"Pio."

"Yes young master Ron!"

Aaron stood in front of the twenty-something man who's sitting on a tree stump and hugging a branch the width of an adult man's arm between his knees and sweating from all the wasted effort to do what he was asked, "First. Stop whatever "that" is and listen to me because I'm trying to make your life much, much easier in the days to come."

The man's eyes shone with delight and he quickly sheathed the hunting Blade on his back and tossed the tree branch to the side before saying : "Yes young master Ron, I'm all ears."

Now that the boy had all his bodyguard's attention he started by saying : "Your first order is to call me by my name, just Ron or little Ron either is fine." Afterwards he pointed towards the stack of branches and continued to say : "Your task is to prepare an Axe tomorrow so that we can chop these branches into manageable size, the plan is to build a tree house not a freaking mansion."

Pio blushed once he got the message that he's been overthinking and overcomplicating things, not to mention that there's no way for them to finish everything in one day.

He simply nodded and waited for Aaron to continue.

"We're also going to need a hammer, quite a bit of nails, a sturdy rope... better yet if it's reinforced with steel wires, the roof needs to be insulated from rain and we can add a layer of dry straw on the wooden roof from the outside and a layer of leather on the inside the keep the heat within, some solution or sap to act as insect repellent if there isn't any then I'll have to smoke the shit out of it with essence or by burning wet wood every now and then.

"Since we're not far from the village then there's no need to locate nearby water sources and gather sufficient food for one or two days as a precaution in case of emergencies but I don't think it'd be bad if I made it a habit to be always prepared so we need food to always be within our reach in the tree house and to locate the water sources.

"Maybe we should also bury the abandoned ancient-well because it might rain until it's filthy water floods the forest, of course it wouldn't be harmful to the trees if it happens but it would be bad for all of us if it somehow reached other water sources and contaminated them too." The boy kept on making plans and the older man felt like he's in the presence of Sen the brightest mind of Pine-Breeze Village and the Chief's youngest son.

"Well. That'd be all for now, you just make sure to prepare these items when we return and add a shovel to the list." Finally Aaron decided that this would be enough before walking towards a clearing within the forest.

"Axe, hammer, nails, rope, roll of leather, shovel, food, locate nearby water sources, bury the ancient-well." Pio kept repeating the items over and over for a while until he made sure that he's memorized everything.

Once the man was about to follow the boy he heard him saying : "No need to follow me, I won't go far. You make sure that nothing disturbs my peace and don't come near until you announce yourself otherwise things might get difficult for you, you've been warned!"

'What does he mean things could get difficult for me?' The young man frowned after hearing this stern warning before taking a seat and watched the boy's vague image from behind a layer of leaves and thickets.

Thankfully the kid didn't make things difficult for his bodyguard and really stopped to do "whatever" in a place where the young man could still see him vaguely but not where he could get any clear details.

'First is protection and I really must be extra careful with the Flame Orb Skill in this environment, I really don't want to burn everything in my first day of freedom and become the famous little arsonist back in the village.' He thought to himself before murmuring faintly : "Mana Armor, Magic Guard."

Immediately he noticed a swirl of Air gather from between the surrounding trees before coating his body in a gentle and snug embrace and his Linen clothes fluttered for two seconds before settling down which didn't surprise Aaron much since a magic skill is supposed to do at least as much! However, the next event made the boy gasp once he saw the tiny winged creature appear in front of him all of a sudden before singing in an operatic and sweet voice that affected the nature around them when the tree branches began to dance despite the absence of air.

Finally that little blue fairy pointed towards Aaron with her small staff and he felt another protective layer cover the skin of his body, it felt like water cool and refreshing.

The blue fairy simply smiled at him once she completed her task before disappearing into thin air! Once he checked to confirm the effects of these two skill the boy discovered that his MP bar is missing 29 points and his M/Def has gained 10% more compared to normal and another change was in effect.

