Level

The day went by, Alexander was at home with his family enjoying a warm and delicious meal. Everyone was gathered and seated cross-legged on the wooden floor with a small table holding a huge iron pot. A mixture of noodles with meat and other vegetables, Japanese soba. After a few weeks of eating with chopsticks, he had managed to learn how to eat without attracting attention, but still, someone was looking at him. The elven boy who didn't seem to be ten years old, was the only one in the family who inherited his mother's brown hair, he stared at Alexander without stopping, the younger brother of the previous owner of his body, Uchida.

"Can I know why you're staring at me so much, Uchida?" he asked with a certainly friendly and curious tone, which made the boy look away immediately.

"I saw you fighting against the demons," he said shyly, slowly looking back at Alexander.

"Saw it, did you? I think it was quite a balanced fight, one moment the ogre was hitting and the next I was getting beaten," he said laughing, everyone there looked at him.

"What are you talking about, son, you killed the demons, all of them, and saved your father's life. You were amazing," his mother said, truly proud in her voice.

"You grabbed the hoe and hit him with all your strength in the neck!" said Uchida excitedly. "It was so cool!"

"It was very dangerous, I'm honestly very happy to be eating this food, I thought the last thing I was going to eat in my life would be those little fruits I picked in the forest," he said calmly while eating some soba, not realizing that everyone had fallen silent, an uncomfortable atmosphere. "That... was a joke."

"You almost gave me a heart attack, Shura, but you did something incredible today, son," his father Seki said, a truly grateful look on a face as imposing as he was not something he was used to. "You saved my life and killed the demons, not only that, but you awakened your aura and killed the ogre demon alone, that was truly amazing. Unfortunately, Mr. Sento and Mr. Kamei were not so lucky, but we can't go on lamenting. So I want you to eat this delicious food that your mother made, to honor those who left us today, and to honor those who couldn't sit down and eat with their families."

It was a beautiful and emotional speech in a way, so they started savoring the food once again, in silence. An hour passed and they went to sleep, except for Alexander, he went outside the house, not to the forest, just a few meters from the house.

"All right, time to see this," he said looking at the message box in the system.

[The player has 105 (one hundred and five) Attribute Points available.] [Do you want to distribute the Attribute Points?]

"Let me see, show me my Combat Status."

[STATUS: COMBAT] [Name: Shura] - [Class: Paladin Warrior] [Level: 8] - [Aura Color: Red] - [Subclass: Herald of the Holy War] [Vitality: 1] - [Resistance: 1] [Strength: 16] - [Agility: 1] [Intelligence: 1] - [Perception: 1] [Available Attribute Points: 105]

"Hm, I have sixteen points of strength but didn't feel any difference, does it change anything?" he questioned when another message window appeared overlaying his combat status.

[Would the player like a comparison to better understand his Status points?]

"Yes, I would," he replied.

[The player has 16 points in strength status, with his physical strength, the player could lift and throw a car with little effort.]

"Wait, I have the strength to throw a car?" Alexander said impressed, he looked at his own hands for a moment. "Let's test this."

He walked into the forest, a little far to avoid drawing attention, and after a few good minutes of walking, he stopped. Taking a deep breath and looking around to make sure Inoue hadn't followed him this time. He began to stretch, cracking his knuckles and stretching his arms, Alexander went to a nearby tree.

"If I have the strength to throw a car effortlessly, then with just one punch I could..." He assumed an attacking position, taking a deep breath one last time, then attacked, using all his strength.

A monstrous blow that effortlessly split the tree in half, sending the other half flying away, making a sound almost identical to a small explosion. Alexander stood still for a few seconds, perplexed, looking at his fist trying to understand what he had just done.

"This strength is frightening, but it didn't seem to affect the demon ogre much. Well, he also had a red aura, and even before awakening mine, I managed to hurt him, but it didn't work out so well because he still beat me up... System, how does the aura ability work again?"

[Active ability "Combat Aura": when summoning your Aura, the player will gain an automatic increase in all combat attributes, the increase ends when the aura is dispelled.]

"When other people activate their combat aura, do they also become more powerful, I mean, do they experience an increase in combat attributes?" he asked.

