accusingly at Leroy. He simply sighed and palmed his face again, muttering something about idiotic children. He ran a hand across his hair, his amused expression now a peeved one. ¡°I said Skills, kiddo. Skills, not your gods dam¡ªdarned status.¡± Ignoring his slip of the tongue, he informed her of her problem. Her mouth was then set to an ¡®o¡¯, after which she nervously giggled. ¡°I¡ªI knew that!¡± She tried to save face. Unfortunately for the young Psion, the young adult was not impressed. ¡°Right,¡± He rolled his eyes. The children were endearing to him, of course. He didn¡¯t hate them, and they were smarter than what their age implied, but there were just times that he felt his own brain cells melting away when he interacted with them. This was, unfortunately, one of those times. ¡°S-Skills!¡± She tried to hide the fact that she stuttered with a nervous smirk. Her shifty eyes and twitching fingers gave her away, though, making Leroy wonder if he was ever as insecure as the child he was talking to right now. Well, it¡¯s understandable, I guess. Leroy mused. He himself hadn¡¯t grown up with a sibling, he could only imagine the pressure that Jane put herself into just to match up with Kane¡¯s extraordinary growth. Even Leroy shuddered to think what Kane would grow into if his growth never ceased¡ªthat kid just had a drive that didn¡¯t match up with his age at all. He was a little envious of him not that he would voice it out, but at the same time, pity him for all the attention he¡¯s going to get when the family stops hiding out in the middle of nowhere. Considering the fact that they¡¯ve been hiding for 6 years, he doubts that they¡¯re going to reveal themselves to the public any time soon. Their area near the east border of Viya also made revealing themselves harder, since the area was known as the Harrowing Wilderness¡ªan area commonly known amongst the high ranking adventurers as particularly unforgiving. Their living space was right at the edge of that¡ªmonsters beyond their little circle of living were powerful creatures, with weaker ones few and farther in between. It¡¯s like one huge dungeon, except without the loot drops and the extra risk of death. The only hope for a low ranking adventurer to survive was to hide while the monsters were out and about, and run while the monsters were fighting among each other¡ªthere was a minimum of mid B-rank to enter the Harrowing Wilderness, and even then, they usually come in as parties of four. Anything less would be too dangerous if they were a low rank adventurer. These weren¡¯t any of Leroy¡¯s worries right now, however. He was more worried about the admittedly smart girl in front of him acting dumb and comparing herself to her brother¡ªwho was on a whole different league and was suspected to be a chosen champion of one of the gods. Leroy wisely didn¡¯t say anything concerning that line of thought, lest his sister decides to ask more questions about his situation. ¡°Hey!¡± Leroy snapped back into reality. He had spaced out again¡ªhe¡¯s really losing his focus these days. He needs to shape up. Maybe he should go out the bubble of safety their house is in, just so he could beat down a couple of Giant Basilisks and freshen up. ¡°I said I checked my Skills!¡± ¡°Yeah, and?¡± Leroy motioned for her to continue, irritating the little girl further. He knew that his dismissive attitude grated at her nerves¡ªa child didn¡¯t want to not be noticed, after all.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. However, she had reeled in her anger and decided to keep her voice level and not blow his eardrums apart like the last few times he had riled her up. ¡°It says I have 14 in Power and 9 in Control.¡± ¡°Mm,¡± Leroy nodded. That¡¯s to be expected¡ªa bit higher than normal, but expected. Idly, he wondered if Kane¡¯s little sister was also a prodigy, since she¡¯s certainly shaping up as one. She picks up instructions quickly and uses her Telekinesis as an extension of herself, not very unlike her own brother. If only she was as good at understanding what was being said to her as she was at understanding her power. ¡°That¡¯s to be expected. You need a few more points to crush the rock, but,¡± he decided to help her out. He wasn¡¯t merciless, after all. He would also feel quite guilty if he just left her alone without any advice after poking her ego over and over. He leaned closer to her and gave her a small smirk. ¡°You don¡¯t have to crush the rock, you just have to break it.¡± And with those words, he decided to stand straight and stretch. ¡°Well, that was nice!¡± ¡°Hey, wait!¡± Jane called out to him, raising a small arm as she scrambled to stand up to follow him. ¡°What do you mean I have to break it? Isn¡¯t that just the same? What¡¯s the difference?