Summer Solstice Festival

Waking up the next morning. Jax and his parents felt fully refreshed, they hadn't really been getting a lot of good sleep. They only rested long enough to get their energy back, then they'd be off training again.

As he did every day, Jax uses his mind to speak to Thorn. "Good morning Thorn, has there been any change to the stat panel? Have you gained anymore knowledge from the system?" Jax asked hopefully.

Ever since his fifth birthday, he'd been hoping for a change to his system, to no avail. No matter how much he trained, fought and defeated monsters, the system refused to change.

"I'm sorry, but there's been no change. It's still the same as last you checked. I am getting closer to unlocking more information though. The system is really playing fair either, it's blocking all my attempts to get further knowledge!" Answers Thorn dejectedly.

"It's all right buddy, I'll just have to be patient. It's not that hard, right? Anyway, I wanted to have fun while we're here, but father has already agreed that I will accompany him on quest and missions. I only hope they will be somewhat challenging at least. I was getting kinda bored with my current level of training. Please, let me know the moment there's a change." Said Jax

Once finished speaking to Thorn, Jax leaves the room in search of his parents. He wants to know their plans for the immediate future. He was planning on enjoying the festival for a little while and hoped his parents would allow it.

Jax made his way to the dining hall of the hotel and finds his parents already eating breakfast. Before joining them, he grabs a tray and starts loading it up with food.

After piling his tray with several different breakfast items, he walked over and joined his parents to eat. As he sits, Sarah gives him a warm smile and says, "Good morning Jax. Did you get enough rest?"

"Good morning, Mother. Good morning, Father. Yes Mother, I slept well and all of my energy has been restored. Father, do you know when we will take our first quest or mission? I would like to take some time to enjoy the festival, that is why we came, correct?" Replies Jax

"I don't have a clue as to when Herschel will give us a quest or mission, but I don't think he'd have a problem with letting us enjoy the festival for a day or two." Answered Jacob

The three of them spent the next few minutes finishing their food and enjoying each other's company. When their done, they return their trays and decide to head out and look around town.

The town was an average size, it could house at least ten thousand people. At maximum the town could likely house around a couple hundred thousand. There were even more people in town due to the Summer Solstice Festival, but they weren't permanent citizens.

There was over a hundred different shops, eateries, bars, taverns and many others. Jax was so excited, he wanted to see everything. How often does a chance like this happen? He never got to experience many things in his past life, so he was determined to live his life to the fullest this time around.

Sarah was just glad that they were all together and safe, wether they were out there training, doing missions or having fun together enjoying a festival, she was content with whatever kept them together.

Jacob knew his way around, but it had been many years since he was last here and the place had obviously grown and changed over the years. It took him awhile to find the old shops he used to visit and explained to Jax and Sarah why he chose these shops out of all the others.

"I've always done business with these shops, because their owners were either people who greatly helped me or people that I trusted to not scam me. These shops have been very helpful to me throughout my adventuring years." Jacob said nostalgically

During their tour, they met several new people, many who were here just for the festival. Mostly everyone they encountered were very kind and friendly. There were some however, that just couldn't help themselves, and had to be rude for no reason.

Jax handled this by issuing different challenges to these people. The challenges ranged from outright street fights to math problems and word spelling abilities. He also had some of them try to solve riddles or clear a complicated obstacle course.

This surprised and confused many of these people, they were used to being challenged to a fight. However, none of them expected to have a young kid school them so savagely. Some of them were even impressed by Jax's calm demeanor even while making complete fools of them, because he never became condescending or vulgar.

Afterwards, they continued their tour of the town, after a few more hours of sightseeing they were all hungry and ready to go back, they'd been to almost every building in town. Jax had even went as far as having Thorn make a mental map of the town, so they could find their way around quickly, if they ever needed.

When they get back to the Temple, Jacob notices Herschel standing outside likes he's waiting for someone. Jacob calls out in a teasing tone and says, "Hey Herschel, why are you just standing outside? Don't you have better things to do? Or have you finally gone senile?"

"Senile!? What nonsense are you spouting? I've been waiting here for you! I thought we were supposed to meet to discuss the details of our deal." Exclaimed Herschel

"Oh damn, well I'm sorry about that. You see me and my family haven't had a whole lot of time to just have fun, so we decided to spend the day exploring the town and enjoying the festivities. The street performers in particular, had amazing performances."

"I was going to come looking for you after having dinner with my family. I'm very sorry you've waited all day for me." Said Jacob

"It's alright, I've only been waiting a couple hours. Anyway, come see me tomorrow, enjoy the rest of the day. However, you'll need to be ready to go on a mission soon. There are several bandit groups in the area that attack our caravans and potential merchants traveling to our town. We've also had a rise in beast attacks over the last year or so. One the other hand, the town has put out resource quests, the towns resources have gotten low after many beast and bandit attacks." Replies Herschel

"This isn't a problem for us, we've been preparing for an increase in our training so we've been look forward to this. Sarah, my love, would please assist the town with their gathering missions, while me and Jax will focus on the bandits and stronger beasts?" Asked Jacob

"I'd be glad to help out the town. I noticed a few places in the forest with berries. I also saw a few apple trees, if we can find them again, the town would have a continuous supply of fruits at least." Answers Sarah

"Ok well that settles it. We'll all be ready to start our quests and missions tomorrow. We will meet you at the town hall bright and early." Sad Jacob

"Ok I will go sort out the missions and quests by urgency, it'd be best to tackle them as quickly as possible. I will see you all tomorrow, enjoy the rest of the evening." Said Herschel as he turned to leave.

After Herschel left, Jacob. Sarah and Jax head to the dining hall to eat. Once they have their fill, they return to their tour and spend the next couple hours visiting the last of the buildings and shops they didn't get too earlier.

When it started getting dark, they returned to the Temple and took turns taking showers. Jacob let Sarah go first so she could have more of the hot water, he liked taking cold showers anyway.

While Sarah was in the shower, Jacob and Jax, sparred in the middle of the room. It'd become their habit before bed. Jax was frustrated that his Father kept betting him, so he was paying close attention to his Fathers movements.

After several seconds of watching and waiting, Jax believed he found an opening and went for it. Just as he was about to connect his fist on his father's face, his entire body froze and then collapsed.

Just before Jax threw his punch, he heard a ding from his system and then Thorns voice which said, "Host has absorbed required amount of energy to unlock system level one! Does host which to proceed?"

Without thinking Jax chose to proceed. The next thing he noticed was a sudden massive drain of his energy and then he slowly loses consciousness. The last thing he remembers is that he almost succeeded in finally landing a blow on his father.

AN - I'm sorry for the late update, I've had a busy couple weeks at my day job. I haven't had a lot of time to focus on writing.

I am working on more chapters, just please bear with me and continue reading.

A big thanks to hersheytemple for the power stones. I hope you like your character!

I also want to thank everyone who collected my novel and keeps reading, Thank You.

As always if you like the book leave a review or comments, and if you really like it drop a power stone.

Thank You All

Blessed Be