Questing System - Chapter 4：King’s narrow escape

Icarus continued his cyclic way of living; he would wake up, kick and go back to sleep. It was fine with him, he didn’t have the chance to count the number of times he had finished the “He’s kicking!” Daily Quest. All he knew was that it was quite a few number of times. He would have continued that way too if not for a particular incident.

He was simply floating in the womb, sleeping when he was overwhelmed by a chocking sensation. That was also the first time that he was able to feel his body parts individually and distinctly. He could immediately tell that his umbilical cord was being wrapped around his neck, causing blockage in the umbilical cord and thus the ‘chocking’ sensation. At the same time, he heard a quest ring go off inside his mind.

Special Quest: Miscarriage Prevention

Reward: Elemental King (Ability), 3 Skill Points

Penalty: Death

Time limit: 01:30

‘Damn it!’ Icarus cursed but decided to stay completely still and started to think of the solutions. He couldn’t move his limbs, he was still a foetus and any limb movement would result in a deformity for the rest of his life. The only solution he had was to rotate his body against the winding direction to unwind the cord. It was easier said than done since he didn’t have eyes to check the direction of the winding. Calming himself down, he began to try and rotate in one direction.

‘Ack! Wrong direction.’ Feeling the intense pain from the belly as well as the tightening around his neck, he immediately switched directions and started turning the other way. Trying to turn inside the womb was an extremely slow process. He kept his eye on the clock as Icarus felt the pain and chocking beginning to subside. Slowly he found himself in a normal state again.

Ding!

Hearing a notification go off inside his head, the feeling of relief overwhelmed him; it was a narrow escape from death. He checked his status screen and a new “Abilities” section was present.

Name: Icarus Dragonsword

Age: Foetus (-4 months)

Constitution: 0.07

Power: 0.07

Agility: 0.07

Dexterity: 0.01

Vitality: 0.1

Intelligence: 0.1

Completed Quests (1)

Abilities: Elemental King

He had no idea what the Elemental King ability did. Icarus couldn’t tell that a physical change had happened until almost a minute later. At first it was just a simple nudging feeling but it grew. It grew continuously until he could almost feel the agitation. It was closer to excitement.

The feeling of excitement was coming from the outside world, from the very air itself. He could feel it heightening before finally slowly calming down. ‘That was weird.’ Icarus couldn’t put it any other way. It was strange but he just threw it to the back of his mind as sleep started to take him again.

‘Um, honey?’ Daedalus opened his eyes to find his wife floating 10 feet off the bed.

‘Whats going on?’ He asked her a bit confused about her behaviour, ‘why are you flying at this time of the night?’

‘Thats not me honey.’ Sana calmly answered.

‘What?’ Daedalus shot up from his spot. ‘If thats not you, then…’ he stared at her belly with a look of concern. ‘What do you think is the cause?’

‘We both know the cause.’ She sighed as a the lamps around the room burst into flames and a furious gust of wind was whipped up around the room. The floor started shaking and earthen pillars began to sprout from the bedroom floor. Daedalus was, unperturbed by all this, deep in thought as a frown became more and more apparent on his face.

‘I don’t want him to know.’ He looked up towards Sana who shook her head. Waving her hand, a small wave of blue energy emerged from it and spread around the room. All the flames were snuffed out, the wind calmed down and Sana floated back down to the bed.

‘Honey,’ she placed her hands on his shoulder, ‘I don’t either, but if he really is born an Elemental King then there will be no helping it!’

‘We can hide him! We can pretend that it is a normal ability.’

‘Honey, what about when he sees that other children don’t have that ability? Or are you planning on keeping him separate from other children all his life? You know that I won’t let you do that.’

Daedalus shook his head. ‘We’ll figure something out in the morning. Lets just go to sleep? I am really tired from all the farm work.’ He didn’t want to talk about this now so he closed his eyes and went back to lying on the bed. Sana could only sigh at his cheap excuse. Tired from all the farm work? She knew better than anybody that her husband was able to chop mountains in half, not even a complete fool would believe that he would be tired out by hoeing the fields. She also knew better than anyone that talking to Daedalus now would be futlie so she closed her eyes and went back to bed. Sana could tell that her husband had received a shock and needed some time to think about it.

