I rushed back home, doing my best to avoid bumping into other villagers. I had no idea what sort of acrobatics my face was up to, and I didn't want to find out by having another villager point it out to me.

  Both parents were there, waiting, by the time I arrived.

  "An inspector from the baron made a surprise check of our village today," observed Mum.

  "Yes," I agreed.

  "From the look on your face, I assume things are bad?"

  "Uh... Not as bad as they could have been... For now..."

  "Explain," demanded Dad. "First, what exactly did he see?"

  "Only my [Farming] stage."

  "Why would that... Oh, despite everything we said, you put more skill points into it, didn't you? How many?"

  "... I raised it to stage five."

  Dad winced, while Mum sighed and pinched her nose. "It's practically impossible for you to be at that level. You'd need to have spent every available moment since your unlock ceremony at the dungeon, and even the most basic of research will prove that you haven't," she said.

  "I claimed you'd helped, and pointed out my increased Stats, and he didn't seem to think I was suspicious..."

  "And do you really think that an official working for the baron would give his thoughts away in a way that a kid could detect?"

  "It's not like the baron would send his best men out to check up on a peaceful farming village," pointed out Dad. "If he only spotted [Farming], he can't have a high-ranked appraisal Skill. Maybe it wasn't a Skill at all, and he'd just seen enough farmers to tell."

  "True, but the deception still won't hold water for long. Robin can't really lie again about his Mark; saying that it also has other effects on top of what he already admitted would leave them suspicious that he's still not being completely truthful. They'd likely insist on a full appraisal."

  "So, what should he do, then?" asked Dad.

  "I think the only realistic option is to admit everything. I expect the baron will have him adopted by one of his knights."

  "Uh..." I commented, mostly to point out the fact that I was still here. "Sorry, adopted?"

  "Yes, adopted. The best way for the baron to secure you would be to give you a completely new identity and sever any links you have to this village, to ensure no-one learns where you came from."

  "Wait, sever? You don't mean..."

  "Oh, no. If you're thinking he'd kill us all, nothing like that. I just mean to an outside observer, he'd ensure nothing links you to us. Besides, we're more useful to him alive."

  Right... Effectively, he'd be the one holding my family hostage.

  "If you have anyone you want to say goodbye to, you should probably do so tonight," continued Mum.

  "I have an alternative idea," suggested Dad.

  "Oh?" asked Mum, managing to convey in the single word her opinion that Dad was not usually the one coming up with ideas.

  "He could 'die'."

  "Pardon?" I asked, liking the sound of that idea rather less than being handed to one of the baron's loyal knights to raise.

  "Not for real, obviously. I mean, what if he sneaks to the dungeon tonight and just... doesn't come back. We pretend he died in there."

  "He'd have no legitimate identity," pointed out Mum. "He wouldn't be able to get into towns or pass between cantons without revealing himself as a runaway, and any patrols he ran across would ask awkward questions."

  "He can cross cantons easily by avoiding the roads, and really, how often do patrols conduct checks on travellers they pass? I've never once been stopped on my way to town."

  "You're a grown man, pulling a cart of food. You're what they expect to see. A freshly unlocked kid, unaccompanied? They'd want to know what he was doing, and he wouldn't have an adventurer's tag or travel documents. And don't say he could stay in the dungeon until he grows up a bit. Yes, he could earn enough there to buy food from the camp, but they'd notice a kid turning up and never leaving. He'd be found instantly. And even putting all that aside, he still wouldn't be able to visit us, because any villager here would instantly recognise him. I don't see a single upside."

  "Really? Isn't the upside obvious? Freedom!"

  Mum sighed. "You're far too hung up on that. Just like Simon... I won't say freedom is overrated, but I will say that it's far less common than you think. Technically, Bruno has rights of free movement, but could he feasibly move to another canton, or even another village? Without his position here, how would he sustain his family? Would his family move without him? Merchants and craftsmen find themselves indentured to the businesses and workshops that train them. Soldiers that don't follow orders are executed for desertion. Children of nobles are forced into arranged marriages by their parents. Even adventurers can be issued deadly compulsory quests."

  "We're obviously not going to agree. Why don't we let Robin decide?"

  "Because he's sixteen!"

  "With how many points of Reasoning? Let him dump a bunch of his free points into it, and he'll be more than capable of making his own decision."

  "Stats are no substitute for real life experience... is what I'd like to say, but honestly, none of us have the experience to predict with certainty how things will go from here. Fine. Robin, why don't you have a think about what you want to do next? Just make sure you run your plans by us before you carry them out. It's not like that inspector will make his report by tomorrow."

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  "Ah... Actually, I'm supposed to accompany John to the dungeon tomorrow instead of working..." I admitted.

  "What? How did that happen?" demanded Dad. "You said you told him that you had your mother's support, so surely he wouldn't send you in alone."

