Nick groaned, sitting down on a pile of rock that used to be a lesser stone golem. Golems were a new one for Nick, that is why he took this quest to exterminate three lesser stone golems. They were around fifteen feet tall and made of solid stone, a perfect thing for him to test his might on. After all, that is all he has been doing in the months after getting defeated and humiliated by a dragons circle general. It was clear to him that he had to get stronger, this was the only way he knew how.
When he told Dario what had happened to his comrades he was angry and heartbroken, but he said something that stuck with Nick. "They knew that there was a risk that one day they might never come back. All adventurers take the gamble that they could die every time they leave on a quest, that is why we always train. The more we train the more likely it is that we come back, it is just bad luck that this quest was misranked as an A-rank. Don't worry kid, I do not blame you for their deaths."
His words, while also helping ease the crushing guilt Nick was feeling at the time, also helped him solidify his resolve to get stronger. Strong enough to protect himself and his future comrades. He can't help but think that if he was an A-rank they could have possibly all survived even if they weren't able to kill the general. So, in order to accomplish his goal, he has been almost exclusively living in the woods for the past few months. He still went on quests so he could support Dahlia but for the most part he was living in the woods, fighting in life or death battles against beasts he had never seen before.
He was also demon and strength training. He was working to increase the potency of his demonic energy at all times, though he has not gotten back to the point where his teeth would become sharp and his fingernails would become claws again. He had thought about doing what he did with Azara again, but that just felt like a cheap method. Not to mention it had serious repercussions. Really, really, really unpleasant ones...
It did not happen for a couple of days, he had no idea anything was wrong. One day he was just woke up extremely sick, puking and having a fever of 104 degrees Fahrenheit. He could barely stand without getting dizzy, puking, and passing out. This lasted for almost a week, it was accompanied by a lot of other unpleasant things like stomach cramps and migraines and no amount of healing magic seemed to help. He never wanted to experience that again.
Normally he would just think that he was horribly sick, which his parents and doctors did, but Azara had told him that it was a possible side effect of what they did. He has been training by keeping his demonic energy summoned while he worked out and fought even if he had to force it out to the point where it physically hurt him to do so. His capacity has increased significantly, even Azara had said so, but so far there have been no physical changes to accompany the increases. Sharp claws and teeth would be nice, but ultimately he was happy he was growing stronger. Even if it was slowly.
Nick pulled out his pocket watch, looking as the glass covered clock hands as they slowly moved. "9:59 PM... Once I wake up it will be six in the morning on July 28th, my birthday..." A small smile slowly crept across Nick's face as the clock hit ten and his alarm woke him up on earth at six. "I can't wait..."
After a shower, workout, and breakfast his first guest arrived, Mark. Over the next hour more kept arriving, some he barely knew besides talking to them from time to time at lunch because they were in Mark's group, others he knew from the fight club. Overall a dozen people came to his birthday, more than he ever expected to show up. It didn't take long for people to greet Nick and begin to mingle with the other party guests. Everyone seemed to be having fun talking to each other.
After hours of conversation and games it was time for cake and presents, but not before everybody sang happy birthday. Even after all that has happened the past year the sight of all the friends he had made singing happy birthday to him almost brought tears to his eyes. It was his first true happy birthday ever, even if he didn't get gifts he would have been happy. Of course he was not going to turn down gifts however, and everyone had brought one. That much was evident by the table covered by a ton of wrapped shapes.
Most of the gifts were things he expected, things like gift cards or video games. One of the presents he got from one of his fight club buddies was two sets of boxing gloves and head guards. Nick's mom, Faith, was obviously not too happy about her son getting a gift like that but did not say anything. Steven, his father, tried his best to calm her down. Nick just grinned, fighting back the urge to ask if he wanted to break them in with him.
Another one of his fight club buddies gave him a punching bag, something that he didn't have in this world before. The rest of the gifts he got after that were pretty mundane, the two girls who came to the party gave him two bags of expensive looking clothes. He wasn't going to complain, even if he didn't go out enough to warrant so much clothing. The only other interesting gift came from Mark, the last one to give a gift.
"Here you go! From me." Mark said with a grin as he dropped a large and heavy box in front of Nick. Nick just looked at is suspiciously for a moment before shrugging and peeling off the wrapping paper.
