บท 10: Side Chapter: The Peaceful Evergreen Village and the Hardworking Boy

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The Evergreen Cultivation Village was located on the outskirts of the medium-sized Merchant Kingdom of Aquaria. A Kingdom that flourished due to being established near the Waveless Sea, a giant-sized lake that covered a large chunk of the south of the Central Continent of Anir's Hands.

The Waveless Sea was often used as a safe transportation route for goods imported from the several small to medium-sized Kingdoms that established themselves around it.

The Evergreen Cultivation Village was nothing but one in the dozens of villages that existed around Aquaria. This village in specifically was the farthest away, almost touching the dangerous Devil Forest, which was a 'danger zone' filled with large amounts of Mana flowing everywhere.

Naturally, large amounts of Mana generated constant mutations in the flora and fauna, making the living creatures in their mutate into Monsters of all kinds, shapes, and sizes.

To make things even more dangerous, due to the large amounts of Mana, Dungeons had spawned inside the Devil Forest since the Aquaria Kingdom leaders have memory. After countless centuries, the number of dungeons counted by them had raised to the dozens, each one generating even larger quantities of monsters that voraciously seek the destruction of any other life.

Most monster races are said to seek 'destruction' due to having inherited that trait from Kelsus, the Great Dark God corpse. Naturally, killing intelligent races such as Humans is deeply engraved in their instincts.

The Devil Forest has been controlled by the Explorers Guild of the Aquaria Kingdom, but in recent years, the Explorers had all of their hands busy dealing with the constant extermination quest towards Demon and Beastmen Tribes that had begun to move around the Kingdom due to its better weather conditions and vast, secure plains.

The villagers had been aware of the extermination requests and that the Devil Forest is slowly spreading its way due to the irresponsibility of the Explorers Guild.

But why would the leaders of the Aquaria Kingdom even care about a poor village that barely produces enough vegetables to feed its inhabitants?

Even more, the sole existence is nothing more than a diversion for the monsters, if there were to ever be a 'Monster Rampage', the Evergreen village and its neighboring villages would be the first ones to be destroyed.

Their destruction would delay the monster rampage and the Kingdom would be able to tell the number of monsters based on the amount of time that they take, allowing them to take the proper decisions.

Ervas, Veronica's split soul reincarnation, was unaware of this truth and was currently investigating more about the 'new' world where he was born.

"This place is really Kritias, based on the book that my father had bought me just recently… this should be Kritias a few thousands of years before my second life. To think that I would be reincarnated in a parallel world of my second life, this is ridiculous… or maybe I traveled to the past? That's… even crazier than parallel worlds, I don't think there is any spell capable of doing that. Not even the God of Time in Kritias was capable of such a thing" thought Ervas, grimacing the situation in where he found himself into.

He wondered if the same gods than his second life inhabited this world as well… and if their schemes and wars would once again bring destruction to the intelligent races.

"No… this isn't half bad. If I am really in a parallel world which is located a few thousand years ago… then I should be able to save my people, my ancestors and the Demons from their inevitable demise."

Ervas was quick to decide, after a few assumptions, he had already obtained a new purpose in his third life.

Although just like Veronica, he desired a relaxing and carefree third life.

"But to reach that, I have to do a lot of things first. I cannot just sit here and relax. The world is constantly moving, and it won't wait for me to get stronger leisurely" he thought. Even if he was a toddler his two years of age, he had already given himself a lot of tasks to complete and things to accomplish.

He was motivated if he could save the Demons and all of the lives that sacrificed themselves for him on his second life… even considering that this was a parallel world where such lives weren't really the original ones… Ervas wanted to grasp this hope.

"My beloved people… the ones I went through so many hardships to understand and teach… I was such an awful leader, and your death still weighs heavy within my heart. I will make sure to save you and to not let those who think that they are superior to us trample over us as if we were mere ants" Ervas thought, griping his small and weak fist.

Even though it was a child on its two years of age, the fist was oddly strong. This was because Ervas was no mere human, but a half-demon, with a naturally greater physique and muscular strength, even a toddler had enough strength to break sticks with ease and even grab and throw rocks with decent strength.

"This body is certainly better than in my second life. Half-demons were said to be stronger than Humans or even Demons. Inheriting both race's talents, my growth should be better than before… but I am too young to even think about starting to do sit-ups and squats. Sigh" thought Ervas, as he looked over his two, tiny pale-white hands.

"Is it time to resume my Magic Training then? What I hate about this third life is how I still got the short end of the stick and I did not get an Attribute Affinity. Spirit Magic and No-Attribute Magic are once again my only tools... if I am even capable of learning the first until I learn Summoning Magic" Thought Ervas as his hand's released small flows of formless energy that moved like tiny rivers around his body, Mana.

He was born with no attribute affinity, meaning that no element was fond of him, he only had the most basic of Mana, a blue-colored one. Being the basic color of it.

However, even mana with no affinity could be used to cast magic, 'No-Attribute Magic', a set of spells that could only be considered mediocre compared to other attributes of magic. It was commonly used for mages as a starting point in learning magi, only leaving the skill at level 1 or 2, barely developing it as much as Veronica did in her second life.

But to Ervas, it was the greatest tool in his second life. No-Attribute Magic was capable of giving the user the ability to float, to speak telepathically, to increase its own strength or agility, to boost one's regeneration, or to shoot gray spheres of mana without any attribute.

Of course, its offensive capabilities were mediocre, its only offensive spell was 'Mana Bullet', learned at level 1. The other skills were useful but required both a great manipulation of mana and also a large amount.

Without an attribute, it is hard to keep mana in a single place while casting spells, due to this, a lot of the mana leak out when casting No-Attribute Spells, resulting in their cost to increase.