Magical Attack

70

Magical Defense

[Above-average]+12%

Concentration

[Average]+1%

MP Regeneration-Speed

[Average]+3%

Concentration Regeneration-Speed

[Average]+0.5%

"Young master Ron. Did you hear that singing voice just now?" Pio shouted from a far, he was on his feet looking up at the trees.

"I did, and call me Ron." Aaron answered then opened his palm then pointed at the trunk of the biggest tree before murmuring : "Energy Bolt."

*Bang*

He immediately felt another swirl of air on his forearm and it quickly left his body once it reached his hand, travelling at a frightening speed towards its target and breaking the layer of tree bark into smithereens! The boy could also see faint swirling traces of wood shavings on the visible wood beneath it.

Signs of damage actually travelling so deep on the targeted area.

'My aim was slightly off there, I need to perfect my control of this skill.' He took aim once again and activated another Energy Bolt Skill, this time Aaron was focused on feeling the swirl of air from the moment it appeared until it left his hand.

System : Host activated Skill-Proficiency.

The boy was still immersed in the feeling of being attuned with the Skill when that notification from the system awoke him from his daze.

Energy Bolt

Fire condensed Mana that explodes on contact with an enemy.

Energy Bolt Level

1

Mana Points Cost

16

Damage

157% of M/Attk

Max Enemies Hit

4

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Proficiency Points 1/100

'Damn I'm good!' Aaron thought to himself before confirming that the rest of his Active Skills had the same addition, the only difference is the zero instead of 1 on Proficiency Points.

The next minute or so was spent releasing Bolt after Bolt of Energy at the poor tree until his MP bar lacked sufficient juice to operate the Skill, much to his disappointment though was the single Proficiency Point gained despite firing twenty-three Energy Bolts repetitively.

Now he's left with only 11 points on his MP bar and the day is still young!

'Now what?' He thought to himself while feeling bored already, his eyes looking around for anything to grab his interest.

Two seconds later his eyes fell on the MP bar on top of his avatar, the boy noticed the digits increasing by a single point.

'Should I? Damn it, now I'm definitely gonna do it.' Aaron thought to himself while aiming his right hand towards a patch of black mud ten meters or so away from where he stood.

"Flame Orb," He murmured the words while doing his best to contain the mixed feelings of trepidation and anticipation, his heart was racing in his chest long before signs of the Skill being activated happened.

'Fuck!' He almost lost aim with his right hand when he noticed through the corner of his left eye that there's actually another Flame Orb forming between the fingers of his left hand! Since almost half of his attention was directed towards aiming the Flame Orb in the right hand, by the time the boy reacted and raised his left hand towards the same targeted area... it was a bit too late.

*Boom*

*Boom*

First thing he noticed was the speed of this Skill, it was practically a snail if compared to the much faster Skill of Energy Bolt.

Second thing he noticed was the difference both Skills deliver their damage, the damage from the Flame Orb Skill is explosive because it spreads outwards once it reaches its target while the Energy Bolt Skill is concentrated around the targeted area.

Third thing the boy noticed was that his second and completely unexpected Flame Orb Skill which completely missed its target, fell on a pile of leaves and immediately incinerated them into a blaze.

Fourth thing to mention is the terrible sound of explosion like dynamite detonation, of course Pio and probably the people of the village heard it too! But Aaron had other important things to do right now and he quickly ran towards the patch of black and wet mud that his first Flame Orb Skill loosened with its explosion.

"Hot! Damn it, that's really, really hot." Once his hands grabbed the mud he felt his skin getting scalded but he endured and threw the mud at the blaze, he understood that putting out the fire on his own is practically impossible that's why the boy aimed towards the edges of the pile to prevent it from spreading.

"What happened?" Pio finally arrived and asked while feeling confused once he saw the kid hurling mud at the fire.