[The effects of the active ability "Combat Aura" apply to all NPCs and MOBs that possess such ability.]

"So the rule is the same in the end. Okay, time to distribute the Attribute Points, let me see..." He spent a few minutes distributing and organizing his status points, trying to organize them as efficiently as possible. "I think this is good for now."

[Name: Shura] - [Class: Paladin Warrior] [Level: 8] - [Aura Color: Red] - [Subclass: Herald of the Holy War] [Vitality: 21] - [Resistance: 21] [Strength: 21] - [Agility: 21] [Intelligence: 21] - [Perception: 21] [Available Attribute Points: 0]

"It's good to balance the points for now, but it seems like I won't be using much intelligence or perception for a while," he said when he focused on something else, a distant sound approaching, leaves rustling a little far. "Looks like I was wrong."

He turned to the direction from where he heard the distant sounds, even though it was dark due to the absence of one of the moons in the sky, he could see very well. The lantern's glow slowly approached, it was Inoue.

"Again sneaking out in the dead of night, Shura, why do you do this?" she asked after approaching him. Alexander went to her with a smile.

"I like to be alone to think, what are you doing here?" he asked.

"I came to see you, I was very worried today."

"Because of the demons? I figured."

"You almost died many times today, but you also did something incredible, two incredible things because you even managed to awaken your aura. You did something that usually takes months in just four days."

"I think you shouldn't be so impressed, it was an accident or rather an exception. I was very scared and it was a moment of great stress," he replied looking into her eyes.

"Even though it was an exception, I can't ignore that it was something incredible, even suffering so much you managed to kill the demon ogre alone," she said seeing the smile on Alexander's face diminish but not fade away. "I wanted to cry every time he hit you with that huge club, I thought you were going to die," she said, her expression turning sad. "But in the end, everything worked out and I'm here," said Alexander, placing his hand gently on Inoue's head. "I've already awakened my aura, will you teach me how to cultivate it now?" Inoue's sad look dissolved into an irritated one. "Are you serious?" "What?"

After a few minutes of discussion, she finally agreed to help the boy. Just like earlier today, they both sat cross-legged facing each other. Arms relaxed, hands together near the abdomen. "As I said, get into a relaxed position but one that also allows you to focus. Then slowly our bodies breathe, drawing in the energies from the sky and the earth into our second heart where the energy mixes with our own, making us stronger," she said with a somewhat robotic voice, without varying the tone once. The leaves around them swayed as if a true breeze emanated, and then the flames appeared, covering Inoue's entire body with their blood-red color but without heat. Inoue had her eyes closed, she didn't see that Alexander was already mimicking every step of what she had done, and just like her, a red aura covered his body with flames of blood-red color. However, the flames swirling around him were visibly more agitated and frenetic than those of Inoue. The sensation, strange yet familiar, was like breathing differently, like using a muscle over and over again without getting tired. Slowly Alexander opened his eyes to maintain concentration, a smile of satisfaction filled his face when he saw a message from the system. [The player is channeling.]

The night passed, and the day dawned frantically, all families were called to the village center by the vice-mayor, it seemed important. In the central square of the village, everyone was gathered, including Alexander and his family, all looking at some men on horseback. Five of them, three wearing red samurai armor but didn't seem so powerful, maybe they were just soldiers, swords could be seen sheathed at their waist. Two wore very fancy and colorful clothes, and in front of them was the old vice-mayor of the city.

"All the villagers are here as requested, sir," said the vice-mayor with an incredibly polite tone.

"Very well," said one of the men on horseback, this one had an immense light blue silk kimono with orange parts, you could see the drawing of a crane on his arm. He took a scroll from inside his clothes. "My name is Sano Norikiyo, I am a messenger from the court of our Emperor Akamatsu Shindo, I bring a decree for the villagers of this village and all other villages nearby. All adult men who can carry a spear must be taken immediately to the city of Urazaki to begin their training as soldiers of our emperor." He announced forcefully, which made all the villagers there confused and even worried, voices conversed and argued incessantly, which only made the situation more worrying. One of the villagers raised his hand. "Why are we going to train?" The soldiers mounted on horses laughed, Sano, the man who made the declaration, approached with his horse. 

"Why? For war of course."