Caleb, perhaps to get away from Jake, who’d just spoken words many found controversial, teleported down before Jake. He disappeared like a shadow, only to reappear on the lawn below, right in the path of Adam’s swing. His little brother already had a staff out as he blocked the blow with a big grin on his face.
Adam was surprised for a moment before he also grinned and really started swinging. Caleb responded by blocking and slowly backing away, acting as if he was being pressured. Jake watched for a while before he slowly lowered himself and landed beside Maja who was also keeping an eye on her husband and kid.
She was surprised when she saw Jake and turned to look him over. “Caleb didn’t mention you would come for a visit... though it does explain why he’s home early today.”
“Sorry if I ruined your calm afternoon,” Jake said as he pulled over a lawn chair for himself and sat down.
“I wasn’t complaining,” Maja said with a smile. “You look the same as always.”
“Thanks, you too?” Jake answered, unsure.
Maja just chuckled and shook her head. “Hey, it’s not a given. Took us all a little while to get over your eyes suddenly looking more like that of some beast than a human. Who’s to say something else wouldn’t have changed?”
“Oh, I chose to keep all the changes internal this time around. The latest one was mutating my soul a little,” Jake said casually.
“That sounds dangerous?” she asked with slight concern.
“Oh, it definitely is, but I had a good teacher helping,” Jake assured her.“I take it you mean your Patron?”
“No... no, someone else,” Jake said as he couldn’t help but conduct a small anecdotal test. “Someone called the First Sage.”
Maja just kept looking at Jake for a few moments after he said this before finally asking: “So, no need to keep me in suspense; who was this mysterious someone else?”
“I can’t tell you,” Jake replied honestly with a sigh.
“I promise to keep it a secret,” Maja assured him jokingly.
“No, I mean that I literally can’t tell you. I just tried but you aren’t able to know,” Jake spoke honestly.
Maja frowned as she saw Jake was serious before nodding with a severe look on her face. “It’s probably best I don’t know then. Forbidden Knowledge tends to be Forbidden Knowledge for a reason.”
“... not gonna lie, I’m very surprised you know what Forbidden Knowledge even is,” Jake muttered.
“Caleb spoke about the concept before. Apparently, he also knows some things considered Forbidden Knowledge. Or he used it as an excuse to keep secrets, and thinking about it, it really is the best excuse if you’re trying to sneak around,” Maja explained in a casual tone.
“While I do think Caleb is doing a lot of sneaking around, I hope it’s only to kill people. If not, just give me a call, and I’ll gladly help set him straight,” Jake said, not joking in the slightest.
“Oh, I won’t need to call you,” Maja said with a look that made Jake truly hope Caleb would never be an idiot. For his sake.
“Either way, the offer is on the table, and my bow is ready,” Jake said semi-jokingly as he kept watching Caleb and Adam, with Caleb seemingly really on the back foot now during their spar. “He’s gotten a lot bigger since the last time I visited.”
“Yeah... you know, it does feel a little weird,” Maja said with a sigh. “I know it’s something all parents say, but I feel like now it’s more true than ever.”
“I guess,” Jake agreed as Maja continued.
“Other parents who had children before the system and now had ones after the initiation talk about how different it is. And not just how it’s obviously different having a kid with supernatural abilities, but how fast it now feels like they grow up. In reality, it’s still around the same, but it really doesn’t feel that way,” Maja said, continuing to observe the lawn and the two goofballs fighting on it. “I suppose a year just isn’t as long of a time as it used to be.”
Jake slowly nodded, understanding what she was talking about. The timeframes the entire multiverse worked on were just on a different scale compared to before the system.
Everyone lived so much longer. Before, being a hundred years old likely made you the oldest person in a family, while now, being a hundred-year-old C-grade was still considered extremely young. Shit, considering all the time-dilation, Jake had already long surpassed any old-world records for age.
Yet a human child still grew at mostly the same pace. Mentally, there were even strong signs they grew faster than before. To a C-grade, spending a decade or two away on a hunting trip to grind levels wasn’t odd at all, yet that was long enough to miss out on your child ever being, well... a child.
Jake couldn’t truly say he related, but he could empathize with what his brother had to have felt like when away in Nevermore. Even now, it couldn’t be easy. Going off-world for a few months was a short trip by the standards of the multiverse, yet it was long enough to make him miss so many new things. It only had to have been worse when Adam was even younger.
“It can’t have been easy,” Jake muttered.
“Hey, I had great help, and I’m one of the lucky ones with a good support system,” Maja smiled before changing the topic. “Do your parents know you’re back yet?”
“No, we came here first,” Jake shook his head. “But it’s fine, we have time. I took an unscheduled holiday.”
