《The story of Aldorem》


 Chapter One; Part I: A little journey

    A fresh breeze blows over my face as I sit here in my favourite spot. The sun is shining down on me, and I feel its warmth from tip to toe, something I sadly can¡¯t say for the last few weeks. As I thought of the last few rainy and stormy weeks, a chill ran down my spine. Back then, while hell was about to break loose outside, I had been sitting within my oppressing small chamber, waiting for all this to end to finally be able to go out again. And today the weather finally allowed me to do so, so I went outside, away from my little home, far away until I finally came to this place. I went up and down, through wet grass over slippery stones, through an omnious forest, to finally arrive here.


    On the way, I could see all the destruction the storms had caused. In the forest, many trees lay on the soil, blocking my way; other trees seemed to have been split from top to bottom through inhuman powers. Outside of the forest, it wasn¡¯t any better looking; there were lots of branches and leaves lying all around, making this whole scene look like a gigantic battlefield of gods. But ignoring those thoughts as I arrived here, I sat myself down on a relatively dry piece of wood I found nearby and moved beneath an ancient tree so that my pants wouldn¡¯t be wet from the grass.


    The enormous tree I sit within its shadow is located on top of a small hump; north from it, a little flow¡ªwhich is now more or less a strong stream¡ªmakes its way from the barely visible mountains in the east. Until here and then falls in a straight, beautiful waterfall many hundred meters down into the most gigantic chasm existing, where a human-built contraption redirects¡ªthe only available water source in the chasm¡ªover the unknown deep chasm to the city of Aldorem. It is there, where I live, used as the main water source.


    I can see Aldorem; from where I am sitting, the city has been embedded within the whole west side of the chasm wall. The city goes deep within the wall, so far that not even a little sun-ray could reach there, but for the better of it, long ago there had been lanterns invented. Those light up the city in a shimmering blue hue. The only reason the city hadn¡¯t been crushed from the hundreds of meters of stones over it is due to many supporting pillars being left behind while expanding the city.


    In Aldorem, there is only one way in and out; it is a road, which is too built within the chasm walls and goes steadily up. It makes it way from Aldorem to the southern side of the chasm; there one was still a good bit beneath the surface but still made two-thirds of the height difference. But there at the most south point the road makes a sharp curve into the chasm walls, where then a straight tunnel goes up to the surface area, freeing all travellers from the dark, damp, and depressing cleft.


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    I personally think the city''s location is awful; the air is bad, the walls are all gray, there is near-zero vegetation, and sometimes rocks fall down from above. This makes the chasm a desolate-looking and dangerous place. But when I asked my parents why the village is located in the cleft, they told me it needed to be there because many people live from mining, which they can do more easily in this chasm where three gigantic mines are located. My father is one of them; he works at the mine located in the south.


    The chasm has a further bad side; the sun can only shine in it for about 8 hours a day. This is due to the chasm being nearly round with gigantic, rocky walls at all sides. The chasm walls do open a bit the higher they go, but not nearly enough to get the sun to shine more in it.


    Even as a little child, I had always desired to depart from the city; however, I was not permitted to venture outside. But back then I had been really curious and found it while playing hide and seek with my friends in a little side alley, a staircase. It began at the end of the street and went up and up; it seemed like it never ended. As I went the first few steps, this feeling didn¡¯t change. And so I thought it would let up to the surface, but at first I didn¡¯t have the courage to go up. So the next week I collected myself, got my courage together, and made a plan on how to go away without my parents knowing anything. The day came and I told my parents that I would visit my friend, but instead, I went on a journey up the staircase; it went for most of the time northward at first before a straight part came, going for quite a while east, until breaking free from within the stone and revealing an unimaginable, terrifying view down in the chasm.


    On a big rock that lay on the side where it goes deep down, to protect all people using the way from falling, I sat myself for a little eating break. I intentionally faced the stone wall while sitting so as not to get terrified from the deadly end I would have when falling down from the stone the false way. And yes, I know I could just sit myself on the way or anywhere where it wouldn¡¯t be as dangerous, but I am me, and I wanted to sit here.


    The break wasn¡¯t that long, and I went on, over a steep path going north-east; many stones lay on it, some more loose than others; sometimes on the really steep parts there were still a few stairs to help, but most of the time the way was a whole chaos. So it went on and on, until finally, in the end, a last huge staircase came leading outside. I stayed up here for another 2 or 3 hours, but didn¡¯t find many more interesting things, so I went home again. With this, I was really happy, as I knew, that there is a real possibility to go outside unnoticed from all. It was like I could vanish in thin air, whenever I wanted now and so I did more frequently and in the end, I found this gorgeous spot, I now visit every few weeks when I want to escape the terrible air in the chasm.

