His new life began as the decorated knife pierced into his guts. The thin iron sliding into his flesh felt ice-cold as shock began to set in.

‘Is this real?’ A question came to mind but not in his voice. Searing pain along with bottomless dread followed right after even if he already knew what would happen next.

The blade was yanked away and Adrin fell to his knees, one hand covering the wound. It felt like he was falling from incredible high and kneeling on the ground at the same time. Someone was yelling beside him but it all fell into deaf ears.

'Where am I?' Adrin asked himself as he struggled to breathe.

Memories flashed before his eyes. He was in the awakening ceremony, the rite of adulthood he had bargained for himself. A new hope, a new chance in life. Every single awakened before him had done the same thing.

But he also remembered something else. He recalled dying alone in the middle of nowhere with his metallic friends. Adrin was not himself then, he was older, he was someone else. His spirit from another life. His sight became blurry as the lonely old man slowly closed his eyes.

Someone shook him, and his eyes shot open.

"Adrin, drink this," said someone as she held a bowl of red liquid. Healing potion.

He swallowed greedily as the girl poured the diluted liquid into his mouth. The awful bitterness hit him first before it grew a little too warm in his belly.

The familiar but odd itchiness crawled and pricked on the wound under his hand, but he held himself back. Scratching would only make it worse, and it ended almost as quickly as it had begun.

Adrin gasped for air as if he had forgotten how to breathe. He coughed as the pain vanished, and he looked at his hands. One of them was red with his own blood while the other was holding the knife with his blood on its blade.

He stood up and threw the knife away in shock. A shiver ran up his spine. What was he doing? Did he stab himself? He took a step back before another set of memories flooded in.

The rite of adulthood, the half step into the river of souls.

He had chosen to stab himself with the ceremonial knife so he could finally see his life bar. Adrin searched for it and noticed the red bar with four out of ten points remaining. The health potion had sealed the wound but it would take some time to regain his full health again.

"I did it," he muttered while he clenched his hands. "Emi... I did it!"

Warmth wrapped around him. Emi hugged him happily but only for a moment before she let him go while holding him on the shoulder. They weren't just childhood friends anymore, but they had to keep it a secret in front if that man. Adrin was nothing compared to the village's sweetheart, they were never a match.

The man cleared his throat, "good, it isn't a waste after all," he said coldly. "Now off you go, you know what to do next."

"Consult to the spirit," he mumbled.

Adrin nodded to the village head and turned to leave. He heard Emi’s hesitation but he ignored her. They had agreed. The old man had done his part, and soon he would do his. His heart might be in this place but there was no future for him here.

'It is just childish love,' said the voice inside his head.

Unlike others before him, he had no one to celebrate with. They couldn't even if she wanted to celebrate it with him. His father was gone before he was even born and his dear mother had died during the last winter.

A spring that he didn’t feel like celebrating. A cruel reality he still had a hard time getting through, and Emi had helped a lot comforting him during the cold nights.

He was out of the ceremonial circle and back to his shack before he knew it. He sat on the yarn-filled bed as he stared at the tiny red bar at the corner of his view. An illusion but a very useful one, and the mark of a new beginning.

Adrin had a new hope now.

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'Is this a virtual reality?' the awakened spirit’s voice echoed in his head.

Adrin wondered what this virtual reality was. Some kind of magic or food, perhaps? He was a bit hungry but the next step should be unlocking his attributes. He had heard that Strength and Endurance would make the Stamina bar appear. He wondered if the spirit knew how.

Laughter echoed inside his head. 'This should be interesting,' the spirit said, clearly this time, as if it was whispering into his ears.

'Do you know magic?' Adrin asked.

'No,' the spirit said, sadly enough. 'But we'll figure it out, one way or the other.'

A lonely spirit wasn’t a good sign, according to the visiting shaman, but he was glad anyway. Because he and the spirit within him would never give up. Adrin could feel it in his guts.

Dying with many people around him might be a sign of great power but nothing was written in stone. The evidence was himself.

A cursed child was able to awaken, something the visiting shaman had said to be impossible. He got a chance now and he would never waste it, and he would let no one stop him.

