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He had no idea what was going on. “I…underground, in the mines. Nestor asked me to help his team with the cave-in thing, and…”

Turin’s eyes grew wide. “You were in the cave-in? Why didn’t anyone tell me?”

“I hadn’t reported going down there. I, I just thought I’d get Nestor to let Garon know once it was done. Listen, what do you mean I’ve been gone for—”

“Are the rest alive?” Turin asked, interrupting him. “They—everyone caught in the cave-in was pronounced dead. There were funerals and everything. Are they…I mean, can we…”

Zeth shook his head. The small movement felt like it took all of his energy. “…I was the only survivor.”

“How did you survive? I mean, there wasn’t any food or water down there, right? And how did you dig your way out?”

Zeth opened his mouth, but no words came out for a moment. “I didn’t…I didn’t need to eat or drink. It was only a day.”

“It wasn’t, man. I’m telling you. You’ve been gone for…” he trailed off, eyes filling with tears. “We thought you were dead, man. The funerals for Nestor and the rest, and then you disappear at the same time…It was hard. For all of us. Don’t play with me, man. Where were you? What happened?”

Zeth’s face flushed white. “My family. Sophie, she thought I was…”

Turin nodded slowly.

I had a funeral. Everyone thought I was dead.

I made my nine year old sister go to my funeral.

Zeth set off, walking briskly down the road. “I need to see them.”

“Wait!” Turin called, running after him. “You said you didn’t eat or drink anything the whole time?”

But hunger was the least of his worries right now. He needed to tell Sophie he was alive. “I drank some water out of the river down south when I escaped.”

“Wha—when did you get to the river?! I thought you were in the mines!”

Zeth turned to look at Turin, who was hurrying to walk beside him. “Why did nobody come for us?”

He frowned. “What?”

“There was a cave-in, and no rescue came.” Apparently, nobody came for four fucking months, however that’s possible. “Nestor said Garon promised him that he’d send down a rescue team if, and I quote, ‘he felt even the slightest tremor in the ground.’ I remember those words exactly because they were some of the last ones he said to me. So what happened? Was there some sort of disaster up here?”

“I…” Turin faltered. “Garon didn’t want to send down a rescue team. He said…he said that there was no use, he knew from the feeling that there was no hope of anyone surviving something that intense.”

He was clearly fucking wrong, wasn’t he?! Zeth wanted to shout. Clearly someone was sitting there, waiting for help.

“Why not send people down there anyway, in case he was wrong?” He asked through clenched teeth, fighting to keep his voice calm.

“Some people tried to convince him, but…He, he said it would be a waste of money. That paying the Excavators for something like that would cost the guild a month of profits. I tried, man, I did everything I could, but—“

“I’m not mad at you,” Zeth said. He tried to calm his anger. “Thank you for trying. I know Garon is a…He makes it hard to get things past him.”

He kept the rest of his jumbled thoughts silent as they raced to his parents’ farmhouse.

Four months? How in hell has it been four months? Was the cave enchanted, or something? Was there some sort of time dilation in effect? I haven’t ever heard of something like that, though.

He frowned. No. No, the answer wasn’t something insane like time dilation. He thought back to when he’d first woken up when he got his Class. His whole body had ached and felt stiff, like his limbs hadn’t been used in forever.

Was I seriously knocked out for four months? Did that fucking ritual steal four months from my life?!

It would only be possible if the ritual had preserved his body somehow, keeping him from dying of thirst and starvation in his stupor, but that sort of thing was something he’d heard of. The Inquisitor Class had a pretty famous Skill that forced them to meditate for several days, sitting perfectly still, in order to read a person’s Status, and they never had problems with dying of thirst during that time. It was entirely possible that the ritual had just applied a much longer version of that Skill’s effect.

The only thing that could even remotely be considered an upside to all this was that the mage probably didn’t expect to see him. Unless the time it would knock him out was some sort of exact recorded science, which he doubted if the ritual took years to conduct and there could only be one Blood Magus in the world at any given time, then they would have no idea when he’d be waking up—in fact, they may have just have assumed he died in the cave-in or something.

And if he was lucky, then it was possible they didn’t even know passing out for that long was a part of it at all. Maybe the Skill didn’t tell you that sort of thing would happen, or it only happened because Zeth didn’t have the Blood Mage Class to start with—the ritual had said that Blood Magus was an ‘upgraded version’ of Blood Mage, after all. It was completely possible he’d have the drop on them.

