Wages of Sin

Time: 22/8/304

When I awoke, it was already nightfall. I had slept through dinner, and it was the crack of dawn. When I looked out the window, I saw just a weak little light peaking through the trees. For some reason, today felt different compared to the rest of my easy days. I don't really know why, but something felt off. Of course, I never wake up this early anyway, but something in my stomach told me that something was off.

I hopped out of bed and silently made my way to the kitchen. It was eerily silent, and the darkness was overwhelming. I had no idea what it was, but I had the gut feeling that something was off. What? I didn't know.

Just as I thought that I was going insane, I heard a scratching at the door. I quickly turned around, a coat of darkness draped over my half-naked body. I slowly crept towards the window, and right as I was about to reach it, a floorboard groaned. I froze immediately. And so did the scratching.

After a couple of eternal seconds, I heard a low growl on the far side of the glass. As the growl grew louder, it grew less…normal. It sounded…glitched. Anomalous. I've heard stories of the monsters of this world, but nothing looked or sounded like this. At least not in the stories I've overheard.

Just as I was about to turn away and wake my parents, I caught a glimpse of the red eyes through the window. The crimson glow diffused slightly through the window, masking the real perpetrator. Just two red orbs and a black silhouette.

I tried to creep back as silently as possible. I almost made it behind the island in the kitchen, when the door was ripped off its hinges. I dove behind what little cover the island could give me and weighed my options. I could try and wait for my parents to come and bail me out, but who knows if they'd be awake and alert enough for combat. Or, me, who had years of combat experience and a new weapon which I didn't really know the capabilities of, built into my bones.

However, the menace didn't give me a chance to properly weigh my options. It jumped and crashed into a wall with a massive thud. By this point, my parents were surely awake, but they had no information whatsoever. If they opened that door, they could be mauled by this "glitched" monster.

I picked up a kitchen knife and threw it center-mass. However, the knife just seemed to phase through the black shadows of the creature. A black ink-like blood leaked onto the floor and was splattered over the knife, which had wedged itself perfectly into the door opposite of me.

I had clearly injured the beast, but that only made it aggro onto me even more. It's red eyes flashed in a bright rage, and it's oral orifice, which didn't look much like a mouth but was filled with razor sharp teeth, opened slightly and let out a toxic mist. To protect myself, I grabbed a washcloth and held it over my mouth with my left hand.

I held up my hand like I was holding a finger gun, and visualized a high-pressure propane flame in my mind. A small, blue flame materialized on the tip of my index finger, and I felt it charge up and get hotter. The sound of the ignited gas became louder and higher pitched until a critical point was reached, and I released the build up of pressure. At that moment, the door opened, distracting the concentration I had worked so hard to keep, as this was my first true practical use of magic.

Due to that, I slightly overcharged my spell. Maybe even massively overloaded it. As I made direct eye contact with my mother, the spell reached its critical mass and incinerated the entity instantly. As well as the wall outside. And maybe singed a few trees. The bright blue flame dissipated instantly, as if the fuel supply was cut off. I guess it was, since I stopped supplying my mana to the tip of my finger.

My mom didn't seem to comprehend what she just saw, and my dad's jaw had pretty much dropped to the ground. Like, completely planted on the ground. His jaw must surely be broken, otherwise, there was absolutely no way that his jaw could be opened that wide.

I nervously smiled and waved a little, trying to avoid making the situation any more awkward than it already was. After another few awkward seconds, my mother regained her composure first and used an ice spell to put out any lingering flames as well as patch the grizzly-bear sized hole in the wall.

I guess my cover's blown.

The awkward silence was almost palpable, and I had no idea how my parents would react.

My mother then broke the silence, saying "Wow! He's so amazing, Steele! Our son is a prodigy!"

"Apparently…"

My dad was still clearly in shock, and I think that he still hadn't fully registered what happened. My mom ran up to me and picked me up, and flung me around the room with a massive smile on her face. Clearly, she was pretty happy that her son was pretty adept with magic. After a couple minutes, Lilith finally walked into the room and scolded my mother, finally allowing me to have two feet planted on the ground.

