It is mid summer and James is in the field sweating buckets bending over to clear the growing weeds and checking the soil, after this however, he still needs to go to old lady Mandy's house for a trade.

He flicked off the black strands sticking on his forehead and gave a nice stretch on his long sore back, 'open.'

Looking at the box in front, James sees the two new things popping just below the coin cost and having them to be at the number ten somehow makes him happy.

He had gotten Forza when the previous year was ending as he tried to help Collin, one of the many sons of Ben, to free the wheelbarrow stuck in the mud after the boy dropped it into the field.

***

"Pull!" As Ben, his son and James each grabbed a part of the barrow and heaved, the stubborn piece of wood refused to budge as its wheel was halfway into the soggy soil and most of the barrow's content spilled.

The three men were stupefied and tired after their failure, Collin decided to run off and get more hands to help while Ben just grumbled about the idiot of a son Collin was. James on the other hand, went back to whining in his head with a line 'I wish I am stronger.'

The blue box popped out the instance he thought of, something he had long forgotten about after playing it for a while after Jerry had left for his trip. With his limited vocabulary being "open and close" and the fact that the box only seemed to respond to the two words, James soon found himself bored. All things aside, he did find out while playing that he can still "see" the box even when closing his eyes and he didn't have to shout or even speak to get the box to appear and disappear.

So when the box popped up with the following in James' face, he was shocked.

One, he had forgotten when he got himself two copper coins. Two, the new word and number were… new. 

Seeing how the wheelbarrow was still in the mud and uncle Ben was about to do another pull, James quickly ignored the box and helped Ben tug the equipment with no result. The blue box once again shoves itself onto James' face.

Buckets of annoyance aside, James looked at the new word and number once again, this time noticing a symbol, a box with one standing stick on top of a stick lying down, or is it the other way round? Either way, it is new to James and as he focused on the symbol, things happened. 

The numbers of Coin Cost and Forza had both changed, with the former's going down while the latter's going up, that is assuming James remembers the order of numbers correctly, the other weird thing that happened was that the barrow was moving a bit.

"It's loose, it's loose! Pull harder!" Ben yelped excitedly and James was still processing what just happened while still pulling. He may not know his numbers well, but at least he understood a bit of causes and correlations, like when you throw a rock and hit a stag, it comes running with its sharp horns pointing at you. 

James quickly looked at the symbol intently and watched it disappear, all while feeling a tilting sensation as the wheelbarrow felt less tight and more light, so light to the point that he found himself pulling the barrow and old man towards him, with the old man in shock on how the event had gone.

Plop gets the sound of the barrow out of the mud and James was sitting on the field gasping for air and Ben standing quiet on the side, not sure to ask what is going on or to deal with his wheelbarrow first.

Ultimately it was curiosity that got to him first, "James, I didn't know you had that in you," being the recipient of the question however, James was not hearing anything as he was, as usual, absorbed in his own thoughts, but this time it is about the magic box.

The symbol is gone but the new word still remains, a visit to William's a must, but first he needs to catch his breath from all that work earlier.

Collin came back just in time with another boy to help and James was only answering Ben's questions by hefting for air throughout the entire time.

After the incident, he made his way to William's, the talk with the village teacher had him walking out of his house pondering. The word Forza is something William had never seen before, but judging on its phonics and the effect of James growing its numbers, he came up with the idea that the word actually makes James stronger and that got the old man excited.

Likewise for James, the idea that having a word pops up and you becoming stronger every time is a welcoming thought, the only issue for that is how to get the symbol back. Oh, and William clarified with James that the symbol is addition, as in one plus two equals three. He did talk about reduction but James was only listening halfly as usual.

'And more copper coins…' James did not forget how Coin Cost dropped when Forza raised, he had spoken to William too and the teacher told him to either hunt some wildlifes for exchange or do some favors.

"Well if it isn't the tagalong Jamieboy?" Two rather round shadows blocked the dirt path in front of James, he looked up to see the father-son pair that Cecilia always joked looked more like a pair of twins.

Billy Junior and his father Senior were standing in front of him side by side, with Junior having the usual smug smile that covered half of his dinner plate face and beady eyes that were almost flat line. Him crossing his arms trying to show authority but somewhat mitigated as his tummy got pushed out and showing a little under the brown leather chest armor both of them are wearing. Senior was just standing right next to Billy, wearing the same attire of chest armor and boots with simple clothings, more wrinkled face and greying hair, but James is sure that the smugness is inherent. Both men are just as tall as the lad is and the swords slinged to their sides seem more decorative than useful, seeing how the last time he saw Billy take out the sword was when he got beaten to the ground with ease.

