"Rosalia," I said one evening, watching her stir something fragrant over the hearth, "can you take a rest for a while? I want to learn how to cook. Like you do."
She glanced over, something warm settling into her expression. "You don't have to trouble yourself with that, sweetheart. But if you're eager, I'd be glad to teach you. Shall we start now?"
"Yes, please! The sooner, the better."
"Alright then." She waved me over to the counter, pulling out a cutting board and a modest pile of vegetables. "Just follow along, and you'll have the shape of it before you know it."
I chopped and stirred with more concentration than the task probably called for, checking every step against her instructions like my life depended on getting it right. "Is this how you do it, Rosalia? I think it's done."
She took the wooden spoon and tasted a small spoonful of whatever I'd made, and her face went through a rapid, complicated sequence of expressions before landing on something strained and overly bright. "Not bad," she said, her voice climbing half an octave, "for a first try."
I didn't notice the grimace she was fighting down. "Really?" I beamed, chest puffing out with pride I hadn't earned.
A pale blue window flickered into being at the edge of my vision.
[New Unique Skill Acquired: Cooking (Level 8)]
I blinked at it, turning the thought over. So this isn't only about combat and running, then. Anything I keep doing seems to earn its own level. I pulled up my status out of curiosity, and the list had grown longer than I remembered it being — Exploration, Assassin, and now Cooking sitting alongside the others, each with its own quiet number attached.
"Rosalia, I'm finished. Should I call everyone in?"
"Yes, go ahead, dear. I'll just —" she reached for the water pitcher, and I caught her murmuring under her breath, "— adjust the seasoning. Just a touch too salty, I think."
"Nozue! Dinner!" I called toward the hallway, and his head appeared around the doorframe a moment later, nodding before ducking back to round up the others.
We all crowded around the long table, and I couldn't keep the pride out of my voice. "Rosalia, isn't it good?"
"It's very good, Kazu. I only added a little extra broth, to round it out." She smiled at me over the rim of her bowl, and I decided not to ask what "rounding out" meant, exactly.
"Thank you for the magic lessons too," I added. "I don't think I'd have made it through today without them."
Across the table, Nozue's eyes went wide. "Rosalia taught you magic?"
"She's incredible, Nozue. You should have seen the spell she cast — it was enormous."
He looked at her with something close to awe. "Really? You're amazing, Rosalia."
The conversation drifted on without me for a while, and I let it, my thoughts circling back to the glowing lists still hovering somewhere behind my eyes. Exploration. Assassin. Cooking. There's so much I still don't understand about any of this. I watched Rosalia laugh at something Nozue said, firelight catching the gray at her temples, and made myself a quiet promise. Whatever this is, I'll get strong enough with it to make sure nothing ever takes this table away from me.
Four months later.
The routine had become second nature by then — up before dawn to run the perimeter of the city and chase whatever new level Exploration had waiting for me, then out to the Guild for the day's F-rank quests, mostly slimes and the occasional goblin nest thinning out along the tree line. I'd stopped flinching at killing intent warnings weeks ago. They'd become as ordinary as birdsong.
I finished my fifth goblin of the day, wiped my brow, and pulled up my status out of habit more than curiosity.
[STATUS] Level: 38
Active Skills: Dash, Explosive Blink, Bloodthirst Magic Spells: Fire Pierce, Fire Spirit Flare Unique Skills: Exploration (Level 48), Assassin (Level 35), Cooking (Level 8)
Cooking's still stuck at eight, I thought, mildly amused at myself. Guess it doesn't level the way the rest does when I'm not actually paying attention to it. I let the window fade and turned my thoughts toward something that had been sitting with me for a while now. It's time. I need to move up in rank — S, if I can manage it. Strong enough to actually protect everyone at home, not just talk about it.
The Guild hall greeted me the way it always did — noise and heat and the smell of old leather — and Missy caught sight of me before I'd even reached the counter.
"Kazu! Look at you — you've grown so much these last four months. You're starting to look like a proper young man."
I felt my ears warm despite myself. "Missy, I wanted to ask — how do I move up in rank?"
"Normally there's an exam for each step — F to E, and so on." She considered me a moment, thoughtful. "There's also a Leap Exam, if you'd rather skip ahead. Pass it well enough, and you could jump straight to C-rank without sitting the exams in between. Fail it, though, and you're locked out of retesting for six months."