 Chapter One: Part II; Rushing home

    After being by my spot for many hours while having fun, chilling, and training, I decided it was time to go back home, so I come back before the sun will sets. It was already past midday, so I needed to hurry up, as my parents told me more than once to always be home before it gets dark outside.


    Arriving in Aldorem, the sun-rays have long vanished in the chasm, but I could clearly tell that I was on point if I hurried home. So after finishing the last few steps down the stairs, I began running home.


    I ran out of the small side alley, where the houses where built, so narrow that even rats had problems getting through the, when existing gap, between the musty houses. The ground is roughly paved with cobblestone, until connecting with a nicely paved street, leading further to the main road. I ran trough the street and then over the crowded side-walk, beside the main road and accidentally bumped into more than one person on my way to the marketplace. Which is a shortcut to my home, there, I accidentally ran into a child of my age who fell and got hurt. I apologized to him, helped him up and ran on until I was forced to stop because of my lack of stamina.


    I stopped on the market, near the last corner I needed to go past before going right, and then being home after half a minute of going straight.


    While regathering my breath, I leaned against a stand where an old lady was selling fruit. She just smiled at me, knowing me well, due to me going with my mother often shopping. I smiled back at her, while enjoying the good smelling fruits and the all in all nice atmosphere on the market.


    While gathering my breath, I looked around and saw a group of teenager¡ªall maybe 15¡ªgoing over the market. While looking at all the goods, speaking and laughing with each other. This wouldn¡¯t be suspicious if they were wearing normal clothes, but they seemed poor and rather broke. They seemed to last have washed years ago, and their clothes had holes all over them. So I decided I would observe them for a bit, as I had still time and had nothing better to do than standing here, until I could run further.


    They slowly made their way towards the stand I was leaning against. Arriving there, two of them actually came and talked with the owner, whereas the other two stood there next to them with their mouths shut.


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    Then it happened: the two silent ones stole some fruits, thinking no one saw them. But I did, and so I screamed ¡°thieves¡° while running to them and pointing at them.


    They reacted directly and ran as fast as possible into the next side alley, while being followed by me and some other angry people.


    But I had a good idea and took a shortcut to block their path, which indeed functioned but wasn¡¯t the smartest idea in retrospect. The four teenagers weren¡¯t faced by me and just pushed me away to the side, running further, down the street. This made the followers stop to inspect my injuries, as I was heavily crying. But only my back hurt, there a huge wound had opened, because I fell against the side wall. Through the commotion, the thieves could flee with their little loot without problem.


    But luckily, I wasn¡¯t hurt that badly, and after resting for a few minutes, I went home with the help of the stand owner. She was thankful for my help, and she even gave me an apple.


    My parents already stood in the door frame when I went around the corner to the entrance. As they saw me, I heard my mother asking me in a serious tone where I was. But then she saw the saleswomen supporting me while I was walking and went down to look at me. While she inspected my back, the stand owner informed my mother of what happened. My father stood in the background and then went into the house. Shortly, he came back with a flask filled with a light green liquid. He pressed it in my little hand and said I should drink it, and so I did. Meanwhile, my mother thanked my supporter and said her goodbye.


    The potion my dad gave me is a minor healing potion. It is a potion that can restore your stamina almost instantly and even heal some injuries. Healing potions can be bought for a relatively cheap price, at least if they have a low concentration.


    After taking it, I felt refreshed, and the pain lessened, but until the next day, the injury should be all gone.


    Then I went relieved inside and ate my cold dinner, which still stood lonely on the table. My parents sat at the table with me and wanted to hear the full story, which I then told them from the point of time where I arrived in Aldorem, as they shall not know that I was outside the safe city. While listening to the story, they began getting seemingly more embarrassed and angry. When I finished the story, my parents began lecturing me and told me to be more gentle to all the people and mind my own business without annoying other people. Furthermore, they said to me that those guys I hunted probably depended on the goods they got from stealing and needed them to survive.


    After my parents'' annoying lecture, I went to sleep in hope of awaking with no injury on my tenth birthday. Yes, tomorrow, the 6. Of may, I will finally be ten years old.

