18 Thresholds and responsibilities

Ding!

Icarus was awoken by the ringing sound of the quest. He sluggishly opened his eyes, which felt like they weighed a million tons. 'W-wha?' Pulling up his status screen, he spotted a brand new daily quest.

Daily Quest: 40 Push-ups

Do 5 pushups

Reward: +0.02 All Physical Stats

Time limit: 00:01

Penalty: -0.02 All Physical Stats

All his sleepiness seemed to evaporate into the air as he got down onto the floor and started doing push ups. He furiously pushed himself, trying to go faster and faster. Eventually he was on the last few push ups.

Ding!

It was far too late though as the time limit ran out. He collapsed onto the floor, sweating and panting. A wave of weakness washed over him followed a tingling sensation. 'Damn it!' This wasn't the first time he had failed a quest. This wasn't the first time he had lost some stat points in an area. It didn't get easier though. He had always hated losing, this time the losses were just more personal. He sighed and pulled up his stat screen, confirming his suspicions.

Name: Icarus Dragonsword

Age: 3 yrs old

Constitution: 5

Power: 5

Agility: 5

Dexterity: 5

Vitality: 5

Intelligence: 5

Completed quests

Skills

Abilities

'Indeed, it is as I thought.' It had been nearly two years since started training his force field skills. At first there weren't any daily quests for a while, only hidden quest. He really did start to believe that he was rid of all the daily quests. As it turned out, the daily quests only went away for a small amount of time, they soon came back even fiercer than before when his stats all went over 2. Icarus thought that it was nothing but a coincidence but they became harder when all his stats went over 3 and further increased in difficulty when his stats hit 4. That was around the time when he started failing some of his quests as well. Eventually, he reached stats of 5 in every field and then the quests became impossible to complete. Every time his stats went over 5, the quest difficulty would become insane and completing it would be impossible for sure.

'Having 5 in all stats probably means something. Representing some form of threshold. I can't seem to be able to go past that threshold.' He stroked his chin as his mind ran through some of the possibilities. 'Oh well. I guess I'll figure it out later.' He went to the bathroom to wash up before heading downstairs for breakfast. In these three years, he had grown a lot. Currently, he was only three but his appearance was actually of an eight year old.

His parents started listening to him a lot more. Under his request thus, his parents had moved him to the 2nd floor bedroom of the house where he had a bed next to the window. Often times when he had to think, he would open up the window and fly to the roof of the four story 'house' to do the thinking. He came downstairs and found his parents sitting there waiting for him along with his breakfast. As soon as his foot landed on the last step, Icarus could immediately tell something was going. His parents were making...small talk. They never make small talk at the table unless they are nervous about something. 'Honey! Come sit.' Sana gestured at the spot opposite them. He didn't say anything and sat down. 'We wanted to put this off for a little while longer but seeing as you have had an accelerated growth spurt, we decided to bring this up.' Sana sighed as she spoke hesitantly. 'We don't want to seem like bad parents honey but'

'Icarus, we have decided that you are now able enough help out in some tasks at the farm.' Daedalus cut her off. Icarus was surprised, not by Daedalus' frankness but the fact this day had come much earlier than expected.

He had grown to look like an eight year old, his physical and mental capabilities were like an eight year olds as well. It was about time he was treated like an eight year old, even though his real age was only three.

'Okay,' he put a piece of apple pie in his mouth before chewing and continuing, 'then whats going to change?'

'You are going to learn everything under uncle Caylus.' His father dug into his own apple pie. 'He's going to come around soon, follow him and learn everything you need to from him.' Icarus simply nodded and they continued their breakfast.

Just as they finished breakfast, there was a knock at the door. Caylus walked in and coincidentally, his gaze matched with Icarus, who had looked up from his plate. 'Icarus.' He nodded.

'Uncle Caylus.' Icarus replied with a nod as well.

Ten minutes later, Icarus found himself on a horse. 'Are you sure this is safe?' shakily holding the reins, Icarus asked Caylus who was standing right behind him.

'I am fairly confident.'

Icarus turned towards Caylus with a look of horror. 'Fairly confident.'

'Don't worry, it was father's idea. I'm sure he wouldn't recommend it unless it was safe.'

'Oh my god get me off this horse!' He started yelling his head off whilst looking around trying to find a way off the horse.

Caylus did not expect this to happen and he quickly started caressing the mare. The horse neighed softly. 'Icarus, calm down. The horse can sense that you're nervous.'

'I will calm down once you get me off this horse!'

'Icarus, I suggest you settle down. The mare is getting agitated.'

'Then get me off the horse!'

'Icarus, calm down. The mare will-' before he could finish his sentence, the horse jumped onto its hind legs and took off.

'Aaaahhhhh!' Taking a screaming Icarus with it.

'sprint off' Caylus sighed as he watched the horse galloping off full speed in the field.

Thump

He felt a hand on his shoulder as Daedalus stood next to him. 'What a refreshing day!' He took in a deep breath and started to walk off, humming a cherry tune whilst Icarus was screaming his head off in the background.