"I want to try the Leap Exam," I said, without much hesitation.
Her brow creased with something between concern and professional caution. "It won't be gentle, Kazu. The crystal meter still can't read your mana properly, so we'll have to judge your ability the hard way — out in the field. Are you sure?"
"I'm sure."
"Agility first, then." She pulled out a clipboard, all business now.
I dropped into a low stance and let the word settle in my mind. "Dash." The world blurred and reformed a dozen feet away. A breath. "Dash." Another dozen feet. "Dash."
Missy's pen hit the floor before she'd finished writing whatever she'd started. "That cooldown — that's not possible. Most trained assassins carry a twenty-second cooldown on a skill like that. You're already moving like a B-rank adventurer. This alone would pass you for C-rank."
I hesitated. "There's one more thing I can show you. But it's not something we should test inside the hall."
We walked out beyond the city walls to open ground, and I closed my eyes the way Rosalia had taught me, gathering everything I had into the shape of the words. "I, the mighty—"
The sky above us went dark before I'd finished the first line. The air thickened, pressure building against my skin like something enormous inhaling.
"He hasn't even finished the incantation," Missy breathed, staring up at the vortex of fire twisting into shape overhead. "Kazu, this is—"
The heat climbed past anything comfortable.
"Kazu, open your eyes! Stop — you'll take out half the countryside if you let that finish!"
I snapped my eyes open and cut the flow at once, watching the fireball collapse in on itself as the clouds tore apart to let the ordinary sky back through. "Sorry," I said, a little sheepish. "I keep forgetting how much that one actually holds."
Missy sat down hard on the grass, color slowly returning to her face. "Let's head back. I'll have your new card drawn up. And Kazu — that spell doesn't leave its box again unless the world is actually ending."
"Understood," I said, and meant it.
Back at the Guild, a broad-shouldered A-rank adventurer with a scarred face and an easy grin spotted us coming through the doors. "Kazu! How'd the date with Missy go?"
Missy went scarlet. "It wasn't a date, Kazike. He was taking his skill test."
Kazike laughed, arms crossed over a chest built like a barrel. "Sure, sure. So — how'd the kid do?"
Missy leaned in and murmured something too low for me to catch, and Kazike's eyes went wide enough to look almost comical. "S-RANK?"
"Shh!" Missy smacked his arm. "We haven't told him properly yet — and I'm worried what kind of quests they'll throw at him once word gets out."
Kazike set a heavy hand on her shoulder, gentler than his size suggested he'd manage. "If the kid's S-rank, he deserves to hear it from us and not the rumor mill." He turned to me, grin widening. "Congratulations, Kazu. You just became the highest-ranked adventurer in this entire Guild."
The hall went quiet around us, one head after another turning my way.
"Me? How?" The words came out smaller than I meant them to.
Kazike clapped me on the back hard enough to stagger me. "You'll understand soon enough. For now — wait for your card."
An hour later, Missy returned with a card trimmed in gold instead of copper, and I turned it over in my hands, reading the engraving twice before it stuck. "S-rank… Job Class: Assassin, Fire Magic Caster, and Healer? Three classes?"
"That's right," Missy said, pride and worry sitting side by side on her face. "Between the Dash cooldown that shouldn't exist and the spell you nearly leveled the countryside with, the Guild Master had no grounds to rank you any lower. And healing magic on top of it all makes you rarer still — most vanguard fighters have to rely on someone else entirely for that."
"Amazing," Kazike said, clapping me again. "No wonder Missy was sweating so hard when you two walked back in."
"I was not sweating," Missy said, cheeks coloring again. "I was terrified for my continued existence. There's a difference."
I couldn't stop grinning. "Thank you, Missy. Both of you. I need to go tell Rosalia — she's going to be so proud." I threw my arms around Missy in a quick, grateful hug before bolting for the door.
Behind me, Missy's voice softened. "Take care of yourself, Kazu."
Kazike chuckled, hands on his hips. "That kid's something else. Can't wait to see how far he goes."
Missy's glare snapped back to him immediately. "Don't you dare drag him somewhere dangerous. I haven't forgotten the goblin swarm."
"Relax," Kazike said, raising both hands in surrender, though the grin didn't fade. "I'll look after him."
"You'd better," Missy muttered, arms crossed, watching the door I'd already disappeared through.