He exited the main residential town areas, Turin following behind. All of the houses there were technically owned by the mining guild, having been built to house their employees close to the mountain, and over time, more and more people unaffiliated with the guild started moving in as well. Though, for whatever reason, the town never really evolved away from Otis and Roul’s being the dominant entity. Even when they had a lord ruling over the land, appointed by the empire once population reached a certain level, there wasn’t much commerce that wasn’t directly controlled by the guild.

His parents were some of the people trying to break that mold. He’d been raised on their struggling farm, helping them with the work as they attempted to make ends meet for his whole childhood. They never really got the place off the ground, and when Zeth was coming into his teenage years and made it clear he intended to go and work for the mining guild—the only place he could actually make money—when he reached working age, they decided to have another kid—his sister, Sophie.

Since then, he’d been the main one paying for his family’s expenses. He knew his parents were wasting a lot of it on their farm, but Sophie had potential. He knew just by talking to her that she was gonna grow up to be great. So if he had to be the one to pay so she could eat enough every day, maybe get an education, then so be it.

It didn’t take long after leaving the residential area for his parents’ farm to come into view. There were very few people still trying to till the land out here, the fact that doing anything other than mining in this town would end with you destitute having long since been common knowledge among its residents.

Zeth practically sprinted to the door of the house. The crops surrounding the place were different, but not unfamiliar. Really, now that he thought about it, it should’ve been immediately obvious that so much time had passed—the summer weather had practically ended, a chill now barely permeating the air. And the crops planted in the ground confirmed it. It was already almost autumn.

But he barely paid attention to any of that. The moment he got to the doorstep, he didn’t hesitate in throwing it open and charging inside.

He glanced around the living room, finding nobody, then moved into the kitchen. Empty.

“Hello?” he called out. No response.

Turin ran in after him, leaning on his knees and out of breath. “They…They’re probably outside working.”

Zeth nodded and turned, ready to go find them, but Turin pushed a hand out to block him. He gasped another breath. “You don’t go. You haven’t eaten in months. I don’t know how you survived so far, but you need to put something in your mouth right now. I’m afraid you’re gonna suddenly collapse and die if you move any more.”

“I…” Zeth was about to argue, but at the mention of food, it was like his stomach realized how hungry it was. He was weak, his vision was spotty, and now, looking at the chairs around the dinner table, the faint smell of breakfast still lingering in the air, he had a hard time resisting. “…Okay. Fine.”

Turin nodded, guiding Zeth to a chair and then walking over to the cabinets lining the countertops. “Where do you keep your food again? I haven’t been here since I’d come to sleep over when we were, like, twelve.”

“Should be some in those bottom cabinets in front of you,” Zeth said weakly. He was really feeling the exhaustion now.

“Ah, here.” Turin pulled out some of the stockpiled food grown from the previous season. There were always plenty of leftovers that they couldn’t manage to sell—too much, in fact. “Uh…I don’t know what all of this is good unprepared; I’m just gonna grab a few handfuls and bring it to you.”

Zeth nodded. “Thanks.”

The moment Turin placed the food in front of him, Zeth began grabbing items at random and shoving them into his salivating mouth. He was much hungrier than he’d realized. He snapped carrots off between his teeth, bit into juicy tomatoes, and shoved whole sticks of asparagus down his throat. He’d never understand why these crops wouldn’t sell well. They were absolutely delicious.

Turin, after staring in awe for a moment at the sheer volume of food Zeth was consuming, went and grabbed him a cup of water, as well.

After setting it down, he nodded slowly. “Okay, I’ll go look for your parents.”

Zeth swallowed. “You can wait for me to finish and I’ll come with you.”

“No, no, you just rest, man. And…maybe take a bath while I’m looking for them? If you have the time and energy, I guess. It’s just…you’re in kind of a sorry state, and I don’t want them to worry. Covered in dust and dirt and…is that blood?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Zeth said. “And please hurry.”

“R-right.” Turin took one last look at him, like he was afraid his friend would disappear if he let him out of sight for too long. But after that moment, he turned and rushed out the door.

