As he ran towards the tree that sat on their thick grassy backyard, Elliot inspected the tree for anything. His mother's words were vague. She only said that the tree holds secrets. But what kind of secrets?
Midnight's words rang inside his head like the Guide.
'You can scan objects if it's valuable when you reach level 5. It's a skill all Adventurers gain, called Scan.'
"Status," Elliot said.
The Console appeared in his vision. He went to the Level tab and studied the process of leveling up.
To reach level 1, he needs to gain 50 XP. The XP needed to be gained will double as the level increases. Level 2 needs 100 X, level 3 needs 200, and so on.
Elliot snatched the guide Midnight gave him. It contained the XP a monster has and where it is located.
Slime – 5 XP
Type 1 Goblin – 10 XP
Pixie – 15 XP
Type 2 Goblin – 20 XP
Type 3 Goblin – 30 XP
Dire Wolf – 50 XP
The first 6 monsters belonged to the Beginner Circle of the monsters. The monsters after their tire are stronger, something he cannot defeat.
"This country is big," Elliot said as he searched for a place called Cacten. "There's no Cacten here."
The boy decided to rest and deal with everything tomorrow. His mother gave him a gift that he knew would help him. He can't let her efforts go to waste.
Something that improved after becoming an Adventurer was his senses. He could feel a faint presence of something under his bed that he had a hard time sleeping. He feels something under the wooden floor.
It was faint but it was irking him. His guts was screaming to inspect it but his body was too tired. After all, he had walked all around the city while applying for the guilds.
"Argh!" Elliot screamed and flipped his bed. He himself was surprised by how strong he became. With a shaking of his head, he placed his ear on the floor and listened intently.
There was no sound.
He tried knocking on the floor to make the thing under floor sound. And it did.
Clank. Clank. Clank.
"Metal?" Elliot asked himself and pulled the wooden planks off. One by one, with as much force as he can, he removed the planks off the floor. He was still weaker than most Adventurers but the power he had right now was more than what he had all his life.
There, a cloth sack was located with a note on it.
'Dear Elliot,
I placed this somewhere that will only be located by an Adventurer. I assume you are one now. This is what I've saved for our dream, my child. Please use it wisely.
Love, Melissa.'
The tears from his eyes gushed again. He thought that his mother could only provide him words as support, turns out, she gave him more. She gave him her life for their dream.
Elliot couldn't help but count the money on the sack. There were 67 gold coins and 312 silver coins. It was more than what he could ever afford. This amount of money would give him a good normal life.
But he wasn't aiming for that.
That wasn't part of their dream.
"She really is the best mother," Elliot said to himself and smiled. "Thank you, mom."
The next morning, Elliot decided to set out and find Cacten. He wanted to go back to the merchant who humiliated him the day before and rub his newfound fortune on him, but opted not to. He could never sink lower than the merchant.
Yes, he may be poor, but his mother taught him well. She taught him never to stoop down on someone like the merchant's level. He had no money but he still had his pride and dignity.
As he strolled through the market, a familiar locks of black hair. Midnight wore a black dress this time.
"Midnight!" Elliot called out. "Good morning."
"What a beaming smile you have there," Midnight said with a smile. "How are you?"
"I'm good. I'm actually off to buy items so that I can start my adventure," Elliot said with a proud smile. "How about you, Midnight?"
"I'm actually here with my little bro–"
"Big bro!" A boy that had the same features as Midnight came to them. He looked like he was Elliot's age, but their build was different from each other. The boy was taller and had a leaner body than Elliot was. His hair was light blonde that was almost white and his eyes were narrow.
"B-Big bro?" Elliot couldn't help but gasp.
But she's so pretty! I can't believe she's a guy. Elliot thought.
"Yes," Midnight answered. "Is there any problem?"
The boy shook his head behind Midnight slowly, signaling 'No'. Elliot did as was told and shook his head. "No. There's no problem at all."
Midnight thinned his eyes but smiled, "Good. This is my little brother, Sun and Sun this is Elliot. He is the–"
"Thief!" Their attention was brought to a man who came running after another. The man who was screaming was slowing down while the other used some kind of air magic to boost his speed.
Midnight and Sun looked at each other before disappearing. There was a loud crash a couple of stalls away and a crowd started to gather.
Elliot made his way in front and saw the siblings standing over the passed out thief. Midnight was holding a bag of coins while Sun bent down to tie the thief with a rope.
"Awesome," Elliot whispered to himself. The siblings were so quick and so strong that he couldn't help but look at them in awe.
The guards came not long after, thanking Midnight and Sun and dragged the thief away.
"Anyway," Midnight said casually and went to Elliot. "If you want to buy items, I have a recommended store for you. The merchant is kind and cute. He's so chubby."
Elliot found himself looking at the merchant who humiliated him and an angry Midnight. The merchant made a mistake of calling Elliot a weak piece of trash in front of Midnight. This made Midnight furious. His hair was standing up in anger as the air thickened.
"Apologize," Midnight said with a dominating voice. The order wasn't directed at him, but Elliot couldn't help but flinch in fear.
"I'm sorry kid," the merchant said.
The store shook and the air thickened even more, "His name is Elliot."
"I-I'm sorry Elliot!" the merchant cried. "But I couldn't sell you anything. This is a place with class–"
The glass from his windows broke by the pressure Midnight was giving off. Elliot thought that he would murder the merchant but instead, his hair fell down and he smiled.
"Okay. Then Azure Scorch will withdraw our support to your store," Midnight said. "Thank you."
The merchant scoffed, thinking it was unfair for him to lose costumers. He returned to his shop and fixed the glass Midnight broke.
The three left the store with a smiling Midnight, an amused Sun, and a confused Elliot. The boy was lost for words about what happened.
"Where are you planning on going, Elliot?" Sun asked. "I know you don't want to stay here in Alorde to level up."
Elliot pursed his lips, "I wanted to go to Cacten but there is no Cacten in the map."
Midnight and Sun suddenly stopped walking which made Elliot almost bump into the older brother.
Sun cleared his throat and looked away while Midnight smiled sadly at the confused boy, "Cacten was destroyed 6 years ago."
Elliot's eyes widened at what Midnight said.
"A monster came and destroyed our city," Sun said. "Along with our family."