¡± She couldn¡¯t hear the young man chuckle before he disappeared¡ªto where, Jane didn¡¯t know. She was determined to find out, though, so she¡¯ll check in the house first, before doing anything stupid! --- In the end, she couldn¡¯t find him before lunch¡ªhe found her instead. He had multiple scratch marks, bruises, and lacerations all over his body, yet blood wasn¡¯t leaking out at all. Jane watched with morbid fascination as the teen hobbled over to her grandfather, who had opted to gaze at the doorway when Leroy smashed it open. Literally. The door was in tatters and the bigger pieces trapped on another room. It happens quite often so the room was mostly empty, which was why the little girl wasn¡¯t very worried for her reluctant (or so she thought) guardian. Hosef simply shook his head. ¡°Foolish boy. You shouldn¡¯t have gone outside the boundary by yourself,¡± he ran a hand across his blonde white-streaked hair as he sighed. ¡°You might bite off more than you can chew. People would be sad if you disappeared oh so suddenly, Leroy,¡± Healing palms were set over his injuries, the green light seeping into the wounds. Jane was gaping as she watched the wounds knit themselves together, skin growing over the cuts and mending, bruises fading, and scratches disappearing. ¡°Can¡¯t say it¡¯s because I don¡¯t care about my life,¡± Leroy grunted as a particularly long slash on his chest was mended, the skin crawling over the now bleeding wound. Leroy had finally started bleeding when Hosef had started healing him, making even Jane notice how immensely tired the boy was. His expression was that of the great grumpiness¡ªeven greater than his usual grumpiness, which emphasized just how tired he was. ¡°Damn, this hurts..!¡± ¡°Language,¡± the old man off handedly warned him. Leroy simply groaned in response¡ªto his wounds or to the warning, Jane didn¡¯t know. ¡°Training doesn¡¯t mean go nearly kill yourself a few times, Leroy. Haven¡¯t I taught you better?¡± ¡°Shhh¡­¡± Leroy was slurring his words now, his eyes were half lidded and expression vacant. He had a dumb smirk on his face as he looked above him. ¡°Shhhuuut uppp¡­¡± ¡°He¡¯s already delirious,¡± The blonde sighed as he doubled the output of his Heal, speeding up the process of mending and also quickly sapping the strength of the young man. Heal was a peculiar skill that used mana to, obviously, heal the target. This had the unfortunate side effect of sapping the target¡¯s stamina due to speeding up the process of growing new skin and replenishing bodily fluids. It wasn¡¯t lethal, but it¡¯s a bad side effect when healing grievous wounds in the middle of a fight. ¡°Stupid boy¡­¡± He muttered softly. Jane had initially wanted to question the teen, but decided against it. Even she knew that he wasn¡¯t in any position to answer her inquiry, and she was usually hailed as dense by the guy! Hosef glanced at her as he mended the last wound on his body¡ªa slash on his back. It was big, and there was a lot of blood around it. Jane didn¡¯t know what happened to Leroy, all she knew was that he did something stupid¡ªsomething she wouldn¡¯t have done under normal circumstances¡ªand paid heavily for it. He didn¡¯t seem to be down about it though, in fact, he seems to be quite satisfied. ¡°It¡¯s not as bad as you think,¡± Hosef tried to reassure her. Jane frowned. ¡°Huh?¡± She was confused. What did Hosef mean by that? Of course she knew that. She knew that he would survive, she knew that he would still be alive and that he¡¯s stronger for it now. She wasn¡¯t¡ª¡°You looked like you were worried,¡± Hosef gave her a wry smile. ¡°I thought you didn¡¯t like him?¡± ¡°Well, he¡¯s technically family too, right?¡± Okay, she was worried. When he disappeared for a few hours, she didn¡¯t know what had happened to him. The teen was something of an annoying uncle to her, and she didn¡¯t like how he simply disappeared without even giving her grandpa a warning¡ªshe thought he might have gotten hurt. And he was. ¡°I don¡¯t want to lose anyone in the family.¡± Yes, she didn¡¯t want to. She had almost lost her brother a while ago¡ªsomeone she looked up to, someone she considered her better, and someone she really considered to be her best friend. He had gotten hurt during one of his most vulnerable moments¡ªwhen he was asleep. She was terrified when she realized that he was taken, but she couldn¡¯t follow her family to the people who took her brother. They were too fast, and too strong. No matter how much she wanted to help¡ªshe just couldn¡¯t. Jane refused to be helpless¡ªshe refused to be a damsel in distress like the so called princesses in her father¡¯s stories. She wanted to be helpful, and she didn¡¯t want to wait until she was grown up. She had already decided to be an adventurer when she grew up, and with her mother helping her, nothing could go wrong! She would be strong and helpful and no