Assimilate All Talents

A ten year old boy was outside with his parents on a picnic. The mother was tall and fit with long silver hair tied into a ponytail. The father had dark brown hair and looked average in body and height but when next to the woman he could be seen as short. The young boy had been excitedly waiting for this day as both his parents were usually busy working and he rarely got to spend time with both of them at once. The young boy carried a large picnic basket, while his dad offered to carry it, the boy wanted to prove how he had been getting stronger lately. The father saw him struggle to carry the basket but knew how the boy could be stubborn and planned on praising his strength when they arrived.

Arriving at the location, the boy placed the basket under the canopy of a large tree. The boy was a little out of breath, but he tried to hide it. His father, seeing through his clumsy act, simply smiled and praised him.

“Wow, Sol! Maybe in a few years, you will be just as strong as your mom!”

The mother rolled her eyes at his comment, but Sol’s eyes sparkled.

“Really!?”

“Of course! Just make sure not to allocate all your points to strength. You don't want to be a pure brute lik-” Before he could finish his sentence, a fist just out of his field of view came and punched him in the shoulder, “OW! What was that for!”

The mother glared at the father menacingly, “Do you really wanna know?”

“... No, ma’am.”

The child giggled thinking they were just playing around as they do this often.

The family chatted as they set up the picnic and sat down to eat the packed lunch. The father played around by creating illusions of animals out of thin air and teaching Sol all of their characteristics. They looked incredibly realistic even with the way their walking left imprints on the ground; it was a very well developed skill.

Eventually, Sol asked a question he had been wondering for a while.

“Hey Dad, how did you and Mom meet?”

His mother looked at his father with a worried expression. She wasn’t sure if it was the right time to explain their circumstances.

“It’s fine, Sylvy. Now is as good a time as ever.”

“Okay, just make sure to skip the embarrassing stuff.”

“What?! But that's the best part!”

Giving a look that says “no means no,” the father relented.

“Fine… I'll start from the beginning then. Sol, I didn’t used to be a good man, I was, in fact, a very bad one. I would use my talents for my selfish desires. At that time, there wasn’t a limit or line I wouldn’t cross to get what I want. I stole from nobles, merchants, and heck I even stole directly from an Adventurers Guild vault. I would use my illusions and mind skills to easily trick people into giving me what I want.”

Sol knew of the illusion magic but not of the other one, “Mind skills?”

“Yeah. My talents are [Illusion Affinity], [Mind Shaper], and [Dark Affinity]. It was super easy to just make people do whatever I wanted. But even with all the wealth and people under my control, I was never truly happy. I was wanted dead by three kingdoms and even the Sapphire Scales Alliance, the price of the bounty they placed on me was honestly a bit ridiculous. Either way, I wanted out of that life and one day released everyone from my control and left.

“It was not until 4 years after my disappearance that I met your mother. The Elite Knight that served directly under the King of Crestelia, Sylvia Minfel. She was given the super important task to hunt down the evil Black Tongue. Or as you better know him, your dad, Roman!”

Young Sol was shocked and he turned to his mother, “What?! Mom, you tried to kill dad?!”

Seeing her son’s face, she couldn’t help but feel embarrassed at how it turned out, “Haha, yeah...”

Very invested in the story, Sol wanted to know more, “What happened?”

Sylvia couldn’t bring herself to continue as the next part was extremely embarrassing. Roman, on the other hand, spoke excitedly of their encounter.

“So apparently someone recognized me and reported me to the kingdom; she came alone as numbers don't mean anything to me. The only reason she was sent was because she recently unlocked a unique talent called [Clear Mind]. It greatly increased her resistance to mental manipulation and other similar skills. What’s funny is that she came for me right after unlocking that talent! She barely practiced her skills at all and I could easily make her see or believe whatever I wanted. So as a prank, I made her see-”

With her face completely red, Sylvia interrupted, “No! Not that part!”

Enjoying his wife’s embarrassment, Roman laughed and skipped that moment. He knew it also wasn’t appropriate to explain to a child the naughty things he made his mother see.

“After that, I left her be, I stained my hands with blood enough for multiple lifetimes and I had no intention to hurt any more innocent people. I very much enjoyed the quiet life just living my day to day life. Unfortunately, a certain knight did not give up on her mission. Your mom kept trying to end me in the ‘name of justice’, so I kept giving her similar pranks. Eventually, after pestering me enough times, I got bored of the same pranks and took her out to dinner. She at first declined as I was her enemy, but I told her I would stop pranking her if she did so she accepted. One thing led to another and well… we somehow fell in love.

“The day we found out we were blessed with a child on the way, we decided to make it official. The problem is that Sylvie is an elite knight under the crown and I am a wanted criminal. The only way we could live in peace together was for both of us to fake our deaths. It wasn’t hard to do honestly, I just made a really big illusion where me and your mom had an epic fight to the death. After that, we traveled from the far east of the kingdom to the west and settled here in this town.”

