Chapter 5: Level Eight

"So, are we just going to leave him here?"

Lunaire stared at the boy now sleeping quite peacefully on the ground for a while, a smile slowly appearing on her face.

"Over there." She said before pointing toward the dark hallway.

"There?" Her father inquired.

"Yes, I think his room is over there."

Just after saying that, she rushed to the candle stand closest to them and slowly picked up the lit candle to avoid putting the flames out.

Her father was still watching her without doing anything as she slowly made her way into the hallway, and after a while she called from there.

"It's this one."

Hearing that, her father picked up the boy and headed straight down the hallway.

He could see her daughter waiting for them in front of the first room which was to the right.

She opened the door for him as soon as he got close enough, making it easier for him to find his way into the room.

The only source of light in the room was the candle she was holding so they could only see parts of the room.

The room didn't have much in it though.

His bed was facing the door up ahead and was also close to the window, which was slightly opened, allowing tiny rays of moonlight to break into the room.

And beside his bed was a desk which had a lot of books stacked on it.

Without looking around much, Lunaire's father slowly laid the boy down on the bed before retreating a step.

"Okay, that does it." He said before turning to her daughter who was giving him quite the judgemental stare now.

"Is anything wrong, darling?"

Letting out a sigh of disappointment, she shoved the candle into his hand before heading toward the bed.

The blanket on the bed seemed to just be lying there, and picking it up, she proceeded to cover him with it, making sure to properly tuck him in.

"Oh…" Her father muttered in realization as a smile found its way to his face.

The boy was properly wrapped up in bed now and Lunaire was just standing there staring at him now.

"He seems to be too harsh on himself." Her father said.

"Huh?" Lunaire responded, turning to him.

"His body is way stronger than other kids his age, including you. Must be a result of consistent hammering and tempering. His training regimen must be way stricter than yours."

Listening to everything her father just said, Lunaire turned back to the boy, a glint of sadness in her eyes.

"Alright, Lunaire, it's time to go." Her father said as he walked closer to her. "It isn't safe for you to stay here too long, it isn't safe for him either."

She was a bit reluctant but still had no choice but to nod in agreement.

Turning immediately to leave, her arm slowly brushed against his desk. A sheet of paper slowly glided off the desk under that force and landed on her feet.

"Huh?" She muttered before bending down to pick up the sheet of paper.

The sheet of paper seemed to have something written on it.

'Qualifications for getting into Namon academy.' She read inwardly.

__________ __________

A few hours passed and the sun could be seen rising over Estero village.

The boy slept quite soundly throughout last night and was only woken by the rays of the sun peeping in through the slightly opened part of his window.

"Is someone trying to blind me?" He remarked, covering his eyes with his hands immediately after opening them.

It was only after slowly moving his hand away that he was able to see that it was the rays from the sun.

"Why is my window open? And why am I in my bed?"

He had a lot of questions in his mind, none of which he actually knew the answer to.

Slipping out of his blanket, he could see that he was shirtless with an armband around his left shoulder.

His mind suddenly flashed back to everything that happened yesterday, including the last part, the part where he got pressed against the wall before passing out.

"Yes, her father barged into the house thinking I was about to harm her." He muttered. "But I guess other than his initial reaction, he didn't hurt me."

He tried lifting his left arm at that moment to check the motion on his shoulder, and to his surprise, it didn't seem to be there as much pain as he expected.

"Huh? It's like it's almost healed, and my body feels a lot lighter than it used to." He smiled quite brightly as he swung his arms back and forth. "I suppose they must have left by now, she didn't seem to be from around here."

Letting out a sigh, he stretched out his right arm and opened a portal which he quickly reached into.

He was looking for something but then he suddenly grabbed something that made his eyes widen.

"Huh?" He muttered before pulling out a dagger.

Lunaire's dagger which had been with him from the moment he jumped in to save her.

'I forgot to return this to her.' He thought as he closely examined the dagger.

From the moment he got his hands on the dagger, he had been using it against the assassins, so he never got to see how specially designed the dagger was.

"Looks like a lot of work went into this." He muttered as he rubbed the green gems used to outline the letters carved onto the hilt.

'An initial or does it have some other special meaning?'

He was still pondering that when someone knocked on his door.

"Erian." A female voice called. "Are you up, dear?"

"Mom." He gasped, quickly springing up from his bed.

Turning to his left, he saw that the bloody clothes he returned with yesterday were still lying on the ground, and he did not want his mother to see those.

Reacting quickly, he grabbed the clothes and quickly shoved them under his bed.

"I'm coming in."

Pushing the door open to enter the room, she found Erian slowly opening the window, the sunlight quickly rushing into the room to brightly illuminate her face.

Looking at the woman standing in the room now, Erian didn't seem to have inherited anything from her.

Her long silver hair brushes against her back, swaying a little sideways from the quick gust of wind that suddenly rushed into the room.

Her emerald green eyes shone brightly under the sun's rays just like her radiant smooth skin.

All of that, coupled with her slender build, always made people mistake her for someone who was in her early twenties despite the fact that she was in her early thirties and had a seven-year-old child.

She was wearing a plain white long dress and was holding an empty laundry basket which indicated that she was there to collect someone's laundry.

"Good morning, mom." Erian greeted with a smile after turning to her.

"Morning." She responded with a smile before heading toward his laundry basket which was sitting by the corner filled with dirty clothes.

Humming a soft melodious song, she began to transfer the clothes to her basket, picking them one by one.

"You must have had a lot of fun yesterday, huh?" She asked, bringing her humming to a pulse.

"Huh?"

"Yeah, you were sound asleep when I came back; you usually wait for me no matter how late, so it was clear you were exhausted."

"I guess running around the market was tiring." Erian chuckled.

"Really?" Her mother responded, turning to him. "I'm sure it usually takes a lot more than that to tire you out?"

There was no response from Erian who just smiled at her awkwardly.

'Lying to her is really difficult.'

"Also, I have another question for you." She said, throwing the last cloth in his basket into her basket.

"Huh?"

"What happened to the clothes you wore yesterday? They don't seem to be here."

"Oh, those…." He muttered, rubbing his forehead. "I fell into a manure pit yesterday so I'll wash them myself."

"If you fell into a manure pit, that's the more reason why I should wash them."

"Mmm-mmm." He shook his head. "It's my fault for falling in there so I'll take responsibility and wash them."

"He's talking about responsibility now." She sighed. "Fine then, suit yourself, it's not like you're willing to give in."

Getting up on her feet with her now filled-up basket, she made her way to him.

"I'll be outside then, get your breakfast on the table." She remarked, rubbing his head.

"Mmm." He responded, grabbing her hand.

She suddenly felt something at that moment causing her to quickly grab his wrist, gently pressing down on it with her thumb, a confused expression on her face.

"Erian." She called.

"Yes."

"Didn't you just get to level seven last week?" She asked.

"Yes." He nodded, now looking a bit confused.

"Then why are you suddenly at level eight?"

"Level eight?" He gasped.

'I've reached level eight?'

Now staring at her son with mixed expressions of confusion and suspicion, she had a pondering thought wandering in her mind.

'Except for a few rare level boosts, the only condition that can make someone instantly jump a level is getting into a dangerous situation beyond what they can handle at their level. What exactly happened to this child yesterday?'