Zan could only be amazed after hearing his mother's words. He once again imagined how great it would feel to be a hunter. If he could become one, he would go to every forest and would hunt down every beast. He could witness miracles and maybe even find some treasures. This was the kind of life that he wanted so much, and he was sure that soon he could experience it as well. Suddenly, however, a different thought came into his mind and gave voice to it, "What are my chances against Kroth Lemor?"

"Right now, none." The disappointing answer left Arilia's mouth. "Why are you asking?"

"Because he is a tyrant. He reduced the wages of the lumberjacks, yet he still demands them to bring the logs to his house by three of the clock in the afternoon."

"There are many people in this world who are worse than him, and you will meet many just like him." Arilia said, and after a little thinking, she continued, "Kroth Lemor is at the master aura level, and is a warrior of House Bezil. He was tasked to take charge of the wood-cutting in the Lemor Forest and to handle transporting them to the wood factory in Meliz. To carry out this work, he was given the Village Lord title as well as the name of the village. In other words, this village was given to him. Because in these small settlements, only weak people live, the nobles did not need to appoint one of their powerful underlings for this task, so they chose him. However, he will be a good goal for your training, because he is two stages higher than you."

"And, what exactly does it mean that he is two stages higher than me?"

"Consider the stages like phases of growth. As an awakened one, everyone starts at the beginner aura level, and each one of us has to go through training and hardship to progress to the advanced and later to the master stage. In other words, you have to reach your limits at your current level and break through them to reach the next stage... For example, if right now you can only lift up sixty pounds, then we can say that is your current limit. For you to reach the next stage, that is to break through your limit, you have to lift something heavier. Of course, this is only an example, and it has nothing to do with the progression of your Path."

"What sort of a path are you talking about?"

"The Path is your life pictured as a road. Everyone has his own Path, which we create with our thoughts and actions. With each decision, we can shape our road as well as our final destination. As long as we continue on our path, we will keep growing, and we will eventually reach our goal...But this is nothing more than a philosophical way of looking at life, and it is not important for you right now. The point is that the Village Lord has already broken through his limit tree times, and right now, he is a tough opponent for you." Arilia said while sprinkling a little pepper in the pot.

"Three times?"

"Yes, three times. First, when he stepped into the beginner stage, the second time when he reached the advanced stage and third time when he became a master aura warrior. So we can say that he has almost completed the aura level."

"I understand," Zan said, and after some thoughts, he continued, "How can I quickly reach the next stage?"

"It is not only the stages that will decide the battle. If you have a trump card in your hands, you can defeat much stronger opponents than yourself. Today you will start your real training, and you will practice fighting and aura creation until I find it good enough." Arilia said.

"Good," he nodded, but soon he remembered something and continued, "What about the coins?"

"What about them? We are going to live the same way we lived for the last ten days without your wage." Arilia said and put a pouch on the table in front of her son. "We were never poor."

Zan's jaws dropped, and when he looked into the small sack, he couldn't believe his eyes. The pouch was full of coins, most of them were copper, but there were silver coins as well in small, medium, and large size. The small ones had the number 1, the medium ones had the number 10, and the large one had the number 50 pushed into them. Altogether, in front of Zan was 153 silver, which was equal to 15 300 copper coins. The silver coins on their own were already a big fortune for him, and he didn't even dare to count the copper coins to know the true number of their wealth.

Zan couldn't say anything. He had no idea that his mother had so many coins. The reason why he started working as a lumberjack was to help his mother out. He was well aware that almost all of the villagers were poor and that they couldn't pay for their treatment when they came for healing, so he came to the conclusion that his mother couldn't earn enough coins for them to live well. But now, after witnessing these silver coins, he couldn't understand why did he and his mother live so meagerly.

"Now, you are probably thinking, that why did I not tell you this?" Arilia asked, but before her son could utter a single word, she continued, "Well, you never asked how much coins we have. You believed that you know everything about me, and you came to the conclusion that you need to help me. Remember this one thing, Zan: your eyes can deceive you. Sometimes you think you know someone, but the truth is that you only see him as you wish to, and not who he really is." Her voice thinned, she bit her lips and turned around. Soon, however, she continued in a strict voice, "There are two reasons why I did not tell you about our wealth. The first one is that you did not ask. The second reason is that the villagers do not need to know about our wealth, because the last thing I need is Kroth Lemor to know about our fortune."

Zan didn't dare to look into his mother's eyes, and could only stare at his mug of tea. He was unable to say anything. He thought he was stupid for trying to solve a non-existent problem, instead of talking to his mom about it. His mother taught him so many things, such as writing, reading, counting, and he believed that other than healing, he couldn't learn anything more from her.

Zan thought that he already knew everything about his mom and that he might even be smarter than her. But the truth was exactly the opposite. He was just an overconfident boy who underestimated his own mother. "But where did you get the coins?" he asked after a little while.

"Once you will become strong enough, I will tell you," Arilia said then headed out to the garden, however at the door, she stopped. "Are you not coming?"

"No, I am," Zan said, and after he drunk his tea, he went after his mother.