This is one of the reason Aonair valued his friendship greatly. It is the only close relationship he has in the village. He considered Deas and Laoch as his family.

He thought about the bracelets and nod happily as if he confirmed something. With those bracelets, he hopes their bond will remains as strong as ever.

“Alright, this will do.”

He's done preparing his lunch, and with that, he went to the work site. Aonair's job is not a delicate job or something akin of that.

He and Laoch are men. They naturally have a good build and could do more physical chores. Today is the same as yesterday and the day before.

“Helmet, lunch, towel... Hmm, should I brought drinks?”

After wearing his helmet, he set off to his workplace. Need to be mentioned, the village was quite large. More than 200 people living here and almost 70% of them are men.

With so many people, the village has to find more work for the people to do. After the long search, the village finally managed to found three major works.

First is working as a farmer. Second is working as administrative of the village. Lastly, you can work as miner.

Farming can be done by men or women, so there are many who want to work as farmer. Administrative, on the other hand, is difficult to get. You have to be able to read, do arithmetic, and able to write. Most people in the village are illiterate, so Administrative work is not that popular.

Meanwhile, mining is the least job the villagers want, but couldn't help but accept it. Miner has to be man and considering the so many males in the village, they who doesn't have any works couldn't do anything but mine.

Aonair wanted to be a farmer, but the application was flooded by applicants to the point he couldn't see the end of it. He couldn't choose administrative works too since he doesn't have literacy knowledge.

The option he has was only mining. Thus, he works as a miner since his younger days.

Different from Aonair, Laoch has a good head on his neck. He could easily apply to the village's administrative, but he decided to works beside his best friend in the mine.

When Laoch said that he will follow Aonair, Aonair couldn't understand why he did that. But in the end, Aonair really appreciate and adore Laoch more.

“Oh, the lad is here!”

Without noticing, Aonair already arrived at the mine. He was greeted by a bearded bald man who's holding a pickaxe on his hand.

“Ah, it's rare to see you waiting here, old man.”

Aonair called him “old man” and waved to him. The man's mouth grinned and laughed heartily.

“Gahaha! You have that mouth as usual! Kind to your friend, sarcastic to other!”

“I'll take it as compliment.”

“Then, shall we go inside?”

The man pat Aonair's back twice and went inside the mine. Aonair could only sigh watching the man's act.

(Seriously, that old man Zel. What's something that makes a strong person like him to interested in me?)

The man whose name was Zel is the current strongest person in the village. His body is fit and muscular. He has charisma to make people follows him too. And to top of it, he has a [level 3] skill.

In this cruel world full of monsters, the seven races were given something to fight the monsters back. That something was the skill.

The skill that granted to the races could be very powerful... but it can be very weak too.

To separate which skill is stronger and which is weaker, the races for the first time, made the same conclusion.

“Let's put them in levels.”

With that, the skill was put in five categories, ranged from [level 0] to [level 5].

[level 5] skills are considered as the most powerful skills. It was said that [level 5] user could dry out a lake and split mountains to halves.

[level 4] and [level 3] are considered as useful skills. Its power packs quite a punch and can be used in the frontline.

[level 2] and [level 1] are considered not useful in the battle and mostly for daily chores. Some races used them mostly for support. Majority of people only have [level 2] and [level 1] skills.

Lastly, the last level, [level 0]. The most useless skill that could never be used. It's not because it's powerless. It was because no one knows what is the use of [level 0] skill.

[level 0] skill doesn't produce any immediate effect and doesn't have any physical form either. That's why [level 0] user cannot learn their skills, or even if they managed to, it would take too much time.

In the world like this, mortality rate is high. Many people died even before reaching the age of 30. That's why it's very hard for [level 0] users to reach their maximum potential.

([level 0], the useless... Like me.)

Aonair pondered about the skills in the world. From so many skills, he was blessed... or cursed with [level 0] skill.

That's why he was confused why Zel took a liking at him and always good at him. Even the other villagers not really care about him. Him having [level 0] skill is just an addition.

No one wants to trouble themselves by having a relationship with an orphan with [level 0] skill.

His thought getting depressing and more depressing. He clapped his cheeks hard and the light started to gather back in his eyes.

(I can't stop now. I have my friends on my sides too!)

Motivated by the swaying bracelet, he marched forward to the crowd.