  "Yes, but the inspector seemed to think that spending time farming was a waste, and Bruno saw it as an opportunity to get John some extra training. Apparently, that time we saw them in the dungeon was the final day they'd been able to pay the adventurers. He said that since Mum needed to work, John could supervise. A soldier will pick us up from Bruno's house at midday tomorrow, and we'll be staying there a few days."

  "A soldier? By tomorrow? It must be someone from his own escort... He knows. I'm certain of it."

  "Knows something," pointed out Dad. "No way has he worked out exactly what's going on, though, or he might not have left Robin alone overnight at all."

  "True, but either way, Robin will need to decide more quickly than we thought. Are you actually considering disappearing?"

  "Maybe?" I answered. "It's not that I'd mind working for the baron, as such, but I'm more concerned about what he'll have me do. Wouldn't any serious job require some education? I know nothing whatsoever about how to behave around nobility. As you keep saying, Stats and Skills don't replace real experience, and Dad seems to think he won't want me educated. The 'obvious' thing would be a combat role, but he wouldn't go through the trouble of an adoption just to have me guarding the town, patrolling roads, or collecting farming skill crystals from a bottom-rank dungeon. Will I be ordered on spying missions? Assassinations?"

  "I... can't say," admitted Mum. "Throwing a few points into Memory would help you rapidly catch up with any education the lord wanted to give you, but I really don't know what sort of work he'd want to give someone with as large a levelling advantage as you. I suspect he'd want to keep you somewhat out of sight, lest higher-ups in the kingdom start to desire you, but it's a stretch to jump from that to spying and assassination."

  "You can't say that won't happen, though," added Dad.

  "I can't say I won't be struck by lightning tomorrow, either, but that doesn't mean I want to lock myself away indoors."

  "The problem is that there's no way to find out what he'd want without giving everything away," I sighed. "For all I know, he could turn out to have an entire staff with the same Mark, and not think it was anything special."

  "I can assure you he does not," said Mum. "When I was a child around your age, there was a girl in my village who had a Mark far lesser than yours—extra skill points, with no Stat or Experience bonus—and yet there was still a huge fuss over it. The baron's men whisked her away pretty sharpish."

  "And what happened to her?" asked Dad.

  "... You know full well that I have no idea. I've not seen her since."

  "Yes, I did know that. But now Robin does, too."

  Mum sighed, then pulled a brown crystal from her pocket, which she tossed at me. "Since your father is so adamant, you might as well take this."

  "Huh? Where did you get this from?!"

  "The dungeon two days ago. Don't you recognise it?"

  "The 'sewing' crystal! You lied about what it was!"

  "I kept it because I thought you'd want to use it eventually," said Mum, which was as good as an admission. "If you want to disappear, this dungeon trip will be your best bet. Fake your death in the dungeon somehow, then run. Get out of this canton, then cross at least two more. Avoid the roads, especially near the borders of the canton. Find another beginner dungeon to raise your level and collect some useful skills, but don't hang around for too long. I have no idea how you'll solve your identity problem; any official checks will reveal you as a runaway from this canton. Perhaps other countries handle identity registration in a different way. At least I've never heard of a Skill or mobile equipment that can read your identity, so as long as you avoid towns, no-one should realise who you are."

  'Freedom' was a nice idea, but was that sort of life really any more free than my current one? I'd be permanently on the run. How could I ever settle anywhere?

  Honestly, the only reason I was considering it at all was that I'd never once had my identity checked on the way into town. Either prior to my unlock, when I was with Dad, or on the day of it, when entire cartloads of kids were let through. The obvious explanation—or at least, the explanation that was obvious now, with my increased mental Stats—was that the crystal ball didn't only unlock our Systems, but also recorded our identities.

  It was a shame one-month-younger me hadn't paid more attention to what the priests were up to. Was one of them responsible for filling in my information? Could another priest change it? Could I somehow pose as sixteen again and get a completely new identity? It was certainly an avenue to explore.

  In any case, whether I decided to run away or not, [Stealth] would come in useful, and it wasn't as if I was short of skill points.

  I winced as five stages worth of Skill knowledge forced its way into my head, the crystal crumbling to dust in the process. If I was going to illegally cross between cantons, I'd need it above rank E—the base skill provided information about moving silently and how best to remain unnoticed, but certainly wouldn't do anything to make me literally invisible, let alone hide me from detection Skills—but evolution would need to wait. Firstly, because my head felt in danger of splitting open, but also, what other skill crystals might I discover in the dungeon tomorrow? It would be worth saving some points.

  For now, I needed sleep, so I retreated to the bedroom, carefully placing each footfall to avoid squeaky floorboards and adjusting my movements so that my clothing didn't rustle.

  Frankly, I was leaning towards working for the baron. As Mum had said, freedom was a far more nebulous concept than it might seem at first glance, and was a life on the run really any more 'free' than the alternative?