Once I had my two feet firmly planted on the ground, I noticed a purple crystal sitting on the floor where the creature had attempted to invade but ended up perishing in the process. I walked over to it and poked it, just to see if it would spark or something, which it didn't. I gingerly picked it up, and noticed that there was some heft to the purple crystal, and I noticed that there was an orange glow emanating from the center of the crystal. Suddenly, however, the orange glow flowed towards where I was touching the crystal, and then dissipated completely. Almost immediately afterwards, a message popped up in my field of vision saying that I had leveled up from Level 1 > Level 7. I don't know how I could level up that much after one monster kill, but I wasn't about to start complaining.

I walked back over to my mom and dad and showed them the crystal in my hand.

"Here. I don't know what this is, but here you go," I said, turning to my mother.

She put out her hand and exclaimed "Wow! This is a pure crystal. No unusable contaminants in it too!"

And then, finally gathering his wits, my father interjected, saying "that's the best form of lesser core there is…"

Gleaning what little information I could from that exchange, it seemed as if there were different classes of monster cores, and that orange light that glinted through the crystal was unusable and decreased values of the cores. But for me, that was a godsend. I could use that latent energy built into those cores to raise my stats.

As everyone's heart rates started to slow, Sakura hopped onto my head and started lightly snoring again.

I guess my head's just that comfortable, huh…

^^^^^^^^^

After I had fallen back asleep, I had once again entered Sakurai's Dreamland. Or whatever you'd call that liminal space where reality isn't real but the experiences and memories are. Actually, that is an interesting philosophical question. Are the experiences you go through reality? Even if they aren't necessarily real? Can reality differ from person to person? Even if they go through the same events? Who knows… But I digress.

I awoke laying on the soft grass and the warm breeze blowing through my hair. I squinted as I opened my eyes to the bright sky, and sat up. Back in my ethereal form, I phased through some of the grass and trees and found Sakurai in the normal meeting place within the dreamland; under the gazebo in the clearing drinking tea.

Having gotten used to phasing through objects in the dreamland, I floated over to the gazebo and sat down at the table, a teacup already prepared.

"Do you always just like jumping on my head?" I asked, breaking the soothing silence.

"It's comfortable. And you know, the bodily urges you experience affect you too mentally. It's the same here, you know."

^^^^^^^^^

The next morning, after the entire family had reawoken, damages were surveyed. The ice wall that had replaced the wall earlier that morning was starting to melt as the sun shone directly on it. Patching that would be a little rough, and I wasn't sure how that would even work. I know patching drywall was a pain but it wasn't that hard to do, as normal people like you or me could do it too. But splintered wood? That's a different story. Then, my mother dropped a helluva bombshell.

"Well, we needed to expand anyway, that saves us the headache of placement… I'm pregnant again after all…"

This time, instead of my parents both being shocked, it was the turn of the father and the son to be surprised. I guess it's a double-whammy for Dad, but that's his problem, not mine.

"Wai-Wai-Wait" my father stuttered, clearly not knowing how to form a cohesive sentence.

"Siblings, huh?" I pondered… "Do you know if I'm going to have a brother or sister?"

"No, not yet. But you'll be their senior by four years"

So I guess Mom is just good at dropping massive bombshells, and Dad sucks at absorbing that information. Because he still has his jaw touching the floor. And the fact that my antics had saved them a headache was surprising to me. I mean it was probably going to be the spot where they expanded the house anyway. Especially since no permits were required to build. At least not this far out in the frontier.

"But first," interrupting my thoughts, "we have to teach you how to properly control your mana," chided my mom.

She looked up at Steele and they both nodded.

"I'm still going to teach him swordsmanship though," my father interjected.

"Whatever, he can probably do both"

Guess I'm just going to be stuck training all day. Lilith just gave me a pained glance, basically saying that she felt sorry for me. Oh boy…

^^^^^^^^^

An hour or two later, breakfast was served around the dining table. A steaming hot creamy soup with chunks of meat and vegetables paired with freshly baked bread made for a well-rounded, delicious meal. I guess because of the news my mother had broadcasted to the family just a couple of hours ago called for this somewhat more celebratory meal.

By this point, Steele finally wrapped his head around the fact that his son was a magical prodigy for his age and that he was going to be a father of two, not one. Well, at least to the point where he could operate semi-normally. With his spoon, he was still quietly picking at the chunks of meat in the soup.

"Oh come on, Dad…" I started, pointing my spoon at him. "Why are you being so dreary? It's not like the world's ending."