one would try to take her brother again! Well, it¡¯s not like they could! Her brother was really strong right now, he even crushed a stone after only breaking one! He might be better at her in Telekinesis, but she refused to be the lesser sibling. That¡¯s why she didn¡¯t resent her brother¡ªshe understood why he wanted to be strong¡ªat least, a little bit. She admired him¡ªeven after being hurt and rendered a permanent mute (something explained to her by her mother. She was saddened about it¡ªshe couldn¡¯t hear any more of her brother¡¯s stories about buildings that reached the skies!), he hadn¡¯t fallen to despair. Jane wanted to be like that, even if she didn¡¯t quite understand why. She didn¡¯t want to be terrified anymore, she wanted to be like her brother, who, in her opinion, was like the rock in the middle of the stream¡ªthe water would flow around him, but he wouldn¡¯t budge. Jane saw Hosef smile to himself and shake his head as he finished healing the wound. Leroy, at this point, had fallen unconscious, fully spent from doing what he did and getting healed. He would be fine tomorrow, Jane imagined. She couldn¡¯t think of anything that would keep the guy down for too long. Just as Hosef stood up, however, she heard a few voices coming from outside the house¡ªshe recognized those voices! Turning away from her grandfather, she raced for the door¡ªnow just a hole where their entrance should be¡ªand smile. ¡°Welcome back, Mom!¡± ¡°What about me?¡± Her father pouted. Jane stifled the smile that was threatening to come out of her face and forced herself to get a few words out. ¡°Oh, and dad too,¡± her father looked devastated as her mother laughed. Kane was standing right next to her, exhausted and beaten up for some reason, but he wasn¡¯t fighting the smile on his face. She hugged her father¡¯s side as they came closer. She was pat on the head by someone, but she didn¡¯t notice who. It doesn¡¯t matter who, anyway. Mainly, there¡¯s something else on her mind. ¡°Why¡¯s Kane with you?¡± Jane asked innocently. She hadn¡¯t seen her brother since morning, and her parents never usually took anyone with them during their hunts, so seeing her brother beaten up and tired with her parents had piqued her curiosity. Her mother had simply smiled at her, though, while shooting a glance towards her husband. ¡°It¡¯s nothing, honey. Can you go call your grandpa for us?¡± Jane nodded as she ran for the living room, leaving them outside. ¡°She sure is energetic, isn¡¯t she?¡± Keith smiled, a little amused. ¡°I¡¯m hurt that you taught her to ignore me, though,¡± he held his hand over where his heart would be and did a mock hurt expression. ¡°It hurts right here, Selene.¡± ¡°Oh shut up, you oaf,¡± She smiled at her husband. It seems that decade old antics don¡¯t change¡ªhe was like this back when they were still teens, and it¡¯s one of the things that she loved about him. Things were interesting with him around, and his unchanging personality made him endearing for her. Unknown to them both, the child¡¯s thoughts on their exchange was a little more deep. They¡¯re so sweet to each other that I¡¯m getting diabetes. He thought dryly. While these thoughts and similar exchanges happened, Hosef had apparently arrived at the doorway. He coughed once to catch their attention and nodded once, smiling at his daughter. ¡°Selene! What do you need?¡± ¡°I¡¯m here too¡­¡± ¡°Dad, we need you to use Appraisal,¡± Selene then said, ignoring the previous remark and her husband¡¯s surprised look. ¡°An appraisal? What kind?¡± ¡°A Full Appraisal. I want to find out how strong he is right now¡­¡± and if Keith¡¯s stupid plan had worked. She was sweet with him right now, yes, but she still hadn¡¯t forgotten his bout of stupidity. ¡°Hm, alright,¡± Hosef nodded briefly. He lazily waved a hand behind him, and a light blue orb floated out. Jane, coming from behind Hosef, followed the orb and watched it with fascination¡ªthe thing didn¡¯t wiggle in midair like her stones do! ¡°Appraise ¨C Full!¡± There were two kinds of appraisals¡ªone where the appraiser only saw the status and attributes of the person, and one that included the skills of the person. The only limitation of the two were the orbs required to each appraise skill¡ªpartial appraisal orbs are much more common than full appraisal orbs and are therefore available at most places. Full appraisal orbs are only available to the government and to the Adventurer¡¯s Guild, which was independent from any kingdom. A blue box appeared in front of Hosef. It was readable for everyone in the vicinity, but unfortunately, Jane herself couldn¡¯t read very well yet. She only understood her own status because, well, it was her own. She did recognize the numbers and the attributes they¡¯re associated with, though, and they were far higher than what she expected.
