Name: Adrin || Age:17 || Villager [level 0]

Life: 20/20 || Stamina: 30/30 || Mana: 5/?

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Strength: 4 || Intelligence: 5 || Agility: 2

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Willpower: 14

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Bodybuilding [1], Arithmetic [1], Melee weapons [1], Spearfishing [1],

Mana Sense [1]

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Hack [1], Throw [1]

Adrin and his spirit were trying to make sense of the list as he grabbed his fishing spear and headed towards the door. Their main concern was the unknown total of mana displayed by the list. The mana bar was already displayed below life and stamina, but it had no total.

He was mulling over the reason as he was opening the door. A gasp pulled his attention away and he found Emi was standing outside his door. It might sound ridiculous, but it looked like she was waiting for him for quite some time.

Was she debating whether to knock or not?

“Going fishing?” she asked after breathing in relief.

“Yes,” he said before he walked past her.

His stomach was rumbling and it was best for him not to be seen with her. After activating some brain cells, he could tell that many other young men were aiming for the girl. It could be bad for him to be seen as a competitor. Yes, they had shared something more than childhood friends should but they always acted like strangers in public.

“Can I come with you?” the girl asked and he froze on his feet.

Adrin wanted to say no, but she was his childhood friend. She wasn’t the only friend he had, and she was also the only one who had stayed as a friend ever since mother passed away. Unlike others, Emi didn’t care when rumors labeled him as a cursed child. She was way smarter than the rest of the brats.

The spirit in him scoffed. It wasn’t the curse’s fault that his mother died. It was the men who were cursed.

The hunter’s favor might be a logical reward to those who risked their lives, but they could do better than that. Meat might be scarce but what was wrong with cooking for the whole village to share and eat together. Those men couldn’t have grown up to be disciplined hunters without the whole village sharing the burden of raising children.

As the wise had said, it took a village to raise good children.

But alas, it wasn’t he who made the rules.

“Yes, sure,” he said with a faint smile.

He would abuse the same hunter’s favor if it was just to show how wrong things were. No one could complain when he hadn’t broken any rules.

Adrin continued to walk before he felt her hand grabbing his arm. Emi let out a quiet gasp as she felt the change in his arms. What once was a featureless youth’s arm, now she was holding onto slender but a pack of dense muscles. The girl must have lost it when she used both of her hands to grab on and squeeze a feel on his arm.

He looked at her with the corner of his eyes, and as the spirit had predicted, Emi's face was red like she was having a fever. It made him believe that no one had ever progressed as fast as he was because Emi should have been approached by many other young men.

She should have seen it before. The other young men should have at least tried to woo her by showing off.

He didn’t call out or reacted in any way as the spirit had advised, and let the girl continue to drift deeper in her daydream. To be honest, Adrin didn’t know how to react to her odd reaction other than yanking his arm away. He had to fight that feeling down all the way to his spearfishing spot.

Emi's head bumped his arm when he stopped. She didn’t even realize they had already arrived, and let his arm go in surprise as their eyes met. Her face was beet red. It was odd to see her like this as a part of him missed the old days.

Adrin climbed onto the boulder before he readied the spear above his shoulder. He focused on his skill [Spearfishing] and again, he could see it. The path the fish would take was shown to him in the form of curving lines in front of the fish.

He made sure to aim the line instead of the fish before he activated [Throw]. It felt like he briefly touched the word in his skill list before his body moved according to his training.

It didn’t feel like he had suddenly lost control over his body, but it was more like he was guided by invisible hands to make the right move at the right time. It felt awesome.

The spear disappeared from his hand and plunged into the water.

The raging water sprayed up for a moment from explosive entry before a yelp escaped the girl’s mouth. He caught the end of the rope in time and let the fish swim around for a moment.

Adrin pulled it up to shore when it stopped struggling. He had caught yet another huge fish for today’s dinner, but would it be enough?

Emi had both her hands over her mouth as he got down from the boulder. She had seen how he spearfished and she should be as surprised as he was when he first did it.

Nobody in the village should have ever been able to catch fish in this way as he had never seen anyone had done it before him. His lone spirit was something else.

He caught one more of the giant fish before he called it a day. Emi helped him to gut the fishes and he threw the guts into the water while thanking the river's spirit. The girl followed him as he carried both the fishes home balanced on his spear.

This time Marla was waiting for him with a large bowl of soup in her hands. The widow almost let the bowl spill when she saw what he was carrying in between his spear.

Thanks to the spirit, there was enough fish meat to go around between them. It was a little awkward and cramped inside the shack, but he was able to have a satisfactory dinner between the two. They even had a lot of leftovers after filling themselves up.

Marla left his shack with leftover fish in her hand and a kiss to his cheek. Emi was watching when it happened and the girls exchanged a brief look at each other.

Adrin didn’t care what they had in mind as his main focus was on his own progression. The spirit agreed with him, there was no future to be stuck in this village. Losing end or not, he was glad that he had made that bargain with Emi's father, the village’s chief.

“Do you like that woman?” Emi suddenly asked. She used ‘that woman’ instead of ‘her’.

“I don’t know, but Marla has been kind to me,” Adrin answered. “She let me and my mother sleep in her warmer house for two winters, remember?”

“But I could have done that if my father wasn’t against it,” she protested.

“Yes, I know you would have, Emi,” he sighed. “Do you have anything against her?”

“No, Marla is nice to everyone, I just want you to realize that,” she replied.

As an idiot he was, Adrin couldn’t see why she was telling him that. If Marla wanted him to help her in any way, he would be glad to be of help.

“But why did you tell her about our dinner last night?”

“I have to talk to someone,” she pouted. “But everyone said she had been with every man in the village.”

“I don’t care what everyone said, just those who cared about me.”

“But what if she, you know what.”

“Then I’ll be glad to help her as long as I can,” he said plainly.

“But what about me and you,” she said almost shyly.

Emi was acting weird again. Did she even know?

“Do you know why your father agreed to sponsor me with the healing potion? He agreed because he doesn't want me to be around you anymore. He agreed because I promised to volunteer on the next selection.”

“But he said-” the girl gasped and closed her mouth with her hands.

“No, it can’t be,” she mumbled.

“He probably didn’t want you to know,” he said as his spirit helped to deduct. “And I think we should keep it that way, for my sake.”

“But-”

“If you really care about me, please don’t ask your father about it, Emi,” he said while placing his hand at the wall behind her.

Adrin had to do as his spirit suggested because he didn’t want his plan jeopardized. It might have worked when the girl's face turned all red as their face got closer together. She tried to look away as the spirit had told him and he caught her chin to make a point.

“Okay, I won’t, I promise,” she gave in to the pressure.

But it didn’t feel like she could hold to her own words.

“If you don’t say anything, then I’ll teach you how to use this,” he showed the blue-stone and placed it in her hands. “your future will be in your own hands.”

Emi’s eyes opened wide until it looked like they would pop out her eyes. Only then he was sure that she would take his side rather than her own father. The stone would also be the constant reminder of what was at stake.

She left the shack that night after sneaking a quick kiss on his cheek. He had long decided to share the secret of mana with her because of their friendship. He just needed a believable excuse so she wouldn’t be too grateful to him.

Like his spirit, he didn’t want to live tied to anyone or any place.