"Still…" he trailed off.

"Well," my mother chimed in, "that magic of yours was a sight to behold. He's probably upset that he won't be able to teach you swordsmanship as much."

I rolled my eyes in annoyance and put another spoonful of creamy heaven in my mouth. I savored the flavors as the meat melted and vegetables disintegrated in my jaws. I went to scoop more soup, but all I heard was a muffled clunk of a dry, wooden bottom.

Darn. Empty Bowl…

Looking up and noticing that Dad had hit maybe a quarter or so of the soup in his bowl, I hatched a nefarious plot. I would just switch the two bowls. With him being so daydreamy, it wouldn't be that hard.

I placed my spoon down on the table and took a deep breath. I surveyed the distance and estimated the weight of the bowl, and did some trajectory calculations in my head. Once he had finally removed his spoon from his bowl, I executed my plan gracefully and flawlessly. In mere moments, my bowl was mostly full and his was mostly empty.

Mission Accomplished…

I put a spoonful of soup in my mouth and once again savored the flavors bursting in my mouth. As I went down for another scoop, my mother started laughing.

"It's going to be fine, Steele. With those moves, he'll be a fine swordsman."

He finally focused and realized what happened. That his bowl was empty and that mine was full. But he clearly didn't know how it happened.

"Huh? What happened?"

"He's so graceful that he switched bowls right under your nose, and you didn't even notice, dingus."

He looked down and it finally clicked. Just to rub it in a bit more, I took a big scoop and put it in my mouth, overexaggerating my facial expressions and movements along the way.

"MMMM, MMMM…Delish!"

Seemingly satisfied that I had promise as a swordsman as well, he perked up and laughed. All while making my hard work for nought.

^^^^^^^^^

Soon after breakfast, or more like brunch, the table had been cleared and Steele drew up plans for the new set of rooms for the main house. Using a paper-like sheet, he drew up the dimensions and wrote down how much materials he'd need to undergo and complete the task. Apparently, he was a handyman in his own right, and could construct timber houses.

After a while, he finished up with his plans and turned to me.

"We need to go to town, for supplies, and a few other things…"

"Okay!" I enthusiastically replied.

I grabbed my bag and threw it over my shoulder, and we headed out the door. Now that I am four, the journey itself was pretty easy. At least a lot easier when I first traversed the journey. We made it to the village in under an hour, and my dad set about custom ordering materials to be delivered at the house. Once he was finished with that, he took me to a combat outfitter's shop.

I walked into the small store as my father and the burly man behind the counter exchanged greetings. The dimly lit store smelled of must and rust, and various weapons lined the walls. I say weapons, not swords, because various items included staffs, staves, lances, spears, and even musical instruments among other things. Behind the counters, nicer, more expensive weapons lined the walls while the bargain-value items were clumped together in barrels. After scanning through the barrels, I noticed many of these weapons were chipped, cracked, and slightly rusty. I looked up to my dad, and he was still engaged in a conversation with the store clerk. I made my way to the other side of the room, and started looking through the different barrels of weapons. Right at that moment, I swear I heard whispering.

"Psst. psst. Hey, kid…"

I looked up quizzically and made my way over towards the sound.

"Yeah, over here…steady as she goes…"

I shuffled over to a barrel with really rusty weapons.

"There ya go…"

I picked up a short, folded steel one-sided sword. Kind of like a Wakizashi. But it was really rusty.

"Okay kid, now swing me."

I got into a stance that I had been using when I'd mock-fight my dad with wooden swords, and took in a deep breath. As I was about to exhale, I exploded forward, swinging the sword with purpose. The noise of the air being cut, and then a loud clang resounded in the store. The storekeeper and my father turned around and saw me, with a sword in my hand. The rust cleanly slid off the blade and revealed a jet-black damascus-forged blade with amber accents.

"God I hated seeing that thing above me every day. It's nice to stretch my wings," the sword told me.

I looked up and saw that an ostentatious gold-encrusted sword had been cleanly cut in half, down the vertical center.

"You have some good form, kid. Name's Gluttony."

I just painfully smiled, and looked towards my father.

"You're kid has some technique. And I've been trying to get rid of that thing for a while. Just go and take it," the shopkeeper said, with a bitter smile on his face.

