May swung her wooden sword down at Barney who easily parried it, as she was pushed back by the force Barney let out a loud laugh.
“Quiet you!” May hissed as she stepped forward to continue her sloppy attacks while Hope played with Barney Junior just nearby in their homes small garden.
Utarou had insisted that May take up sword training, something she’d never particularly been fond of, as a method of building XP, amongst other things.
“Papa winner!” The now 3 year old Barney Junior babbled as he tried to run towards his parents in the middle of their mock fight.
“They’re still training silly! You’ll get hurt!” Hope laughed as she picked up the rambunctious toddler before he got himself hurt.
“Hmpth!” He pouted as he tried and failed to wriggle free from her grasp.
“Settle down there Junior! Just because your mother can’t get a hit on me doesn’t mean she won’t hit you!” Barney gloated boasterously.
May fumed as she feinted a swing to the right, as Barney went to block it she swung up hard with her boot in between his legs.
Barney fell to the ground as May threw the sword on him.
“You learn to watch ya damn mouth!” May huffed as she turned around, seeing her XP roll up as she gained another skill point.
“Oi Utarou, looks like that bigg’n you wanted is good to go.” May sighed as she went to sit by Hope and Barney Junior who was laughing manically. Utarou perked up and looked up from the book he’d been reading.
“Mama win mama win!” Barney Junior declared as he raised his arms towards his mother.
“That’s right! Lesson for ya young man you’s gotta respect ya wife!” May said sternly to the drooling 3 year old who looked at his mother blankly.
“Okayyy, I’m hungry.” Barney Junior declared as he ran off to the kitchen.
Utarou finished the page he was on, placed his book mark and quickly ran over.
“Go on then! I want to see what this Regenerative Recipe looks like finally!” Utarou declared.
“Yeah yeah yeah.” May sighed as she unlocked the skill.
“Oh… Alright then…” May said suddenly as this new recipe came to her.
“Hold on I gotta go ‘n cook this!” May declared as she ran off into the kitchen.
“She seems excited.” Hope noted her own skill growth having plateaued, leaving her with enhanced senses and reflexes, the only monstrous trait being her cat-like eyes.
“If this works, then oh boy all the XP Julia is going to get…” Utarou grinned manically, rubbing his hands together as he could only imagine what a lifetime of unused XP for him to play with could do.
“Heh, you still look really gross when you do that.” Hope noted as she got up.
“Where are you going?” Utarou asked, not registering the gross comment.
“Henrek should be back from patrol by now, he should get to see his wife at home right~?” Hope cooed as she fiddled with her ring. Utarou rolled his eyes.
“If he wasn’t such a prude you could’ve had a full litter by now…” Utarou grumbled, annoyed that his plans for evolving Hope’s legacy skill had been delayed by her insistence on being with Henrek and Henrek’s “slow and steady approach” to the woman throwing herself at him.
“Yep, still as gross as ever~!” Hope laughed as she walked over the still grounded Barney and left the families backyard.
The town of Dryholm had been growing rapidly, being the only legal settlement in Dracons had centralized trade massively, and most importantly allowed Utarou and Henrek to invest heavily into guarding one central path.
The valley that had made up the original village had been filled with buildings, the top of the hills had the foundations of Utarou’s great wall project and the outside of the city was turning into proper farmland.
He’d even managed to acquire the gold needed to pay his taxes to King Oldsier and then some thanks to a secret ability he had.
He could produce unlimited mince meat, just don’t ask where he got it from.
“OH MY LORDY LORD! Barney! C’mon ‘n eat this!” May shouted from the kitchen, Barney limping up.
“I hope… the regeneration works… I wanted more kids…” Barney wheezed as he hobbled over, for all his skills in killing Dragons he’d never once invested in something to fight a human.
Almost none of Dryholm’s military, led by Henrek, had any abilities suited towards slaying men, let alone a Templar.
If Utarou wanted to defeat someone on the Holy Path he needed to figure out a set of skills that could counteract it, which is what he’d been spending his time researching in between mincing his meat and governing the province of Dryholm.
“HOLY! Honey this is… Utarou! Take Barney Junior out! I’m feelin’ REAL regenerated!” Barney shouted as he picked up his wife and threw his son out with an apple slice in his mouth and holding the pot of what May had just made.
Barney Junior walked up with the small pot of glowing red paste.
“Youtoe… Whatsh mama and papa doing?” Barney Junior asked with a mouthful of apple. Utarou grabbed the pot with the paste and the small boy by the hand.
“They’re working on a baby brother or sister for you. C’mon let’s hurry and give this to Julia!” Utarou declared with a wide grin.
“Yay! Yulia!” Barney Junior cheered as Utarou walked him through the town.
“Mornin’ Governor!” One of the townsfolk said cheerfully.
“Think today's the day you get that monster girl?” A woman asked with a smirk.
“He’s looking excited, maybe I should call the guard just in case!” An older man chimed in, causing the people on this main road to laugh. It’d finished being cobbled last month and had become the main through road from the one entrance of the city to the other, acting as the main market. Utarou spent little time here, but when he appeared he was often ranting and raving about his dream of monster girls.