But Ervas had mastered Mana Control on his second life, and naturally had a great Mana regeneration and pool. Even if he was using the worst kind of magic, he made it shine.

On his third life, he was about to relearn 'Mana Control', which would greatly decrease the mana cost of spells. He was using the large pool he had due to his 'Mana Enlargement' Skill at level 5 to constantly cast level 1 spells while trying to control the mana in them.

"Hm, I wish I had someone else to talk to. It is very lonely to be by myself, father works hard, so I can understand that he cannot be with me all the time. That old man is really a hard worker… Wait, why am I calling him an old man? He is quite young for being a father. To be honest, I am the old man here, combining my three lives… I have lived for what? Over forty years? Maybe fifty. Damn, I'm old" grimaced Ervas. He had come to the age that he began to realize how old he was.

He was indeed an old man in the body of a toddler.

Jason, Ervas's father, was completely unaware that his oddly grim son was a person who had reincarnated two times before while keeping his memories.

He was currently discussing some things with his neighbors.

"So, Jason, how's the kid? Growing strong? You haven't shown it around in a while. What's wrong? Does he cry too much?" asked an old man.

Jason's neck was dipping in cold sweat… he hasn't shown Ervas to the villagers for over eight months. This is because Ervas had started to show his half-demon side, the little horn on its forehead began to grow, and his eyes became redder.

Alongside this, Jason had to admit that his kid was very weird, he never cried, and barely pooped or peed himself aside from once a day. And it even knew how to read books.

Jason, who was a stupid man, only attributed this to his son being some kind of demon prodigy and did not ponder on this too much.

"Ah, no… he's just sick. I'm taking care of him for a while… but he's a strong kid, he drinks all his carrot soup!" said Jason.

"Ah, I see… poor thing. Well, take good care of him, he is still in his development stage. If it gets too sick it may die!" shouted the old man, as he walked away.

"Phew…"

"And how about I take care of him? You can pay me with carrots, Jason" said another villager, an old woman in her forties who had taken care of several children in her life already, she was an experienced mother.

"No, thanks, Amelia. I can take care of him on my own… A-And my carrots are too few! I cannot just give them away, or I would starve, ya know?" said Jason.

"Hmm… okay, alright. Feel free to ask me if you reconsider it." Said the voluptuous woman, slowly walking away.

"Sigh…"

If he were to show his talented and strange son to the rest, they would easily correlate him to half-demons or half-beastmen.

There were already several cases of parents keeping their half-demon or beastmen children hidden only for the child to grow one day and go rampage in villages.

Knowing about the case of a demon hiding in this village, they knew that some of the kids growing might be a half-demon. Especially Jason, who always had strange meetings in the forest with someone…

You could call these people paranoiac, but they did this to survive.

Ervas saw the flow of Mana as he suddenly felt a small change in his control, the wild river-like flows became less savage and more controlled, flowing majestically around his small body.

Ding!

[You acquired the [Mana Control; Level 1] Skill!]

"That was faster than I expected… if I use 'Memory Retention' I am capable of recalling the memories when I learned this even more clearly. This coupled with 'Hardworking' at level 7 made it easier. I should finally relearn Spirit Magic, if this is really Kritias from the past, spirits should be way livelier than in the future" thought Ervas, as his father suddenly entered the house while glaring at the outside, making sure that no one followed him from behind.

"Haah, I'm back, Ervas… time for your di- Huh?! You're playing with your Mana again? I told you that it's dangerous! Stop right now!" shouted Jason.

"My father is really a nuisance sometimes… But I still love him, I guess" grimaced Ervas.

"What with that grimace in your face? Sigh, what an odd son I have…" complained Jason.

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'Hardworking'.

A Skill that those who always tire themselves working constantly can obtain. Forcing oneself to its limits and going even further beyond it is one of such ways to obtain it.

Veronica had this skill as default from her first life due to doing paperwork like a slave.

Even if in Earth 'Skills' don't exist, 'Hardworking' was deeply engraved in her soul, and became a Skill when she was granted the Samsara System by the mysterious entity.

This skill allows the user to go beyond its physical limits for extended periods. It also decreases stamina consumption and grants the ability to use pure mana as a substitute.

The higher the level of this skill, the higher one can go beyond his capabilities, but only those who work harder than anyone else would ever level up this skill.

Most of Veronica's coworkers did not have this Skill at all… Why could it be…?

[Name: Ervas Igni

[Race: Half-Demon (Mother: Dagvaarder Demon)

[Age: 2

[Titles: Mysterious Child of the Evergreen Village (New!)

[Type: Demon/Human.

[Rank: 1

[Level: 001/100

[Job: None.

[Job History: None.

[Level: 0/0

[Health Points: 15/15

[Mana Points: 136/136

[Strength: 12

[Defense: 6

[Magic: 74

[Resistance: 26

[Agility: 9

[Passive Skills]

[Memory Retention; Level 4]

[Special Five Senses; Level 6]

[Soul Form; Level 1 (Weakened!)]

[Mana Enlargement; Level 5]

[Magic Enlargement; Level 5]

[Demon Metabolism; Level 1]

[Night Vision; Level 1]

[Abnormal Status Resistance; Level 1]

[Mana Control; Level 1]

[Chant Revocation; Level 1]

[Active Skills]

[Hardworking; Level 7]

[Appraisal; Level 6]

[Mana Drain; Level 1]

[No-Attribute Magic; Level 1]

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Author's Note: If you're enjoying this Novel make sure to check some of my other works, such as Epic of Summoner: Supreme Summoner System in the Apocalypse!

It's a Novel about an Interdimensional Apocalypse where the main character is thrown into it! Using his amazing Summoning System, he crawls his way to the top and survives the turbulent and chaotic era!

I am sure that you won't be disappointed at all if you like Action and LitRPG elements! Check it out if you can!