"Oh, Damn..." Was all he could say as he looked at the gaming console in surprise. He wasn't expecting something so expensive, now it made sense why some of the people from Mark's group were giving him games for a console he didn't have at the time.
"Let's play together sometime! I got you a headset and everything." Mark said with a large grin spread across his face.
"You didn't have to get me something so expensive, I would have been happy with something small." Nick said, though in truth he was happy that mark was kind enough to do something like this.
"Huh, damn, I guess I better return the car then..." Mark said as his grin became devious.
All at the same time everyone in the room turned to look at Mark with surprised and confused looks, Nick included. "W-what? A car? I don't even have a license though."
"Ah, don't worry about it. It's not like I bought you a Lamborghini or anything, it is just an old 2015 mustang we had that nobody was using. We just need to put it in your name and once you get your license you can drive it." Mark said, tossing Nick the keys.
Nick caught the key out of the air and just look at it, stunned. "Wow... I don't know what to say... Thank you!"
"Ah, don't worry about it. You are turning sixteen, you are going to want your freedom! Also, mustangs are good for picking up girls." Mark said with a chuckle, causing Nick to blush slightly since he was in front of his parents. "Besides, like I said, nobody was using it. I talked it over with my dad, who owned the car, and he said it was fine. He was thinking about getting rid of it."
"Damn, all I got on my sixteenth birthday was an old dirt bike..." One of the men from the fight club said, causing everyone to laugh and relax a little bit.
"You want to pay me back then take me on a road trip one of these days!" Mark said as he slapped Nick on the back.
"Yeah, sure, you got it." Nick replied with a grin.
After that the party went back to normal, people eating cake as Nick used some of his new equipment and played some of his games. He also tried on his new clothes at the request of the girls, but they seemed much more excited when he took the clothes off rather than when he put them on. He did a few mock spars with other party goers, making sure not to hit hard as to not worry his already worried mother any more. Eventually people started leaving, that was when Nick got his first look at his new car. "Damn..."
It had a nice deep red paint job and looked somehow better than new. When he walked up to the car and opened the door he saw the pristine leather interior that looked like it had not even been sat in yet. "I had it fixed up some and cleaned before bringing it if you were wondering." Mark said as he walked up to Nick.
"It is such an insanely generous gift..." Nick said as he sat down in the driver's seat. "I can't wait until I can drive this thing."
"Well, my family isn't exactly hurting for money so don't worry about it. If anything you did my dad a favor now that he doesn't have to go through the trouble of disposing of it."
"It's insane how wealthy you are..." Nick said with a chuckle as he got out of the car and shut the door.
"Ha, yeah, I guess so." Mark said as he walked back inside. "I never really thought about it."
Eventually everyone had gone home and Nick was left in his room with a full stomach and a smile plastered across his face. Though the smile slowly faded as he quietly drifted off to sleep, anxious about what would await him in that word today. As the other world came into view he was in the same place as before, sat atop the remains of a stone golem with his watch in his hand. "Guess I better head back to town to get my reward." He mumbled as he stood up and began to walk back in the direction of the city.
It was a relatively short walk, it only took four hours to make his way back to the guild. The quest was not too far away, though it was far enough away that the city guards didn't want to deal with it. Once he got up to the receptionist he knocked on the desk loudly to draw her attention, startling her. "Finished the quest." He said as he put the paper and his card on the counter.
"Oh, alright, one second..." She said as she retreated to the back room. Almost two minutes later she came back out with a small leather bag that had 7 gold coins.
"Thanks." Nick said as he took the bag and began to head for the guild door.
"You know!" The receptionist called out, pausing briefly as she waiting for Nick to turn around and look at her. "You have done enough quests to be able to take the A-rank exam."
"A-rank exam?" Nick asked with a raised eyebrow as he looked to the receptionist. "What is that?"
"It is the test that B-rank adventurers are allowed to take in order advance in rank once they show proficiency in their B-rank quests. Those stone golems were pretty strong and you came back uninjured, not to mention you have taken plenty of B-rank quests up until now. Once I run it by the guild master you will be approved to take the A-rank advancement exam."
"I mean I understood that much already. I meant what is the exam? Like what do I have to do?"
