The system really took everything from me. And what should 98% human mean? I’m still perfectly fine, asshole.

Curses at the system aside, my status definitely reset to its earlier days. Hahhh, let’s do this. Open jobs.

“I choose wizard.”

 The attribute bonusses should take care of my immediate need for higher psychic attributes. Let’s put some points into the physical ones, I don’t want to be unable to run if something worse than that cyclops comes.

Now let’s put the skill points into fire-magic.

I let the familiar knowledge into my mind. Makes me wonder if I have to rely on the system to learn them anew. I let the mana run through my body, before pointing my finger outwards. A soft glow appeared as I traced an imaginary spell circle. As I finished the last line, I felt my mana pour into the circle, only to have it fade away after sucking everything out of my pool. Not even enough mana for the highest basic tier spell…

Then came the drowsiness. Overuse of mana always ended with it. I let myself fall into a nearby chair, watching over the other two before falling asleep.

I walked behind her. The sun gently caressed her body, lighting her like a fairy.

“What do you think we should name our kids?”

“You pick a girl’s name and I pick a boy’s name, how about this?”

“You should really be more invested with this! It’s about our and their future!”

She scolded me, but it only brought a smile to my face. While her words may have sounded a little bit angry her tone was gentle and full of affection.

“You know how bad I am at choosing names.” I laughed, making her let out a sigh.

“Still, at least try to think of a girl’s name too, I already have a few ideas for a boy’s name too.”

“Unfair.” My words made her chuckle, the winds carrying her laughter like a bird’s song.

I pondered for a moment. “How about Amy?”

She stopped in her steps before spinning around, the sun in her back, making me unable to see her face.

“Hey, what do you think?”

She stood there silently. I walked over to her as I smelled a sickening scent. One I was all too familiar with. Blood. I rushed over as she began to fall. When I neared her, I saw it, a gaping hole inside her chest.

I lifted her body in my arms and looked at her, only to see a black shadow covering her face, twisting and twitching as if alive. And then I heard her voice.

“Why did I have to die?”

I shot upwards. It’s been a long time since I’ve had that dream. That nightmare. My body was soaked in sweat. Yeah, this is what happens when I’m not vaporizing it immediately. “Haha.” A hollow chuckle escaped my lips.

I looked around the room, seeing the other two lying on a couch, the kid cradled in his mother’s arms. Would it have been like this, I wondered. I walked over to the window, looking outside into the dark when I heard something behind me. I shot around, my hands catching fire, preparing to strike whatever sneaked upon me, only to be met with a small puppy, sitting there and staring at me.

A Shadow Wolf seems like the kid didn’t lie about his stats. Typically, summoners got stronger monster to accompany them if they had higher psyche stats, making them harder for people with a lower stat, as they couldn’t even defeat the weaker monster. Of course, this one was still a puppy, but it would grow along with the kid.

I released my flames, the wolf walking back over to the child to lay down beside him. I took a chair and placed it next to the window, watching over the street. I’ve got enough nightmares for today.

When the sun rose up, I walked other to the two. No, it’s three now. “Wake up. We gotta move on.” They stirred, awoken by my voice. As Marc rubbed his eyes, still sleepy from the early rise, his mother brushed his hair with her fingers.

“It wasn’t a dream.” She whispered, barely audible enough for me to hear.

“No. And it’s going to stay this way.” I walked over to my bag, taking out something to eat, before looking into the fridge, looting whatever could be stored outside for the next days.

“Eat something, you will need the energy.”

Claire hesitated, uncomfortable with eating something that didn’t belong to her. But the rumbling sound of her child’s stomach made her grab something for the two of them to eat. Another problem with new summoners. I walked back to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of milk. I filled something into a bowl and placed it onto the ground. “Oi, Shadow, over here.” I called the wolf over.

“Noooo,” the kid shouted, “don’t give him a name, it’s mine.

“Haaaa.” No wonder only the older folks were left… “First, don’t you fucking shout like this. Secondly, if you want it then take care of it properly. Summons are proper beasts too, they need to sleep and eat like everything else. They aren’t just made up from mana.”

I began to feel exhausted already, even though the day just started. At least he doesn’t say anything else, instead he stares at his beast. “Seeing how the kid got a summon I can get his job. What did you choose?”

The sudden attention made Claire choke on her food, making her chough. After she calmed down, she began to speak. “I choose the Fighter job.”

With her perception at 8 she would have been much more suited to be an Archer or scout, but she probably wanted to stand in front of her child to protect him. A nice idea, if you don’t think about what happens to the protected on when you’re gone.

“Okay. What about your skills? You should have one or two points. The kid’s put them into the summoning skill-tree.”

She hesitated, tumbling her fingers. “I… I didn’t choose yet. There were weapon skills and others, but I didn’t know which one to get. I have… only seen things like these in Marc’s games.”

Sure, someone who never played anything wouldn’t know what to choose. “There should have been recommended skills. What did those say?”

“Wait a moment.” She fiddled through her status, looking for the skill window.

“Just say skill window. And forget about weapon related ones for now. Not feasible without a weapon corresponding to it. Or a smith to forge one.”

“There are things like ‘Dash’, ‘Critical Strike’, ‘Fighting Sense’…”

“Stop, get that last one.”

“Why, it doesn’t seem like it’s really useful.”

“You have probably never fought before. And while the first few levels are just about getting a general correction to stance and precision, the later ones let you anticipate attacks, even when you don’t see them.

Claire fell silent, staring at the air in front of her. “You’ll see it is worth the points. Get it and then we will get out of here. We’re already late.”

“Where are we going?”

“Hunting. As long as we can without problems.” I strode to the door, lifting the bookshelf out of the way with my higher strength. The door creaked as it opened. Time to farm once more.