When he got up from his bed, the night sky gave room to the blue of a new day. He stared at nothing for a couple of seconds and then felt his back getting itchy. While scratching it, he turned around and saw some insects moving on the straw-covered bed. He stepped on them silently while grunting in annoyance.

He crossed the large room that he was in silently, the place was filled with straw beds, and a lot of people like him were there still sleeping. They were so exhausted that they weren’t moving a single inch.

After opening the door of the building, the cold wind made some of the people inside tremble, so he quickly left and closed the door. He began to tremble a bit outside, but soon, he warmed up his hands and his body by moving a bit. Then he checked his hands.

“I am ready for another day.”

He was around five feet tall or 155 centimeters tall. He had the face of a ten-year-old kid, even though his hands were rough and filled with callouses. Unlike most of the kids in the building, he was decently built since he had the chance to find some extra food while he was working. As such, he had grown well and healthy in the last ten years.

After walking for fifty meters, he reached a well and then moved a bucket to grab some of the cold water at the bottom of it. He drank a bit and also washed his face, revealing his short brown hair and green eyes with greater clarity. His features were fine, unlike his origin…

His name was Aleph, and he was a slave boy and war orphan. Although he had never met his parents, he never missed them that much. The reason for that was a bit confusing; he had this idea that something was wrong with his head… whenever he slept, he would have dreams of another person’s life in another place very different from his current one. Unfortunately, everything was blurry in those dreams, but at least they made him be more aware of himself and what he had to do. Thanks to that, for many years, he had been working hard to reach the day he would be able to buy his freedom in one way or the other.

After following his morning routine, Aleph took the road on his left side and followed the path that led to the closest hill, five hundred meters away. There, he found a large warehouse guarded by some tall men armed with sharp and glowing spears. They looked at him for a moment while he didn’t avoid their gaze.

“The ax?”

“Yes,”

“Take it.”

The guard opened the entrance of the place, and soon Aleph entered it and soon left while carrying an ax that was half of his size and pretty heavy as well. The guards couldn’t help but stare at him in silence while he disappeared in the distance. Aleph was the only one on that farm who woke up every day by himself and followed his duties without delay. He was also the healthiest one despite the fact that he had to do one of the hardest jobs… chopping trees.

Over the years, they made fun of him, but soon, Aleph gained their respect despite being a slave thanks to his work ethic and nonchalant attitude. Nothing bothered him. He was as cold as steel in the winter.

While carrying the ax on his right shoulder, Aleph walked south of the area, following another path that led him to some cultivation fields and a forest a few kilometers away. Some guards were patrolling the fields to make sure that no beast or thief would damage them. They complained about the cold of winter that was becoming stronger, but soon, they shut up when Aleph passed by them. Unlike them, who were covered in thick clothes from head to bottom and even had gloves and boots, Aleph only had a single old robe that was so tattered that it barely reached his knees.

“... That is the kid, right? The one with a single trait.”

“Yeah, he gives me the creeps. There must be something wrong with his head. A lot of people messed with him because of his single trait. Still, they then eventually decided to leave him alone since he didn’t react to anything.”

“What kind of curse should have happened to make a kid be born with a single trait? And such a weak one at that.”

“Who knows, better not to learn about it either.”

They didn’t try to hide their conversation from Aleph, but he didn’t react to it either. From the very beginning, he knew that there was something odd about him and about the world he lived in. While he had his awareness since the time of his birth, Aleph took a whole year to learn the language of the world… eventually, he confirmed everything that he felt.

First of all, people in that world had something called genetic inheritance. Everyone received those at birth from their parents. They were traits that their parents had and passed on to their children, at least their strongest traits. There were other methods to gain those, but that was a matter for another time. Regardless, since it was necessary for two people to create life, all kids were born with two traits. That wasn’t the case for Aleth… and no one knew why.

 

  Regeneration: increases your regeneration by one point per hour.

That was the other thing that Aleph learned about that world. There was this thing that people called status magic that everyone could access to confirm their progress. Since traits could be improved over time with use and other methods, it was a good idea to check it periodically and confirm what the training methods were efficient.

Eventually, Aleph reached the forest while thinking about some other things that he had heard recently… while he counted the spots where he chopped down the trees and pulled out the stumps of the very same, he tried to connect that with his conception. Thanks to those things that were common sense in that world, everyone tried to make kids with the best combinations of traits. Things like arranged marriage were pretty common there among those who were free. For people like Aleph and other slaves, their offspring only had two purposes: to become cannon fodder in wars or a workforce in farms like that.