 Chapter Two: A delightful birthday

    My breath is heavy, my heart is beating like crazy, and my life is rushing past me. There aren¡¯t many thoughts left in my head¡ªonly one, to be exact¡ªto run. And so I ran and ran, like a madman being chased by his worst enemies. When I looked back in horror, all I saw was black, just like the void in front of me. At that moment, I realized that I was running in one place. I could try as hard as I wanted to move, but I couldn¡¯t. So I stopped to run and looked around me.


    But after an eternity, nothing changed; it was still the same black void around me as before. I started to feel lost and panicked about what to expect from the darkness around me. Then nothing; it was silent all around me. Before, I heard a sound now and then, but now there was nothing; I couldn¡¯t even hear myself any more. The only thing I could feel was that my heart was beating louder and louder.


    Then there was a scream¡ªa terrible scream that felt as if all my thoughts and my being had been shattered. At that moment, I awoke, drenched in my own sweat and with a horrified expression on my face.


    After lying still for a short moment, my pumping heart slowly began beating more and more normal again, and my breath stabilized. I stayed moveless in bed to think about what just happened, but I couldn¡¯t explain it to me, it felt too real. With this weird feeling still lingering in my head I decided to go to my parents room to tell them of my dream. As I stood up from the bed, I fell down onto it again, my back felt odd, but not bad, it was a new kind of feeling. After thinking about it for a short moment I came to the conclusion that it had something to do with the healing potion effects.


    I tried again and again to stand up, which was really hard for me, but thanks to the wall I could support myself on I was finally able to walk my first steps again. After doing so for a bit, I got used to the feeling and began walking to my parents room to question them out.


    Arriving in my parents room, there was no one, all was silent. Thinking they were already downstairs preparing meal I went to our living room. The way down the stairs was more scary than ever, it was quiet, too quite and dark, not the black where one can¡¯t see anything, more of a light dark, as if the sun was about to rise. My legs¡ªstill weak from my wound¡ªweren¡¯t of much help, and made me feel weaker than ever. Coming down the last few steps, I was blinded from a glaring light. As my eyes began regaining my vision I saw them. There, I saw my whole family sitting at the table that was filled to the brim with cakes, muffins, and other yummy things. The moment I recovered from my shock, they started to sing a song for me while they gave me their presents, which made me happy. The presents were always the most exciting part of my birthdays. After the song was over, everyone congratulated me, from my parents to my little brother, my cousin, and my only remaining grandmother.


    Then I sat myself at the head of the table and ate to my heart''s content while chatting with my family. Through the nice atmosphere and the long talks, I completely forgot about my dream and my long healed injury.


    The party went on until midday, until the last person left. Then, when all of them were gone, I could finally open my presents; they were mainly filled with clothes or money. But there were also two things under all the gifts I wished for my whole life long.


    There was a good, old pocket knife, and a beautiful stone that my father found while mining. The little stone is black with red lines that seem to eat through it. It seemed to glow in my little palm. My dad told me that it was not an ordinary stone but a strengthening stone. It is a stone that improves your health permanently and can help you get better natural healing abilities when you eat it. But the effect is really small, and they are rarely seen and even harder to find. They can only be obtained in one of two ways.


    Either by searching for them very deep in the mines, where they are now scarce, even in the deepest and most unexplored areas, but it is possible, as my father showed. The problem is that even when one is as lucky as him, there is no guarantee that the strengthening stone is as big and clean as the one my father found.


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    The other way is to kill extremely powerful monsters, known as epic monsters, which only appear very rarely. The good thing is that the stronger the monster is, the stronger the stone will be.


    Killing such a monster requires a group effort, and the loot is shared among members. The stone is especially coveted, leading to disputes over who gets it. So normally, it ends in a battle for the stone, or it is sold, and then the price is split. So in the end they always end in the hands of the rich and strong, so as a commoner to get one is rare.


    My father was very lucky to have found the stone, and he was then selfless enough to give it to me. Which is why I appreciate the gift even more.


    The other thing I got was a pocket knife. The blade is only 10cm long, but that should be enough to carve wood with it¡ªsomething I always wanted to try out. The blade isn¡¯t very sharp since my parents want to ensure I don¡¯t have a real weapon at my young age. But it can be extended and retracted whenever I want, which makes it handy when I want to store it in my pocket. I took both of the presents to my room and put them on my bedside table.


    After all the excitement, I went to play in the playground with some of my friends.


    As I went over the market once again, I saw the guys I had seen back then stealing goods. Seeing them made me remember the accident, and deep down I felt sorry for those guys. I destroyed their day, maybe they even haven¡¯t had anything to eat for the day.


