NOVEL NEXT Silence befell the garden after Asdel’s show of force.
“My word! That’s an exalted move!” All the adults had been adventurers at some point and couldn’t mistake Asdel’s technique.
Loreley’s brother fell on his seat limply. His soulless gaze stared at the sky. ’No way! How does that make sense?! Loreley picks up an orphan and the fucker learns to exalt skills at eight year old? Should I adopt kids too?’ He had put all his efforts into business after walking away from the adventurer path, yet the kid that Loreley randomly picked up was like a winning lottery ticket. ’Why is this world so unfair?’
“There must be a trick. He hasn’t even learned skills!” The adults argued with each other, trying to take in the full significance of those events.
Meanwhile the children swarmed him to gawk at the destroyed dummy.
Loreley chimed in, proud of her boy. “Actually, he learned ‘aura blade’ from Luciella just today. It’s the Allfather’s will! A heaven-given talent!”
“Hold on, learning a skill is already impressive, but he also managed to exalt it right away?” An adventurer complained.
“Impressive.” An old lady approached Asdel. Stern and aloof, Elma Skylander was the ‘grandma’ leader of the family as she was once a D-rank griffin rider like Loreley.
Despite her old age, she stood tall and bore few wrinkles. Her missing arm and multiple scars were testimonies of her history as an adventurer. Normally, a fighter’s aura shielded their fragile flesh from wounds. Once someone ran out of hitpoints, the slightest injury could leave crippling scars when it didn’t outright kill them.
In conclusion, the numerous traces on the grandma’s skin meant that she suffered many defeats and only retired after utterly ruining her body. Many members of the family felt regret that she had to retire despite being a D-rank veteran since it was rare. Perhaps that was the reason she had pushed herself so far.
“Look at this boy. Seems like my granddaughter fed you well.” She pinched Asdel’s plump cheek. It was a strange contrast to her past behavior as she used to treat him indifferently, neither too warmly nor coldly. It was a tacit agreement for Loreley to take him in, but not an explicit acceptance of Asdel into the family.
“Of course, I’m always grateful to the Skylanders.” He smiled brightly.
“I see, maybe our family should take you in.” Her words spread a wave of surprise.
“What?!” Loreley’s brother was especially shocked. ’Should I try to win him over?’
“Is there anyone you like? How about marrying one of them?” Elma pointed at the group of kids that had swarmed around Asdel in curiosity.
Loreley complained in outrage. “Grandma! Don’t pressure him, he’s only eight years old-”
“I love mom! I want to marry mom!” he shouted with all his heart, trying to avoid getting entangled with underaged girls.
“Awww, my baby~♥” She hugged Asdel.
Elma rubbed her chin. “Hmm… That’s a bit difficult, Loreley is the highest ranked Skylander in her generation. There’s no way we’ll give her to a kid with nothing to his name.”
Asdel sighed. He needed to get stronger to take on his stupid quest to return to Earth and get his lottery money. In Heroes of Wars and Wonders, knowledge was power. Mastery over knowledge affected the learning of skill and expertise. The Skylander’s library was an opportunity that Asdel needed to get but his status as an outsider didn’t allow him to step inside.
’Let’s marry a random girl and steal all their technology and knowledge.’ He faced the group of kids and asked, “alright, who wants to be engaged with me?” His initial intrusive thoughts told him to rizz the grandma, but she looked too scary in the end.
The girls chirped like hungry nestlings. “Me! Me!” “Brother Asdel, let’s marry!” “Handsome, here~”
Loreley’s brother pushed his daughter in front. “Kid, how about my daughter? You won’t regret it.”
’Damn, I’m popular!’ Asdel couldn’t hide his smile. What he didn’t realize was that becoming ‘Loreley’s daughter-in-law’ was half the motivation to marry him.
Asdel took the hand of a fourteen year old girl whose hand timidly hovered up at the back of the group. “Severine, I choose you!”
“O-okay?!” Severine yelped in surprise. She hoped that Loreley would help support her parents, but didn’t expect to be actually chosen.
