Aaron followed Roger until they reached a room with a huge window overlooking a small but well-organized garden on the background.

Peter was sitting behind his desk with his eyes glued to a piece of leather, his son Sen was standing three steps behind the Chief and frowning slightly while in his deep thoughts.

Sitting in front of these two is a fat old man with a healthy smile on his face as he waited patiently he would sip from the cup in his hand.

That fat old man was the first to notice Roger and Aaron when they arrived and his eyes practically glowed when they fell on Aaron, "This must be Ron, I've heard a lot about you lately." He nodded repeatedly while grooming his medium-sized beard.

Aaron raised an eyebrow when this complete stranger talked to him as if they're close, "Hopefully it's good things, otherwise it'd be an awful embarrassment for this junior." He shrugged before deciding to give a polite reply.

"Hahaha. Good things, good things indeed." The fat man answered before once again sipping from his cup, the silence that followed was a clear sign that this brief conversation is over between the two of them.

Peter found it unexpected when Arturo initiated a conversation with Ron but he decided not to ask, "Little Ron. There must be a reason for you to visit us this early in the morning."

"He's here to talk about old man Sid's request," Roger answered before Aaron could say anything, "Ron is willing to help gather some ingredients for the old man but his contribution wouldn't amount to much with only two men helping him."

"So," Peter took a moment to think it through before continuing to say : "Are you here to ask for some of my men?"

Aaron just rolled his eyes when he heard what Peter said, "I'm here to warn you about the severe consequences of not having enough medicinal supplies," After saying these words he gave the village Chief a few seconds to think before continuing to say : "Since grandpa Sid is someone I consider worthy of befriending, I'm willing to help him whenever I can but that doesn't mean that I'm going to forgo all of my personal plans for something that I'm not even the best candidate to do."

Sen shook his head once this kid firmly refused to step into the trap that his father planned for Ron, "We were just discussing this matter with merchant Arturo here," Sen said while gesturing towards the fat old man before continuing to say : "He's offering to supply our village with a portion of the important medicine in exchange for some ingredients."

"Oh! So you're the one who sold Pio the rope yesterday, I'm not complaining about its quality but the man kept complaining about the price though." Aaron said before looking at Sen and continued to say : "I believe that having sir Arturo's assistance and the mediocre help of me and my two men plus the ingredients gathered by the hunting teams should be sufficient to keep the ship afloat for a while."

Sen and Arturo nodded in agreement but Peter remained silent for a while before saying : "I'll make contact with Sid later to assess the situation of his inventory before deciding on what ingredients takes priority in gathering or acquiring, you can do whatever you want with your men and help Sid whenever you can in the meantime."

"Since I'm living in the village then it's only natural for me to contribute to the society, now that I've delivered the message I believe it's time for me to take my leave. Good day to you gentlemen." Aaron immediately turned around to leave once he finished saying his piece.

Sen was struck by a flood of thoughts when he heard Aaron's first sentence and fully comprehended its meaning when the kid left.

Peter sighed inwardly while feeling slightly disappointed after his attempt to pull the kid into his side failed, this village Chief is almost certain that this Ron boy is going to become a valuable follower for both of his sons in the future and whoever manages to get his help is destined to become the next village Chief.

Arturo kept his thoughts and emotions completely under control but a glint of interest fleeted through his squinted eyes.

Roger just shrugged when Aaron gestured for him to stay because he can leave on his own, honestly he found the boy's lack of respect towards his seniors admirable since courage is required to carry himself around people at such a young age!

"I believe that we can agree on most of your requirements so far on this deal but that final condition of yours is bushing it a bit too far." Peter looked towards Arturo.

Sen nodded to agree, Roger just watched in silence because he doesn't know or even care about the terms of this deal.

Arturo smiled genially before putting the cup back on the table and saying : "I understand that getting my hand on "that" fruit is a bit much, but I'm advancing on age and not getting any younger. It'd stand to benefit both sides if my products reach such a secluded and recluse area deep in the west of the continent, not to mention how dangerous it is for me to make the journey every two months."

This time both Peter and Sen couldn't refute his reasons and the travelling merchant smiled since his argument won him another profitable deal.

Meanwhile Aaron exited the house of village Chief Peter and found Pio and Lucas waiting for him outside, Lucas was clearly not welcome here since the woman called Manji and the guards seemed to hate his presence.