Aaron almost threw the mud at the man instead of the blaze but he stopped himself at the last second and said : "Let's stop it from spreading first before the whole damn forest turns into hell on earth!" It happened that at this moment he could feel the effect of his Mana Armor Skill dissolving from his clothes, and the boy noticed the increasing damage the heat affecting his hands is becoming lethal for his poor skin.

'The skin on the palm of our hands is thick, I should make a full recovery from first-degree burns in no time without having to worry about burn marks.' He thought while ignoring the pulsating pain from his hands.

Thankfully with the help from this young man things seem like they're coming to a close.

The blaze is no longer spreading but the intensity of the flames is still bursting with energy and vigor, a single lick of its flames would bring a fearful expression into Pio's face whenever it danced mischievously!

"Just what kind of devilish fire is that? I've never seen or heard of flames that burns this hot in my life! My boots were instantly ruined when I tried to put it out by stepping on it earlier." Pio lamented the fate of his shoes and mimicked the boy's actions after his failed attempt.

Seconds later his fingers hit a layer of stone instead of mud and he moved to the patch where Aaron has been relying on to stop the fire from spreading.

"Don't!" Aaron tried to warn Pio but it was too late!

"Ah! My hands are on fire! Whoa! S-save me! I don't want to die..." The scene that followed made the boy feel at a loss whether to laugh or cry, a grown-up in panic as if his own butt was on fire instead of his hands.

'Sigh. This one's head is full of women and wind.' He thought before ignoring Pio's theatrics completely.

Right when Aaron felt the effects of the Magic Guard Skill fading from his skin, the flame was finally out and completely buried underneath a thick layer of red mud instead of black.

'Huff. Finally it's out, that was a very reckless thing to do really! I better be careful with that Flame Orb Skill in the future since its travelling speed is slow which makes it easy to miss the target and much easier to counter by the enemy.' He thought to himself before raising his hands to get a good look at them to assess the damage.

*Grunt*

It made him wince in pain when he carefully removed the pieces of dry mud stuck into his skin, the agonizing process took him about ten minutes to completely remove all traces of foreign object on his body.

Squishy liquid accumulating into bubbles underneath his skin was the least of his troubles, because some of these burns did penetrate deeper into the skin which makes them of the second-degree.

System : Fire Resistance +1%

'Well, thank you dear system!' Aaron almost cursed when he saw the reward after getting to endure this terrible pain for so long, 'Maybe next time I'd burn myself to death to get 2% increase to that resistance, that's bullshit I say.' Afterwards he turned to look at the young man who's been crouching next to a tree and blowing air at his scalded hands ever since he got burned!

The boy rolled his eyes before saying : "You need to cool your hands in some ice." He felt sorry for the man but still felt angry at him for being such a wuss who lacks a spine.

Pio gave him an aggrieved and pitiful look then replied : "We don't have any in the village."

Aaron opened his hands towards the sky and said : "Then use water!" Meanwhile he thought to himself : 'With that brain of yours then I can guarantee that you're fucked for life my friend.'

The man was about to head back to where he left his belongings to retrieve his canteen, then his eyes fell on the boy's hands and he gawked once he saw the blistering skin and the patches where skin has already fell and revealed another layer of skin that's burned red and oozing transparent liquid.

"Y-your hands!" Pio almost fainted when the image of a certain woman appeared within his thoughts.

The boy understood the reason why this young man is about to piss himself from fear, "Just do something good in your life and go bring me the bloody water instead of just standing there like a damn idiot." Afterwards he sat down and inspected his avatar.

'No wonder I felt like death was staring me in the face back then.' He thought to himself once his eyes fell on the HP bar to find 23 points remaining of the original 179! 'Taking into account the zero MP bar despite not using any Skills for more than ten minutes, then I probably would've died if it weren't for the Magic Guard Skill diverting some of the original damage to my MP bar instead of the HP bar. I'm certain that the reason behind my M/Def changing from Average to Above-average is because of it too, I wonder if these burns are still devouring my MP because this is the Splash Damage effect of the Flame Orb Skill.'

