Chapter 17

Aaron returned home as quickly as possible, without alerting the students around him. When he saw that he was the first in the entire alliance, he was surprised.

He knew that he hunted a lot of monsters inside that dungeon and expected to be at the top of his school and the city at max. The result of the exam was supposed to be a surprise for his parents.

Every day that he went to the dungeon to level up, they were in fear if he would return unharmed or not.

Aaron understood their fears. They are awakened but their profession is chef and they work in a restaurant. As a chef, they can level up by cooking food. So they never went out to kill the monsters to level up but they hear the news of combat awakeners who die on a regular basis.

This was why they were afraid for Aaron's Life. He is not a pure combat awakener. If he was, then they could trust in his combat power, but as a summoner-kind class, he is vulnerable without his summons to protect him.

So, Aaron wanted to show his parents that there was no need to be afraid and that he could take care of himself.

What's the best way to do so?

To reach the top of the school and city.

This would be useful in two ways.

One, it could help in alleviating his parent's worries.

Second, it would attract the best of the academies in the alliance to offer him the best contract. As a Death Mage, it would be very difficult to find resources that suit him. He would rather concentrate on levelling up as soon as possible, than wasting time on searching for those resources.

With the 10xEXP bonus, he can level up faster but he is not an idiot to not see the signs of trouble out there. Though the alliance try to keep the news of the dangers that the world is facing, a secret, there are many slip-ups.

Aaron may not understand what exactly is going on but he knew that he knew that the world is far more dangerous than what the alliance shows the public.

His parents are not combat-awakened and they can't protect themselves.

The protection of his family falls on him. In order to do so, he has to reach higher ranks as soon as possible. With his talent, he was sure that he could reach a higher rank but not sure if that would happen before any disaster happened.

If he fails to achieve that, his parents might pay the price for that. It would not be something that he can accept.

Academies have access to many resources and one of them is the dungeons that the students can freely access.

Academies have a number of dungeons in their possession, and a top academy would have many more than an average academy. These dungeons are for the exclusive use of the students and staff of the academy.

Yeah, dungeons either are under the control of the academies or the hunter's guild. Of course, there are a few wild dungeons out there in the wild that no one controls but they are very dangerous.

Many times there are robberies and murders to get the resources that the dungeon divers had got from the dungeon exploration. It is not something that people do when there is authority that prohibits such things but out in the wild, there are no laws.

There is only one law, Might is Right. The strength of a person determines whether they can live or not, nothing else.

There is nothing the alliance or the guild could do about this as the cost of maintenance would outweigh the profits a lot. So, they are not controlled by them, making them the best places for bandits and alike.

---

Anyway, Aaron seeing his true rank was surprised and he knew that he might not return home if he didn't skip as soon as possible.

Many would want interviews or tips about how to reach the top. He is not going to waste his time doing those unnecessary things. He is tired for the day and wants to rest for the night.

Since the results came today, the academies will come tomorrow morning. I mean, they would send some agent to recruit him to their academy, with some benefits attached to joining them.

He has to deal with them tomorrow and that is not something that he can decide on tired mind. He needs to be at 100% capacity tomorrow.

The decisions that he had to make tomorrow would decide his future. That is no small matter. Depending on how tomorrow goes, his life will be decided. More than that, his parents' lives would be decided.

In such an unsafe world, he needs to be strong enough and wealthy enough to protect his parents properly. Even if he was strong enough, he couldn't protect them 24X7.

The best way was to hire bodyguards but people can't be brought. So the best way is to buy some defence artefacts that can protect them from any damage. Also, some healing items that can help them survive if by chance they are injured in any way.

When he is around, he can protect them but he has his own life and would not be with them all the time. So, these precautions had to be taken for their protection.

Since he decided to avoid the crowds, he took the long way to return home. He wore a cap to cover his face a bit so that people might not recognize him quickly.

It took a lot longer than he anticipated before he returned home.

---

When he returned home, the first thing that he felt was the smell coming from the kitchen.

"Why am I smelling Carrik Fry?" he muttered to himself.

He was able to distinguish the smell because it was his favourite food. It is a fry made from Carrik Fish, that is local to Rock City.

It was then he saw his father coming out of the kitchen, wearing his usual attire as a chef, "Go wash up. Your mother and I are making your favourite".

It doesn't take a genius to know what was happening. They should have heard about the exam results and the reason why they had returned before they usually did and were preparing his favourite food.