"I am home… What the hell!"
I exclaimed as I grabbed my baby sister who was nearly throw towards me.
"Burak, take care of your sister for a second!"
My mother hastily handed me her and went out of the door. I first looked back at her leaving then to my sister.
"Agu!"
She let out baby noises. I grabbed her tightly, supporting her head.
"So, what is going on Zehra?"
I asked to her, not expecting her to answer.
"Guah!"
She threw up at my t-shirt. I sighed.
"The usual, I see."
When you were looking after babies, things like this happened all the times. I sat down on the couch while still holding her. As soon as I sat down she started to cry.
"Ah, come on."
I stood up and crying stopped in an instant.
"If you want to move that much learn how to walk."
I said as I wiped her face. She smiled and made her usual noises. After marching in the house for 30 minutes I realized that she fell asleep. I slowly lowered her to her crib without waking her. I let her. She turned her head several times like she were going to wake up but she stopped. I sighed in relief. Just as I was about to leve the room…
"I am home!"
A loud noise of door closing echoed in entire house. I looked in terror as Zehra's eyes opened. Worse, her mouth… The familiar voice of crying filled my ears. I lifted her up and left to greet my father.
"Looks who is awake! Come to papa!"
He said in an energetic tone. Meanwhile, I looked at him with contempt.
"Thanks! To! You!"
"Ugh!
"She finally was sleeping!"
I gave her to him.
"Now she is your problem."
I quickly escaped to my room.
"Wait!"
"Hell no!"
I didn't even looked back. I got inside my room and closed the door. I changed my vomit covered t-shirt. I left my equipment to their place and throw myself to my bed, facedown. After lying there like a corpse for a solid minute, I raised my head. I looked at my phone. Most messages were from Doğukan or Leyla. They were just about memes. I turned my body around and looked at my ceiling. Just after tomorrow, I would go inside a dungeon. A place filled with monsters. I will have to kill them. I will have to take care of other team members.
I could die.
My team could die.
We all could die.
Despite being cleared Dire Wolf's Nest for several times with no losses, the feeling in my chest only grow larger as raid time drew closer. I looked at one of the messages that came to my phone some time ago.
"Psychological help for Hunters. They protect our bodies with their own. So at least we can do is help them with our minds!"
Looking at this message I felt empty. I wondered if Doğukan or Leyla felt the same anxiety and fear I felt.
"I can't just ask them."
We were Hunters since 12. I killed my first monster at age 14. All the death and pain…. Messed me up very good.
"At least younger guys have it better."
At my time you had to be admitted to combat school if you had a Gift at age of 12. After 2 years of training you would experience your first dungeon raid. After my generation there were a lot of riots and protests. The term Child Soldiers were surfaced. So age of acceptence to combat school was increased to 14. Now, kids experienced their first dungeon raid at 16.
"Thinking it logically it is fucked up."
Kids. Children. They were in the age where they had to enjoy their lifes. But what goverment wanted was soldiers to fight against monsters. I was 18 now.
"All I can do is to teach those kids how to manage themselves."
Many kids would experience their first raid at Monday. I, Doğukan and Leyla were here to guide and taught them the basics.
"That asshole will be here, of course."
Volkan Taş. He was in our class when we were in combat school. Having a Growing Gift and money he had it easy. While we ran laps after laps under the sun, he sat down in the shadows with our instructor. Even though he didn't worked even half of us he just got stronger and stronger. That was the power of Growing Gifts. While I didn't know the specifics their skills would grow and even evolve. They could even get more skills. For Static Gifts, our skills stayed the same. No matter how much I trained or how many monsters I killed, my highest skill was ranked D+.
"Why it is not C ranked!"
I punched my pillow. Most Static Gift users had high ranks when they awakened their Gifts. Not for me though. While having 3 skills were rare, they weren't powerful. Hell, I couldn't even use them together.
Shooting D
Throwing D
Shooting was for things like bows. Throwing for knives or javelins. So no multiplying bonuses for me. My best skill was Hawkeye. Not only I saw farther and wider than other people, I could also see in nearly darkness. Still….
"Best sharpshooter in the world! Here is the Hero with A+ ranked Hawkeye skill…"
I closed the news article. A+. A+. Best rank one could have! My measly D+ rank couldn't even compere. I heard a knock in my door.
"Brother, dinner is ready."
I raised my body. My middle sister Nur called to me.
"Coming."
Since I could see in the darkness my lights were turned off. I got up and washed my hands.
"So, what did you do tomorrow?"
My mother asked.
"Just training."
She looked worried. I knew what she wanted to ask.
"Monday. It is Dire Wolves."
She looked even more worried.
"Didn't you said that place was hard?"
"Come on, he is strong!"
My father tried to console mother. He did that by smacking my back.
"Ouch."
I said as a loud slap came from my back.