The shock and confusion she was experienced wasn’t small either. Elemental King was a hereditary trait. It had to be in the bloodline to be passed down but neither her family nor Daedalus’ had that trait. They didn’t even have the requirement to develop that mutation in their child, which got her thinking about the cause. A single possibility crossed her mind but she immediately rejected it. ‘Its not possible. Circumstances such as ours have occurred before but never has there been a case of atavism occurring.’ It was far too rare to be realistic, even theoretically speaking. She put the case to rest by accepting it and began thinking about the future now that all her plans had gone down the drain. ‘Its a good thing though.’ Sana was excited by this change to say the least.

Daedalus and Sana sat face to face on the dining table. ‘What are your ideas about the future of our child?’ Daedalus didn’t want to express his opinions first on this matter and since Sana actually looked extremely excited he was happy to let her share her’s first.

‘Well, you see according to our plans previously Icarus would grow up on the farm and due to his karma being mainly of the Farmer class, he would awaken as a farmer. But,’ she paused taking a deep breath, ‘our plans didn’t work out as expected. So I have rethought some things. First I suggest we actually train him as a Battle Mage and once he is about 10, we tell him the truth.’ She looked towards Daedalus, gesturing him to share his position on the matter. He took a deep breath as well. ‘I suggest we continue our previous plans.’

Sana was about to interrupt him almost immediately as those words reached her ears but he gestured for her to hear him out. ‘He only has abilities as an Elemental King. We both know that will only make him a better farmer. As for the other abilities that will come with that trait, I suggest we tell him that its special and he should never show it or mention it to anyone in any way.’

‘You can’t.’ Sana shook her head. ‘I know how much you want to protect him Daedalus but the bird will eventually have to leave its nest. We can’t change that. Ever.’

‘Its too dangerous!’ Daedalus refused outright. ‘We can barely deal with the assassins ourselves. What do you think will happen to a child? You yourself said that the child shouldn’t have to pay for the mistakes of the parents!’ He was almost yelling by the end of the sentence.

‘That also means that he should have the free will to choose his own destiny.’

‘That is not going to happen if we start training him from a young age!’

‘Then let him do farming in the day and learn magic at night. We’ll do it that way.’

‘He’s not going to have enough karma to awaken naturally.’

‘Then we will use the Awakening Stone to force the awakening.’

‘He won’t be as talented then.’

Sana glared at Daedalus, ‘we need to come to a compromise Daedalus. I know you don’t want to train him or want him to train at all but it needs to be done. Now,’ the temperature dropped by several degrees causing frost to form on the table as Sana smiled gently at Daedalus, ‘are we going to discuss this like reasonable people?’ he felt a chill run up his spine as he hastily nodded.

Needless to say, after a few more times of going back and forth he eventually lost to Sana and they both reached an agreement proposed by Sana. Daedalus walked towards the barn with slumped shoulders. He knew the danger so he really didn’t want Icarus knowing anything about his past, but, he also knew it was going to come out eventually. As he entered the barn, a soft clattering noise began echoing through the massive place. He knew exactly where the source of the sound was. Heading towards the back wall of the barn, Daedalus reached for a particular panel and pressed it. There was a click as the whole panel slid out along with the rack behind it. On the rack were several wooden swords and books. The rattling was coming from the swords which were vibrating and shaking on their own. He heaved a heavy sigh and closed the rack, heading back towards the house.

Sure enough, when he got back he found that the knives, poles, rolling pin and any other object even remotely resembling a weapon was floating in the air. Sana was sitting on the dining table, staring warily at them. This time she didn’t know what the hell was happening. ‘Theres no need to worry,’ Daedalus waved his hand this time and a red energy shockwave went through the combined kitchen and dining room causing all the floating objects to fall to the ground. ‘Honey, whats going on?’ Sana looked at Daedalus with concern in her eyes. He sighed and started to explain, ‘have you ever heard of a Weapon King?’