A short time later, the partygoers had eaten their fill.
While they all made small talk around the tables, Leah and Kalvin carried a smaller one into the middle of the hall. Setting it down, Kalvin called Nickel over to them, and had him stand in front of it.
Once he was in place, each of the different families present at the party moved to stand together, slightly apart from the others.
It was only once he made it to the table and turned around that Nickel understood.
He had specifically asked no less than three times that Kalvin tell the guests he didn't want "any gifts of any kind. No weapons, no armor, no books, magical or otherwise!".
Those might seem like strange birthday gifts, but when your entire extended family were adventurers, it came with the territory. They hadn't listened, of course, though he honestly hadn't expected them to.
Nickel heaved a dramatic sigh. He'd made a valiant attempt, at least.
"...Alright, who's first?"
Katerina came up with a small box wrapped with a bow in her hands. "We're doing order of seniority this year." The corners of her mouth turned up, just a bit. That was a lot of emotion, coming from her.
Nickel took the box and grinned back at her, though he had to tilt his head down quite a bit. Her hands free, Kat made a monumental effort to pat him on the head once, and returned to her parents.
Nickel now had the box in his hands, unsure what to do with it.
He asked no one in particular, "Am I opening these as I get them, or waiting until the end?"
Off to his side, Will was with Liz, her mother, and Selika. He said, with a smirk on his face, "It's your day, Nickel. Your choice."
"At the end, then." With that, he nodded, placing the box with Katerina's gift in it on the table.
Next up was Jameson, who handed him a well-read looking green book, and clapped him on the shoulder. Reading the cover while he set it on the table, Nickel saw that it was a spellbook, titled "Creative Uses of Wind, for the Mage who has Everything".
After Jameson came Anton, who gave Nickel a book similar to the previous one, though this time it was blue, titled "Creative Uses of Water, for the Mage who has Everything". Nickel chuckled silently upon receiving it. He should have realized they'd give a pair of gifts. Anton touched his fist to Nickel's chest. An expression of respect among the dwarves.
Two people came up to Nickel then, Rena and Rean. While Rena claimed she was older, Rean, her identical twin, disputed this every single time. The two of them each had something for him.
"We were gonna get you something from the both of us, but…" Rean started.
"...We couldn't agree what it should be." Rena finished.
The two of them spoke at the same time. "So here's something from each of us!"
From Rena, he received a small box. From Rean, he received a slightly less small box.
After handing him his gifts, each twin stepped to either side of him to hug him. They stepped back, giggling at his slightly blushing face, and moved back to their parents.
Last from the extended family line up was Marko. A bulky, long-haired young human, with a seemingly permanent smirk on his face. As he walked up, Nickel peered closely at him.
"How's your injury?" he asked.
Marko grinned and flexed his arms, then winced. Nickel almost snorted with laughter, but managed to stop himself.
"Does that answer your question?" Marko sighed, before grinning again. "Rean fixed me up, it's just gonna be a few more days until I'm back to one hundred percent."
"Good," Nickel nodded.
The injured fighter handed Nickel his third book of the day, "Light and Dark: Understanding the Major Elements of the Elemental Scale". When Nickel read the cover, he winced slightly, feeling a dull pain behind his eyes. It passed as quickly as it appeared, leaving him wondering whether he imagined it.
Having received the gifts from his extended family, Nickel looked to Will and Elizabeth. As he did, the two of them walked over, stopping in front of him, Will slightly to his left, Liz slightly to his right. As they did, Will started speaking.
"Our gifts for you are more from Joseph and Seria, than they are from us. Before they left on any expedition, they would entrust these to Kalvin." They each took something from one of their pockets. Holding them out to Nickel, he recognized the rings they were holding.
Will had a ring of white marble. There was a tree on it's face, circled by six clear gemstones. Liz was holding a ring made of black and silver metal, in the shape of a curled dragon.
"I'm not really sure what these are, honestly. Neither is Kalvin. I mean obviously, they're rings. We just don't know what they represent."
"What we do know," Liz said, tears beginning to form in her eyes. "is that they should be with you, Joseph and Seria's son."
Will took his left hand, and Elizabeth took his right. As they each began to place the rings on the index finger of each of his hands, the dull pain behind Nickel's eyes returned, far sharper, and most definitely real. His features contorted in pain, he fell to his knees, Will and Liz still holding his hands.
His vision blurred, his hearing distorting. The only thing he could feel was the sharp pain behind his eyes, and the only thing he could see… was his status screen. As he vaguely registered the sound of commotion around him, a newly appeared section at the bottom of his status dominated his sight.
[UNSEALING: 00:00:05]
As Nickel slowly sank into the darkness of unconsciousness, the last thing he heard was the mechanical voice of the system.
[BEGIN UNSEALING