When he saw his Father's status Jason was in awe. He had known that his father was a lot stronger than him but now seeing all his talents and his skills, Jason had a better appreciation for how big that gap truly was. Even the skill that Jason had received from the sword was only at silver level while his father had it at gold. Although, he did laugh to himself when he saw that he was already better than his father at maths. He couldn't see anything about his stats or level-up points but that wasn't unexpected since he didn't have a system. He wanted to ask about the title [Sword of Ovar], but first, he decided to check his mother's status.
Most of the status wasn't far from what he expected for someone at level 120, however, there were a couple of notable things he found. The first was her title.
[The Great Wizard Who Wasn't]
+ 100 Intelligence
The second seemed connected as just like Jason she had affinities for elemental and healing magic, but she also had the affinity for light magic on top of that. Despite this, she had no talent for magic at all. Jason knew that this was likely something to do with her past so he wasn't going to ask her about it. Nonetheless, since he knew that she couldn't do magic it helped him better understand his new ability. It seemed talents were a representation of someone's ability and knowledge to do things.
There was one last way he wanted to try the skill. He went back to the table picking up the sword that his father had given him.
[Nameless Orichalcum Sword]
Quality: Platinum
[A sword that didn't deliver quite to the potential of the material with which it was crafted. Yet It still remains a sword that would be potent in the hands of a strong wielder. Bestows the ability to use the Skill [Blistering Slash] at [Silver] Lv. 1 temporarily when wielded by a system holder.]
Jason had expected that might be how the sword skill might work but he did find the fact that its quality was only Platinum when it was made from Orichalcum strange. He knew that the world used materials to describe different ranks so it sort of made sense.
Finally, he tried to use the [Vision of Rylax] skill on the ring itself but this time it didn't work. It seemed that as it was it wouldn't be possible to use on everything yet. Jason was a little disappointed but he could hardly complain he had gained so much that night and he had a lot that he still had to investigate before he would be able to make the most of all of it.
His parents had been watching everything that Jason had done and were a little confused. Jason decided he would wait till he understood it all himself before telling them. He wanted to try and figure it out for himself.
Jason noticed all this excitement was tiring him out, especially after he had had a long birthday already. So after a while, he said "Mum, Dad I think I'm feeling quite tired can I head to bed soon."
"Of course, It's your birthday you can leave the rest for us to clean up." His mum said kindly.
"I was thinking that you might join me to check on some rumour of a monster sighting near the village tomorrow, so make sure you get some good rest." His dad said with a grin.
Jason was very excited and couldn't wait till he woke the next day, so he rushed up as fast as he could and threw himself into bed. Somewhere in the back of his mind it did feel wrong to be so excited about hunting monsters, yet Jason knew that would he really wanted was to be stronger like his Dad.
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Garion and Jason were setting out of the village on their own. Normally when hunting a monster Garion would bring a number of the village hunters with him. It wasn't that Garion couldn't handle what came out of the forest alone, it was mainly so others could earn experience and better knowledge about the monsters that also made this area of the continent their home.
This time he hadn't brought anyone else. No one would believe that his 10-year-old son was ready to hunt monsters and if they did they would surely have questions, or worse theories for how that might be the case. It wasn't that Garion didn't trust everyone in the village, he truly did, especially after years of fighting monsters together and putting their lives on the line for each other. It was merely that every person that knew the truth would be at risk. The fewer who knew about Jason's status as a Champion the better.
The plains around the village were fairly flat and lacking in any tree cover so if a monster did venture out of the forest it was often possible to spot it from the village given its raised position on a hill. Most monsters were at least a little intelligent. There were many races and types of creatures in the Heroic realm and at least on the surface level they treated each other respectfully, even demons. However, monsters were different they were often single-minded in their devotion to killing and looking after their own interests. They were seen by all as wicked beings. Garion himself believed they were placed on the Heroic Plain as a challenge to the Followers. Monsters didn't just kill for food they had a strong instinct for killing to grow stronger, so they were known for killing sprees that left whole villages and even small towns destroyed.
Because of their intelligence, they had come to learn not to remain out of the cover of the forest for too long. Occasionally they would get confident and attempt to get closer and closer to the village as if testing the defences of the village. It was important that they were killed when they did, otherwise, they might grow bold enough to attack the village. Of late nothing that strong had tried to do so. Garion knew this was because Ava had wiped out or intimidated into obedience anything that might truly put those in the village or more precisely Jason in danger. It was what they had agreed 10 years ago the only time he had spoken to her.