The shopkeeper threw me the sheath it came with, but it was showing a lot of wear. I definitely needed to procure a better one. Especially since this thing was named Gluttony. My father and I left the shop and went to another shop that dealt magic tools. As I was looking around this next dimly lit shop, I couldn't really find anything of interest. Just as I was about to leave, the sword piped up.

"See that black sceptre in the corner over there. The one with the rings on each end? Get that one"

Seeing that my sword picked that one out of the rest, I decided to give it a gander. I picked up the light sceptre and dusted it off. As the dust settled, I examined the damascus-forged black sceptre with emerald accents. When I placed my hands on the sceptre and imparted some of my mana, it sparked an emerald green. And just like Gluttony, Envy was inscribed into the sceptre.

I guess it's like the seven deadly sins, huh? I wonder if there are weapons named after the seven heavenly virtues.

My dad paid for the sceptre, as I was to use both weapons to train, and we went on our way to the guild to have the core appraised. Once I had strapped each weapon to either side of my ruck, my father and I made our way towards the guild hall. Because I had proof that I killed a monster, I could register early and become a Junior Adventurer, and start that journey earlier.

I opened the doors to the lively hall and made my way straight to the registrar. Once both my father and I made it to the front, he pulled out the core and asked for it to be appraised. Once it had been deemed a >99% purity lesser core, he dropped the news that I had killed it.

Of course, that revelation didn't make any sense. Like, how could a four year old kill something like that? Even if human development was way faster in this world, it shouldn't have made any sense. And that receptionist really, really proved my point. The blank stare, the fumbling of the pen, and the glazed over eyes.

"Eh?"

Oh come on, you don't have to have that expression…

After a few long and awkward seconds, the receptionist finally came to. Well, kind of…

"So you want to turn in this core? It's very pure!" she exclaimed.

It just flew right over her head, didn't it…

"Alright, sir, I'll add that to your account."

Yep, it did…

"Actually," my father started. "We need to get this young man an account and registry. He neutralized the beast. All on his own, if I may add…"

"Oh, yes, of course…" the receptionist replied

Still not sure if it clicked, yet, but, sure…

She went into the back and sifted through a couple of cabinets before she pulled out a piece of paper. Or, at least a paper-like substance. It was more like parchment. I hopped up on one of the rickety bar stools and took a gander at the paper. After a cursory look-over of the sheet, it just looked like one of those papers you get at the doctor's office even though you know damn well that they have that information on the system and they are just giving you busy-work while the doctor engages in whatever tomfoolery he does while in between seeing patients. Of course, there were some glaring differences, but overall it was the same. For example, there was no telephone number slot, but there was a primary class slot. I left that empty, because I wasn't sure yet, and the guild receptionist said that was fine. Of course, she was slightly surprised that I could read and write, but that rumor had been going around for a while.

Thank God I have that Co-Processor. I hate learning languages!

I filled out what I could, signed the sheet, and passed it to my dad to look over. He scanned it, signed it, and passed it back to the receptionist.

"Okay, We'll have it processed right away!"

Just as we were turning and leaving, somebody burst through the heavy wooden double doors, ragged and panting. On closer inspection, multiple scratches and bruises plastered his body, and droplets of blood trickled down his body to the floor.

"MONSTER ATTACK!" he yelled, panting. "Just past the Eastern Safety Corridor. Multiple Hostiles. Our Convoy is being overrun. We need any reinforcements we can get."

Maybe it was because we are on the frontier, but most if not everyone started packing their gear immediately. I guess out here, everyone helps one another. As it should be.

I turned to Dad and he told me to "Hold down the fort, son"

"But." I started, but he cut me off.

"You may be strong, but you're too young for this. Leave it to the adults this time."

"Okay…" I trailed off, looking somewhat dejected.

He smiled and knelt down so we were eye-level, and said "We are going to need you to protect this home base for us, yeah?"

"Okay. I can do that."

I know that he was just trying to make it seem like I had a job, but it was more to protect me. And I knew that. But it was fine. And who knows? Maybe I can get some action if something happens.

So I just sat and waited.

^^^^^^^^^

An hour or so had passed at this point, and I thought I heard footsteps at the door. I had no idea why, but my instincts told me that it was far too soon for them to be returning. Especially with those that were presumably injured. Because there were only non-combatants in the guild hall, it pretty much fell to me to see who - or what - was at the door.