“Congratulations, I guess this birthday party also serves as an engagement announcement.” Elma pulled the couple of blushing kids in front of everyone and applauded in satisfaction.
“Huh? We don’t get to say anything?” Severine’s father applauded, a bit perplexed.
“Grandma…” Her mother grew up as a Skylander and could only smile wryly to Elma’s authority.
“You dare reject my daughter?!” Loreley’s brother growled. “Tsk, for a precocious but cocky brat, learning early will only make you die early. You could have gone far with my investments, but you decided to choose those washed up workers!”
Those words held some truth. Adventurers started their career at 12 years old which was already incredibly early, so there was no point in speedrunning it. Also, Loreley’s brother had much more money to nurture him with equipment, trainers, and consumables, compared to Severine’s family.
’Whatever…’ Asdel squeezed Severine’s hand. “It’s because she’s cuter.”
“Bah!” The fuming uncle swung his arm in contempt and left.
…
After kicking everyone out, Loreley, Asdel, and the maid’s magic clones cleaned up.
"Did you make a wish, baby?" Loreley asked.
"I wished to marry mom!" Asdel yelled without a hint of shame. It was the same wish as the past few years.
She giggled as she didn’t expect these shameless words right after his engagement with Severine. 'Haa~ I'm so loved.'
But this time, she needed to douse his impossible goals a little. "But baby… mom will be all old and wrinkly by the time you're grown up and you’ll have to marry Severine first."
"Hm! It's ok, I'll marry mom even if she turns into a wrinkly worm." He beamed a smile.
"Ah this baby! Who's the worm?" She rubbed his head mischievously.
"Anyway, you'll stop aging after reaching rank A. Even at rank C, a sixty year old person will look in their thirties," he added.
"You say that as if ranking up was easy." Loreley sighed.
"Because it is. Besides getting experience points from kills, you need to fulfill promotion quests, and unlike everyone in this world, I know their precise conditions." Asdel grinned as he tapped his temple.
Loreley was slightly thrown aback. Asdel occasionally exposed his adult-like moments from time to time, so she wasn’t too shocked. "Is that so? Then how do I rank up?"
He grabbed her hand and opened her status window. "You need to raise a griffin to rank C first. Have you fed Ruty soul gems lately?"
"Huh? I need to feed him soul gems? I'm rich but not to the point to feed Ruty with money…" Loreley looked shocked.
Soul gems were crystallized soul energy dropped by dead bodies. They could be redeemed for money or food. The Allfather Church even traded experience points for soul gems, which was convenient for non-combat classes. One had never enough of them.
"You don’t have to, but it speeds things a little bit. Trust me, mom. I unlocked sword aura at 8 years old." Asdel smirked. Ranking Lorely up was a huge gift that would be enough to repay her care, so he was determined.
And thus, he offered the strategies while she executed them. A year passed as they worked hard towards nurturing the griffin.
…
Lorely returned home disheveled after conquering a mountain habitat for her griffin Ruty. Even so, the dirt clinging to her clothes couldn't hide the unusual beauty that she gained from ranking up.
She achieved rank C by fulfilling her griffin’s promotion quest, allowing her level to grow in the range between level 91 and level 120.
The griffin strutted with a regal arrogance befitting the king of birds. He didn't need to keep control of the mountain. Only a single successful conquest was enough to fulfill his promotion quest.
C-rank people enjoyed great prestige in the world of Hekal. Everyone's attitude radically changed towards them, polarizing into fear or reverence. It was also the stage where they usually developed psychological issues or quirks…
Asdel rushed to Loreley and welcomed her with a tight hug. "Congratulations, you're a C-rank griffin rider!"
Loreley cried as she hugged her griffin and son. "We did it! I can't believe it. Everything went as you said!"
"My lady, it's such an honor to serve you." The maid teared up as she had watched Loreley's progress from the start.
"See, rank A doesn't seem so distant anymore." Asdel grinned smugly.
"Aah! Let this tired mom rest a little, will you!?" Lorely smacked his butt.
They held a party in secrecy. “Asdel, don’t tell anyone about promotion quests. Everyone will try to kidnap you if they learn about your ability to reveal promotion conditions.”
