“Alright! Nothing up ahead, we're good to go!” Julia shouted from atop the tree she’d climbed, jumping down the 4 story height, crashing through a few branches but still landing effortlessly.
“You could at least pretend to be careful…” Henrek sighed as Julia flicked a few thorns out of her arm, the wounds quickly closing and joining the myriad of minor skin blemishes she’d been accumulating.
“Whattt, Utarou ordered me to do things dangerously, right~?” Julia cooed as she looked to Utarou who was busy harassing Hope about the baby.
“You’ve been eating enough protein? And fruit? And milk? And-” Utarou was cut off by May smacking him around the back of the head, causing the 4 year old Barney Junior to laugh as he held his fathers hand.
Utarou’s squad was going on a "reconnaissance" mission, but it was more of a family picnic and vacation for family under the guise of official business.
It’d been a year since Julia had been healed, and she’d been rapidly moving through her skill tree, a very min-maxed path at Utarou’s design. They only had 2 more years until Templar Adam returned to find a Tier 4 skill, with results being not particularly impressive.
Utarou had been going one branch primarily, the healing branch, and the agility branch for whenever a skill had pre-req. He’d based this off of Henrek’s skill tree which had a diverse enough investment in those skills for him to try and push it further.
This had resulted in Julia being extremely nimble, flexible and able to easily bounce back from pretty much anything. Currently, Utarou and Julia were gunning for something that seemed like a big leap, a skill that Vicar John had no idea about other than it was “something the church would never allow anyone to pick.”
That skill was “Aspect of Water”, it had a dotted border and until they unlocked it, they wouldn’t see any description.
And of course, Utarou had ordered Julia to do whatever new things she could in order to get the required XP as quickly as possible, which Julia had interpreted as doing as much dangerous and stupid stuff as she could.
Which, being the adrenaline junky she was, she was happy to oblige.
“Utarou, can you order her to calm down then…?” Henrek asked meekly as Hope left Utarou to be chastised by May and to join her husband.
“I think he’s a little busy, what did you tell the guys at the garrison we were doing anyway?” Hope asked as she leaned against Henrek.
“Recon for a new outpost. Though really I just found a beautiful lake that I wanted to show my friends and family.” Henrek said warmly, looking back to see Utarou being kicked by a particularly cranky May.
“... And Utarou as well I suppose.” Henrek sighed as he helped his wife down the hill.
“Aw c’mon, he’s just a scamp.” Julia laughed as she slid down the hill, hands on the back of her neck the whole way down, until she tripped on a rock and fell flat on her face.
“Something about those regenerative abilities, they lead to madness…” Henrek lamented as he and Hope gingerly walked down the hill as May finished up her rant against Utarou.
“AND YA BETTER NOT BE THINKIN’ OF PULLING ANY OF THAT NONSENSE ON ME YA HEAR?!” May roared as she returned to her family.
“Feeling better?” Barney asked with a smirk.
“Absolutely, now Junior, remember, violence is never the answer okay?” May said softly.
“Okayyy.” Junior exclaimed, giving a thumbs up.
The group soon arrived at the lake that Henrek had found on his patrols, it was a small forest clearing with a large waterfall opposite the clearing.
The ideal picnic location needless to say, well once Henrek had cleared the monsters of course.
“Sheesh! Ya weren’t lying Hank! This is a right good spot!” Barney whistled as he placed his picnic basket
“I know right? Plus…” Henrek smirked as he grabbed his fishing rods.
“... I just know there’s gonna be something tasty in there.” Henrek said as he tossed Barney a fishing rod.
“Oh uh, Utarou we didn’t bring ya any fishin’ rod hope ya don’t mind.” Barney added as he looked back to see Utarou had already wandered off with Julia.
“Looks like ya might be gettin’ a brother in law soon!” Barney laughed as he patted Henrek on the back.
“I pray every night to God that she finds any other man than him…” Henrek sighed as he sat on a large boulder and cast his rod.
It was a pleasant evening for everyone. Barney, Junior and Henrek spent their time fishing while May and Hope prepared the meal. Julia and Utarou reappeared, hauling a large monstrous spider Julia had just killed with them.
“Argh, nasty things, meat’s no good, not bad for a stew but me pots back at home. We’ll give it to Rhiney.” May lamented before whistling for the baby dragon.
“I didn’t want to eat it! I just wanted to show big bro what I killed!” Julia laughed as Rhiney came flying in from the sky, having grown to be the size of a horse, with an ethereal energy covering his white and pink body.
“All yours.” May offered, the dragon nodded and wandered over, pawing at the carcass uninterestedly, but still nibbling it.
“Rhiney!” Junior exclaimed as he ran to greet the dragon, who had taken to patrolling the region, having marked it his territory. Very useful in keeping out other dragons.
Utarou beheld his progress, he just needed to make it past Templar Adam.
“Ahem… since ya all here I may as well make the announcement.” May sighed as she saw Barney motioning her to say something.
“Argh I ain’t good at this! Barney you just say it!” May flustered as she sat on the ground.
“Junior, ya getting a sibling!” Barney declared, suddenly jumping up.
“A wha?” Junior asked as he hugged Rhiney’s leg.
“Woah! Congrats!” Henrek exclaimed in shock.
“Brilliant! More-” Utarou began before being cut off by May, specifically his tongue being cut off.
“I TOLD YA TO NOT DO ANY OF THAT! I can’t be dealin with that nonsense for the rest of the year.” May growled as Hope laughed.
“Congratulations!” Hope said softly as Julia nodded, taking a sneaky bite out of some of the food the ladies had already prepared.
She felt herself get a skill point, during the commotion, she decided to unlock the skill, Aspect of Water, with its dotted boundary.
She felt strange, her eyes suddenly changed to a bright blue, and her body was completely relaxed.
But more importantly.
“OH MY GOD!” Julia screamed, taking attention away from May.
“What?! Is it a monster?!” Henrek shouted, getting his sword out, Henrek ran over and looked at Julia’s skill tree.
“YES! YES HELL YES! WE DID IT!” Henrek celebrated, jumping into the air like a mad man.
“W-wait what?!” Henrek asked as he ran over to see that Julia, now had a new skill, everyone else crowded around to see.
It didn’t look like any skill they’d seen before.
Because it was a legendary Tier 4 skill, with a wobbly border that barely looked like a circle.
A newly discovered Tier 4, called Total Cellular Control.
It had one pre-req, the newly revealed Tier 3 skill, Body of Water.
All they had to do now was level Julia up, and Dryholm was saved, Utarou’s experiment would be proved correct, and all would be well in the world.