The townsfolk had grown used to Utarou’s antics and felt quite comfortable openly mocking him, since evidently Utarou couldn’t care less.
“I think it is!” Utarou laughed as he rushed to Henrek’s childhood home, now only housing him, Hope and Julia.
Utarou practically kicked the door down.
“JULIA! WE HIT THE BIG ONE!” Utarou shouted as Barney Junior ran into the house to find the cookies that Hope kept in the pantry.
Julia sat in a dark corner of the room with a large blanket to keep her warm during this summer, her skin was grey, hair thin and eyes tired.
She had been struggling, May’s continual improvements to the healing capacity of her food had kept her alive for this long, but failed to cure the root cause of her ailment.
This was their last shot.
“Oh… hey Junior…” Julia wheezed, her condition had been decaying.
“Cookiesss…” Junior replied as he ran past her.
“In the… bottom shelf… this time…” Julia laughed, revealing Hope’s latest hiding spot as Utarou sat next to her, a spoonful of the glowing red paste in his hand.
“Eat this.” Utarou said seriously as he held the paste up to Julia’s mouth.
Julia looked at Utarou and gingerly took a bite.
…
“Honey~!” Hope cried, jumping into Henrek as he debriefed the town guard about the monster population around the perimeter of Dryholm.
“W-woah! S-settle down!” Henrek blushed as Hope nuzzled him.
“Heh, this is what you get for waiting so long to marry her.” One of the guards jeered.
“Shuttup. There’s a monster nest somewhere in the south west, you get to deal with it now.” Henrek scoffed as he walked away, Hope still clinging onto him as he put his arm around her shoulder.
“You gotta stop doing that, it keeps interrupting my reports to the wall guard.” Henrek sighed as he made his way through town, still in disbelief at how much the place had changed in what felt like a flash.
His backwater had suddenly turned into a real city, an albeit small one.
It was a mixed feeling, one he’d struggled to reckon with ever since his mother died, hating the beginnings of this change.
“You gotta stop leaving your wife all alone~” Hope said, letting the word roll off her tongue like a giddy school girl.
Henrek sighed.
“You’ve got Julia at home right?” Henrek offered. Hope pouted.
“Yeah… about that… I think we need to have a conversation about Julia, I don’t think she’s going to-” Hope began, before being interrupted by a scream.
Julia’s scream.
Henrek and Hope disappeared as they both ran towards their home.
“JULIA WHAT’S WRONG?!” Henrek shouted as he ran through the already open door, to see Utarou forcing a blanket over a convulsing Julia and crying Barney Junior.
“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU-” Henrek kicked Utarou off as Hope went to soothe Barney Junior.
“Hey, hey hey it’s okay… What happened?” Hope said softly as Junior sobbed.
“Y-Y-Yulia’s… melting!” Junior sobbed as he pointed towards the convulsing mass.
“W-wait it’s not-” Utarou said as he poked his head through the Utarou shaped hole in the wall Henrek had made, being interrupted by Julia kicking off the blanket.
She was being regenerated, her entire body was being forced through a metamorphosis like a fleshy butterfly.
Her skin and muscle melting off the bone and returning only to melt off again, her face twisted into a thousand degrees of agony. Every single broken part of her body was being regenerated, which for Julia meant every bone, every patch of skin, every tooth, needed to be replaced.
It was horrible.
Until suddenly, it stopped.
Julia, looking like a different version of herself, lay lifelessly on the ground.
“You… You…” Henrek stammered, stomping towards Utarou as he felt a tidal wave of anger flowing through him.
“W-w-wait just give it a minute! She’s probably just healing!” Utarou exclaimed before Henrek picked him up by the neck, crushing his windpipe with one hand. Hope had already pulled Barney Junior away so he couldn’t see, she didn’t know what to say so she said nothing.
There was a few moments of silence as Henrek fumed, holding Utarou up, knowing he couldn’t choke the life out of him but wishing he could.
Until suddenly, a sharp inhale from the floor.
“AUHRGH!” Julia exclaimed as she hacked up a mound of bloody flesh from her chest.
“Julia!” Henrek and Hope gasped in unison, Henrek dropping Utarou to kneel down to his sister.
She looked different. Her face was rounded, her eyes had life to them, her skin was smooth.
She was healthy.
And for the first time in her life, she felt something.
She opened up her skills menu as Henrek hovered around her, unsure if he should hug her, help her up or cry tears of happiness.
Utarou’s neck snapped back in place just in time to see the sight he’d been eagerly awaiting.
Julia’s banked XP that couldn’t be converted into Skill Points all came rushing in at once.
And it came in quick.
Utarou had calculated that the average person had around ten skills they’d unlocked by Julia’s age.
These were usually seven tier 1 skills, two tier 2 skills and one tier 3 skill.
This meant the average person spent around 15 Skill Points throughout the first two decades they’d lived, and much to Utarou’s dismay, they’d spend them poorly on short term benefits.
Utarou saw Julia gain that entire lifetime worth of skill points in the span of a few seconds.
And he had very optimized plans for these skill points.