Cass descended the stairs and headed for the kitchen. There, he saw all of his favourite breakfast foods lined up, and his parents sitting at the table waiting for him. Each of them stood up, wished him a happy birthday, and hugged him. Cass was disappointed that he could not see Luna anywhere, but decided to sit and eat regardless.
Lucius was the first to broach the subject of the system. 'Ok, Cass, now that the family is here, tell us what you are comfortable with.'
Cass finished chewing his food and then revealed some of the details. 'Well ,father, your plan worked. I got a Hybrid system. I have Combat and magic skills, but also, I have fishing, smithing, and domain management skills.'
Lucius gave Cass a huge, toothy grin and slapped him on the shoulder. 'Fantastic, yes!! Ok, let's start with your combat skills.'
'Thanks to all of the training I did with Marcus, as well as the hunting and spear fishing I did at my apprenticeships, I received a composite skill called Twin short spear proficiency.'
'A composite skill!' Elizabeth couldn't contain herself. 'Composite skills are one in a million, that's fantastic, Cass!'
Cass smiled at his mother as she ruffled his hair. Then she got to the part she was most interested in. 'What about your magic? What can you do?'
Cass looked at his mother, gave her a cheeky grin, raised his finger, and produced a one mana thunder ball the size of a pinhead. He twirled his finger a little and threw the ball towards his father. His father held out his hand, and when the ball touched him, he half-cursed, half-laughed, and started rubbing his hand. 'Little bastard.'
Cass and his mothers laughed at this, but before they could continue the conversation, Cass picked up a bread roll off the table, and disappeared it into his box. They looked at him with confused expressions before Elizabeth opened her mouth to speak again. 'What was that, Cass?'
Cass withdrew the bread roll from his box, took a bite, and answered his mother. 'That was box.'
'But box is a spacetime skill.'
'Yes, it is.'
'But you have the thunder affinity.'
'I do.' Cass continued to grin while his mother stared at him with a confused look on her face. Adeline's deafening shout broke the silence.
'What the fuck! What kind of mutant talent did you two spawn here? What kind of selective breeding magic did you two get up to when he was conceived? I get that his composite skill is because of all the training and jobs we had him do, I can accept that, even if composites are a one in a million occurrence.' She took a deep breath.
'But, on top of that composite skill, he has dual fucking affinity. What even is that? Dual affinity is one in a million as well. That makes him a one in a fucking trillion monster. And on top of that, he says it's a hybrid system, and he has some skills related to managing a domain. This is absolutely absurd!' By this point, she was standing up with her palms on the table, sweating and red in the face. Her breathing was heavy and fast.
Cass's mother and father went wide-eyed at the revelation and turned to Cass. His father quickly composed himself and started speaking once again. 'Cass, nobody outside this family can know about this. At least not until you are at least at chanter rank. If the wrong people hear about this, there could be a lot of trouble.'
Elizabeth also continued speaking. 'The only other people you can tell about this right now are Marcus, Beatrice, and Luna. Until you know who you can trust, say nothing about your dual affinity to anyone. We will give you a ring, and if anyone asks about your box skill, just say you found a low-tier storage ring in a dungeon, and leave it at that.'
Adeline, who had managed to calm down after her outburst, stood up, walked behind Cass, and put her hands on his shoulders. 'Tonight at the party, there will be some villagers, but my adoptive brother and his daughter will also be there. Under no circumstances can you show off your box skill. As far as the rest of the world is concerned, you have thunder affinity, and that is all. You will need to be much stronger before you can reveal anything.'
Lucius looked at his wives. 'I guess that means we need to send him as soon as possible. The sooner he breaks through and becomes a chanter, the better.'
Elizabeth nodded her head. 'I agree. But don't forget that Cass needs to decide this for himself, we shouldn't force him.'
Cass was confused by this change of topic and didn't understand what sort of place they wanted to send him to. 'Where do you want to send me?'
Lucius replied quickly. 'To a mage tower. In our opinion, it is what is best for you and what is best for the village. You should enroll in one and take advantage until you are at least a chanter, but preferably a warden.'
'What is a mage tower? Would I need to leave you all here?'
'Yes and no. You would not go alone. Provided that she still wants to work for the family after she is freed, Luna would go with you. She is already a peak Neophyte, so she won't have any trouble enrolling. But the rest of the family, of course, would stay here.
It isn't a prison, you are free to come and go as you please there, so you could visit us anytime you like, as long as you have the means to travel. You can think of a mage tower as a mix between a city, a school, and an adventurer's guild.
The tower provides its disciples with accommodation, tempering resources and knowledge; in exchange, the disciples complete missions assigned to them by the tower. The tower is paid by whoever hired them, and profits from the work of the disciples, but the disciples also gain the opportunity to grow as well.
In your case, becoming strong is important, but the most important part will be the people.'
'The people?'
'Yes, while you are there, you will meet people with all sorts of skills, not just in combat but in trading, manufacturing, research, management, and the like. If you have the opportunity, you can recruit these people to come to our village and help it grow. Of course, you can also make money at the tower, so when you finish there, we fully expect you to come back strong, rich, and with plenty of capable companions that can contribute to the village.'
'Well I guess that could be good. Can we discuss it more after tonight?'