“1099… three years since I started working clearing this forest,” Aleph thought while looking around and searching for the next three that he should chop down. “I am not sure this much progress is fine, but progress is progress.”

Usually, that kind of job wouldn’t be done by a single child. Still, since Aleph showed a lot of vitality and willpower from an early age, the owner of the farm decided to make him do that kind of job. Everything else he did was done pretty quickly, after all. To the point that the other children found themselves without anything to do… that didn’t sit well with the owner of the farm, who decided to punish Aleph for his vitality… it only helped him because all that hard work made him stronger.

After selecting the right three, Aleph began to chop them down, and after ten minutes, they fell in the direction that he had planned. The other kids were arriving to cultivate the fields and get rid of anything that could pose a problem to them as well. At that time, Aleph began to remove the branches of the tree. While the other kids were massaging their stomachs, thanks to their hunger, Aleph also felt that it was time to eat something.

Aleph looked for some rocks that he had left hidden in some spots and then looked around while carrying them. Before long, Aleph found a couple of birds in a tree and then threw the stones at them. The first hit the head of the first bird and snapped it instantly. They tried to fly away, but it was hit by the rock, too… they were fist-sized rocks, so they didn’t endure the damage.

After pulling out their feather, Aleph began to eat them while grunting and with his eyebrows down… eating them raw wasn’t tasty, and eating them while showing that kind of expression made him feel really troubled. Killing and disrespecting animals like that didn’t sit well with him… but he didn’t have any other choice to survive.

Aleph tried to cook them before, but when he did that, the guards punished him at the command of the owner of the farm. They kept the slaves always hungry to avoid the risk of them running away. They wouldn’t go far… that was the cost of Aleph’s trait. He needed a lot of food to make it work… that was why the other slaves had a lot of scars, but he didn’t have any. At the same time, his trait made him stronger the more he pushed his limits, thanks to the process of damaging his muscles through exercises and repairing them with rest.

After his early breakfast, Aleph cleaned the tree and checked the fields where the other kids were working under the watchful gaze of a pair of guards who were lying down enjoying the morning breeze on a hill. That was the usual, so Aleph also decided to go with his usual.

Aleph moved further into the forest and then found a large river that crossed the place. The area was quite dense since he hadn’t cut anything on that part since it would be a pain to control where the trees would fall. At the same time, it was a pretty rocky shore for a river. A single mistake and the logs would keep moving until the river took it dowstream.

After checking his surroundings once more, he moved some stones to the shore, and then a large wooden club was revealed. It was bigger than him and obviously heavier than the ax, but Aleph grabbed it with a single hand just fine. Without wasting time, he began to swing it down, upward, and to the sides, using only his right arm.

It didn’t take long for Aleph’s stamina to begin to decline; the club was at least ten kilograms heavy, after all. When he had used half of his stamina, he changed to his left arm and repeated the same moves. From what he had heard, people in that world get stronger with training and with age. He had no idea why that was the case, but their parameters were the same as their age without proper training or with the help of the traits.

In the beginning, Aleph trained with the axe, and slowly, he began to build up his strength, physical, and even his finesse. Still, the beginning took some time since he could train so much. However, as he got stronger, his work became easier, and he had more time… he got stronger, but he had to eat more, too, and that is why he learned to hunt in a very unusual way, throwing rocks at birds and other things that he could in the forest.

The taste wasn’t that good, but that didn’t stop him from eating insects either, and even some reptiles… they filled his stomach so he couldn’t complain. At the same time, he noticed that his parameters were increasing once a month since he was able to train harder with that large club… perhaps he should make a heavier one to improve that.

When all of his stamina was gone, and Aleph felt his arms heavy and stiff as a board, he changed the club to his right arm again… now it was the time when training started for real. Aleph felt his bones and muscles screaming with effort as he kept pushing… before long, his hands began to bleed and burn, and his health also began to drop with each swing, but he endured it until he completed the set with both hands.

“This isn’t getting any easier, but I suppose this is a good thing…”

After checking his bloodstained hands, Aleph cleaned the blood from the club and his hands on the river before hiding it. After ten minutes, his hand stopped bleeding, but the wounds were still there. They won’t be there any more at noon, though.

“They said that my trait is worthless, so I am guessing that their traits should be something else… I want to hear more about them, but the guards don’t speak about the wars when I am around. This is the downside of making them ignore me over the years.”