‘So, should we do the push-ups or pull-ups?’ said the spirit.

Adrin shrugged, he had no idea what those even mean, well, until the spirit shared its memory of what he had just mentioned. A young man was lying on his chest on the floor and repeatedly pushed himself up with his arm while the other used a pole to pull himself up.

He chose to do both, one after the other as the shack had a place he could hang on to.

Pushing himself up from the dirt floor felt awkward at first but slowly he began getting the hang of it. He had never seen anyone in the village do this before but the wise spirit should know better than him. Adrin continued to do it until his arms were shaking and burning.

He pushed a little more before he collapsed on the dirt breathing hard and smiling. No one had been willing to teach him anything, and learning from the spirit had brought out unexplained joy even when he was exhausted. It was thrilling.

He wondered if anyone else felt the same when they trained with their fathers.

‘Maybe we should do some sit-ups first,’ said the spirit, and Adrin agreed.

His arms were killing him.

He laid flat on the ground before he sat up while pulling his feet in, just like what he had seen in the memory. Adrin didn’t count as he didn’t know how, and while he worked out, the spirit promised that he would fix that too.

He had been doing it for a while before his stomach began to ache. His body was drenched in sweat. He rested on the dirt when he was too tired to sit up.

Adrin leaped to hang on to the wooden pole as soon as he recovered a little. He pulled himself up before he pulled his knees to his chest. This was much harder than the last two, but he couldn’t stop smiling. Once again he repeated the pull up until his arms burned and he fell onto the ground with a dull thud.

It felt awesome before it became even better.

Bodybuilding ability obtained.

Bodybuilding [level 1], +1 Strength.

---

Strength observed: base Strength: 2.

Strength: 3.

Adrin’s body felt warm as his body felt strained for a moment. A great wave of relief hit him from his head to his toe. Suddenly he felt stronger. He tried both push-ups and pull-ups and his body felt lighter than he remembered.

“Yes!” shouted both Adrin and his spirit.

Adrin knew his spirit would never disappoint him and now he had solid proof. He couldn’t wait to get his Endurance next but his spirit had another idea.

‘How about some math?’ the voice echoed inside his head.

“What in the abyss is math?” he asked himself.

The wise spirit chuckled. Adrin felt like this math was something very crucial for his future. If no one in the village knew it then there was no doubt about it. He begged the spirit for instruction and his memory showed something odd.

At first, it was counting from one to ten, and this was already taught by Emilia during her free time. However, it became weird when the spirit continued on after ten. He made drawings of ten sticks on the dirt and added one more to make it eleven.

The spirit suddenly changed his mind. Now he was instructed to draw four lines and a stroke across the four lines as five. Adrin drew it until ten and he already could see the difference. It made it very easy to keep up with the counting. He drew until he reached one hundred, and he wasn’t confused as he thought he would be.

Adrin waited for something to happen but no skill or attribute made itself available.

‘It’s time to add up the stake,’ the spirit said as new instructions flowed into his mind.

“Addition and subtraction?” Adrin mumbled before he shrugged.

He followed the spirit guidance on how to add and deduct. It was a bit confusing at first but everything started to make a whole lot of sense after a few exercises.

A broad smile grew on his face as he continued to explore this mathematics the spirit was talking about. He was beginning to add and deduct in the hundreds before something clicked.

Arithmetic ability obtained.

Arithmetic [level 1], +2 Intelligence.

---

Intelligence observed, Total base Intelligence: 3.

Intelligence: 5.

His head was ringing for a moment before everything cleared up.

This [Arithmetic] was simply a small part of mathematics. He had to do more than just add and deduct to get it, and no wonder he was confused for a moment there.

Adrin also didn’t feel any smarter but this thought process was faster, more fluid. He was able to reason better than before.

He was able to look back into his memory and understood the significance of the moments in those memories. Many things which didn’t add up, cleared. He soon realized that his mother had sacrificed a lot for them to live.

She had sacrificed too much for very little.

‘Humans are cruel,’ his spirit cited and Adrin agreed.