The next morning, Axlet snuck out of bed just before sunrise to begin his morning training. As he rolled out of the bed still rubbing his eyes he made his way to the doorway on the balls of his feet, making sure to stay low as to not catch the eye of any imaginary enemies. Just as he began to step through the threshold he shifted his body backward, turning on his heel as fast as he could to position himself behind the frame, narrowly avoiding the flicker of illumination as the final log of the wood stove crackled.

As it’s orange glow dimmed once more he shifted back to his main task. Taking a final peek past the doorway to ensure the light was truly snuffed this time he took a step and rolled, and rolled, and rolled, crossing the main room of his home before finally landing at the door to his father’s room. Normally Axlet would slowly open the door and begin his usual training of rolling between each side of the door frame time and time again. Axlet had much bigger plans for today though.

This winter would be the time Axlet took his greatest step yet, he would gain a combat skill. In this world 60% of the population remained at level 1 for most of their lives. It was only at level 10 that a person could gain their first class. A class granted certain skills and bonuses to stats, the more you grew and completed tasks related to that class the more experience you gained. For a blacksmith they could gain experience by forging weapons and leveling their skills. For mages and warriors they could gain experience by killing enemies. However, between level 1 and 10 he only way to gain experience was to kill other beings, this led to the vast majority of people never gaining their first class.

It was at this first class that the steps towards greatness truly began, and most weren’t willing to pay the cost. So long as they could make money with their skills, levels weren’t worth the risk for most. Without the support of a wealthy family few could afford weapons and equipment necessary to beat monsters, and even then many died due to inexperience or a lack of any combat skills.Axlet was far from content to remain at level 1 but he knew his father wouldn’t let him risk his life. That’s why he had never talked about gaining levels, if his father knew he had even the thought of fighting a monster he would never let him leave the house. Axlet knew it was just to protect him but the opportunity of giving himself and his father a better life was too enticing for Axlet to give up.

His father kept a dagger under his bed, probably for the chance of bandits but things like that rarely happened with so few people around, monsters were a more likely threat and the small contingent of soldiers was always plenty to handle them. Axlet had found it while training stealth a few months ago but wasn’t sure how long it would take his father to notice it missing so he waited until he would have time to train before beginning the heist.

Today was the start of his true training regiment and his only opportunity, as long as he could get one level in any combat skill, he could finally start on his path towards a class. With thoughts of a winter next to a warm hearth and meat stew, the operation began. Axlet laid down completely on the floor and began crawling. The bed was placed just a few feet in front of the door, parallel to his father Axlet squeezed himself under the bed with relatively little difficulty because of his narrow frame. He immediately noticed the dagger at the very end and lightly grabbed it. He then reversed himself slowly, crawling all the way out of the room before getting up to a crouch and closing the door. He rolled back to his room, avoiding the stove’s light and stashed the dagger under his own bed. Axlet got back in bed and pretended to sleep while devising plans for his new tool. Not 5 minutes later his door was opened and a shiver went down his spine.

“Axlet”

“Huh…. Oh dad, good morning” As Axlet pretended to be groggy and waking up for the first time he looked over to his father who was wearing his normal grouchy face, breathing a sigh of relief he sat up in his bed.

“Morning, I’m going to town today to get some final supplies, sky looks bad and the wind is picking up, might be the first blizzard of the season” Axlet guessed this from the clothes his dad was wearing, instead of the usual brown pants and green long sleeve he was wearing his black bear skin cloak and fur pants. It was the nicest set of clothes he owned and his father constantly showed it off every chance he got. Apparently he won it in a bet with some noble when he was younger and has been annoying the town with it ever since. When it got too cold for even the stove to be enough he would wrap Axlet in the cloak while they slept in front of the stove.

“A blizzard? We’ve barely had any snow so far it’s too early for something like that.”

“Yeah, I don’t like it, this may be the worst winter yet, I’ll be gone for a while, should be back before sunset.”

“Alright do you need me to come with you?” The second he asked the question Axlet waned to punch himself, this was perfect! With his dad gone and the dagger finally in his possession Axlet would be free to do whatever he wanted, a perfect storm!

“No, you need to stay here and collect some tinder, we have plenty of logs but just in case the stove goes out we’ll need some tinder to start it up again. Remember the rule?”