As I carefully crept up to the door, I heard the same glitchy growling on the other side of the door. The same one as last night. I motioned for the few people that were left in the guild hall to get behind the counter, and slung my bag around my back, since both my sword and sceptre were clipped to it. As I was reaching for Gluttony, I heard a woman's voice in my head.

"Ahem. Don't always be using that mana gorger all the time. All he does is eat."

"Shut up, Envy. You're just jealous that he went to me first."

"Whatever. Just use me. I'd be more helpful in this situation."

"But those monsters just look so juicy! I want to munch on their souls!"

"You're just proving my point, Gluttony."

"Hey, can you guys put a sock in it? I'm trying to concentrate here," I said.

"Whatever," they both replied in unison.

I grabbed the Envy from my bag and twirled it around a bit. You know, I just gotta add a bit of finesse.

"Flamboyant, aren't ya, kid?" Gluttony said from behind me.

Rolling my eyes in response, I channeled some mana through the sceptre. Just moments later, I took a deep breath, and the wooden doors burst open. A handful of those black mist-shrouded creatures snarled at me, instantly labeling me as their greatest threat. Even though I was one of the youngest. I gripped my sceptre in my right hand, and had my left hand outstretched. I closed my eyes and let my thought acceleration take hold, giving a few more moments to imagine the spell I was about to cast.

Though only mere moments had past in the real world, I built up my spell in my head for what seemed like multiple minutes. Once I had clearly visualized a wall of superheated plasma in my head, I re-opened my eyes and gripped the sceptre with both my hands, imagining the wall expanding away from me as the sceptre struck the ground.

I flipped the sceptre and rammed it into the ground, green sparks flying as it made contact.

"YOU SHALL NOT PASS"

Yes, I felt like Gandalf at that moment. It was amazing, okay? Don't judge.

In that instant, a bright light appeared in front of me and vaporized the creatures in an instant, their cores falling to the ground. Much the same way as it had happened only this morning.

Out of breath, I took a step backward, only to notice a final monster charge at me. Out of sheer reflex, I pulled the sword off my bag and slashed it through the center, cleanly cutting that core in half. Immediately, the mist dissipated, and the threat was neutralized. I collapsed onto the floor on the spot, panting and staring at the stars.

Wait…Didn't this place have a roof?

I looked forward and saw the street ahead. No sign of the doors. Or half of the ceiling.

Through ragged breaths, I whispered "Shit."

After a minute, I rolled over and stood up, looking back at the couple of people behind the counter, and gave them a smile and a thumbs-up.

"I think you passed the test. For entrance into the guild…" the receptionist lady told me.

"Well, glad that's that!"

I walked over and pocketed all the cores. As soon as I'd pick them up, the orange "impurities" would dissipate and give me an XP boost. And I'd get way more doubloons. I tossed them in a little bag I had in my backpack, and waited for the rest of the adults to return. To brag, of course!

Only minutes later, they finally did walk in. Well, there wasn't a threshold to cross anymore. And it was removed by yours truly. They were surprised, but the guild lady explained everything to them. And maybe embellished it a little bit. But, I wasn't going to change the story. Especially since it was pretty much all compliments.

Apparently my eyes glinted an emerald green. Like my staff. But that didn't make any sense, especially considering that they were behind me the entire time. But that's fine, because, let's be honest, that's a hella cool picture to paint in anyone's head.

After everyone had their fill of drinks, my father and I headed home. And today marked the day where I would use sentient weapons named after the seven deadly sins. This was my wages of sin.

On the journey home, I told my dad what happened, and he was definitely proud of me, but something was definitely eating away at him. He said the same beasts were attacking the convoy that he set out to try and save, and it looked like a siege had occurred. Bodies and goods were strewn about, and the beasts were feeding on the flesh of dead animals and humans. Though they were easily chased off with the amount of adventurers that went to assist, a normal convoy may not have enough security to properly protect the merchants. Especially if they skimp out on trained hands, which was fairly common. Guards were expensive after all.

We finally made it home with my new gear and receipts for the orders for the house extension. I was welcomed by a nice smelling aroma wafting through the door, and plopped down at the table. Apparently, we made it just in time for dinner.