Chapter 9: Happy Birthday!!!

'flesh manipulation, is it the same as blood manipulation?' he looked at his small wounds and manipulated the flesh surrounding them, trying to forcefuly close them. As he did that, the flesh started to squirm, closing itself over the wound and after some minutes it healed up.

"...A bit disgusting, but it healed fine" as he stopped looking at his closed wounds, he decided to evolve a simple skill before going to sleep. He grabbed a paper and a pencil and started writing, but unlike other things, instead of doing it as fast as possible, he decided to write as slow and good as possible, but still keeping a fast velocity.

/"writing" has evolved into "calligraphy Lv1"/

/calligraphy will now give +0,5% more/

/calligraphy Lv1: while writing, writing speed and precision +25%/

"something normal but better as expected, but now, time to sleep" he changed into his pajama and went to bed.

-meanwhile,outside the rift, at the entrance of the city-

The gates of the first stronghold of humanity were open and as they opened, vehicles started entering, the expeditioners have returned. While humanity conquered back 60% of the earth's surface, the other 40% was still dangerous and even still unexplored, and that was the work of the expeditioners to do, to explore those places and return alive.

"man, i'm so tired, good thing we finished our job for now, now I can go grab some drinks and sleep all I couldn't this year" a man about 35 years old said, happy to return home. While he said that, he looked at one of his companions, a 40 year old man that still looked like a 25 year old guy "tch, I'm so envious of you. With your power you can look as young as much as you like" he was talking towards the elite of the group, nicknamed 'youth burner'.

His power made him capable of regenerating vitality, making him look always young, but he could also burn his obtained vitality for an extreme instantaneous power, making him capable of withstanding multiple strong beasts by himself, and even being capable of killing them with enough preparation. The only downside was that, if he burned too much vitality, he could die of old age instantly.

As he looked at 'youth burner', he only asked one thing.

"why did you want to come back? I heard that you were doing pretty well over there"

'Youth burner' only looked at him for a moment "I wanted to celebrate my son's birthday" he said, with a smile on his face.

-wednesday early morning, Aster's house, the kitchen-

"eerrr, mom I got a problem, could you come here?" Rosy said to his mom from the kitchen. "mmmh? What is it dear?" Evelyn got up from the sofa of the living room and went to the kitchen.

And as she entered, she saw pure chaos. The oven was emitting some black fumes, the room was full of cream everywhere and some kitchen utensils were dropped everywhere on the floor. Evelyn only had a blank face.

"so, uhhh, I wanted to make a cake, but, uhhh, I made a bit of a mess..." Rosy tried to explain herself. Evelyn still had a blank face, but then...

"clean yourself and go buy some decoration for later, I'll be in charge of the kitchen" as evelyn said that, rosy went to clean herself, a bit dissapointed and embarrased on herself, changed into other clothes and went to buy some things.

'time to work' Evelyn said to herself. While she was 38, she still looked really good and that was because she awakened the power of leveling up, but because she didn't want to fight, she was able to get a very rare support class, "perfect housewife"

She was able to get the house fully clean in less than 1 hour, she was able to cook anything and make it perfect, she was able to stop any normal intruders that got inside the house and she would have all the time in the world to be with her children. And because she was a support class, she didn't need to kill to level up, she just needed to do what the class specialized on and as she continued to level up, her charm, vitality and other stats also increased, but not as frequent as the offensive classes.

As she opened the oven, there was a block of carbon "..." se grabbed it and threw it in the trashcan, grabbed some ingredients and started to cook.

-later that morning-

*yawn* "man, what a good sleep..." 'mmmmh, I think I forgot something today' as he was getting up, he changed into some clothes and hided the bloodied ones. After doing some stretches, he went to the kitchen 'mmh? It's a bit dark...' just before he investigated anything, all lights got activated.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!" said Rosy and Evelyn, while clapping their hands.

'ah! Of course, I forgot about my birthday! Man, I need to get a skill about remembering...' he tought, still a bit surprised about the party.

"Thank you so much!" Aster said happily "but why does it smell like...burnt?" as he said that, Rosy flinched a bit.

"dont worry about that, here, eat some cake" as she said that, she controled Aster to sit down in front of a chocolate cake with two number candles, the 1 and the 7.

"man, 17 alredy, I feel so old but at the same time so young" he said, excited because that meant he could unlock safely the skill "mana storage" when he turned 18 'just gotta keep training for another year, and maybe I'll get a ton of cool and special powers like blood and flesh manipulation!'

"anyway, blow on the candles and make a wish, I want to taste the cake already!" Rosy said, excited for the tasty looking cake.