“For how long?” Maja asked curiously.
“No set plan,” Jake shrugged before he explained his logic for taking his break now before the universe opened back up. Maja instantly understood as she nodded along.
“Caleb also talked about things getting really busy after the event fully ends,” she sighed. “You know, it would be nice if things could just calm down for a while. Like, really calm down.”
“Agree,” Jake nodded. He also preferred when he could do things entirely on his own timeline. Not to misunderstand, system events were damn awesome when it came to progress, and they often provided the best loot, as well as the chance to get titles and whatnot.
But Jake still preferred when he could do things at his own pace. Create his own quests to complete rather than have ones granted by the system. This was also because system events nearly always included a lot of other people, either with or against him.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Meanwhile, something like his quest to kill a dragon was entirely his own. Jake could decide everything and properly prepare for the hunt. What’s more, it would be entirely his own hunt from beginning to end. He already had a lot of plans for the actual hunt, and the fight was bound to be absolutely awe-
“Jake?” Maja returned Jake to the real world. “You looked like you were about to drool.”
“Sorry, I was just lost in thought about something,” Jake excused himself.
“Oh?” Maja asked teasingly. “Were you perhaps thinking about a certain Runemaiden?”
“No, I was imagining fighting a dragon,” Jake corrected her without the slightest hint of jest.
“... yeah, I guess that makes sense, too,” Maja sighed. “I honestly can’t fault you for not being in a rush to get into anything serious. Caleb tries so hard to be here as much as possible, but even then, he’s gone so much. I have a very hard time imagining you being any better.”
“Can’t risk getting into anything that takes away from my dragon hunting time,” Jake answered with a joke, not really wanting to talk about that topic.
Maja caught on and changed the subject immediately. “You should go join Caleb.”
“Wouldn’t it be unfair if Adam and I teamed up on him?” Jake answered entirely seriously, getting a chuckle out of Maja.
“Guess we can both go if you want to keep things fair,” Maja said as she stood up. Jake followed suit as he would have felt awkward if he’d kept sitting. Maja had likely caught on to Jake being unsure how to approach the father and son, and decided to give him a hand.
Jake was indeed nervous. He wasn’t even sure if his nephew remembered him, and in either case, how was Jake supposed to act? He had no idea how to be around kids at all. He never had many friends before the system, much less any with children, and Caleb was the first family member in Jake’s generation to have a child.
All of this is to say that Jake had never been around or interacted with children since he was a child himself... and he had already been very bad at interacting with other children back then. He hadn’t been as bad as his simulated self, Sim-Jake, but he had definitely been one of those kids other parents were hesitant about inviting to birthday parties.
Meeting with his nephew like this felt more nerve-wracking than when Jake stood on a crumbling planet facing the Celestial Child, but he tried to keep calm and at least act like a cool uncle. He was the Chosen of the Malefic Viper, the World Leader of the entire planet, and recognized as one of the most extraordinary talents ever seen in the multiverse. He could do this.
After hyping himself up a bit, Jake calmed his nerves as they approached Caleb, who was pushed up against a fence, acting entirely defeated, as Adam was laughing while pointing a stick at him.
“Show your father some mercy,” Maja said as they got closer, getting the attention of Adam.
“I know he’s just pretending,” Adam answered in the tone one would expect from a prepubescent boy. He turned around to look at his mother, who was also when he spotted Jake, who stood beside her.
Jake instantly felt all the nervousness rush back as he focused all his willpower on making eye contact and giving his nephew a firm nod. “Hey, kid.”
Fuck, Jake instantly exclaimed internally. Yeah, that definitely sounded pretentious, and he’d just given a small nod as a greeting. Plus, he’d made eye contact after just talking about how his eyes had changed to look way scarier than other humans. The last thing Jake wanted to do was scare off his nephew after not seeing him for so long.
About a full second passed as Adam just stared at Jake before his eyes opened wide. “The Arcane Hunter!”
Jake was immediately confused, but luckily, Caleb quickly filled him in.
“He’s seen some recordings of fights here and there. Heavily edited ones. Due to the color of your arcane affinity, he began to call you the Pink Ranger, but I managed to save some of your dignity by having it changed to Arcane Hunter.”
With that given context, Jake confidently nodded. “Some do indeed call me that.”
Well, it was mainly the system that called him that, seeing as his class was a variant of Arcane Hunter. Of all the titles his nephew could call him, it definitely was better than Pink Ranger and probably also a lot better than Chosen of the Malefic Viper. Jake felt pretty confident that not many things related to the Viper were suitable for kids.
“Adam, what should you be doing when we have guests over?” Maja spoke, the kid instantly realizing as he threw the stick and hurried over.
