"Long day?"

  I didn't even have the luxury of flinching when I heard Howaph talking. With a silent sigh, I closed the door and then faced my older brother. Well, he looked infinitely more relaxed than me at least. Describing my day as "long" really doesn't cut it, arduous fit better.

  Well at least I reached level 20 in the end.

  And with a new milestone, comes new benefits, specifically centered around my main class, which not only got better perks, but also has an influence with each level up. The extra 15 Magic that I get from it won't just happen once anymore, whenever I get a level, I also get 15 Magic on top of the existing stats I usually get.

  Now that I think about it, how many stats I get per level will change too. Before it was based off of my physical and magical affinities and currently, it changed into calculating the stats from my sub classes— the existing ones during a level up, so me missing one sub class from my goals isn't a big deal... It is. — and I think every 5 stats is 1 per level up?

  For example, my [Murky Monster Poacher] class gives me 10 dexterity and 5 physical, if I level up, these would get calculated into 2 dexterity and 1 physical respectively.

  Calculating all the stats that I get from my sub classes effectively gives me around: 8 dexterity, 4 physical, zero resistance, and of course, 22 magic every level up.

  Getting 20 per stat after leveling up in my current state is a fairly big deal, and not a lot of adventurers can claim the same thing when they've reached my particular milestone. Commonly, their numbers are in the same range as my dexterity and physical strength, which is to say, not a lot.

  Also, I've gotten a lot of stats on the physical side of things in my earlier levels so I don't need to worry about it for a while.

  My path to being a specialized mage is slowly becoming reality, and on top of this, my main class is starting to show signs that it's able to use magic as well, so it's not all bad. And I guess the other upgraded perks are good too.

  Class: Brutal Trapper

  *+15 Magic

  *Advanced Blueprint

  *Minor Environmental Manipulation

  *Magical Imbuedment

  *Intermediate Transmutation

  *Mental Map

  [Blueprint] now has the word "advanced" next to it and the changes it got are pretty big, beyond being able to make elaborate death traps— and I mean elaborate. — I can now also trap people within physical situations such as conversations, combat, and even haggling.

  Oh, and I guess I can easily trap magic now? I have new ideas on how to make my scrolls, which has gone beyond "putting magic into papyrus" and is now "efficiently writing runes so that they can trap or "contain" magic better".

  My cached ideas of trapping sunlight, gases, liquid, and other similar things have similarly been expanded upon. I can make bombs now. Different kinds of them.

  A grenade launcher sounded far-fetched to me at first until I realized that it's actually possible, I just need a tube, a trap for air on one end and a muzzle on the other, and voila, I have something that can launch objects at great distances.

  Are cannons just traps? Probably not right... No, they can be. Or at least part of a trap, and my class simply doesn't care about the technicalities because it gives me a complete blueprint of a trap that uses a cannon, including how to build the cannon itself.

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  It's like a deadlier and more destructive version of those jury rigged shotgun-and-string traps that I saw in movies in my past life.

  [Minor Environmental Manipulation] is just [Location Advancement] and [Material Alignment] combined, the two perks who once helped me make better traps now have become something that allows me to change the environment to my liking, albeit in a limited scope.

  [Magical Imbuedment] lets me imbue magic into items, even mundane ones, which makes them tougher, stronger, or unstable. There is also the potential "mutation" factor that's implied in the entire thing and I'm especially excited for that!

  I can finally start making mimics again! Yay!

  [Intermediate Transmutation] is self explanatory and [Mental Map] lets me perceive my traps and get a "feel" of their location, it also tells me if they've been triggered.

  "You're awfully distracted, you didn't even answer my question." Howaph was the only person who stayed and I'm not sure what to think of that, on one hand, everyone knows that prioritizing the shop is more important but on the other it kinda stings?

  To be fair, I did ask for this so complaining about it is kind of pointless. I'm just happy that they're finally taking the store seriously.

  "That's because I am." I admitted, there are so many things going on in my mind right now. "Reaching level 20 is a milestone that kids my age don't usually get you know? I'm not sure how to feel about it."

  Sooner or later I'll burn out, and I suspect it will happen when I reach my finish my current goals, I'm supposed to be excited when I think about obtaining the entire mender's set or maybe solving the dungeon problem that's been plaguing me and instead I'm scared of it all.

  How many times has this kind of thing happened? A lot. Even in my past life I remember learning the guitar for a week, and when I finished learning the instrumental of a song I've been obsessively listening to, the instrument went away, never to be used again.

  The same thing happened with all my other "hobbies" and I learned so many things on a whim that on the outside, I seem knowledgeable with a lot of things. The truth is though, it's only surface level knowledge, I don't actually know the intricacies of the things that I talk about.

  "What? Rontress you should be proud!" Howaph's expression was a mix of confusion and raw bitterness. It made me chuckle. "How you should feel about it is obvious: happiness."

  He nodded sagely, like what he said makes sense. It probably does to him, he does seem proud of me after all, I'm not sure if I can feel the same way about it though, I know things that he doesn't do to me, this milestone isn't much, that it could be higher.

  And maybe that's the problem?

  "Thanks brother." I hugged him, tight. "I needed that."

  "H-hey! The food!" I didn't let go, he patted my head hysterically. "It's gonna get burnt!"

  Will it? Maybe. Laughing, I broke the embrace and went back to cooking, "maybe I'm putting too much thought into this whole thing." And what I meant by that are my goals. "I'm getting short sighted, narrow minded even. Guess that just happens when you go on a single minded drive to do something."

  "Okay?" Howaph looked even more confused and I started laughing. "What?!" He rubbed his cheek with his palm, a frown tugging at his lips.

  I laughed even harder.

  "Nothing." My smile was warmer than the food I was cooking and it stuck itself to my face for a while. I'm glad that I had my back turned on Howaph, otherwise he would have mocked me.

  "Look, Rontress." My brother suddenly turned serious, watching as plates got placed on the table. "I know you're working hard to become an adventurer and I think that it's a good goal! But aren't you working too hard?"

  "Am I?" I didn't look him in the eyes.

  "Yes. You slept in the shed and gave your room to Laself, I know you didn't do it to help her." Well, isn't he blunt? "And right now, you came home late, mom and dad said that it's fine and that's what I think too. Laself is still feeling torn between telling you to stop or letting you chase your dreams but she's starting to give you space."

  Probably because she's busy with the store now, is saying that as a retort appropriate or does it make me look like I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel?

  "What are you trying to say?" I sat down and still refused to meet his gaze. I grabbed my fork and spoon, waiting.

  "We're all okay with it, and you also are. You want this." I nodded, yes, of course I want this. Why wouldn't I? "It's also clear that you're pushing yourself too hard, it's fine if you don't work for a day Rontress, you're younger than me and when I was your age I—"

  "But I'm not you now am I?" Fuck. Why did I blurt that out? I looked at Howaph's expression and he didn't look hurt, in fact he seemed like he believed my words. "Sorry, it's just... I want to do something, and the younger I am, the faster I'll be able to do it. I'm fine, okay?"

  "Right as long as you're not hurting yourself, I won't push you." And somehow, that's what Howaph has a problem with, not the fact that his younger sister is better than him, or that a girl is somehow the bread winner of his family, instead he's concerned about me.

  The thought is both heartwarming and gut wrenching.