Zeth did, in the end, have some time to wipe himself off with a wet rag. He couldn’t do anything about his tattered clothes—all his replacement outfits were in his employee housing in one of the guild neighborhoods—but he could at least wash the blood off himself. Or, most of it. The wound torn across his forearm was still quite visible, even if it wasn’t actively bleeding anymore.

Stolen story; please report.

As he finished eating and started cleaning himself, he got an unexpected notification that made him chuckle.

[Requirement fulfilled: Eat two days’ worth of your average daily consumption of food in under one hour.

You have unlocked Universal Skill: Binge Eating.]

He glanced at the Skill just for posterity’s sake, but like most Universal Skills, not being limited to any specific Class led to it being much less powerful than his Blood Magus options.

Basically, for sixteen Skill Points, it would allow him to store more food in his stomach. So, he could eat a few days’ worth of food all at once, then not eat for the next few days and still be perfectly comfortable. It seemed neat to have, but definitely not worth the cost.

However, the unlock did remind Zeth to take some time and organize his thoughts. Making some sort of a plan when it came to what Skills to buy in the future was basic practice for most Classers.

The way he saw it, he had a few goals right now:

1: Don’t get killed by the Blood Mage who murdered his guildmates;

2: Confront Garon for leaving him and everyone else to die;

3: Don’t get arrested for having what was almost certainly an illegal Class;

And 4: Level Up, which helped with the other three goals.

Right now, he wasn’t quite strong enough to reliably complete any of the first three. Avoiding getting seen and arrested would be difficult if he intended to continue practicing his ritual magic, and he didn’t really have the ability to fight back or escape currently. And, similarly, doing anything about the mage that wasn’t “hope they don’t notice me” wasn’t entirely within his ability, either.

So, Leveling Up would be his main priority for now.

He looked over his Status. He was only Level 3, but he’d already earned more Stats in the past day than some people would obtain over the course of their whole life. The only four Stats that’d changed were the four he got inherently from his Levels—Endurance, which had started at 6 from him having used a couple Skill Points to increase it when he was younger, was now up to 15, Awareness at 3, Poise at 6, and Shaping, his highest by far, at 21.

Then, there were Skills.

[PURCHASED CLASS-EXCLUSIVE SKILLS

Hellfire Ritual - Rank 2

Empowerment Ritual - Rank 3

Ritual Circle Mastery - Rank 5

UNLOCKED CLASS-EXCLUSIVE SKILLS

Forbidden Knowledge - Cost: 25

Vile Focus - Cost: 8

Unholy Strength - Cost: 18]

He had five Skill Points right now, which wasn’t enough to buy anything he’d unlocked. Though, he was close to Vile Focus, whose requirement-decreasing effects he certainly felt would be of serious use. Now running the risk of being discovered at any moment while he was working on a ritual circle, he’d want to take as little time drawing them as possible.

Though, the Skill didn’t actually make him any stronger in combat, which was something he sorely lacked currently. He wouldn’t always have the luxury of taking a couple hours to set up some Hellfire Rituals and hoping his enemies stepped on them.

There were also his Universal Skills, which he’d mostly disregarded so far.

[PURCHASED UNIVERSAL SKILLS

Exercise - Rank 10

Steady Hands - Rank 10

Butchering - Rank 10

Meditation - Rank 10

Prayer - Rank 10

Human - Rank 10

UNLOCKED UNIVERSAL SKILLS

Binge Eating - Cost: 16

Dig - Cost: 21

Darkvision - Cost: 18

(28 more)]

The list of Universal Skills that he’d unlocked but not purchased over the course of his life was much too long to read through in its entirety, but most of them were in the same camp as Binge Eating—way too many Skill Points for way too niche of an effect. And he’d already grabbed up any of the ones that cost less than ten Skill Points—the profit Skills. Those were Prayer, Meditation, and Exercise. Plus Human, which everyone began with for free to get them started.

The only two Universal Skills he’d ever bought that cost more than ten—the ones he’d actually spent Skill Points to acquire—were Butchering and Steady Hands. Both of which he regretted taking.

Back when he was ten or so years old, his mom had started wanting him to get seriously involved with the family farm. They’d been failing with crops, so now they wanted to go all-in on animal product, and ten-year-old Zeth was the one who she put in charge of the operation.

