After counting, he now had a total of three abilities that needed to be upgraded - [Poor Quality Self Healing Body], [Halo Thorns], and [Hardening].
These three abilities were all LV0. Among them, [Halo Thorns] and [Hardening] could indirectly increase their own attack power, and [Poor Quality Self Healing Body]'s effect was really somewhat unsatisfactory.
Therefore, after careful consideration, he chose to first use this beginner skill card on [Hardening]. After all, his character was an 'outstanding talent' with such potential.
As an unreliable and crazy undercover agent, it was necessary to keep some trump cards.
Therefore, he decisively upgraded [Hardening]'s skill to level 1 and secretly activated his ability to check the effect while no one was paying attention.
This test was incredible!
Although he had only upgraded one level, the level 1 [Hardening] had a qualitative leap compared to the level 0 [Hardening].
First of all, Level 0 [Hardening] could only cover the skin of one hand. However, after reaching Level 1, Aoba could instantly cover both of his arms with his ability. Moreover, the hardness of his arms had also increased quite a bit. This improvement could not be said to be not astonishing.
But just as he was overjoyed, he suddenly felt a burst of exhaustion and hurriedly canceled [Hardening].
Although the improvement of his ability was obvious, the consumption of his physical strength was also greatly increased!
With his young body that had not received formal training, it was obvious that he could not hold on for long. He estimated in his heart that with his current physical condition, he could only use five seconds at most. Any more and he would be exhausted and fall to the ground.
However, at this time, he was full of confidence in his future. He believed that after he joined [Navy Training Body Technique - Basic chapter], this predicament would definitely be solved, and he would be free from the title of 'The Barbarian King'.
Just at this time, the Three-color dango he ordered was also served.
"Please enjoy ---"
Aoba now felt that he was so hungry that he could eat a cow, so he immediately picked up a string of soft, sticky, and fragrant Three-color dango and ate it all in one bite!
'Don't say, this Three-color dango is really delicious!'
Even Aoba, a pseudo-foodie who had been nurtured by the food of Earth could not help but like this snack.
Moreover, this thing was not particularly expensive. A string of eight taels was worth about five yuan, and it was harmless to eat it once in a while.
In the blink of an eye, he finished off four of the five sticks of Three-color dango. Just as he picked up the last one and was about to put it into his mouth, he suddenly noticed that there was a child about his age outside the shop who was watching him eat the dango and quietly swallowed a few mouthfuls of saliva.
With Aoba's personality, he would not have cared about it and would not have shown any kindness. However, he noticed the clan emblem on this child's clothes. It was especially familiar!
Looking at the clan emblem that looked like a fan, he was immediately stunned.
'This was... Uchiha?'
'But... such a big family couldn't even afford to eat Three-color dango?'
Aoba hesitated for a moment, but he still took the last string of Three-color dango and walked over.
"Do you want to eat?"
"No need, I'm not hungry at all..."
Just as the young man from Uchiha's family rejected him insincerely, his stomach growled in the next second.
The two of them looked at each other, and the air instantly became a little awkward.
Aoba could see that the other person's face was almost instantly red from his neck to his forehead. What a cute little kid. It seemed to be very different from those people from Uchiha's family who were deeply troubled. They did not look at anyone with eyes, and their noses were not nose.
Therefore, when the other party was about to be unable to stand the awkward atmosphere and was about to run,
He directly stuffed the Three-color dango in his hand into the other party's mouth, and then directly pulled him back to the dango shop.
"Sister, give me another 5... no, another 10 dango!"
The aunt, who was already in her thirties, immediately smiled like a crescent moon after hearing Aoba's sweet cry. After responding, she went to busy herself.
The obviously confused Uchiha teenager wanted to resist, but he was reluctant to spit out the balls in his mouth. In the end, he could only sit down by Aoba's side.
After silently eating the pills that Aoba gave him, the Uchiha said uneasily, "Thank... thank you for the food, but I have to go back. Otherwise, Father will be angry."
"So you think I can eat all ten dango by myself?" Aoba said against his conscience. Not to mention ten balls, he could eat ten more balls for you to see!
Unfortunately, his wallet didn't allow it. When he went out, he only brought two hundred taels, and he spent one hundred and twenty taels on the fifteen sticks. He still had to save some money for self-defense. He couldn't spend all of them.
After hearing the other party's words, Uchiha hesitated for a moment. He still didn't leave directly. Moreover, other than the people in the family, the other party was the first to treat him to pills.
Because normally, people would just walk around him when they saw the clan emblem on his body. Even if there was a little brat who didn't know life from death who came to find trouble with him, all of them were beaten down by him. Over time, he developed a face with facial paralysis, which was scary and cold.
Today, in order to watch the Hokage-sama, he left in a hurry and didn't bring money out, so he stopped when passing by.
However, he did not expect that this child, who was about his age, was not afraid of him. Instead, he even paid for him to eat Three-color dango. This made him feel different. His usual cold demeanor had also broken down the moment his stomach growled.
In addition, it was worth mentioning that the food he liked to eat the most was this Three-color dango...
"Oh right, I still don't know your name. My name is Shinomiya Aoba. I'm five years old this year. I was brought back to the village as a war orphan not long ago."
While waiting, Aoba was the first to break the silence and asked.
After a moment of hesitation, Uchiha replied, "My name is Uchiha Itachi. I'm the same age as you. I'm also five years old."
In fact, after hearing the other party say that he was a war orphan, Itachi already knew why the other party was not afraid of him, which made him feel relieved in his heart.
In addition, when he was four years old, he had gone to the battlefield with the people of his clan and witnessed the cruelty of war. Therefore, Aoba's experience made him very sympathetic. He felt that there might be many common topics to talk about between the two sides.
However, what Itachi did not know was that after he opened the conversation, Aoba was already so shocked that he almost did not know what to say because of his name.
'Uchiha... Itachi??'