Aster looked at Rosy for a moment 'you gluttonous women...' that was the only thing he could think.

"mmmh? did you think something bad?" her keen senses picked up what he thought.

"...no, it was nothing" 'women are scary...' after that, he took a deep breath and blew out the flames 'I just wish that dad came back home'

And just as he wished that the door opened "oops, I came a bit late" as Aster heard that voice, he got up and dashed to the door, smashing his whole body against his father "DAD!!!" he started hugging his father strongly.

"man, you've grown a lot this last 3 years" his father said while Rosy came running and also launched herself towards him "I missed you dad!"

"yes, yes I also missed both of you" as he was patting their heads, evelyn also came closer and hugged him "I also missed you, Erick, why don't you also pay attention to me?" she said while pouting.

"of course, I missed all of you so much. But shouldn't we continue?" Erick said as they went to the kitchen again.

"oh, I also got a present for you" as he said that, he pulled out a weird pendant "this pendant was made from a monster that could change the luck of the the beings he targeted. It was crafted from that monster to give good luck to the ones who wear it" Erick explained, as Aster listened 'talking about luck, could I obtain a skill that enhances my luck? Then, how could I level it up?' while thinking, he grabbed the pendant.

/(pseudo) skill "lucky Lv11 (fixed)" has been obtained/

/lucky Lv11 (fixed): the chances of something good happening +36%/

''uh?" 'pseudo? That means that I can use its power as long as I have it on? So I can see the skills of objects with powers as long as I touch it? Right, so it's a false skill because it's not locked inside me, making it a true skill' as Aster started theorising about the objects with powers and him.

"mmh? Something wrong?" his mother said, as Aster stopped moving after grabbing the pendant.

"nah, it's nothing. I just felt weird after touching it"

"oh, that usually happens after touching special objects" said Erick "and you should be careful in the future if you fight against someone, they could also have a special object" he said, teaching them also some other things.

"OH! I also have a present!" Rosy said, getting getting an wrapped box out. As Aster opened it, he saw a short sword inside "this was my sword when I was in grade 9, training myself before awakening. I heard that you wanted to train, so treat it with care! Also, it's quality is very good so be careful and don't lose it"

Afer Aster thanked her it was evelyns turn for a present "here it is" she took out a card, and as he read it, he felt happy " you got me into boxing and swordsmanship! Thank you" Aster said happily 'with this, I'll obtain even more skills and also train others that I have'

"oh? You are going to train? I could also help you" said Erick while looking at his son.

"also, dad could you tell me of the things you saw outside?" asked Rosy "I'm an awakener, so it would be better to know from an expert"

"I don't have a problem with it, but it would be better if you didn't go outside. It's a lot more dangerous than what's told" said Erick with a sad tone "but right now I can take a year off until I have to go back, so I can take care of my family without any problem" and as he said that, they continued celebrating the birthday and went out to watch a movie and eat outside.

And as the day continued, it became late and returned home at around 22:34.

"man I'm so tired, I'll go sleep, good night" said Rosy as she went to bed and Aster did the same. Now Erick and Evelyn were the only ones still awake.

"so, how are you? Are you tired?" Asked Evelyn, out of ``curiosity´´.

"not much, after evolving my ability I can keep a lot of energy while not using it"

"and also looking younger? That's cheating" said Evelyn while pouting.

"come on don't be like this, I can also give you a bit of vitality" Erick offered.

"...it's fine, by looking like this, there seems to be an age gap, and that sounds... a bit exciting" while talking, she was getting a bit red "but still, how could you even be able to give me some vitality?" Evelyn asked.

As she said that, Erick smilled, grabbed her and only said "first of all I should take you to our room"

As Evelyn was grabbed, her face was completely red, but she didn't resist.

And he took her to their room.

They only did one thing, and it wasn't sleeping.

(Oh, and she also found out that vitality on people didn't only make them younger...)

-the next morning-

"mom, you look younger today, what did you put on?" Rosy asked, almost making Evelyn to spit the water she was drinking.

"I l-look younger? I didn't notice. Maybe is because I'm happy of having such a great family" said Evelyn, as she noticed Aster on the front door "where are you going Aster?"

"oh? I was just going to visit the boxing and swordsmanship places you got me in, I'll come back later" as he said that, he went away.

While going away, he had a blank face 'the only problem of augmenting my skills, is that I can notice what happens at home with my senses. Even at my room....' he tried to forget what he heard at night.

'forget it, forget it, forget it... why can't I forget it!?'

/skill "remembering Lv1" has been obtained/

/remembering Lv1: thought organization +0%/

'.....no....please don't give me this because of ``that´´.....'

Aster felt very sad after getting such a ``present´´.