Name Kane Worth Title --- STR 33 (-7)
Race Human Condition Child, Mute END 45 (-7)
Age 6 years, 5 months Jobs LV. 6 Psion DEX 53 (-7)
HP 420 / 420 --- INT 95
Mana 950 / 950 --- WIS 69
Beside that blue box, there was another box, this one containing his skills. It had five entries on it, but only one really stood out for the conscious adults.
Telekinesis [Stab]
Power 104 Control 109
¡°Okay,¡± Hosef took in a deep breath, seemingly just done with everything. His body shook with barely restrained anger¡ªto whom, Jane didn¡¯t know¡ª and several household items started floating around the house before falling back down to the ground. ¡°Whose bright idea was it to force him into a life and death situation?¡± The reason why Hosef was angry was because the stat growth was abnormal. It would have been possible if he trained normally¡ªthe old man imagined that his mental stats would grow faster than his physical stats, but right now, the stats were far above the norm. In contrast, a healthy non-job granted male has about 30 STR, 30 END, and 25 DEX. Currently, Kane was above those averages except for STR, but that was only because of the Child debuff. He was not angry about his attribute growth, however. He was mad because of the method to gain said attributes. A person¡¯s attributes can rapidly rise when stuck in a life and death situation¡ªit was the way the soul reacts. It tries to strengthen its physical body to cope with the threat of death in hopes of surviving. This method was the tried and tested truth of the world¡ªthe more one is in danger, the faster one levels up. At least, that was it for combat jobs. Not necessarily for jobs like Psion, where it doesn¡¯t always have to be a combat job¡ªbut it looks like Kane¡¯s tiers are going up to be a combat one, anyway. ¡°Ehehe,¡± Keith simply chuckled nervously as he rubbed his hand on the back of his neck. ¡°He wanted to grow strong and so I helped him?¡± he ended the statement as a question as he watched his father-in-law for any sudden movements. ¡°He could¡¯ve died.¡± ¡°Well, yeah, but he didn¡¯t! And he¡¯s fine with it. Right, Kane? You¡¯re fine with it, right?!¡± Keith was desperate at this point¡ªit¡¯s not because he would be beaten in a straight up fight with his father-in-law, but because the disappointment that he would be dealing with for the next few months would bear down on him. He didn¡¯t like to be the target of disappointment, damn it! Kane simply shrugged and flexed his hands as he walked inside the house. A few pebbles trailed behind him, though for what, no one knew. Selene simply thought it was for practice, Keith thought that it was a taunt, and Jane didn¡¯t have any opinions about it whatever, ¡®Just Kane things,¡¯ was the general consensus. Keith watched, feeling empty as the old man¡¯s disappointed look buried itself into his heart. Selene simply shook her head while she chuckled, and Jane still didn¡¯t understand what exactly happened. In the end, Jane summed it up to one sentence. Just Kane things. Weakness 1 It¡¯s been a while, I thought fondly as I walked through the dungeon¡¯s first floor, running my hand on the side wall and letting my Telekinesis spread a bit, giving me vision on roughly 5 meters around me. The once troublesome mushroom monsters are nothing but fodder for me now, not even giving me the slightest bit of trouble as I squashed them against the wall. Leaving behind a trail of dead and or squashed mushrooms, I confidently walked forward. I reached the door at the end of the corridor¡ªI already knew where it led to: a grassy cave with vines hanging from the ceiling. Some of the vines were monsters that were simply called Brambles, and their aim was to trap you within their tangle of vines to choke you. Obviously, I had tangled with them before, and the outcome wasn¡¯t very pretty. There were lots of green goop dripping from the ceiling by that point. It was annoying and got on my clothes. There were also a plethora of other monsters in there¡ªthere were some goblins here, too. They came from the other corridor, where there were goblins and trolls a plenty, armed with makeshift weapons. I avoided the place because I hated the smell, and since both basically lead to the same place, I saw no point to going to the goblin path. Other than brambles and goblins, there were also some boars. They were feisty creatures, annoying if you were too weak and unwilling to get hit, which, thankfully, my Telekinesis and current attributes rendered null. These new monsters were here along with the mushroom men and made up the first floor of the dungeon. I cracked my neck as I paused in front of the door. My reminiscing ended when I clenched my hand into a fist. It had really been quite a while. The first time I came here, I had almost died because of