"Hi uncle Billy and Billy," the older Billy nodded in acknowledgement while Junior snarled, "why are you here farmboy? Come here to butter up Auntie Thea? Or go Eugene there for some good old time?" Senior's face wrinkled with his son's mention of his better coworker, with James having the full view of it.

"No, I was here to talk to Teacher William about some matter."

"That old fogey?! Seriously, what is so great about that old bastard?!" Senior placed his hand firmly on Billy's shoulder to shut the boy up, it worked as his lips pursed and stared daggers at James instead.

'How is it my fault?' Unsurprised by the newly placed village guard for his habit to shift blame, James stood there staring back at the two before Senior did a light cough, "right, there are no other issues, James, tell your Pa I said hi." Both pudgy men strolled past James with Junior trying to knock him down with his shoulder, only for him to be stunned at how James only moved back slightly instead of him usually knocking him unsteady.

***

With the end of the train of thoughts James grimaces, but shrugs at the memory as he continues on. He is done with the weeding and carries the basket filled with weed, before throwing the contents into a pit far away from the field. One of the men who is walking with his share of the weeding greets James with a smile.

"Hey James! Thanks for helping out with my work!"

"No problem Bean, after all it is just close to me." James doesn't lie about it being not much work considering how he is still at full strength when Vigor, another word that William has no idea of, is at ten.

"Heya, I know you are having some trouble in your family," he pulls out a copper coin and hands it to James, "so here, take it."

Speechless by this act, James is awkward as it is, he remembered how Ma yanked his ear throughout the whole village apologising to those he got some stuff out of, there are those who complained about why they should give him stuff for him to help them, and then there are those in majority who refused to take back the things they gave to him for his help. It took village chief William and the old teacher, as they often work hand in hand to solve issues, to convince Ma that whatever James was doing isn't criminal and acceptable for the lady to get her claw off his soft cartilage.

Still, the earful after they went back home was enough to make James really regret not telling people to be quiet about it, at least Ma stopped pestering him about the stuff he took for, though Pa on the other hand kept on asking about who the lucky girl is…

Looking at Bean's extending hand with the coin, "thanks mate," with a slight blush of embarrassment as he fluidly puts the coin into his pouch.

"Don't mention it!" And both men part ways with James rushing to old lady Mandy's for his chores, three coppers are three coppers.

***

Flexing his aching arms and ignoring Mandy's whining, James puts down the axe he "borrowed" from Mandy's son, who had gone to go join the hunter because "chopping wood is no fun."

"... and I wish I could have a hardworking boy like you… without the whole money paying part though."

"Auntie Mandy, three coppers are very cheap, that is like a loaf of hard bread, and recalled that I only worked for one copper before and then you told my Ma about it. " James flayed his arms in defeat at the old woman's logic, being their neighbour and the easiest to go to, James picked the old lady as she always seems to need help in whatever she does.

So initially, James walked up front and told her to give him one copper or anything of the same cost and he will help out the chores that her son's being shunning. The chores were normal, with James helping to fetch water from the well to wood chopping and other stuff like tossing thatch for roofing. 

The first few times Mandy gave him a small bag of flour, some dried fruits that her son got from in the woods or basically anything that was worth a copper, but then she decided to cheat out on payment and gave him junks, like from a stone that she called it a doll to worn out pieces of cloth. 

That had to stop and James instead frequented other houses no matter how far they were, he even went to the village chief's house just to see if any work may be done and of course skipping Billy's house.

The action wasn't taken kindly by Mandy apparently, because she was the one that got James' ear twisted for a day as he got paraded throughout the village. When James spoke about the junks she gave, she immediately pulled out the "old frail lady lonely in her house" act, fortunately teacher William was on his side and got her to pay the minimum amount of three coppers everytime she wanted James to help. 

The old lady begrudgingly accepted and is currently trying to dodge payment once more, as usual. "I can always get the other boys and girls to do the job, you know? They are cheaper."

Not surprising when both the Williams allow James to do paid work, the others in the village are clinging onto the same idea, at least for those of the age of James and if they had some spare time in their hand.

To be honest, James was not annoyed by the competition, there wasn't much in the first place as most are bogged down by their own house chores and those who do not lack James' power and the energy to continue the arduous tasks on and on. So much so that there are those who actually look at James fondly for being so hardworking.

"Now only if he is not such a money grub," a phrase brought forth by old lady Mandy and pretty much how everyone sees James as, not that he minds as he continues to stare at the old lady with the knowing look on his face. 

"Yes, one copper for each help, but the last time you got me to help you, it was to clean up the mess they caused and ran off from."

Grumbling at the truth, Mandy slams the coppers onto his open palm and storms back into the hut.

There is still much to do for James.