His father had tried to help out where he could—he’d always been less gung-ho about the farm idea, and he was clearly opposed to forcing Zeth to start working at such a young age—but he was still busy with his own duties, so Zeth was the primary person raising the pigs, cows, and chickens.

And, of course, when the time came, he was the one to slaughter them.

So, to help with his cutting of the meat, his mom ended up convincing him to purchase Butchering and Steady Hands. The Skills certainly helped him cut better pieces of meat, and Zeth had gotten better and better at his job the more he worked, but by the time a few years rolled by it became clear that selling animal meat was simply not profitable.

So the animal endeavor ended up failing, as anything related to the farm usually did. Too many animal casualties to monster attacks out in the relatively unprotected outskirts, and too much competition with traders who came in from out of town with their own meat, preserved using specialized magic items. Turning a profit in those conditions would be tough for anyone.

Zeth just wished his mother could have figured that fact out before making him spend a total of twenty-seven Skill Points on those two Skills—a seven point net loss after getting them both to Rank ten. He would have certainly loved to have seven more Points now, that was for sure.

If he found some time, one thing he could do was find another Universal profit Skill to purchase and train. Prayer and Meditation were the two that were the most well-known to give good Skill Points in return for the work put in, and Exercise was probably the most popular third choice after them, but stopping by the library to find some others that were worth unlocking and purchasing could be beneficial. Especially now that he had a Class, the options available as to what would be feasible to train had widely expanded.

But that was for later. Now, Zeth waited to see his family. He didn’t really feel like he missed them—he’d seen them just a couple days ago, from his perspective—but he was still filled with nervous anticipation, hoping he hadn’t been away for any big events.

But overwhelming all of those feelings was the desire to make things right. His family had him stolen from them, and he’d had months of his own life stolen, as well. He just hoped things could go back to relative normalcy.

It was only after a few minutes of waiting at the kitchen table after washing himself that Zeth heard the door open. He immediately shot to his feet and turned to look at the doorway.

The first person through, sprinting into the room like an arrow shot by the highest-Level Archer in all the land, was Zeth’s little sister.

She tackled into him, burying her face into his stomach. Zeth coughed, laughing at the sudden impact. “Woah, Sophie! You’re strong! Careful, or you’ll break my ribs.”

“Don’t ever leave again!” she shouted, face still smothered in his tattered shirt.

He sighed and hugged her. “Yeah. I’m sorry.”

Another voice came from outside. “…It can’t be.”

Hesitantly walking through the door, as though afraid she’d see that Zeth wasn’t there after all, was his mother. Tears were already welling in her eyes, hands clasped to her mouth the moment she saw him. Her dirtied blue dress told him she’d been working on her knees outside all morning.

“I can’t believe it,” she said, standing in the doorway. “I’d lost hope. I…”

Sophie looked up, long blonde hair a mess across her face. She’d gotten their dad’s hair, while Zeth had gotten their mom’s brown curls. Sniffling, she huffed out a breath. “I always knew you were coming back! I knew for sure.”

“She never stopped looking,” their mom said, smiling.

Sophie looked back at her angrily. “You told me to stop wasting my time and go back to working! You were wrong, it wasn’t a waste.”

Zeth frowned. “I thought she wasn’t working on the farm yet. She’s only nine.”

His mom sighed. “Well, it’s just…Look, let’s not argue right now. I know you disagree, but I’ve been doing the best I can. It’s not important right now, besides. Where even were you?!”

Zeth shook his head, unsure how to begin explaining. “I can barely understand what happened, myself. I was in the cave-in, and…Actually, where’s dad? I want to see him, and it’d be pointless to explain while he’s not here.”

Zeth’s mom gave him a strange look, and Sophie shoved her face back into his shirt.

“Mom,” he said. “Where’s dad?”

“…He started working really hard after you disappeared, since we weren’t getting the income from your work anymore. And, and we needed to expand our farmland some, anyway, so we could try some new crop I’d bought, so…”

Zeth looked at her. She’d been watery-eyed since she walked in, but now the tears were flowing down her face. “What are you saying?”

“About two weeks ago, he…he was out tilling some land near the forestline. He was supposed to be in long before dinner, and he wasn’t coming, so I went to check on him, but when I found him, he…Oh, gods.” She stopped, unable to continue, and sobbed into her hands.