weakness. I had thought that I would be invincible because of my Telekinesis¡ªthat I could just keep peppering them with Telekinetic ranged attacks and I would win. That was na?ve, now that I thought about it. What would happen if someone got too close to me? What would happen if the enemy could tank all of my hits and just made me exhaust my mana? I would either be dead or dying is the answer, and seeing my parents¡¯ power firsthand made me more driven to get stronger in melee and ranged aspects. So I had decided to get the weapon masteries. They were mostly to bolster my attributes, since the boost they gave was really good, but the mastery over the weapons they belonged to were also good. Not to mention that I feel really giddy whenever I hold weapons, as if I was some anime character and training for some epic throw down. Of course, I wasn¡¯t really expecting a throw down. I liked the stats, and I thought that I looked cool with weapons. This may just be some innate things that I am carrying over from my past life, but hey, it couldn¡¯t hurt. I took a deep breath. Status, Skills, I thought. A blue box appeared in front of me, showing me the changes I¡¯ve experienced during the years in dungeon diving and training.
Name Kane Worth Title Born Killer STR 143 (-4)
Race Human Condition Child, Mute END 125 (-4)
Age 12 years, 7 months Jobs LV. 28 Psion DEX 163 (-4)
HP 1310 / 1310 LV. 33 Mana Manipulator INT 382
Mana 3820 / 3820 --- WIS 326
Telekinesis [PIERCE] P 516 - C 532 LV. 3 Axes Mastery
LV. 13 Physical Resistance LV. 14 Pole Arm Mastery
LV. 2 Mental Resistance LV. 2 Blunt Weapon Mastery
LV. 10 Intuition LV. 8 Swords Mastery [SPEED]
LV. 18 Unarmed Combat Mastery LV. 21 Mana Mastery
The new job was apparently my father¡¯s secondary job. Mana Manipulator had a great amount of synergy with Psion¡ªmainly for the fact that one can sense mana, and the other can manipulate it. Basically, with both jobs, my father could manipulate physical matter and magical matter. It was the job that made it easier for him to cast those giant lasers¡ªit was a combination of his Psionic and magical potential, and the best part was that it was that they were silent casts. My dad taught me the job, after which I immediately went to the dungeon to grind it, since, unlike Psion, it actually leveled up with points. Psion was a weird job¡ªbut it was definitely useful (the fact that it was more of a racial job and that I can¡¯t get rid of it with a scribe is also something to note). It didn¡¯t level up with experience points¡ªit leveled up with merits. The job leveled up with how good you were at using your Psionic ability. I had asked my mom at one point at who judged what was impressive, but she just smiled and answered me with, ¡°The gods,¡± and left it at that. Well, I wanted to ask more questions on how exactly the gods judged the abilities, but it would have been tedious and far more annoying than usual, so I just left it alone and went on with it. My growth was apparently splendid, according to my parents and older sibling figure. At my ripe age of 12, I was already at least mid C-rank in attributes alone. When my skills and intelligence were considered, my grading could be bumped up to a high C-rank. There were 8 ranks within the Adventurer¡¯s Guild¡ªG-rank, which were most newbies who had no experience in any kind of fighting, F-rank, which were most newbies who had at least some semblance of experience and finally got out of level 5, E-rank, which usually had an overall level average of 15, D-rank with an overall level average of 30, and C-rank, which averaged around level 40. Sentient creatures can only have three jobs¡ªthat¡¯s 300 or so levels. At B-rank, the average spikes up to level 100, an absurdly large amount of levels, but understandable. B-rank hopefuls had to prove themselves worthy of being a B-rank by facing off against something that had every odd stacked against them¡ªand it had to be approved by a group of B-ranks or a single A-rank adventurer. Speaking of A-rank adventurers, they averaged at around level 175. They were usually of an Ascended status¡ªa status given to a sentient being that has achieved level 100 on one job, granting them a better body and longer lifespan. My grandfather is an Ascendant, which is why he¡¯s still so lively until today, I guess. They were terrifying individuals, able to raze cities to the ground¡ªgiven that they had little to no defense. And even if they did have a defense, it would be unlikely to hold up under the barrage of attacks from an A-rank. Then there were the S-ranks. Army killers, dragon slayers, or world breakers (world breakers were just a rumor, but one that had a few experiences backing it). A set of walking natural calamities on their own right. There are only seven registered