Determination

"!DAAAAAAAAAAAD~¡"

Aaron shouted as he fell to his knees and rested his forehead on the sword, tears falling to the ground and the echo of his cry spread through the forest, after a few minutes some bushes around the camp started moving.

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"Boy, I honestly didn't think you would give up so soon"

Hal said to Aaron who was kneeling inside the white room without answering.

"I thought that at least for all that you mounted out there with those chosen ones, you would give a little more fight, ho Duke Froststar"

"…"

"Tell me, boy, do you have someone special ...?"

"Why do you want to know? ..."

"Look, you're still alive, hehe, there's really no reason, we're going to die soon, so I thought we could have a good time talking before that."

"Huh, will "we" die?"

"That's right if you die, me too"

"Heh, that's a shame ..."

Aaron chuckled as he turned his head to one side as if he wanted to face Hal but only seeing an infinite white void.

"Not as much as all those people out there"

"... What ... what do you mean?"

Said Aaron frowning

"I mean, you will die and I will just disappear, but all those people out there, I don't want to imagine everything they will have to go through before they are allowed to die, hoping that one day someone will help them…

Did you know? Unsupervised, those beasts like to play with their food, although it doesn't matter to you, right? "

"That I don't care?! Of course I care! they are my people ... it's just ... "

"What boy, what's your excuse?"

"… It's just… What the hell do you expect me to do by myself! I was barely able to survive this six day journey with the help of the chosen ones and now you are asking me to save the continent, {sigh}, tell me… what did you expect from a 14 year old boy"

Aaron said as he looked at his reflection on the floor of the room and tears fell from his eyes.

"Honestly, not much, but at least I was hoping you would try boy"

"..."

"At the end of the day, the goddess Eri, no matter how small it was, saw potential in you, unlike all the other people who remained on the continent and that is why I am here now"

Hal said, making Aaron think for a few seconds and sigh.

"... even if what you say is true, what's the use now, I'm alone and not knowing what to do ... also I should already be dead, just before you brought me here I heard something move near the camp"

"You are not yet, boy"

"What?"

"You are not dead, I made you enter your subconscious, and thanks to the system, or in other words thanks to me, while you are here your thoughts will go faster to the point that it seems that time has stopped out there."

"That 's...."

"Great isn't it?"

"Weird ... and I don't see any use for it ..."

"You say no use ... Boy you don't understand, here it is as if time does not pass, even if you cannot improve your body, here you can train and improve your techniques"

"Wait, can you do that?"

"Yes, I already told you, my job is to make you a guardian who is capable of building a kingdom that people can return to, I don't know why you thought you were alone on this."

"That... I..."

"Well I see that at least you've already cheered up a bit"

"..."

"Remember boy, we are in this together, now tell me, what do you want to do now"

Aaron stood up as he thought about everything Hal had said to him since he appeared in the room.

[I can stand by and just let this end like Hal said ... but those people, we were supposed to protect them and because of them... because of us, they are trapped here …]

[All those years that I spent training with my father, all his teachings were knowing that one day it would be my responsibility to take care of those same people ... and now that I must comply with it, I am cowed in this way ... heh if I have to die trying, so be it.]

"This has been the duty of the Froststar house since it was founded… isn't it, Dad?"

"..."

Aaron took the necklace that his mother gave him with his left hand, while in his right hand he held the hilt of the "frozen edge" while getting up and looking at the white sky still with his eyes closed, inhaling he said.

"Alright Hal, I'll be the guardian you want"

"That's how I like it boy, let's start with your training"

Hal said, as a group of 6 small creatures, almost the same height as Aaron began to emerge from the floor of the room as if they were emerging from the surface of the water, they were goblins.

"Show me your determination boy!"

After Hal's shout, the goblins began to approach Aaron, who was not yet able to fully swing the sword so he decided to use a defensive stance.

Lowering his stance and with his sword almost touching the ground, he waited for the goblins to approach.

After a few seconds, the first goblin was close enough to land a blow, Aaron countered with a slash, followed by a thrust to the neck of the goblin, after that he recovered his posture, and do a vertical slash to the second goblin that approached him, splitting it in two causing Aaron to be surprised and feel fear when he saw the blood and organs fly, as this was the first time he killed something in combat.

Seeing how two of his companions fell easily, the goblins stopped approaching for a moment while one with a spear tried to take advantage of the moment when Aaron was distracted and attacked from behind, when he felt his death approaching Aaron dodge, avoiding a lethal blow, but he wasn't fast enough causing the spear to wound him..