“Hello, and welcome!” he said as he stretched out his hand to shake Jake’s. Seeing it felt oddly nostalgic as Jake remembered his parents being the same way. Perhaps it was old-fashioned, but in their family, it had always been considered normal to shake hands as a greeting, even when it was family that came for a visit.
Taking Adam’s hand, Jake smiled and shook it. “Thanks for having me. I also hope you aren’t being too hard on your dad. You know that’s my job, right?”
“Dad is just acting. He’s a lot stronger than me!” Adam said in a loud voice. “Everyone says he’s the strongest in the city, too!”
Jake just kept smiling and nodding along as Adam seemingly had a realization.
“Uncle, you’re also super strong, right!?” he asked in a childish voice.
“I sure am,” Jake responded, full of confidence.
“Stronger than Dad?” Adam asked a very dangerous question with wide eyes as he stared up at Jake.
Instantly, he felt the gaze of Caleb land on him and he knew to be very careful with his next words. Jake focused before he just smiled and copied an answer he’d been given by someone else.
“Before we can even answer that, we need to know what being strong means,” Jake said, trying to sound wise. “You know rock, paper, scissors, right?”
Jake really hoped that little game hadn’t died post-system.
“Yeah,” Adam nodded, much to Jake’s relief.
“Well, who’s stronger? The paper, the scissors, or the rock?” Jake asked with a smile.
“Gun,” Adam just answered without any hesitation, throwing Jake off-course instantly. Luckily, he quickly adapted.
“You can keep adding things if you want, but there are also many things a gun can’t beat. A gun can’t beat a steel wall, right?” Jake tried to get things back on track.
“If it’s a really big gun...” Adam argued. Jake was quickly beginning to feel like he was losing an argument with a kid by having his own analogy used against him. Alas, he wasn’t bested that easily.
“Even the biggest gun will at one point meet a wall it cannot shoot through,” Jake shook his head. “And even if you have a really strong gun, which is more durable? The wall or the gun?”
“The wall, but walls can’t do anything.”
“Yet I would call a wall able to stop any gun super strong, wouldn’t you?” Jake said, though he was definitely beginning to get sidetracked with his analogy as he tried to get it back to an understandable level. “Both guns and walls can be called strong, but that doesn’t mean they’re the same. Think back to the rock, paper, and scissors. All of them are strong against one of the others while weak to another. People are, in many ways, the same.”
Adam seemed to try and process what Jake said... only to return to his original question. “Does that mean you’re stronger than Dad? Like... are you rock and he’s scissors?”
The true answer to that question was naturally yes. Jake was far stronger than Caleb, but Jake couldn’t come out and say that unless he wanted a very miffed little brother. Yet, at the same time, he didn’t want to outright lie, which is why he went with something down the middle.
“We are both strong in different ways. That’s how power works,” Jake spoke. “But if you’re asking if I can beat him in a fight? I don’t know. We’ve never fought seriously, and I don’t see why we ever would.”
“Why not fight to find out?” Adam kept asking, seemingly insistent on knowing if Jake could beat up his dad for some reason.
“You have seen some of the recordings of fights, right?” Jake asked.
“Yeah! They’re super cool!” Adam nodded enthusiastically.
“Well, have you ever seen how everything around the fight looks afterward?” Jake asked before explaining. “When really strong people fight, it’s not good for everything around it. If your dad and I were to fight super seriously, it would get really dangerous for everyone else because we’re both so strong. Besides, brothers shouldn’t fight seriously as that can get incredibly dangerous, and if we don’t fight seriously, how can we really know who’s stronger?”
Adam got quiet after hearing Jake’s explanation before he finally nodded. “I think I understand... but how come Dad can fight bad guys without it being dangerous or breaking things?”
“If you’re a lot stronger than the one you’re fighting, you can win so fast it’s not even a real fight,” Jake explained.
His answer made Adam’s eyes light up as he nodded. Caleb also threw Jake a thankful gaze. However, it looked like Adam had more he wanted to ask. Luckily, Maja saved them. She had gone into the house during their silly conversation and had now returned holding a board with drinks and food on it, including a bowl with something inside, giving off a recognizable smell.
“You guys should come over and have something to drink after such a hard fight,” Maja said as she placed down the board. The three boys in the yard quickly made their way over as Jake felt like he’d just been saved from more questions he'd have a hard time answering. He still felt very nervous about what impression he made on his nephew... but then something happened.
Adam ran over to the table, and when he saw what was inside the bowl, he yelled excitedly.
“You made the ones with raisins! Those are the best!”
At that moment, Jake felt like perhaps he could get along really well with his little nephew.