Of course the former gang-leader had thick skin and ignored their glares while hugging a wooden box under his arm.

Pio on the other hand was embarrassed after he received the admonishment from Lucas under the orders from his young master Ron after Pio forgot to buy the kid a proper pair of shoes, of course this bodyguard immediately bought a few pairs for his young master afterwards and the quality is the best he could find in the village.

"Did you pay grandpa Sid?" Aaron asked Lucas.

"I did young master, I also asked Mr Smith for a meeting and he's welcoming you to visit tomorrow since he's busy with an order requested by the travelling merchant Arturo." Lucas offered the wooden box while answering.

"Keep it with you for now," Aaron said before looking towards Pio who seemed nervous, "Relax, at least you bought me a few this time and I can choose what I like to wear from them." He smirked before continuing to say : "Next time you forget something so important I'm going to demote you and leave you taking orders from Lucas, I'm sure he's going to enjoy making life difficult for you very much."

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Pio shuddered once he saw the glint within Lucas's eyes, he just wanted to punch this power-hungry idiot in the face!

"Let's go ask grandpa Sid about the ingredients he wants us to gather and give him the good news of having his request dealt with." Aaron smiled when he saw Pio worried and led his two followers towards Sid's shop.

As expected the old man was happy when he knew that his troubles are soon to be over, then he thanked Aaron and asked him to have his men gather as much as possible of the Sap collected from the Carnivorous Vines.

Once they gather enough they can turn their attention to finding and gathering Black Eyes, Gold Carrots, and Rejuvenating Spinach.

Of course old man Sid kept warning Aaron to be extremely careful of Iron-Teeth Rabbits when they're collecting Gold Carrots, better yet if they don't include Aaron in their gathering missions of both the Sap and the Carrots since both times the men are required to directly kill or guard against monsters.

Aaron agreed that it's a bit too soon for him to join on the action, and accepted the invitation from Sid to come join him once he returns from the forest later today to learn the ways of the hunter and gatherer.

Before his departure he received a quick check up on the burning wounds on his hands from old man Sid and the surprise was evident on his face when he noticed how the wounds were almost completely healed after a single day!

'Hehe. Looks like the five points on vitality aren't a complete waste after all.' He thought while leaving the shop.

"Pio. How long is it going to take Sophia to finish my robe?" Aaron asked.

"She said that it's going to take her a while to figure out the proper method to thread its silk, at least one week according to her estimations." Pio answered while following after his young master, he took pleasure in the frown that appeared on Lucas's face when he heard them talk about his treasure.

But Pio was disappointed when Lucas's expression quickly returned to normal and he thought to himself : 'Young master Ron really whipped you good huh!'

"Give me that." Once they exited the village Aaron gestured for Lucas to give him the wooden box.

The man was clearly struggling to walk normally while holding it under his armpit and kept alternating between hands every now and then because it's clearly heavy.

"How much is in there?" Aaron asked before opening the lid.

Pio gawked when the sunlight got reflected on the Gold Coins inside this wooden box.

Lucas seemed to enjoy the shock on the face of Pio and he replied : "Two thousand. Give or take a dozen or so."

"Fuck off! Did you steal a bank or something?" Aaron quickly shut the lid and sealed the box closed by pulling on the locking mechanism before storing it within his Inventory Space.

"Bank? What's that?" Pio asked seemingly intrigued.

"Young master Ron. The "thing" we talked about before is hidden at the bottom of the wooden box itself, you just need to press the dark spot downwards then towards the right where the white spot is located on the side of the box." Lucas said.

'Hopefully I wouldn't be disappointed.' Aaron thought to himself while hiding his excitement from the man and just nodded.

Once they reached the site where the branches was gathered, Aaron retrieved the Axe, Hammer, and Nails from his Inventory Space before ordering them to cut the branches first before doing anything else.

Then he moved further away from the two men where he could use his skills without causing any collateral damage.

'Now that I think about it, the events happened too fast yesterday and I didn't really get a chance to analyze the offensive skill that I used the most!' He thought while looking at the information of the Energy Bolt Skill.

