So you’ve already decided, then?” Cerion asked.

We were sitting at the small table in our living quarters, eating breakfast, when I decided to share my plans with Doran and Cerion. Both people were important to me, so I felt a little guilty, breaking the news that I would be heading back home so suddenly. Despite this, my mind was set and nothing could convince me to stay.

“I have. I intend to head back home and stay there for a few months. I want to meet my new sibling and share some time with my family. While I’m doing that, I intend to focus on a few skills to tier up, so that I can get the best possible class when I enter tier 3.” I explained.

“But what about the tournament? Aren’t you interested to see the tier 3s and 4s fight? They’re in a league of their own!”

I shook my head in response. “I’m not interested. I just want a break from… all of this, you know?”

Cerion sighed, but relented. Most likely, he related to how I felt. Unlike me, however, even heading home wouldn’t equate to taking a break from the political environment he had grown up in.

“You know you can always come with me, right? That, or you could just come visit my family after the tournament…” I suggested, in an attempt to share some of the things I previously took for granted. Cerion refused, though.

“Thanks for offering, but no. After the tournament my father will take me with him on a journey. I’m not sure how long I’ll be gone or where we’re going, but I can’t join you and your family.”

I shrugged, thinking that some father/son bonding time might just be what Cerion needed.

Then, the stoic Doran joined the conversation.

“It’s not unusual for young classers to get caught up in leveling and progressing. They tend to forget about the things that make life beautiful along the way. I, myself, am an example of this. It is only now that I am recovering my relationship with my father that I see this. Remember, both of you. Power, classes, levels… they are all but a means to an end. To share our lives with those that are precious to us, to do the things that make us happy… those are the most valuable treasures one can gain. Power can help you achieve that, but it’s worthless on its own.”

Though I nodded along, I didn’t entirely agree with him. Family was important, no doubt. But if that was all there was to life, why would anyone bother tiering up in the first place? In that case, it was better to stay weak and not become noteworthy. There were other motivations that drove me beyond living a comfortable life. I intended to find out what they were as I grew, since I had plenty of time.

“Regardless, I wish you both luck on your path.” Doran finished.

Sighing, I reminisced on the time I had spent with the both of them. Doran had been my mentor when I first entered the guild. His guidance had been essential to my growth back then. I didn’t even know which way to hold a sword, at first.

Then, there was Cerion. My best friend. A peer that had such similar yet different circumstances from me that caused us to hit it off immediately. Together, we were introduced to the wider world and we saved each other’s lives more than once. Perhaps the fact that I respected his personal strength was most important of all. It had prevented me from being caught up in my own progress. If he hadn’t been there, I would’ve just become another Arcellus, hellbent on power and combat.

“Well, it’s time for me to go. I don’t know when I’ll see either of you again, so goodbye.”

“Don’t you mean ‘until next time’?” Cerion said with a grin.

“If fate permits, we will definitely meet again.” Doran added with a small smile.

“Right. Until next time.” I said, while walking out of the quarters we had been using these past few weeks.

With my sword attached to my hip and my new gauntlets adorning my hands and arms, I sauntered through the busy cavern passages of the witch hunters’ guild’s headquarters. I felt somewhat separated from all of my guild mates, who were hurriedly working on some task or other. Even as large monsters were shooed through the caves, I didn’t bother looking up. Instead, my head was in the clouds as some of my experiences from the last few months flashed past my eyes. Ever since my awakening, I had felt so… alive. I had endeavored to level up in a hurry, constantly moving from one task to the next, from one monster corpse to the next. Mission after mission, exploration after exploration. All of them had been a joy to experience, compared to the life of training I had imposed on myself back home.

And yet, I was about to return there, which gave me mixed feelings. Still, I was hopeful. This time, I wasn’t going there to train like a madman. Rather, I intended to thoroughly enjoy the family I had denied myself before, as if I was cursing the images the system had shown me out of spite.

A few minutes later, I climbed up the well and found myself near the abandoned church in the slums. I nodded towards a nearby hoodlum, who I knew to actually be a guard for the guild, and headed towards the main gate of the capital.

Even having seen the capital's opulence in detail this past month, the city’s walls still caused me to gawk. Its immense size made it look like it was reaching for the skies, as if to taunt Helios himself.

