Down the Mountain: Now I'm Invincible

When he was five:

"Mother, I'm not hungry. Why do I have to eat?"

"Because we're human."

When he was ten:

"Father, can I go down the mountain now?"

"No. There are monsters and bad people down there. You can only go down and gain experience after you kill that monster."

"Oh."

When he was fifteen:

"Mother, I'm going down the mountain. Won't you miss me?"

"Hurry up and go..." The woman looked at her son with disgust, then turned to her husband, her face flushed. "Soon it'll be just the two of us..."

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to actual people or events is purely coincidental. Please do not imitate.