S-ranks, two of which are apparently my parents. Getting an average level for them would be pointless since the S-ranks don¡¯t really have an average level¡ªthey were proven S-rank simply because of their merits. Merits through power, intelligence, or even charisma were all acceptable within S-rank. My parents were S-rank through their combat prowess, marking them some of the strongest registered adventurers on the continent. I¡¯m still far away from their levels, and considering the difficulty of raising levels for Psion, I¡¯d probably have a hard time trying to level up. It doesn¡¯t dissuade me a lot, though¡ªI won¡¯t lie, I like fighting. The thrill of it makes my blood pump and¡ª Oh, no, wait. That¡¯s the title talking. I frowned as I realized that I was no longer at the doorway. I was holding up a boar with a single hand, making it squeal as I crushed its head like a grape, its¡¯ head exploding in my hand. I let go of it, disgusted, as I shook my hand. The title offered me a good bonus of 50% more damage whenever I attacked with the intent to kill, but it also affected my mindset to fighting. It was a double edged sword, but Genius, a new title I had gained that boosted magic and mental damage by 20%, and Foolish Warrior, which upped my physical damage output in exchange for INT and WIS (temporarily, thankfully) had lost their use. I looked behind me, seeing a trail of destruction. Brambles had been torn out of the ceiling, chunks of rock also laying around. The bodies were already dissipating into mana, but I could also see a collection of boars, goblins, and mushroom men torn in several pieces by something that looked eerily sharp. I cringed as I reigned in my thoughts. Losing myself in my mind like that sometimes brought out the nature of this title. What happened was that I just slipped in my ¡°killer instinct¡± which I¡¯m pretty sure I didn¡¯t have. It was an unfortunate side effect of the title, but the bonuses it granted were quite nice. 50% more damage wasn¡¯t anything to scoff at, so I¡¯ll just have to remember to unequip it later. I turned away from the carnage behind me. Thankfully, no monsters had respawned yet, which meant that the dungeon wasn¡¯t offended. During my time dungeon diving, I had figured out that the dungeon was alive¡­ well, mostly. It had a consciousness, but it wasn¡¯t talking at all. I figured that I would give it some stuff so that it wouldn¡¯t kill me as soon as I went inside, so whenever I could get a book or something, I offered it to the dungeon. Mostly because it¡¯s a little creepy to keep walking by myself with nothing to hear but the wind and monsters, but hey, can¡¯t blame me for trying to befriend a dungeon, right?The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Well, there¡¯s no harm in trying, and the dungeon has long since stopped peppering me with hordes of monsters. It¡¯s actually getting a little smarter now, sending small waves of monsters to weaken me first before shoving a huge wave to kick me while I rest. That only works at some of the lower floors, though. Like the 10th floor, to which I was going to right now. As I systematically mowed down another horde of monsters, I find myself passing through the first 4 floors rather quickly. However, I found something odd: a new corridor had appeared. I curiously walk to it, touching the sides of it. At the 5th floor, the rocks were rougher and the monsters were tougher. There were few mushroom men here, and even fewer of the 1st floor monsters, but looking inside the corridor, it looked like there was nothing there, which was odd. It might be a trap, like my first encounter. It could also be a corridor to a special monster room, which I¡¯ve encountered a few times before. Either way, I have to be careful, since I¡¯d rather not die inside a dungeon and it was around midday when I last saw the sky. Forgoing the idea of descending to the 10th floor, I decide to explore the new area. My dad was somewhere deeper, and my mother was probably still trailing me so I won¡¯t be in too much danger. It was a win-win situation, only that the win is determined by the prize that¡¯s on the end of the corridor. I almost jumped when mom dropped her invisibility spell beside me. ¡°Kane,¡± she says softly as she touches my shoulder. ¡°What are you planning?¡± Woman, don¡¯t fucking do that! Instead of trying to convey that thought, though, I instead pointed at the new corridor. She just nodded as she squinted at the dark hall, but not trying to move in. ¡°You know what these new corridors can have, right?¡± Of course I did. She was, after all, the one that sunk the dangers of a dungeon in my head. ¡°New extensions to dungeons can be much more dangerous than some of its deeper floors.