Kazuki couldn’t believe what he was seeing. His eyes started to burn from staring for so long. Eventually he turned around, Shiki, Haru, and Ari all had similar looks of astonishment on their faces.

  Shiki was the first one to break the silence. “You’re kidding, right?” he questioned.

  The plate read as follows: Kazuki, Age 14, Male. HP: 100, STR: 1920, DEF: 5, and INT: 65. Ability: Strength Stockpile, F-Class. Rank: Bedrock.

  "T-This is absurd,” Ari stuttered. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

  “The warriors in my village could never dream of attaining this much strength,” Haru said out of shock.

  People started to crowd around Kazuki, trying to see what the commotion was about. He quickly dispersed the plate so no one could see his stats. “We need to go somewhere else to talk,” he said, “let’s go to our room.” With that, they all exited the auditorium, and returned to Kazuki and Shiki’s rooms in silence. When everyone finally entered they sat in silence for a few seconds before Shiki finally broke in.

  “Alright, what the hell was that strength?” Shiki asked.

  “I-I’m not to sure myself honestly,” Kazuki said, his stupor finally wearing off enough for him to begin talking normally.

  “Well, It's not like being surprised is going to explain anything.” Ari said sitting down on the couch.

  I can’t believe it. After all those years of nothing I finally have the power I wanted. It wasn’t worth losing my family, but… He gripped his shirt. A small part of me is glad. I won’t put this power to waste.

  “Why don’t you tell us about your ability? Maybe that could give us a hint,” suggested Haru.

  “Well, my ability is really bad,” Kazuki laughed. “It’s an F-Class ability that can increase my strength.”

  “How is it F-Class if your stats are so high!” Ari said.

  “Only one stat in particular. Everything besides my strength is way below average,” he corrected.

  Shiki sat up from the couch, “Ok, but that still doesn’t prove how your ability is F-Class.”

  “Let me explain, my ability does ‘enhance’ my strength, but it’s so minimal it practically makes no difference,” Kazuki said. “Everytime I take one hundred damage, I get one strength in return.”

  “Seriously? Well that’s why all of your other stats are so low,” Shiki realized. “You couldn’t get any stronger because without a high defense every damage takes away one health. So even if you died-”

  “You would only get one strength!” Ari interrupted. “That makes it almost impossible to improve.”

  Shiki gave Ari an irritated look, in which she returned a smug one.

  “Exactly, which is why I honed my skill into martial arts,” Kazuki said.

  Then how is it even possible for your strength to increase so much in such a short amount of time, Shiki thought.

  Everyone was stumped. “I remember right before the Demon Lord Shruke hit me, I saw the number ‘one hundred and ninety thousand’ above me when I fell to the ground and passed out.”

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  The room went quiet. Ari started thinking to herself. What could that number mean? It can’t be the damage because that’s way too high. That much would be able to kill even elite mage apprentices.

  Shiki slumped in his seat. That number is way too high to be the damage. But what if….

  “No, that number is definitely the amount of damage you took, Kazuki,” claimed Haru.

  Shiki grinned after hearing her remark.

  “But how!” Ari slammed her hands on the table. “That number is way too high!”

  “Exactly,” she said. “That’s the only possible explanation.”

  Ari gave her a confused look. “What do you mean?”

  Shiki put his hand up to explain, “What she’s basically trying to say, is the fact that Kazuki died from the attack.”

  “What?!” Kazuki and Ari said at the same time.

  “I was thinking the same thing, but it seemed stupid considering if I died I obviously couldn’t be here right now,” said Kazuki.

  Ari joined in, “Yes, that’s just common sense!”

  Shiki laughed, “Well, it’s common sense to most people. But I have a theory, and Haru probably has the same idea.”

  Haru grinned, “Most likely. Have you two ever heard of ‘Heavenly’ or ‘Abyssal’ magic?”

  Kazuki and Ari looked at each other, “No…?”

  “Well, to put it simply, it’s the ultimate form of light and dark magic respectively. Only one person can use each at the moment and both of them are elite mages on the magic council. Surprisingly, one of them was the man in the white cloak today who introduced the status plate,” Shiki explained.

  “No way!” Ari exclaimed, “That was one of the magic council members?”

  “Yup,” he said pridefully.

  Kazuki sat up and glared at Shiki, “How do you and Haru know all of this?”

  “Well, Haru probably didn’t know all of that stuff I said about the magic council and elite wizards. I learned that from reading books in our village library. I found a ton of hidden stuff on current day magic and abilities,” Shiki said.

  Kazuki gave him a condescending grin, “You? Reading books? I can hardly believe it.”

  “Yeah, yeah, can it would you,” he responded, then pointing to Kazuki. “I’m still trying to explain to you idiots how this guy got so damn strong.” He sighed, then continued speaking. “Anyway, Haru was raised with strong people around her. I can’t imagine how many light and dark users were among her kind. She must’ve learned about heavenly and abyssal through them.”

  She nodded at his claim.

  “On the other hand,” Shiki said, “I learned about it because I myself can use light magic.” A ball of energy emerged above his palm. “I studied on it and found out about them myself.”

  “That’s cool and all,” Kazuki commented, “but how do these ‘legendary magics’ have to do with me dying?”

  “Well this is the most important part,” Shiki stated, “if you master conquer light or dark magic and learn heavenly or abyssal, you can use a forbidden magic called ‘Resurrection Magic.’”

  “You’re kidding,” Ari said. “That stuff only exists in fairy tales.”

  “And how do you think those fairy tales originated? The reason it’s forbidden is because it’s one of the easiest magics to abuse,” he said.

  “So you guys think that one of the magic council members used this magic on me, even though it’s forbidden. Why would they even be at a run down village like mine?” Kazuki queried.

  “I mean, there was a Demon Lord there. There could be many different reasons for them to check out an attack,” Shiki responded.

  Kazuki retoreted, “But there’s only one heavenly magic and one abyssal magic user in the entire world. The odds just seem too low.”

  “You may be right, but it’s the only theory we’ve got right now. I mean, all of the evidence adds up. You said the last number you saw was one hundred and ninety thousand. That must’ve been the damage you took, adding nineteen hundred strength to whatever you had previously, which I’m guessing was twenty considering its nineteen hundred and twenty right now,” Shiki explained.

  “Hang on, you may be right.” Kazuki remembered when the man in the white and golden cloak’s expression changed when he saw him. “The man looked… surprised to see me when he gave me the status ability.”

  Shiki grinned, “And that’s our first clue.”