It was hard to obtain information as a slave… keeping people from learning anything was truly the way to go to control them. Regardless, around eight in the morning, some kids came from the farm's main buildings, bringing breakfast to everyone. Aleph saw them from a distance arguing amongst themselves about who would get his food… he wasn't popular among the kids since some of them saw him eating all kinds of weird things in the forest. Snakes, fish, insects, birds… all of them raw.

As such, Aleph had to wait for ten minutes until one of the new slaves, a seven-year-old boy, came to him and gave him a bottle with a small amount of milk and half of a piece of bread that had been bitten recently… probably along the way the food was coming.

Aleph looked at the boy, and he shook from head to bottom. Since he wasn’t talkative for his age and he was very fit, Aleph scared a lot of the other kids. It wasn't uncommon to see people fighting over food, after all. Still, Aleph didn't do anything. That probably wasn't a good idea since it would make the same thing happen again. However, the food that he found in the forest was much more filling than the almost-gone-bad milk and bread of several days.

“Since we are at war, most of the things we produce here are sent to the front lines… or so the story goes. The same thing has been happening for over five years, so a bunch of people should have died, but there is no sign of ending.”

Thinking about it wouldn't change a thing, so Aleph decided to return to work after eating his breakfast. Until noon, He worked on splitting the massive tree into parts that could be transported. He only had to do that once per day, but he couldn't hurry up since lunch was going to be delivered again, so he had another training session before lunch.

After the third training session, Aleph decided to stop since the sun was setting on the horizon. Unlike the other meals, they had to have their dinner at their quarters, too, so it was time to move on. He also saw some guards approaching with a wagon ready to take the blocks of wood that he had chopped.

“My arms hurt like hell, but it looks like I got a bit stronger once again,”

 

 

Aleph's strength and physical parameters increased by one point, which made his health increase by twenty since both of them increased his health by ten points each. Physical also increased his stamina by ten points alongside finesse. Regeneration also leveled up once, so he considered making a heavier club the next day. He won't be able to train while he works on it, but it will be more efficient in the long run.

“Load the wagon with the wood.”

Aleph began to work while the other kids were returning to their quarters. He had some extra energy thanks to some extra birds he ate in the afternoon. Still, he couldn't help but wonder how strong those guards were since they barely had the disposition to do that kind of simple work.

“Maybe it is about time to test my three years of training.”

Although he had gotten stronger, Aleph knew that he was no master at using the club. He had no combat experience, either. He only trained to become strong enough one day not to need flashy moves to defeat his opponents. Overpowering them was much better.

When Aleph returned to the slave quarters, everyone there was already lying down with their bodies screaming in pain; they completely ignored the insects on the straw beds, too. They had to wait two hours until dinner, and that was one of the worst times of their day since they were exhausted, but they couldn't go to sleep while hungry. They also only had the chance to clean themselves after dinner, which was another thing they couldn't skip if they wanted to remain healthy.

“I am trying my best, but I am running out of patience for this place… maybe it is time to plan my escape, but for the last ten years, the only land that I have known of is the confines of this farm. If I fail, I will probably be killed since I can't escape without killing some people first…”

Aleph never saw the guards training, so he was starting to think that they should only be slightly stronger than him. People only get naturally stronger until they become twenty-five, and he has just become stronger than that. Maybe if he waits for six months, he will be able to win against them in a one-on-one fight. It's not like he had to, but that would be a good starting point.

“All right, six months… I will work harder during those six months to make sure that they will be the last in this shit hole.”

While he thought that, Aleph heard some coughs coming from the other slaves, which made him squint his eyes.

After dinner, when the group had time to clean themselves in the well, the candles in the quarters were extinguished, and the guards told them to go to sleep. All of them had to wake up in less than seven hours, so they were eager to sleep as much as possible.

Aleph was also planning to do that, but before long, he heard some unusual sounds of horses crossing the farm. It seemed that they were going further North, where the owner of the farm lived and managed things.

“They seemed to be in a hurry… it is already midnight, so something must have happened,”

Aleph heard the sounds of several horses, so it wasn't a messenger. From what he had heard, the owner of the farm already had sent a bunch of warriors and adult slaves to help in the war, and he didn't have many of them left. Still, if someone came to talk to him about it, it was fair to assume that the war was taking place pretty close by.

Still, there wasn't much sense in thinking about that. When morning comes, Aleph will learn of the truth, so it was best to rest, recover, and wait for it.

When morning came, Aleph got up and prepared to follow his daily routine. In the warehouse, he found only a single guard, who held his spear tightly and went on his way.

“Return to your quarters and tell the other slaves to do the same. You will receive your orders soon.”