"In here it's clearly described as an area-of-effect Skill, yet whenever I used it on the tree as a target or Lucas and his men... this Energy Bolt seemed like a single-target Skill. It's either that my mana wasn't condensed enough which results in the absence of said explosion, or I'm doing it all wrong." Aaron muttered to himself before targeting the same tree from yesterday with his open palm.

*Boom*

*Creak*

*Crash*

"Young master Ron! W-what happened?" Pio immediately ran towards Aaron with the Hammer and Nails still in his hands once the biggest tree in the area came crashing to the ground all of a sudden.

Lucas right behind him with the Axe in his hand and his Sword in the other, he kept looking around in his battle-ready stance obviously searching for the beast who must've toppled this tree.

Aaron on the other hand was staring down at his own hand while thinking : 'Fuck! This Skill really does explode. Thankfully it didn't happen yesterday otherwise that Rodd guy would've been toast when I hit Lucas the first time.' Afterwards he looked towards the two men and made calming gesture with his hands while saying : "Now you wouldn't have to worry about gathering branches when you need wood, cut the branches in neat pile before you clean the bark from this pole."

He just left the two men gawking at the sight of the fallen tree and walked away while thinking to himself : 'Is it because my fire-power increased after I received the boost from the Title? That's probably it I guess, but does that mean that this is it for this Skill or... is there more left for me to discover! This is really exciting.'

This time Aaron decided to switch targets from trees to the sweet earth of the forest ground.

"Hmm..." He raised an eyebrow when he noticed the red colored dome of brick-like stone in the location where he kept tossing burning hot mud until his hands were injured yesterday! Surprisingly it was still warm and it felt solid enough beneath his feet which satisfied his needs.

*Boom*

A red cloud of dust followed the stifled sound of explosion and Aaron waited for it to scatter before walking towards it to assess the damage on the hard surface.

"Not bad. Now it shouldn't be difficult for me to use some of that mud when I'm building the house since it's solid enough to withstand this blast, but I probably would need test it against different sorts of conditions and compare it with other types of materials. Now that I've tested it against fire yesterday and wind earlier on, I guess it's time to test how it fares against rain." Aaron immediately sprinkled the small dome with some of his piss since he needed to go anyway.

He noticed how his actions started to show traces of cracks on the dome and parts began to peel off from the surface.

*Crunch*

When Aaron used a branch to press on the cracked parts of the dome he found it disappointing when the dome began to cave inwards until it was crushed to ground level soon afterwards, all that was left was a layer of fine sand that's both colored red and deeply moisturized.

"Looking at the bright side of things, at least I got to see something interesting and I gained a Proficiency Point from it. Now I need another target, or maybe I should target the ground and dig some holes for fun while I'm at it." He said before going towards a nearby tree to climb its lowest branch and take a seat.

While Lucas and Pio chopped at the fallen tree to strip its branches, they kept hearing the sound of explosions from nearby and felt the ground vibrating beneath their feet, whenever they looked towards the source they would see Aaron sitting on a branch two meters high and resting his back against the tree.

Sometimes he would be resting with his eyes closed or pointing his hand towards the ground and making more explosions while cursing whenever something scattered towards his direction from the forest floor.

By the time it was late in the afternoon Pio and Lucas were completely exhausted after working for hours and only getting a few breaks to rest, eat, or drink in between chopping branches or removing the bark from the pole.

Aaron had enough training for the day after gaining 15 Proficiency Points on top of the 4 he already had from yesterday, he decided that it's about time they go back to the village.

"That's it for today, good job guys." He said once he climbed down from the branch and walked towards their belongings then started storing everything into the Inventory Space.

While doing so a small branch caught his eye and Aaron immediately picked it up from the ground and began to remove the leaves until a wooden stick that perfectly fit his hand was all that remained.

Maybe it was because he's been spending all his day launching one Energy Bolt Skill after another, he just did it again once the tip of the wooden stick in his hand was pointed towards the pile of branches that Pio and Lucas had gathered to the side.

But this time it was different because Aaron immediately noticed how it felt when the mana left his hand and began to gather in a swirling mass at the tip of that wooden stick for a second before travelling at a much higher speed towards its target.

*Boom*

"Whoa! Watch out..." Pio was shocked then frightened out of his wits when he saw parts and pieces of wood falling towards them.

But he almost cursed out loud when he noticed that both Aaron and Lucas were already hiding behind nearby trees and watching from safety.