Zeth tried to step forward and comfort her, but Sophie was latched onto his torso harder than ever, holding him in place.

“Hey,” he said gently. “Mom.”

She took a deep breath, wiping her eyes with her sleeves. “Um, it was bandits. They were Wicked thralls. I’m not sure if it was in the news before you disappeared, but a gang of them popped up around the outskirts not too long ago. They went after him because he was alone, I think, and they had combat Classes, so…I, I stumbled upon his body, and it didn’t look like he went without a fight.”

The blood drained from Zeth’s face. “…What?”

“They, they didn’t even take anything,” she got out between sobs. “Just…senseless! Like he was nothing but a Level to them.”

“He’s…?”

“We had the funeral the day after,” she said. “He’s gone.”

“He is not!” Sophie shouted, words muffled. “Dad’s coming back too!”

“Sweetie,” their mom said, voice broken. “I don’t think…I don’t think it’s healthy to keep hoping for something that isn’t possible.”

“Zeth came back,” she said.

“Zeth wasn’t, well, he was missing. We thought he was gone, but we weren’t sure. But your father…We know where he is.”

“Dad’s coming back!” she shouted again. “I know he is. You’re wrong. I know he’s coming back for sure.”

Zeth fell into his chair. His legs couldn’t support his body. His mouth couldn’t move. His mind couldn’t bear reality.

He stared at a blank wall.

“…Bandits did this?” he eventually asked. “They were Wicked thralls? Where are they?”

“They were caught, eventually. They’re in jail awaiting trial.”

“They aren’t dead?” These bastards killed dad and they aren’t already six feet under?

“No, the Inquisitors aren’t coming for a few more months.”

“What do you need Inquisitors for?”

She gave him a confused look. “They’re the only ones who can legally carry out executions. L-look, I don’t think this is a good thing to talk about. If you need rest, then—“

“I’m fine. I don’t need to rest.” You’re exactly right. They’re the only ones who can legally carry out executions.

She took a breath and nodded. “Okay, honey. And, um, you can stay with us from now on, of course. I can fix up your old bedroom in no time, and—“

Zeth blinked. “Wait, what? Why wouldn’t I stay at my house?”

Her face fell. “You, you haven’t heard. Oh, it’s just one bad thing after another, I know.”

“What is it?” Zeth asked, brows furrowed.

“When you went missing…Well, once you were gone for a few days, your manager, Garon, came by and informed us he’d, er, replaced your position. So, if you came back, you would be out of the guild.”

Zeth blinked. “Garon fired me. And kicked me out of my house.”

“I…I’m sure we can find work for you on the farm. If you’d like, you can pick up working as a butcher again—we still keep a couple animals, and we can always try to get the whole process working better this time. Maybe people will be more willing to buy from us? Oh, and now that you’re back, you can go and pick up your last salary, too! So maybe that can fund us for a little while longer.”

“Last salary? Why wouldn’t Garon just give that to you? He knows you’re my mom.”

“W-well, I saw him at, er…at your father’s funeral. He just happened to be passing by on the street, and I came up to him and asked about it, and he said that he didn’t technically need to give that out since you weren’t around to claim it. And, since the guild only pays out to family in the case of a confirmed death, and we couldn’t prove one way or another where you were…But, but now that you’re back, you can go and get the money! So, it’s all okay. No need to worry. So, if you go and do that, we might have enough to afford another pig or two in addition to…”

Zeth had stopped listening.

Garon fired me for going missing in the cave-in that he refused to save me from. And then, upon seeing my grieving mother at her own husband’s funeral, he refused to pay her the money that was rightfully hers.

It was like he was so angry, it looped back around to perfect calm.

Oh.

I should update my to-do list.

1: Kill the Blood Mage;

2: Kill Garon;

3: Kill the bandits;

4: Level Up until you’re strong enough to do items 1-3.

He focused on 4. He needed to get as powerful as possible, as quickly as possible. That meant he needed more sacrifices.

“Hey mom,” he said. “Yeah, I’ll do it. I’ll work as a butcher again.”

Her eyes lit up. “Really? You will?”

“I will. You still have that old shed I can work in, right?”

“Yes, yes, of course, whatever you need.”

“Great. Just get me some animals I can kill, and I’ll do what I need to do.”