    I scrutinised them from head to toe, literally¡ªOne had a toe looking out from his shoe. They all had a slim silhouette and seemed kind of weak, their pants and shirts had holes everywhere. Even only thinking about their homes made me shiver; in retrospect I know felt a huge guilt.


    So I decided I would apologizes, I went to the market stand from back then, where I found the same saleswoman as back then. There I bought some bread and many fruits which where nicely packet in a bag, for this I paid with my own money, which kind of hurt. But it was for the good and I thought they needed it way more than I did, so I went over to them, smiling.


    As I came closer they saw me, so I waved my hand; they at first where stunned, the same kid that chased them the one time know came towards them, waving his little palm. As they realized who I was they turned around and tried going away, but I shouted at them to wait, which they did surprisingly. I advanced further towards them, as I was close enough I bowed down to them and apologised; standing straight up again I reached my hand out to them to give them the bag.


    They looked mesmerized back at me¡ªthey never would have thought that this would happen. Never before was there any person kind enough to gift them something, only some pitying glances. So the gift meant really much to them.


    They thanked me and took the bag; looking into it their gazes lit up, they had never had much to eat and now there was so much just for them. They smiled at me and thanked me again and again, the guys where super happy.


    Before parting with them I spoke with them about their situation, they told me that they all where surviving on the street since being little child, they never had a true family. I felt really sorry for them and gave them a promise to gift them some bread now and then.


    They went towards a small alley, while I strived forward to the playground¡ªmy actual destination.


    Meanwhile, my parents took down the birthday decorations and prepared everything for dinner.


    This time I made it home in time for my meal and ate with my family while chatting happily. We had steak for supper, which we don¡¯t eat often, because my parents wanted to make my birthday the best day of my life¡ªand it freaking was.


    I had many nice presents, much fun, and a beautiful day. But the best part is that I am now ten years old and can finally go to school with my friends. This is the age at which all kids in Aldorem have to go to school. There we learn all sorts of things like writing and reading, the history of the world, and how to mine properly. These are all skills that are needed to survive in the adult world. But I still have to wait until the beginning of winter before I start school. So I don¡¯t have to rack my brain about it yet.


    After playing cards with my parents until late in the evening, I went to bed.


    Now, sitting on my bed, I¡¯m torn between eating the strengthening stone and keeping it for its potential value.


    On the one hand, it is beneficial for me to do so, and I really want to feel how it feels. Besides, the effect will be the same if I eat it tomorrow, so why shouldn''t I eat it now?


    On the other hand, selling the stone would give me a huge amount of money, and I also personally think eating a stone¡ªeven a strengthening one¡ªwould definitely not be good for me. It just sounds wrong and even a bit suspicious. So in the end, I decided against eating it and went back to the world of dreams.

 Chapter Three; Part I: Going Outside

    It¡¯s already the first of July, and the hot summer days are coming to an end. Over the last few days the temperature dropped significantly, but still it seems like it is going to be a beautiful day again. The last two months since my birthday weren¡¯t so exciting, but they were still quite nice. I was often by my friends and played with them. Furthermore, I went often to my favourite spot outside the chasm.


    It is still early in the morning as on the top most part of the chasm still wasn¡¯t any sight of light. I just had awoken from my refreshing sleep and already had my plans decided, I would venture outside.


    So after breakfast, I took my pocket knife and a backpack¡ªfilled with food and other useful stuff-- and went to the only way out from here¡ªthe staircase. For my parents, who were still peaceful sleeping, unbeknownst what I am doing, I left just a piece of paper saying, that I am just by a friend, don¡¯t worry I will be back late.


    Nothing out of the ordinary happened on the way. The only thing worth noting was that there were almost no people on the street. Due to being still asleep, as today was day off for most of Aldorem.


    So I could the stairs up unnoticed from all, I reached the end after 1.5 hours and a little break halfway. During the break, I ate my lunch and enjoyed the view over the beautiful city and its increasingly crowded alleyways.


    The stairs end in the north-east, so I have to walk south-east for a while before I reach my favourite spot. The path leads first through a dark green, scary and thick forest, then across far stretching green plains with only a few solitary trees and at last I just have to cross a stony, old bridge going over the stream coming from the east before arriving at the spot.