"Oh... Well it is quite simple really. You just fight an A-rank adventurer of our choosing, you don't have to win, you just show enough skill for our examiners to determine if you are A-rank material. Though you could skip the exam and just do a few A-rank quests to prove that you are ready to be A-rank."
Nick thought about it for a moment, weighing the pros and cons of each option. He wasn't going to turn down the chance to go up a rank, after all that is the whole reason he has been training these past few months. "Yeah, I will take the test. How long will it take to find an opponent?"
"We should have found one by tomorrow, come by the guild tomorrow when you are ready to take the test."
"Huh, alright. Guess I'll come back tomorrow, then." Nick said, turning to leave the guild once again.
"Alright, good luck!" The receptionist replied, most likely because she won't be working tomorrow.
"Thanks!" Nick called back as he left and began to make his way home. Going home to where a woman and him lived alone was still a strange concept to him, being away most of the time helped ease the initial awkwardness but it was still strange. Though he did feel bad for leaving a victim of trauma alone for so long not long after being freed. Luckily Nick had found out she remembers almost nothing of what happened between being captured and being saved, so she was surprisingly fine.
She did have nightmares and sometimes woke up screaming but she would quickly forget why she was screaming and go back to sleep. Nick had suggested she get therapy but Dahlia insisted that she would rather never remember all the horrible things that had happened to her. Still, he couldn't help but feel guilty whenever he left her alone for a long period of time. However his training and quests often took him a three day walk if not more away from the city so he couldn't simply come home every night. It's not like he planned to live with her in the first place anyway.
Once he walked in the front door of his house Dahlia was already eating dinner. "Oh, I didn't expect you to come home today. I would have made you something..."
"I know how to heat things up in a pan, don't worry." Nick said with a grin as he made his way to the kitchen and took out a carton of eggs from the ice box to thaw. He then took out some sausages, though he didn't wait for those to thaw. Once lighting his gas stove and taking out a pan he started to cook the sausages.
"When did you learn to cook?" Dahlia asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Ah, I had a lot of time to practice while I was in the woods." In reality his mom had taught him, but he couldn't exactly come out and say that. "Besides, it's not exactly rocket science to heat something up in a pan."
"Rocket science?" Dahlia asked with a confused tone.
"Oh..." Shit, how am I going to lie my way out of this one? "Don't worry about it, it is just a saying I heard on a quest. It basically means that it isn't a complicated thing to do even if you have no knowledge on the subject."
"Oh, alright..."
Crap, now she just sounds even more confused than before. I really need to start paying attention to what I say around people. "I'm assuming you don't want any sausage?" Nick said as he tried to change the subject away from his blunder.
"No, I'm full. Besides I am eating off of your money and living in your house, I shouldn't be a glutton."
"Don't worry about it, I have plenty of money. And if you wanted I'm sure you wouldn't have any problem finding a job, but don't be shy about using a little bit of the money I bring home to make yourself happy."
"I guess I could get a job... Though I don't have any kind of previous work experience."
"Maybe an apprentice chef? You are good at cooking. Maybe you can even teach me a few tricks, I'm sixteen now so I should really learn how to cook for myself."
"Sixteen?" Dahlia looked at Nick with a surprised expression.
"Yeah, I just turned 16 today actually." Nick began to hum as he moved the cooked sausages to a plate before cracking a couple of eggs.
"Wow... I had no idea, I thought you were at least eighteen." Dahlia looked at Nick with a smile. "Happy birthday by the way. I would get you something but I don't have a job yet."
"Don't worry about it, I don't need anything. If I did I probably would have bought it by now." Nick chuckled as he moved the cooked eggs to his plate and sat down at the table.
"Still, I am living in your house and eating food you buy with your own money. I feel like I should have at least bought you something for your birthday as thanks."
"Like I said, don't worry about it. Your company is enough of a present." Dahlia blushed slightly at Nick's words, averting her gaze. "You know how boring it would be to live alone in this giant house? Besides you cook for me when you can, that helps a lot seeing as I can't cook anything more complex than sausage and eggs."
Dahlia laughed slightly at his words, finishing her own meal. For the next ten minutes as Nick ate his food the two of them talked, though it was nothing more than small talk. Afterwards Nick went about his daily routine of intense training to prepare for his fight tomorrow. He was nervous, scared that he would be defeated and have to stay a B-rank for even longer. "God, I hope this guy isn't anything like Dario..."