“Yes, I know, I know, once you’ve collected as much as you think you need collect that much again and again.”

“Good, we need to be prepared this winter. I’m going to head out, be safe and if it starts snowing get your butt inside, got it?”

“I know. Have a good trip”

With that his father left for town, Axlet watching his back until he was finally out of view before running back to his bed and grabbing the dagger. Sitting cross legged in his room he removed it from the scabbard and examined the blade. It had a plain design with a leather grip leading up to a small cross guard, only 4 inches long, and a 8 inch dual sided blade. Axlet immediately used appraisal on the blade and heard an expectedly plain answer

<Iron Dagger>

To Axlet though, it was far more than just an iron dagger, it was his ticket to a better life. As he imagined fights against dragons and demons he went into the main room and began practicing, with just a wood stove and a small table he had plenty of space to practice movements. All of the tales he had heard involved swords though and Axlet had little idea of how to even begin to use the dagger. The first level of a skill usually didn’t take very long to acquire though, with a few days of practice he could probably gain the first level of whatever skill supported the evil rogues and assassins of the world.

The hours passed quickly as Axlet swung the blade, it was heavier than he thought, and after short bursts of attacks he found himself getting tired. Giving up his perfect training to something as minor as exhaustion wasn’t something Axlet would ever consider though. Three hours into his training the wind began battering the walls of the house waking Axlet from a trance and reminding him of his father’s words.

“The tinder!”

Axlet put the dagger back in its scabbard and ran out of the house, withing just two steps though he was halted by the amount of snow covering the ground, in just three hours it had gone from some wind and clouds to 3 inches of snow already and wind strong enough that Axlet had to fight to walk out of the door. Looking back towards the town Axlet couldn’t see his father. There were a few hills along the way and the town was obscured by them it only took a hour to walk to town but his father usually spent the day there talking with friends and getting any important news. With this amount of snow and wind it could take hours. By now all the tinder would be soaked through and sitting under the snow. Hopefully the blizzard would pass just as fast as it had come, until then they would have to be sure to stoke the fire as much as possible. Even Axlet wouldn’t risk walking out there now. He could only hope his father would be alright.

As the hours passed, Axlet’s worry grew and at sunset he had completely forgotten about his training and was simply staring at the door hoping his father would walk through. The wind and snow had only gotten stronger and now there was a foot of snow covering everything Axlet could see. He probably just stayed in town once he saw all the snow. I’m sure he was able to get a room at the inn. The blizzard will hopefully pass by tomorrow and he’ll be back in the morning. I should just keep the fire stoked and sleep a bit. I’ll see him in the morning. With those thoughts Axlet rested his head on the ground in front of the stove and did his best to sleep with worry plaguing his mind.

I was barely able to sleep at all, it’s damn cold and it sounded like the wall’s were about to get knocked down all night. Even with all my heavy clothing and the stove it was still kind of cold, hopefully dad gets back with the cloak soon. At least I could keep the fire stoked. The sun’s rising now and still no sign of dad. The blizzard has mostly cleared up. As Axlet listened for the wind it seemed to have died down immensely in just the past few hours.

After struggling with the door for a minute he was finally able to open it and see the snow had reached two feet overnight as some of it fell into the house. Climbing over the snow Axlet walked around the house to get a view of the town’s direction and hopefully spot his father on the way back now that the snow and wind were coming down much lighter. Instead all Axlet could see was black trails of smoke pouring into the sky in the same direction his father had left the day before.

No, no, no what happened? That’s way too much smoke for it to be a chimney or something did someone’s house burn down? In that blizzard last night? How? I need to get over there I need to find dad and make sure everything’s OK. Panic was setting in, no matter how much Axlet tried to rationalize he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. The freak blizzard, smoke, his dad being gone for over a day, all of it was wrong. He needed to get to his dad and find out what the hell was going on.

Rushing back into the house Axlet threw three logs in the fire to keep it going for as long as possible and grabbed his father’s dagger. He had slept in all of his heavy clothing and his coat so with the fire as full as he could make it and dagger in hand he charged out of his house. His speed quickly diminished as he trudged through the snow though and Axlet realized just how grueling of a walk he had ahead of him. The snow was past his knee and he had to raise his whole leg each step.

