In the end, Raiden asked them if they had the same feeling, but they just shook their heads. When he asked them if they thought there was something amiss in any aspect, they looked at each other and then thought for a second.

"... I feel like when I spar with you, the hits don’t hurt that much anymore," Javier said. "I always thought that you were holding back, but I can tell that you always adjusted your strength when sparring with us. I can tell now that you are more or less serious."

"The same thing, but with your speed," Ruth added. "It was hard to keep up with your attacks before, but now I can more or less read them."

Their guess wasn’t wrong; at first, Raiden used one-third of his strength, then fifty percent, and now it was eighty percent. He thought that they had gotten better and more skilled... but they got stronger too, while Raiden’ strength didn’t grow at all.

Raiden recalled the spars that those two had in the class and soon recalled that the old man kept his eyes on them... they were doing something that Raiden wasn’t.

Raiden thought seriously about that for one week until he had an idea. He added the barehanded training with his friends in their routine, and soon they frowned when they realized that Raiden wasn’t trying to block any hits.

(You learned the skill of Martial Arts.)

(Martial Arts: your attack and defense when fighting barehanded increases by one point per level.) 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

"... What are you doing?" Javier asked when Raiden’ face began to get swollen.

"Don’t mind it; it is just an experiment," Raiden replied.

Raiden’ family also frowned a bit when they saw his face swollen while they were having dinner, but they didn’t say anything because he was on the right path.

After another week of training, Raiden finally got the result that he wanted. What he was missing in his training was suffering enough damage to make his body have a hard time recovering. Just muscle training wasn’t enough for that... the muscle training and some wounds added to the harsh training routine would push his body to a limit, and then it would look for another source of energy to heal itself. Spiritual energy from the environment...

(You learned the skill Aura Force.)

(Aura Force: You can improve your body’s basic capacities using your own spiritual energy or the energy in the environment. With each level of the skill, all of your parameters will be increased by one point alongside your healing speed. When active, the bonuses will increase by one hundred percent.)

Raiden just woke up, and then he found that. Just as he had imagined, he needed to push his body to the limits in more aspects than one; that was why his friends got stronger, and he didn’t.

Absorbing spiritual energy from the environment to facilitate faster healing is a concept often associated with practices like energy healing and certain forms of meditation. Raiden heard about that somewhere, but he didn’t think that it was actually a thing.

Physical training can also involve specific exercises to open and balance the body’s energy channels. These exercises aim to remove blockages and ensure a smooth flow of energy throughout the body. This may include stretching, specific body postures, or gentle massage techniques designed to stimulate the energy pathways.

"I guess those crazy exercises that the old man made us do help with that," Raiden thought.

Regardless, Raiden could feel his swollen face a lot better than before, and he felt even better after making Aura Force level up a few times. He felt really full of life as well and stronger... Even if people in that world couldn’t level up like him, they still could get stronger by using that ability.

Half an hour later, Raiden showed the difference in strength after getting that skill and leveling up a few times. Javier and Ruth were unable to even hit him, and they tried hard.

"What the... how can someone suddenly become better after just being punched for a few days?" Javier asked.

"I guess I learned the trick to pass this level of the tower of Mastery; one just has to learn how to use Aura Force," Raiden explained. "You probably don’t know that, but you got stronger in the last few months; it wasn’t because of the training alone. Training just made you able to use your spiritual energy to make you stronger."

"I am surprised that you already learned it and already understand everything about it," Iri suddenly appeared and then said it. "Congratulations, you learned the most basic techniques that the warriors of the village know. Father and Mother will be surprised when they hear about this. Can you activate it?"

Raiden nodded, and then he took a deep breath, but all he needed was just to think about it instead of concentrating. Everyone noticed that Raiden suddenly looked bigger and more imposing... The technique consumed his mana, though. Five points per second, so it could only be used for a short while.

"You all can already use it, but you will need a few weeks to be able to control it," Iri explained. "The more you use it, the stronger you will become. It is a basic technique, but it is one that truly divides warriors from ordinary people. Those that can’t learn how to use Aura Force on their own can’t keep up with the training and missions of the next levels."

Now that explains why Iri was so tough despite being a cute girl with thin arms. Raiden imagined that her Aura Force should at least be at level thirty. Which makes her at least four times tougher than him.

"That is amazing; with this technique, men and women are only divided by their hard work and experience, huh," Ruth said while rubbing her chin thoughtfully.

"Usually, we don’t explain this kind of thing completely, but you guys already made this much progress, so it is obvious that you would reach the goal," Iri said. "Now you just need to learn how to control it and keep active for thirty seconds to reach the next level."

That will be a bit difficult for the others, not for him. He could tell that under normal conditions, someone needs a full year to be able to have enough mana to use the technique for that long. Still, Raiden had four months left before the deadline that he made for himself, so he didn’t have to worry and could focus on helping the others reach the same level.

Harth and Lenore were left speechless when they saw Raiden showing his Aura Force. They knew that he would be able to develop the passive side of the technique, but they didn’t think that he would be able to control the active side in the same week. That usually takes two months, after all.

Around two weeks later, Javier and Ruth managed to control their Aura Force, and they didn’t have any more hardships when they were sparring with the others. Five seconds while their strength was two times higher was more than enough to make them defeat three kids that couldn’t use the technique. At the same time, the instructor was no longer sleeping while they showed their skills.

After learning Aura Force, things changed a lot in the life of Raiden and his friends. Training was a lot more intense, but they were making a lot progress as well since they were healing faster. They could afford to take some more risks and obtain greater results.

The other kids in the class were making progress as well since it seemed that they understood a thing or two after sparring with Raiden, Javier and Ruth, but they were too prideful to ask for some advice.