Since Ava had done so Garion wasn't too worried about Jason joining him on this expedition. In fact, if anything did genuinely threaten Jason, he was sure Ava would be there to protect him. He suspected she was always watching somehow, otherwise what sort of guardian would she be? He didn't tell this to Jason as it was best that he remained cautious. Even with all this, Garion's wife was still hesitant to put him in any dangerous positions. It had taken a lot of convincing from Garion for her to change her mind.
Garion was also worried about this son but he had seen how harsh this world could be. The more prepared Jason was the better. There were times that Garion was a little jealous of his wife's relationship with Jason. Garion wasn't the best at showing his affection. He didn't know what to say most of the time and didn't think he could be the emotional support for him. He wanted to be able to do something for his son and there was one thing Garion knew he could definitely do; help Jason get stronger.
As they reached the plains at the bottom of the village hill they found their first traces of what they were looking for.
"Hmmm looks like the work of an ogre, they aren't that clever but incredibly vicious and fairly strong. It is a good monster for your first fight." Garion said as he looked at the corpse of a deer. It was clearly the work of a monster because it had been killed but not eaten or had its body moved. The wounds told the experienced Garion the most likely monster to have killed the deer. They also told him that the deer had probably died in the middle of the previous night. So the ogre was at least smart enough not to venture out of the forest in the daylight.
If they wanted to kill the creature they would either have to track it into the forest or find a spot and wait in the hope that it would venture out of the forest again after dark. Neither option was ideal but waiting would probably be best given as it was Jason's first time. As Garion turned to tell Jason of his plan he found his son was very distracted, in fact, he didn't seem to be concentrating on the situation at all. Garion was about to give Jason a strict talking to about how he needed to concentrate and follow what his father was doing when Jason spoke before he got the chance.
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Jason had been having a strange feeling ever since the morning. As he had followed his father down the hill the feeling had only grown stronger and stronger. When they had arrived at the corpse of the deer the feeling was now impossible to ignore. While he had tried to listen to everything his father had said he couldn't concentrate. It was similar to the butterflies he got in his stomach when he was nervous. However, this feeling flowed all through his body. Most importantly it wasn't a bad anxious feeling, it just left him feeling excited. At first, he had convinced himself that it was just nerves but by now he knew that couldn't be the case. What's more, looking at the deer corpse he knew what he needed to do next.
"Let's follow its tracks back into the forest." Jason said with complete conviction in his words.
"That is an option but I don't think we should take you into the forest just yet, it would be better to wait outside and ambush the monster when it gets dark."
"I know this is going to sound strange but I have this feeling that if we do that we will miss out on something important." As soon as he let the words out Jason connected the dots in his head. He recalled the line of his [Vision of Rylax] skill. Gives the user the ability to sense opportunity. It was hard to be certain but it seemed entirely possible that this was exactly what he was doing.
"I think it's the ring that's encouraging me to go. Please dad I really don't think we should miss out on this." Jason pleaded strongly.
"Alright if you are sure I will trust you. Although I will need you to explain it all to me as we head to the forest, but after that, while in the forest, we will have to be silent. While in there you will listen to every instruction I give, with no questions asked." Garion had a serious face and he seemed to be talking to Jason not like his son but as he did the other hunters. Jason understood that he was asking a lot from his father, but he was very grateful that he believed in him.
As they walked along the tracks, that were tough for Jason to follow but seemed to be no trouble at all for Garion, Jason explained what he understood so far about the ring's abilities. He even explained that he could now see new things about his own status as well as more information on the statuses of others as well.
He told his father about the skills, titles, affinities and talents that his father had. When he heard about this his father was shocked. He like everyone else could check his own skills and level, but the rest was a mystery to him. The most interesting thing was that Garion had never heard any mention of talents or affinities. He had heard of Followers and Champions holding titles but he didn't know that inhabitants could have them. At the mention of "Sword of Ovar" Garion's face looked troubled but now wasn't the right moment for Jason to press him on it as they were now approaching the treeline.
"Remember Jason, stick with me, try to be as quiet as possible and most importantly…. What I say goes."
"Understood." Jason replied calmly
"Good then let's enter."
With those words, the two silently walked into the dark of the treelined forest.