Only 20 minutes in and Axlet had barely made it past the first hill, he was sweating just as much as the end of his daily sprints and his feet were chilled to the bone. Each time he raised his leg he felt the fibers of his muscles ready to snap just before he was finally able to put one foot down and raise the other. The uphill was just as bad as the down hill and as he fought his way down the first hill he was almost ready to collapse. His muscles felt as though they had already been pulled three times and he wasn’t sure how much longer his feet could last.

It took him another 20 minutes just to crawl up the second of the three hills before the path he was following would turn into the road leading into town. Axlet could barely think past the miserable state of his body until he reached the peak of the second hill. Finally reaching the end of the miserable climb his body was ready to crumple in relief and just as he was ready to let it, he found himself unable to make any movement, his muscles tensed to the point of paralysis as he looked down towards the bottom of the hill.

“Dad?”

Just beyond the second hill Axlet saw the most terrifying figure of his entire life. Covered in blood, limping with a trail of red snow behind him, a man with a black cloak now tattered and barely hanging on, cuts all along his body. The largest cut was along his face running from the top right of his forehead, through the bridge of his nose, and running to where there used to be a left cheek. The vast majority of it was gone with only blood and bone remaining.

“DAD!” As horror filled his entire body all Axlet could think of was to scream, he could barely recognize the man in front of him as his father. He was holding a sword in his left hand and looked up as he heard his son call him. As Axlet saw the face of his father he learned what horror looked like mirrored in a grotesque perversion of the one thing his father was proud to have given his son, his charming face. Now ruined and blood covered, blistered by the winds and burning from the harsh cold, twisted by the agony shooting through his body with every second.

“ATHXLET!NOANOA!” As he opened his mouth to scream the pain overwhelmed him, blood pouring into his mouth gargling every word as he tried to scream to his son. He had to keep moving, he had to get back to his son, those were the only thoughts that had gone through his head, but now that he finally saw him he regained his clarity. Through the pain racking his every breath, the blood pouring from his cuts, filling his mouth with the taste of iron and choking the rest of his life from his frostbitten hands, he managed a single, clear command, a final moment of quick thinking.

“RUNNGHN!” as his father bellowed out to Axlet he stood frozen in place unable to process what he was seeing, in his hesitation, staring at his struggling father Axlet witnessed the reason behind his father’s command to run even though they had both struggled to finally find each other, one in a naive panic and the other in a desperate adrenaline fueled desire to see his son safe. Just as Axlet was about to ignore the command and run to help his father an arrow pierced his black cloak and ran straight through his chest, the force knocking him into face first into the snow.

“ARHGHUHG!” The sound of his father’s scream woke Axlet from his panic induced trance as he followed the trail of blood soaked snow his father left and saw two small humanoid figures, one standing on top of the snow with a bow in hand and another hopping through the snow while cackling. Axlet had never seen a creature like it before but he knew what they were instantly, even without his appraisal skill. Goblins. He had heard of the soldiers fighting a few every now and again and his father had always said if you see one to run but he had never thought of them as a real threat. Now those non-threatening goblins were hopping towards his father with wide smiles and joyful eyes.

Without even realizing it Axlet had been gripping the dagger with his right hand, his knuckles were turning white as he held on to it like it was the last thing he had. As he finally looked down towards the dagger and saw his hand around the scabbard he pulled the dagger free after fumbling with the leather. The goblins were getting closer and his father struggled to stand up, only managing to get one leg under him before looking up at Axlet, seeing him unmoving he tried to let out another scream.

“AGUHG-“ But the blood had began filling his lungs even as he tried to scream he could only manage a few noises as the blood came rushing back up through his throat. He did everything he could to get Axlet to run away, he tried pointing and waving him away, all of them came out to nothing but meaningless flails of his left arm, the last limb he was able to move with some intent. As Axlet watched the desperate flailing of his father the goblin finally reached him, hopping just a few feet away before finally stopping and raising it’s shoddy tool above his fathers head. He finally took action, turned, and began running.

<Title gained: Coward>

His father managed as much of a smile as he could with half a face, as a dull thud resounded behind him

<Title gained: Alone>