James walked through the front door of the flat and found his mother in the kitchen chopping vegetables for dinner. She looked up when she heard the door and her shoulders dropped slightly with relief when she saw him.
"You're back." Her voice was tired but warm.
James nodded and walked over. "Need help?"
She glanced at him then back at the cutting board. "You can set the table."
He pulled out plates and cups from the cabinet while his mother continued cooking. The dishes were old and mismatched, and one cup had a crack running down the side that they'd been meaning to replace for months. He set them on the small kitchen table as the flat filled with the smell of onions and cheap meat. She was making stew—the same stew they ate twice a week because the ingredients were affordable.
James laid out two spoons and two forks while his mother stirred the pot on the stove. Neither of them talked for a while. The TV in the main room played news at low volume, something about guild politics and Floor 45 attempts. James finished setting the table and sat down, then his mother brought over the pot and ladled stew into their bowls. Steam rose between them as she sat across from him and they started eating. The stew was thin but hot, more water than meat, and she'd made it stretch so there would be leftovers for tomorrow. James ate without complaining because he'd eaten worse.
His mother set down her spoon and looked at him across the table. "When are you going back in?"
James didn't pretend not to understand what she was asking. "Day after tomorrow. Tomorrow I need to prepare and figure out what gear I need for Floor 1."
She nodded slowly and wrapped both hands around her cup of water. "And after you clear Floor 1?"
"I'll come back here first." James kept his voice steady. "The System lets you return to Earth after every floor. I can rest, resupply, then go back in for Floor 2."
"So you'll be coming home between floors." Something in her shoulders loosened slightly when he said that. "How long will you rest between each one?"
James thought about it. "Depends on how hard the floor is. Maybe a day or two. Maybe longer if I need to recover or buy new gear."
She was quiet for a moment and her eyes searched his face. "Promise me you won't rush it. If you need more time to prepare, you take that time."
"I will."
"I mean it, James." Her voice was firm now. "Your father always said the Tower rewards patience more than speed. Don't go charging in just because you want to move fast."
James's jaw tightened but he nodded. "I'll be careful."
She looked at him for a long moment, then picked up her spoon again and went back to eating even though the stew had gone completely lukewarm. Her hand shook slightly as she brought the spoon to her mouth but she didn't say anything else.
James reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet, then took out the bills and slid them across the table. Twelve purple hundred-dollar notes sat between their bowls.
His mother glanced down at the money and then back up at him. "What's this?"
"From the Tutorial." James kept his voice casual. "The System gave me three hundred Tower Credits as a reward. I exchanged a hundred of them at the TRB earlier."
She picked up one of the bills and tilted it toward the light to see the Tower symbol watermarked into the paper. "How much is this?"
"Twelve hundred dollars. One Tower Credit exchanges for twelve dollars."
Her hand stopped moving and she set the bill back down on top of the others. "That's more than I make in two months."
"I know." James pushed the money closer to her side of the table. "Use it for the flat. The heating's been broken since winter started and that window needs replacing before the glass falls out."
His mother shook her head and pushed the bills back toward him. "This is your money, James. You need it for equipment and potions and whatever else you'll need for the floors."
"I still have two hundred Tower Credits left." James pushed the bills back to her again. "That's another twenty-four hundred dollars if I need it. This is for you."
She looked down at the money and then back at him. "The rent—"
"Is four hundred a month and this covers three months." James cut her off before she could argue further. "Fix the things that are broken. Buy actual food instead of just potatoes and the cheapest meat they have. Get yourself new shoes because the ones you're wearing have holes in the soles."
His mother opened her mouth to say something but closed it again. She reached out slowly and picked up the bills, then folded them and set them on the counter behind her. "Half goes into savings."
James started to protest but she gave him a look that stopped the words in his throat.
"Half," she repeated firmly. "In case you need it later."
He knew better than to argue when she used that tone, so he just nodded.
They finished eating in silence while his mother washed the dishes and James dried them and put them away. She kept glancing at the money sitting on the counter where she'd left it. When the dishes were done, she walked over and picked up the bills, counted them once, then twice, and put them in her purse.
"Thank you," she said quietly.
James nodded.
She hugged him—not the desperate grab from earlier but a proper hug with her arms around him and her face pressed against his shoulder. "Be careful tomorrow when you're preparing."
"I will."
She pulled back and wiped her eyes. "I'm going to bed. I have an early shift." She walked to her bedroom and closed the door, leaving James standing in the kitchen alone with only the TV still playing in the other room.
James went to his room and closed the door behind him. The space was barely large enough to turn around in with just a bed pushed against one wall, a desk shoved under the cracked window, and water stains spreading across the ceiling like brown maps. He sat down on the bed and picked up the black skill book he'd dropped there earlier.
The skull embossed on the cover caught the light from his cheap desk lamp. James opened the book and found blank pages covered in glowing symbols that shifted and moved like living things. He couldn't read the symbols but he understood what they meant anyway, and the knowledge pushed itself into his head without asking permission—how to gather mana in his palm, how to choose a target corpse, how to make it explode from the inside out.
A System notification appeared in his vision.
[SKILL BOOK DETECTED: CORPSE EXPLOSION (E)]
[LEARN SKILL? Y/N]