Chapter 66

Hot blood splashed across my face.

“Ahhh!” I screamed in surprise.

“Dad, what are you doing?!” Mum asked while shaking her head. “I’ll get a rag.”

Gramps held down the now headless chicken on the chopping block by the back garden. His grip was a tad firmer now that I had decapitated our dinner.

“I thought he was going to hit my fingers,” he explained. “Sorry, Bastian, I didn’t hold onto it well enough.”

I just looked at him in annoyance with sticky red blood dripping down my face.

What a way to start the day, I grumped mentally.

Despite the fact that it was clearly Gramps’ fault, I wasn’t holding his lack of care or faith in my hatchet abilities against him. Would I trust a five year old to swing an axe at something I was holding onto? Probably not.

While we waited for Mum to return, Gramps asked the question that was the entire source of our little misadventure.

“Did you feel anything? Did the Path gain any steps?”

I smiled brightly — which probably looked somewhere between creepy and horrific — and shook my head, spraying blood across the ground as I did so. My Path of Deception didn’t move in the slightest because I was being utterly truthful. I hadn’t felt a thing. No sense of something other in the air around the chicken. No steps on my Path of Soulstealing. Turns out I wasn’t some evil half-demon. If anything, it was the opposite. With this test concluded, it was clear to me now that I was actually a demon-slaying machine, born through a failed demonic summoning.

When I put it like that, I sound badass, I thought.

Then Mum returned and started wiping my face with a wet rag. I halfheartedly tried to fight her off. My badass moment was over before it even began. At least she used water and not her spit.

I sensed a small amount of aether coming from the water in the fabric and realised Mum must be using a Skill to make the water absorb the blood. Within a minute, I was clean of blood and ready to face the day… as soon as we dealt with the remains of the chicken.

“Told you it would be fine,” Gramps said to Mum reassuringly. “He said he didn’t feel anything, and no steps. Right, Bastian?”

“Yep!” I agreed. “Except for the blood hitting me in the face. I didn’t like that.”

Gramps’ shot me a frown for reminding Mum of his error, but she didn’t seem to care about that as she bundled me up in a hug.

“Good. That’s really good. Well, the day is getting away from us. How about you two clean up out here, and I will get the chicken prepared for later. Then we can head to Magatha’s?”

I agreed, but Gramps saved me the trouble of cleaning up by burning any of the blood on the ground and the wood.

Thanks for the steps in Aethersensing! I thought.

Instead of cleaning, I ran my obstacle course a few times while we waited for Mum to be ready. She took about half a candle, so the sun was already well on its way to being overhead by the time we got to leave.

Strolling down the road with the sun shining, the birds chirping, and the trees swaying, I felt more relaxed than I had in weeks. Letting go of the last secrets that were actually worrying me felt freeing in a way I hadn’t considered. It was like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders.

Mum was walking next to me, her comfy looking leather boots clacking on the road, and her brown hair held back in a ponytail with a blue ribbon that matched her eyes. She and I were both wearing dark chocolate dyed, woolen clothes — pants and shirt for me, ankle length dress for her. Beside us, Gramps stomped along in black, woolen slacks and a matching button up shirt, his eyes roving over our surroundings regularly.

At first, after the battle with the goblin Necromancer, the area around the outpost had continued to remain safe. But a month later, with our resident hunter dead and turned into alchemicals, the beasts that he had kept away from our community through whatever means he used, were now starting to tentatively return. One of the miners had claimed to see a Horndale bear just two days ago while traversing the path between the Horndale Mining Co. houses and their silver mine.

What that meant for Mum and I was that it was no longer safe to walk to Magatha’s on our own. I was very cognizant of my childish limits. Fighting a bear would end with me and Mum both becoming bear shit. Thankfully, we had Gramps to handle any wildlife problems that chose to accost us, and Molly could mind the outpost while he was away.

As I ran back and forth between Mum and Gramps, working on my Path of Running, I considered my plans from the night before. I still wanted to work on my Path of Infiltration. However, I had also promised not to keep any more secrets. Where those two things intersected, there existed a problem. Well, multiple problems, technically. The main one was that sneaking out to work on my Path of Infiltration without telling them would be keeping a secret. The solution was simple though, and might just solve one of my other problems.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“We said no more secrets, so, umm, I want to work on my Path of Infiltration again!” I blurted out.

Mum tripped slightly in surprise, but Gramps just gave me a thoughtful look.

“It might make sense,” he mused as we continued to walk, not instantly shooting down my hopes. “With his Shadow Affinity improved, and Gifted in the mix, he could reach the next tier just off the Kellins’ and the Horndale Mining Co. Throw in George’s place, if he can pull it off, and it’s basically guaranteed.”

“It’s too dangerous,” Mum countered. “Remember what happened last time? He almost got snatched by a grimfaced owl right in front of us!”