    The bridge had properly been built from an ancient society, century''s ago. I am the only person knowing it, as it is quite hidden from the eye due to being overgrown by vines and conquered by nature as well as the way that could have been here hundred years ago. The first time I found it was long ago when I journeyed along the river for a bit, back then I removed some vines, and found carved in the stone old writings and symbols. But still until today I don¡¯t know a single thing about them.


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    After a short rest in the shade of a tree to rest from my exhausting climb, I went towards the forest. It is actually just a few hundred meters south from the end of the stairs. Back then, when I first was up here, I felt strange chill looking at the forest and always made sure to keep my distance to it, and to this day the feeling remained. Even though I made my way trough it quite often, so I gathered again my courage and went straight up near the forest, there I searched before going into the forest, I looked a bit around and found what I was searching for. A symbols carved in a tree that I made to keep me orientate. I made every few trees another symbol so I could just follow them. Without them I would loose my way fast, because there is no chance to orientate within the forest everything looks about the same.


    I made it pretty fast through the scary forest without any issue, thanks to the marks I left and my loyal pocket knife. With which I cut my way through the scrubs in the forest.


    Half an hour it took me get to the beginning of the plains. I emerged too far east out of the forest, because going more south within the forest would get me into Wig¡¯ry territory ¨C marked with claw prints on the trees.


    The position isn¡¯t much of a problem; on the plains travelling is fast, easy and finding the right way is easy, even though the grass is hip high. I crossed the plains rapidly on foot and then walked across the bridge, which stood still sturdy after all the time it had existed. As always I stayed on it for some time, enjoying the gorgeous view down the stream. But the break wasn¡¯t long until I decided, I would go further.


    When I arrived at the place I love most, nothing had changed; the tree was still there, the stream was flowing normally, and the view was the same as it had been so many times before. Even though everything was the same, it felt like a huge weight lifted from me when I arrived here. I felt safe and home.


    Looking around for 15 minutes and just enjoying the atmosphere, I went to the tree and walked behind it. There I reached into a hole, under a huge root. I took out an almost finished wood carving; it looks like a mighty eagle sitting upon a mountain. It is a work of mine that I started just half a week after my birthday. It will be a gift for my dad as a thank-you for the strengthening stone. Today would be the day I finally finish it, so I hoped.


    I sat under the tree and carved until the sun was well past its zenith. When I finished the final details, I withdrew the blade of my pocket knife and put the carving in my rucksack.


    I packed everything together and made my way back. I felt really good that I finally finished my carving, and so I went happily over the bridge and through the plains while thinking about my dad''s reaction to seeing the finished carving.

 Chapter Three; Part II: The first fight

    From one moment to the other I heard a rustling behind me, I tried spinning around; but it was to late, I was thrown over, through the force behind an incoming ambush. The beast tried to bite me in the neck to kill me, but miscalculated and instead bit my left shoulder. I was fortunately still able to get rid of the beast as I fell and to turn around while falling so that I landed on my back seeing weather the beast attacked again. Which it didn¡¯t do, instead, the iw¨¤rt slowly walked around me while keeping a big distance¡ªwhich it could still cover with one jump. The wound made with its bite was huge and was bleeding like crazy while hurting. Moving my arm was connected with immense pain.


    Looking forward I could see the beast that attacked me, it was a Iw¨¤rt, they are a subspecies of wolf; they have sharper teeth, better defence, and are faster. But they have far less HP than a normal wolf. The iw¨¤rt that tried to kill me was only a meter tall and had a black shell around its body with some openings so that it could still run and breathe. Through these, I could see the crimson colour of its fur.


    Gathering my courage, while clearing my mind from my shock, I stood up and made eye contact with the wolf while preparing myself for a second attack. I took my pocket knife in my right hand, extended the blade, and threw the rucksack to the side because it would be in the way while fighting. I again cleared my mind from any unnecessary thoughts, as now it was kill or be killed.


    The iw¨¤rt walked in circles around me for what seemed like eternity, but it was no more than some minutes in real. Then he leapt at me with its mouth open wide, his teeth shining from my blood on it, its red fur gleaming like fire, and his eyes sparkling dangerously, showing its madness. I blocked the attack by stabbing with my pocket knife¡ªwhich lay in my right hand because my left one was demobilized through the wound in the shoulder¡ªinto the wolf¡¯s left foreleg. There was a little spot with no hard shell, which I hit while at the same time leaping to the right, to avoid his bite. Then I kicked the iw¨¤rt in his side, while extracting my knife from his leg. This sent the iw¨¤rt flying forward and opened a wound in its right foreleg.