Sylvia patted Sol on the head, “Then you were born, our little sun.”

The sun was starting to set, and the family packed up their picnic and headed back home. Sol would have just been happy with spending time with them, but he also had the unexpected surprise of hearing how his parents met. Overall, the young boy’s mood was through the roof and even after a long day of having fun, he still had energy to spare. At least that’s how he looked because the moment he landed on his bed, the boy immediately fell asleep.

Later in the night, the boy was woken up by a loud explosion. He raised his head in a panic as he heard the sounds of fighting coming from the living room. Sol opened the door out of his room and witnessed his parents fighting against a full squad of ten knights.

A high-ranking knight yelled at Roman, “It’s over for you, fiend! You can no longer elude us now that we have a saintess that can divine your location!”

Sylvia stood in front of Roman, protecting him with her old knight shield she kept from when she served under the crown.

One of the knights, seeing the crested shield, screamed in anger, “You vile monster! Undo your mental manipulation and let her go!”

Sylvia was the one who responded, “I’m under no one's control! He couldn’t even control me even if he wanted to.”

What she said was the truth. Although Roman was able to easily mess with her mind and prank her when she initially hunted him down, ten years have passed since then and she had trained all of the abilities to their peak. She had long since been immune to his mental powers and even if she wasn’t, Roman had not used them since Sol was born.

The high-ranking knight commanded, “She is too far gone! End this now!”

With permission granted, the knights all took out round glass orbs that had fire swirling inside waiting to be released. They tossed the orbs and shielded themselves as the moment they touched the ground near the couple they exploded with a deafening boom.

Sylvie activated the skill of her shield to protect them both, but they didn’t notice Sol who opened the door. Shrapnel from furniture flew all over the place as a piece of wood stabbed into the young boy's neck.

As Sylvie dropped the barrier, she looked around to assess the damage and saw Sol lying on the ground.

“No! Sol!”

Roman now noticed his son bleeding on the ground, and a raging fury overtook him. He had sworn to himself to never use his [Mind Shaper] talent ever again, but now Roman wanted to see these men die for hurting their son. With a wave of his hand, his dormant mental ability awoke as it swept through the knights.

The knights came prepared and were equipped with unique ranked mental resisting items, but only legendary items could even try to block Roman’s powerful manipulation. The psychic energy removed all mental limiters of the body including self-preservation and placed one powerful command at the forefronts of their minds.

‘Kill Yourself.’

The knights all raised their weapons without hesitation as they stabbed themselves in the same place Sol was injured. Roman believed it to be a fitting punishment for their crimes.

While Roman was finishing the knights, Sylvia ran towards Sol who was barely conscious. The young boy looked at his mother as he tried to speak but was unable to do so with blood in his throat.

“Shhh, don’t worry Sol.” Sylvia then took out the highest quality potion she had and poured half of it on Sol’s neck; the other half she poured into his mouth. The wound rapidly closed, leaving only a scar that ran from his bottom left cheek to the middle of his neck.

Seeing his condition stabilize, Sylvia sighed in relief. Roman, who just arrived next to her, asked an important question.

“What do we do?”

Sylvia felt hopeless, “What can we do? You heard it yourself, they have someone that can track us. They can find us no matter where we go.”

“If it was just us two, we could easily escape but Sol…”

“I know… I don’t want him to live on the run forever.”

They both stood in silence as they both knew what they had to do, but neither wanted to say it. Roman knew this was going nowhere and spoke up.

“Sylvy…”

“No.”

“But we have to-”

“No!” She cried as she hugged Sol tightly.

Roman hugged Sylvia from behind, “He will live a normal life. In four years, he will gain a talent and make the best of it.”

Through her crying, she asked a question, “What if they use him to find us? What if they hurt him and we aren't there to protect him?”

“You already know the answer to that. They are tracking us, not him. I will erase us from the minds of everyone in the town, make it seem like Sol’s parents died in a home invasion. I will not erase Sol’s memories but lock them instead, they will only unlock when he is strong enough.”

Sylvie weakly nodded as she passed the barely conscious Sol to Roman.

“Dad…”

“I’m sorry, Sol, this is for your own good. Come find us when you unlock your second talent. We love you.”

Placing his hand over Sol’s head, he performed one of the most advanced mental changes he had ever done. Perfectly storing all his memories in a secure place and replacing them with fake ones. Then he placed a mental barrier with his will infused inside of it with only one objective, to protect Sol’s memories by whatever means necessary.

Once done, Sol passed out and Sylvie looked at Roman.

“What if he never unlocks his second talent?”

Roman chuckled as he found that notion preposterous, “He is our son, he fully inherited your stubbornness and my quick wits. Even if he unlocks the world's worst talent, I know he will find a way to succeed.”