¡± I did remember that tidbit, but I could already venture down to the dungeon¡¯s 12th floor, so I¡¯m a little confident in my current prowess. Seeing my resolute face, my mother just shook her head and sighed before smiling. ¡°Alright,¡± she relents. ¡°However, I¡¯ll come with you. Just to be safe. We don¡¯t know what¡¯s in there and I don¡¯t want to lose you,¡± it looked like she had wanted to say more, but she bit her lip and decided against it. Instead of asking about it, I decided to leave it alone and press forward. I loved my mom¡ªreally, I do¡ªbut I don¡¯t really want to get mixed up with some drama while I was inside a dungeon. That¡¯s one of the fastest ways to get killed and easily the most painful way to die¡ªpain emotionally while you¡¯re receiving pain physically. Horrible, horrible. As we ventured down the dark corridor, I couldn¡¯t help but trace my hand on its walls. They were smoother than the rest of the walls on the 5th floor, which was odd. I looked around with my TK Vision and tried to look for any holes, but there weren¡¯t any. Only rocks and pebbles, some low hanging vines that weren¡¯t Brambles, and a couple of mice that the dungeon spawned for gods know what. It was odd, but at least we haven¡¯t gotten destroyed by a bunch of Minotaurs yet. Those monsters were present on the 10th floor and dealt massive damage, but unlike the first five floors, the 6th to 10th floors were huge open space areas ranging from jungles to lava (that, for some reason, wasn¡¯t awfully hot) lakes that had some islands of stone of varying sizes. As we walked even further, the dark dungeon suddenly started gaining light. Glancing up, I noticed why¡ª pure magic crystals were embedded in the ceiling of the corridor, giving off a faint, blue light. I tried to pry one off with my Telekinesis, but it wouldn¡¯t budge. Mom was looking up in awe as she slowed down. ¡°Wow¡­¡± she murmured. Our walking speed was effectively halved as we observed the new additions. Some crystals formed spiral patterns while others looked as if they were just placed haphazardly. Soon, the crystals were no longer just stuck at the ceiling¡ªthey were at the walls, embedded in the ground. The corridor was bathed in blue light, mana was flowing in the air, somewhat disrupting my TK Vision, but not to an absurd extent, and just plain out making the place look great. ¡°This is beautiful,¡± Selene breathed in. I couldn¡¯t help but agree with her. The blue lights were fading away as we walked further, but as I started to wonder why, I started to hear running water. My gaze snapped forward. The corridor was starting to widen, meaning that there was a clearing somewhere in front, and apparently, that clearing had water, though if it was poisonous water or not was a different thing entirely. Mom surprised me by jogging past me, her eyes wide. I followed suit, running past pebbles and magic crystals. The sound of running water was more evident now, meaning that we were getting closer to the source. I could smell the water now as well¡ªit didn¡¯t smell poisonous, so it should be fine. What does poison smell like, anyway? Deciding to not think about it, I push forward, following my mother. As the corridor¡¯s ceiling finally disappeared, being replaced by a higher stone ceiling embedded with magic crystals and some vines. The walls were so far apart, but due to the magic crystals that were embedded and providing lighting, I could see them with my eyes. There were statues of cloaked people looking down and holding weapons of different kinds¡ªI saw a staff, a sword, some hammers and other medieval weapons. There was water coming out of the middle of the room, spewing upwards and giving us a view of a dungeon-formed stone fountain. There were weapons all around us¡ªlying on the ground, buried hilt deep on the ground, stuck on the wall, laid against a boulder or just plain out stacked with other weapons. I noticed a trend, however: all of them were melee weapons. I didn¡¯t see a single type of ranged weapon with the ones scattered around. I walk with caution as to not step on something sharp, but still look on with awe. I picked up a glaive. The blade was curved on the end of the handle¡ªa typical glaive, but a sturdy one. I gave a few practice swings, the weapon feeling natural with my Pole Arm skill. It was well crafted and balanced, very much unlike the weapons that the goblins or trolls dropped. I decided to keep it since it was better than my current one, which I had left at my home. ¡°This is odd,¡± Mom muttered. She examined a few of the weapons as I looked around. ¡°What¡¯s so special about this¡ª¡° Rumble. Ah. There it is. I was waiting for that to happen. There¡¯s always a catch with these kinds of things. The boulders that were all around us started forming into shapes. My eyes narrowed as I realized