Aaron frowned once he noticed that his HP bar just lost another point! He shouted towards his bodyguard and said : "Don't forget to bring some food."

"Okay." The answer was followed by the man going back to the location of their belongings and he struggled to bring everything without using his hands since they're still hurting him.

Pio felt ashamed of himself once he remembered the boy's straight face when he talked to him despite being in a state that's much worse than his own, 'Get a grip of yourself Pio! You're the adult in this situation.'

Once the young man arrived next to Aaron he was surprised when the kid snatched a piece of salted meat jerky and began to chew while staring at thin air and frowning in worry.

Finally the boy sighed once he swallowed the minced meat and used his teeth to open the canteen then took a long drink.

"Do you have anything we can use to boil water?" Aaron looked towards Pio and asked while helping the man ease the pain on his hands by sprinkling some water from the canteen on them.

"Oh! That's nice, really nice. I guess I never have ever liked water as much as I do right now." The young man had an extremely perverted expression on his face which disgusted the boy a lot and he almost kicked him in the nuts.

Aaron repeated : "Do you?"

Pio finally awoke from his daze and nodded while saying : "I do, I do." After rummaging through his belongings for a few seconds he retrieved a metal bowl the size of two fists and showed it to the boy.

"It'd do for now," Aaron snatched another piece of meat from the leather pouch and tossed it into his mouth, "Now wash it from dirt then fill it with water and leave it on top of that red mud, be careful because that mud is still very hot." Afterwards he checked his HP bar to confirm that it's not decreasing.

Aaron's HP was 17 when he ate the first piece of salted meat jerky and it helped him gain an increase of 5 HP, the water gave him 2 HP and 3 MP which was an unexpected surprise really.

Not to mention that his MP kept increasing by 1 every second and only stopped 15 seconds afterwards.

The boy immediately stood up and walked towards the biggest tree which was his first target.

"Young master Ron. Where are you going?" Pio panicked when he saw the kid walk away.

"To take a piss behind this tree, and stop calling me that." Aaron didn't even look back and his voice trailed behind him once he disappeared from the man's view.

Soon afterwards the young man almost pissed his pants when the operatic singing rang within this region of the Dark-Forest once again.

Aaron appeared a second later and he had a wide smile on his face when he looked at his hands, the pain he received is much less compared to a few seconds earlier and his M/Def jumped from the Average-rank to the Above-average-ranking like he expected.

His HP bar stopped decreasing and every five seconds he lost a point of MP and 4 HP at the same time! But he was glad since this window of delay would give him a chance to properly chew and eat the salted meat jerky to counteract his losses.

Unfortunately it didn't help if he drank water during the following minute, clearly there's some sort of cool down to the effects gained from water.

The same happened when he attempted to swallow meat after cutting it to smaller pieces, he gained nothing at all.

"It's boiling." Pio said.

"Good. Take it off, we need a piece of clean cloth do you have any?" Aaron said while looking around for any herb that he might recognize, unfortunately he didn't see or hear any bees in the area.

Their hive is certain to contain Propolis which could be used to prevent a lot of unnecessary issues with these annoying burns.

The young man went back to rummage through his belongings once he was done struggling with the task of removing the metal bowl from solid surface of the red-hot and steaming mud, this time he was innovative and used his shoes to hold the bowl after building a bridge with stones to safely walk barefooted on this mud covered area.

While feeling proud of himself Pio announced : "Got it!" And raised a small piece of white cotton that resembles a pocket handkerchief, his smug expression was really annoying the boy a bit too much.

Aaron pointed towards the hunting Blade on the man's back and said : "Leave the cotton handkerchief to soak in the hot water and heat the edge of your Blade until it's hot enough to kill all the germs and bacteria."

The answer he received was the young man raising the piece of cotton in the air with a confused expression on his face before saying : "Handkerchief!" Then he followed up by asking : "What's germs and bacteria? How do I kill them with my Blade?"