“I have a plan for that!” I said in a hurry before Gramps could ruin my plan. “We just need to buy a potion of nightvision from Magatha!”

It was genius! Okay, it was simple logic and common sense, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t a good plan! The entire issue last time we worked on my Path of Infiltration was that I couldn’t check the skies for owls or other avian menaces because it was too dark. The potion would solve that problem. Probably.

Gramps gave Mum a look that basically said ‘he’s got a point.’

Mum still wasn’t convinced. “Why the rush, Sweetheart? Can’t it wait till we’re not in the mountains?”

“But it will give me more Stats to put in Gifted,” I complained.

That was one of my main reasons for wanting to progress the Path of Infiltration. Every extra point in Gifted was making all my Path progress just that little bit faster, and I was trying to get as much out of it as childly possible! Plus, the first Tier of Path of Infiltration had given me extra Skill Slots. If the second Tier did as well — big if — then I might just be able to use a certain Skill Seed I had hidden in my room.

“I agree with Bastian,” Gramps said, piling on. “If he wants to go to Songleaf, he’ll need every advantage he can get. Most of the kids attending will have had tutors with Teaching Skills instructing them since they could walk. Possibly even before in the case of some of the higher nobility. He sounds like he’s taking it seriously, and it’s actually a pretty good idea. If anything, we should probably try and get him some more Shadow-related Paths. I ordered those Path manuals from Ajinport Adventurer’s Society headquarters already.”

With every word, I could see Mum's resistance crumbling. It made me feel kind of bad. I knew she was just worried about me and trying to keep me safe. She was a good mother, and I tried to let her know that by hugging her side as we walked. Though not my intention, it seemed to melt away the last of her misgivings.

“Okay, but we’re being careful about it. We’ll get a potion of nightvision and see if Magatha has anything else that might help. Dad, you’ll watch over him the whole time won’t you?”

“With my own nightvision potion,” Gramps agreed.

I was nodding vigorously, right up until Mum’s next words.

“And no stealing anything.”

Damn it, I really want to unlock the Path of Thievery as well, I griped mentally.

Even Gramps seemed to agree with my thoughts. “How come, Penny?”

“You want him stealing from the people we live and eat with? People we fought beside barely a month ago?”

“Of course not. But a spoon here? Something from the larder there? It’s not like they would miss it and if he did manage to unlock the Path of Thievery that’s another Elite shadow-related Path for him to work on.”

I shut my mouth tight. Gramps was arguing my point better than I ever could.

“I don’t care. I don’t want my son becoming a thief.”

“It’s just a Path, Penny. It wouldn’t define him.”

She raised an eyebrow at Gramps. “And what about his Class Path?”

The old codger shut the hell up real quick, and I realised what Mum’s real concern was. Supposedly, the Class Paths I would be offered were — in part — based on the Paths I had unlocked with the ones I had completed weighing more heavily on the scales. Mum didn’t want me to take a thief based Class Path and then need to progress it by stealing things. It was a fair concern from her perspective, but I would never take a Class Path that was that restrictive. Plus, I wanted magic more than anything, so I was always going to favour Class Paths that prioritised my aether development.

Still, giving in seemed a small thing for now. There would be other opportunities that didn’t involve my Path of Infiltration that could conceivably help me unlock the Path of Thievery.

“I won’t steal anything, Mum. Promise!”

“See?” she said. “He doesn’t want to be a thief.”

I mean, I don’t not want to be a thief either, I thought, but wisely kept my mouth shut. I would take the victories I could.

“Alright, I suppose we’re all agreed then,” Gramps confirmed, though he didn’t sound particularly happy about it. Apparently, he was almost as invested in my numbers going up as I was.

The rest of the walk was more pleasant. The three of us discussed which houses I would target and reminded me to only continue until I had reached the second tier on my Path of Infiltration.

Gramps dropped us off at Magatha’s and purchased two nightvision potions to be delivered the following day. I would’ve preferred it sooner, but apparently part of the brewing process actually involved it being performed at night time which begged the question about how she ever planned to have me involved in the process. Her flirting with Mum answered that question easily enough. I rolled my eyes at Magatha’s antics as I made the alchemical base for Scar Rejuvenation potions while Mum drank her tea and politely demurred at Magatha’s more overt overtures.

The walk home was equally pleasant and unexciting with no wildlife attempting to claim our lives. I simply enjoyed being with my family, watching my steps go up in my Paths as I worked on Running again, and relishing in the crisp mountain air.

That night, sleep was not forthcoming. My stomach was filled with excitement at the prospect of infiltrating our neighbours homes. Not because I wanted to break and enter or steal anything from them, but because I — perhaps childishly — relished the challenge. Plus, I wanted my numbers to go up again.

Climbing quietly out of bed, I crept downstairs to Gramps’ office and started making a few little surprises.