what exactly they were trying to become¡ªgolems. These golems were that were held together by magic. Incredibly resistant to physical attacks, which would normally make my Telekinesis nigh useless, but something my second job can thankfully handle. Mom tensed beside me, before she held out her hands. And then everything around us suddenly sunk a meter deeper, leaving the stone we¡¯re standing on to be the ones left untouched. The golems couldn¡¯t even form as they were immediately crushed by my mother¡¯s aura, the boulders that were coming together suddenly crashing down into the ground and being pressed into fine powder. The magic threads that were holding them together dissipated and went back into the dungeon, much to my disappointment, which I conveyed to my mom. After releasing her psychic hold, she noticed the look I gave her, making her chuckle, a little embarrassed and smile. ¡°Sorry, I thought they would be tougher than that.¡± I sighed. Mom just took some of the precious experience that I would have gotten for my job. No matter how serious she looked whenever we explored a dungeon together, I can¡¯t forget that she¡¯s an airhead. She forgets things, sometimes, and it sometimes worries me that she¡¯ll forget important things someday. That¡¯s how forgetful she was. I was actually getting a little pumped up, too. As soon as the last of the golems had faded, a white light shined at the opposite end of the room(if one started from the corridor, that is). The white light faded and started to shine more on specific places¡ªfour corners. A vertical rectangle, I realized¡ªa door, I realized after actually thinking it through, silently chastising myself for not thinking of it any sooner. A door to what, though? A boss room? I was a little intimidated by its appearance¡ªit was at least 20 feet in height, half the wall¡¯s total height and roughly 10 feet in width. It was big, and if it was a boss room, then I could consider the monsters of the room before it to be its lesser versions, so the boss might be a larger and tougher stone golem, or it might be a larger and tougher iron golem. My hold on my newly acquired glaive went tight as I watched a bright white line run down the middle of the vertical rectangle. The cave rumbles as the halves formed by the new line moved away from each other, smoke conjured by mana covering anything behind. I hold the glaive with both hands and point it towards the opening door, cautious of any hostile creature that might appear. The smoke faded, showing¡­ nothing. It was just more magic crystals and a tunnel that went up. I went in first, cautiously exploring the new area. There were a more rocks, more weapons, and more statues, but it was an obviously smaller room. My mom carefully walked forward, not letting anything hit her and not letting herself touch them. She glanced at the tunnel, and then at me. I pursed my lips then nodded. We¡¯ll push through. I walked up the tunnel, my grip on the new glaive tighter than before. I¡¯m only confident that I can survive because mom was here, what if something could one shot me in this tunnel? Instead of my fears however, I find that there¡¯s light. And not just any kind of light, but moon light. My eyes widened, and my slow pace became quick. ¡°Wait!¡± Mom yelled from behind me. ¡°Stop, we don¡¯t know what¡¯s in there!¡± She grabbed me with her Telekinesis, but I already saw it. It was another exit, and I saw the moon. I gestured wildly when she let me go. I pointed at the ceiling then formed a rough figure with my fingers. My mom¡¯s face scrunched up as she tried to understand what I meant. ¡°You¡­ saw a ball?¡± I shook my head and stopped trying to do charades when the things I saw was literally just a few meters away. I dragged her with me, and this time, she didn¡¯t fight it. I didn¡¯t expect what happened next. Because as soon as I stepped out of the exit and showed my mom the moon, she had frozen. She wasn¡¯t looking at the moon, but instead, right below us. I was beginning to wonder why the mana pressure was just the same, as well. Because right below us was a large group of adventurers bearing the mark of the new Viyan Empire. I turned towards mom, ready to gesture confusedly, but she just grabbed my hands. ¡°No. Run. Tell our family. We have to move.¡± Why? ¡°Because they¡¯re here. Tell Keith that they¡¯re here and¡ª¡° ¡°And what, fair lady?¡± A big man arrived at the scene, and he didn¡¯t look too pleased to see us both. ¡°Hello there,¡± He smiled with pearly white teeth, his hands on a battle axe strapped to his back. Even without sensing his mana, I can tell that he was at least A-ranked in power ¡°And I¡¯m sorry, but,¡± he hefted his battle axe, and I felt mom tense beside me as she urged me to run. ¡°I¡¯m going to have to kill you.¡±