Awakened fully thanks to the pain Aaron put his left hand on his side to stop the bleeding, after that he changed his position placing the sword on his right shoulder carrying the weight of it while his linen shirt started to slowly be stained with his own blood.

Seeing that he was able to hurt Aaron, the goblin laughed along with the others for a few seconds, and after that, he launched another thrust with his spear, to which Aaron responded by rotating and using the inertia he obtained when turning to hit the spear making its point to touch the ground stopping the thrust and stunning the goblin which despite everything did not release the spear-

Seeing the opportunity Aaron used the same spear as a support and launched a thrust holding the sword with both hands ending the goblin life, but this caused his wound to bleed again leaving a clear red mark on his side.

Feeling the pain Aaron could only clench his teeth as he fell to one knee while releasing his sword that was still embedded in the goblin's chest, after that he tried to calm his breathing which increased due to the pain he felt and how overwhelmed he felt to be in a life and death fight for the first time.

Seeing their diminished numbers, the goblins stopped laughing and taking advantage of Aaron's moment of weakness, they surrounded him on three sides, after a few seconds seeing this, Aaron took the goblin's spear and charged at the goblin on his right while gritting his teeth to ignore the fear and pain on his side which was starting to go numb given the intensity of the battle.

Surprised by Aaron's reaction, the goblin tried to defend himself with his dagger, just like Aaron did a second ago, failing as Aaron used a feint, causing the goblin to lose his balance and be pierced with the spear without much difficulty.

With no time to think Aaron rolled to avoid the goblin that followed him during his charge and took the impaled goblin's dagger, after that raising his arm which caused the goblin to prepare to defend himself from a blow that never came as Aaron threw the dagger which ended embedded in its face.

After verifying that the goblin was dead, Aaron turned his gaze to the last goblin who had the "Frozen edge" in his hands and was in the same defensive position as Aaron at the start of the fight, to which Aaron frowned.

Feeling weakened by his wounds, Aaron start channeling his magic power in his hand and after a short moment he murmurs.

"Ice bomb"

Thus causing an ice sphere to shoot from his hand towards the goblin, to which it responded by raising the sword and hitting the ice sphere, this however caused the sphere of ice to explode in multiple fragments fatally wounding the goblin and thus ending the fight.

After that Aaron approached as fast as he could to pick his sword while holding his side to reduce the bleeding, putting himself once more on guard and trying to catch his breath, after a few seconds and seeing that everything was over, Aaron saw the remains of the battle and smelled the stench of blood, which combined with his fatigue and pain caused him serious nausea barely avoiding vomiting.

"Easy boy, the test is over and I already have your performance data... and to think that just a few minutes ago you were crying like a helpless kitten ..."

"{pant} That {pant} that was all"

Aaron said as he slowly recovered his breath and stopped feeling the pain in his side, surprised he looked to see that his wound had disappeared and the cut on his linen shirt had been repaired returning to its original state before the fight, after that he turned his head to see that all traces of his previous battle had disappeared.

"For now, yes, rest boy with your skills and a dozen levels you can compare yourself to a recruit, so when you get back out there you should have no problem leaving the forest if you are careful...

But just in case, we will train until you get used to killing, if out there you are paralyzed by seeing some guts it will not end with a small cut like now"

"..."

"Also this will help you keep your mind busy... By the way, how long ago did you start learning magic, it is too dangerous to use it like that one more shot like that and you would have almost run dry, they did not teach you to optimize your spells and use magic circuits? "

"I've only learned a little thanks to my mother who taught me in our free time which I hardly had ... {Sigh}"

"I see, cheer up boy... going back to the topic, for now, I suggest you to not magic but if you level up I will be able to teach you some basic circuits and work on that imagination of yours"

"I understand... well let's go on, I already got my breath back, by the way, what happened to my injuries how come everything went back to how it was before the fight?"

"That's because it's all on your mind boy, out there you wouldn't recover so fast remember it"

"I know"

"Well, for now, face these goblins, this time there will be more surprises"

"More goblins?"

"What did you expect boy, with your current stats there are few more demons or beasts that you can face, also, do not underestimate them with their large numbers and that from time to time there are special ones they are a dangerous enemy.

"I- I see ... ok, let's start Hal"

…

To be continued.

Ember Guardian System

User: Aaron Froststar

Race: Human (88%)

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{Status}

LV: 5

HP: 78/102 -> 80/112

MP: 31/31 -> 31/34

STR: 9 -> 10

AGI: 13 -> 14

DEX: 14 -> 15

CON: 8 -> 9

INT: 10 -> 11

WIS:15 -> 16

CHA: 16 -> 17

Note: I decided to use a specific magic system and I shorten the battle scene