Just when I was about to approach the gates, a man with a stubbly beard approached me with wonder in his eyes.

“Excuse me…” he said, “Aren’t you that ‘dark knight’ from the tourney?”

I was about to deny his claims in hopes of getting away without issue, but it was already too late, since a crowd quickly formed around me. I had hoped to avoid this ordeal by staying on narrow roads and alleyways, but here near the gates, my fate had been sealed by one curious citizen.

The crowd quickly encircled me and started chattering and asking questions.

“Isn’t he that…?”

“What’s he doing here?”

“Why hasn’t he been apprehended by the guard?! Necromancers shouldn’t…”

Don’t curse out our kingdom’s talents! Are you going to curse at our tier 6 pillars next? Why don’t we hand the entire country to our enemies on a platter, you foul…”

“Don't act like…”

“You moronic…!”

The chatter soon turned into an outright argument about whether or not I deserved the right to live, so I shimmied out of the crowd as best I could and pushed my way over to the gates, where the guards scattered the crowd. Thank Helios for their help, because a few minutes later I was heading through the gates, on my way back home.

Something told me that the newspaper’s stories about me had only gotten more conflicting as time went on. Still, now that I had left the city, that was no longer my problem.

-scene transition-

Two weeks later, I found myself on a hill overlooking Rola, my hometown. I hadn’t used any skills to traverse the forest I had passed through and stayed away from towns and cities along the way. The reason for taking my time to get to Rolla, was because I didn’t want anyone to know that my family lived here. As far as anyone influential was concerned, I lived in Reito, the biggest eastern city of Roa.

In the kingdom of Roa, every town or city’s name had to start with the letter ‘R’. Other kingdoms employed similar practices by utilizing a letter or a series of letters. I had learned from my uncle that, on this continent, that was also a way to establish your country’s power. Powerful kingdoms like Roa could lay claim to a single letter, while weaker countries chose a series of two or three letters. Of course, there were always nay-sayers that refused to follow this tradition. I had heard that some kind of republic in the far south refused this practice, calling it barbaric and childish.

It didn’t surprise me that Roa still followed this tradition, however. It was an old country, and our current king was, if anything, barbaric and childish.

I stood on top of that hill for a few minutes, taking my time to appreciate the view. Rolla was rather small. It only had a population of 3000 ish, only controlled a single, low-level dungeon and all business remained local. Still, that also gave the town some charm. It meant that few travelers ever passed through and that everybody knew each other. Well, almost everybody. Apart from our customers, I couldn’t remember a single name from my time here.

Not wanting to stand out, I changed out of my armor and put on some day-to-day clothes before slowly walking down the hill, towards the town gate, where I happened upon a guard that seemed very familiar to me. It was the guard that had let me into the dungeon on my first dive.

I acknowledged him by nodding as I passed. From the corner of my eye, I saw him doing a double take after I had passed, probably recognising me as well.

A few minutes later, I found myself in front of a small bakery off to the side of Rolla’s main street. It had a quaint sing above the door that said ‘Cliff and Arianne’s bakery’. After a nervous sigh, I opened the door and heard the bell jingle. Nobody was manning the counter, but I heard a familiar voice call out from another room.

“Be right there, one moment please!”, the aged female voice said. My mother.

A moment later, a very pregnant middle-aged lady appeared from a beach room with a tray of sugar pastries; which she set on the rack behind the counter. Absent-mindedly, she greeted me.

“Welcome to Cliff and Arianne’s bakery, what can I get you today?” my mom asked me politely.

“How about a hug and a ‘welcome home’?” I asked with barely contained mirth in my voice.

She spun around before I could blink, and stared at me with wide eyes, which quickly filled with tears.

“A- Arthur?” she said, after a moment of disbelieving silence.

“In the flesh.” I replied, as I noticed that even my eyes were becoming watery.

Before I could react, my mother had turned into a blur and enveloped me in a bone-crushing hug. “W- welcome b- back…” she said, sobbing into my shirt.

“Be careful, mom! You’re pregnant!” I said jokingly, before hugging her back. I had all the time in the world to do so, after all.