After celebrating with alcohol and apple juice to their heart's content, Loreley hugged Asdel in bed as they usually slept together.
No matter which world, statue rubbing was always a popular superstition to harvest luck. Loreley had no doubt that her son brought her luck and happiness, so she didn’t exercise restraint when it came to touching him.
Asdel’s face had an unwholesome smile. ’Fuck this feels good. I’m starting to think that it was worth my millions dollars,’
"Baby, why do you keep going to the Allfather school? Stay at home, mama will take care of you. There will be no day in your life when you'll need to worry, hehe~" She rubbed her cheek on his hair, her hands danced all over his tiny body as she pressed herself against him.
"Mom… I have a secret. I have a quest to return to my world," Asdel said hesitantly.
Her eyes widened in shock. "Could it be… Are you an angel trying to go back to heaven?" Her voice contorted in pain at the thought of him leaving.
He laughed. "Couldn’t be farther from the truth… Mom, you know about 'soul overclock'?"
She nodded as she had learned it under his advice to accelerate her thoughts and nerve connection. It was an essential skill for melee fighters and helped her during fast-paced aerial combat.
"I was born with 'soul mind' and 'soul memory'..." He explained the skills and his past memories.
Rather than presenting himself as a useless 30 years old neet, he spun the story as being a 9 years old brat helped by the legacy of a 30 years old dude.
Indeed, the philosophical subject of identity was far from simple, and memories or decision making style were only components of identity, like how a digitized self in a computer may not be considered as a direct continuation of the biological self.
In short, he bullshitted to avoid creeping her out.
She listened with amazement. His incredible tales of Earth left her speechless.
…
Loreley broke out the awkward silence after sorting her thoughts. "You've worked hard."
It was Asdel's turn to be surprised by her unexpected reaction.
"So I was sleeping with a man in his forties, huh?" Her glare sent a shiver to Asdel's back.
Then her face relaxed into a silly smile. "Baby, do you still want to marry mom?"
"Huh?"
Her face inched closer. "Of course, you do. Haa~ my baby loves me so much, what can I do?" She wrapped her arms around his body and breathed down his neck.
Quick calculations ran through her head. Assuming she could assist Asdel’s promotion quests and leveling up, she guessed that he would reach rank C before 18 years old. With such a status, there was no chance that the Skylanders would oppose this relationship.
In fact, if it was known that he could guarantee rank promotions, the Skylanders would tie him down but they wouldn’t be able to protect him against powerful organizations or clans.
So… Since there was theoretically no obstacle to their relationship, she decided to get a headstart.
’Alas, he’s still engaged but not married yet. It’s down to me to firmly tie down Asdel into the Skylanders before the secret is out.’ Loreley made up some excuses in her mind and smothered Asdel.
He blushed, succumbing to the ethereal beauty of the C-rank griffin rider. He held so many impure thoughts towards Loreley, and they surfaced as if a dam broke.
"Mom's the best! The greatest! I love mom so much! I'll die for mom!" Asdel panted like a pervert. Thanks to removing soul mind, he let it all out thanks to cringe immunity.
Loreley giggled. It finally dawned to her that, in some way, her genius Asdel was similar to all the men she had seen but exceptionally worse. Yet, she couldn't help but like his sincerity.
Her adopted son was in a weird spot, neither a child nor an adult. And the thought of parting with him filled her with immense pain to the point that a few moments ago, she had offered him to become a stay at home useless school dropout so she could stick together all day. Being a little weird wasn't enough to tear down the love between them.
In fact, she was touched that he revealed everything and cleared the mystery behind his pangs of adult-like poise.
Loreley was moved by his confidence to rank her up to A. As thanks, she resolved herself to support his quest to return to Earth, and would follow him if the opportunity presented itself.
"Well, I love you too." Loreley smothered Asdel with her chest, as their relationship took a sudden turn.
Asdel was confused by how Loreley got attracted to a shortie like him but he was too overjoyed to complain. 'Is this the mental illness of C-rankers?'
That night, they fell asleep with a grin on their face.