    The situation was almost equal now, I couldn¡¯t use my left arm because of the wound in my shoulder, and the wolf had lost the workability of one leg.


    I decided to stay there and not run after the hurt Iw¨¤rt, which now lay on the ground. As I wanted to regain my composure first and relax for a short time.


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    The iw¨¤rt was fast on his legs again and made his circle around me again. But there was a difference that was immediately apparent: the wolf was limping and walking a little slower.


    In the meantime, my situation was not getting any better; I had already lost a lot of blood, and my whole body felt warm and cold at the same time. My headache was getting worse with every drop of blood I lost.


    After a long moment to adjust to its own situation, the iw¨¤rt launched another attack. This time it took his last energy reserves and jumped higher than before, I threw myself forward to avoid being hit from above by the incoming attack. Being beneath the Iw¨¤rt was good, because he would just jump past me, but still he tried to hit me with its small legs¡ªwith long claws¡ªwhile being in mid-air. But the surprise attack missed me by a paper width. But I didn¡¯t waste my chance to attack the wolf mid-air, where he was vulnerable and nearly defenceless. So I tried to slit the wolf¡¯s belly with a cut from my knife while I was underneath it. But the attack was useless and got reflected due to the hard shell of the iw¨¤rt.


    After a few more exchanges, each of which ended in a spare, I felt myself getting sloppier and sloppier with each attack, and a slight dizziness set in. Then I realized that I had to get rid of the wolf now or never, as my strength otherwise would dwindle completely.


    So I gathered all of my remaining strength and ran towards the wolf, who had the same idea and charged in. We met halfway, and the iw¨¤rt attacked immediately with its right paw aimed at my throat, but I was ready for the attack and ducked away. The moment the wolf towered over me, I stabbed at it from underneath with all my remaining power. I hit the wolf right in the chest, through a slit in its shell, killing it immediately.


    The Iw¨¤rt fell down dead over me, taking me down with it. I struggled to get out from under the heavy body, and after finally getting it off me, I sat beside it for the next few minutes.


    Judging by the sun, I fought the Iw¨¤rt for 30 minutes, not more, but it felt like days.


    My physical condition didn¡¯t improve even after the rest; my symptoms were getting worse and worse, and I hadn¡¯t much blood left in me, as the bleeding was getting less and less from my shoulder, and some other bruises I got while fighting. So I only had one chance left to survive. That was to eat the strengthening stone my dad gave me for my birthday and hope that it would heal my wound and cleanse it of any infection. Which I didn¡¯t believe in, but what chance was there other than hoping?


    I¡¯d carried the stone with me every day since my birthday, in case I needed it, and now I think the time has come. So I ate it and just hoped that I would live to see another day and maybe my first day at school, which is getting closer and closer.

 Chapter Four; Part I: Home, sweet home

    Nothing happened after I swallowed the stone; only my headache got worse and worse. A minute passed and another and another, but nothing happened; there was nothing changing in me as I thought it would. As I gave up hope and already saw my short life rushing past me, at that moment a huge pain surged through my body, from my feet to my very last strand of hair. Every part of me was trembling, it felt as if my whole body was being torn apart and destroyed, and at the very moment it was immediately rebuilt. Only a few seconds I could hold on to my consciousness until I passed out from the soul-piercing pain.


    ?Where was I, what happened?¡°was the first thing souring up in my mind as I awoke. Looking up I saw the blue sky covered in many white clouds. I sat up in hopes I would then knew where I am, and what I saw was that I was still lonely under the same tree as before. Through the clouds a sun-ray shone directly onto me, making me close my eyes again before adapting fully to the light.


    Looking where the sun stood, I judged that I have been lying here for nearly a day, or maybe two, more. Which got me wondering how I was still alive, lying unprotected in the wildness, and then came to my mind that my parents must be really worried and are likely searching for me right now. Which was not good as I would get for sure a huge punishment, and not only that I would need to reveal my secret, resulting in an even bigger punishment. But just letting them search me wouldn¡¯t be good either, as it would destroy my heart thinking my parents may be crying even more the later I came. So I decided immediately I would hurry home as fast as possible.


    So I stood up and looked around to see whether there would be another iw¨¤rt around; there was nothing in sight¡ªno insect, no animal, no person. Just me and the dead iw¨¤rt few meters away, which lay there as before to my surprise. Just seeing the corpse made me angry, angry of me being nearly killed by it, angry of me needing to go through all this trouble. Seeing the leftovers in front of me I swore I would eradicate those ugly beasts out of existence.


    Walking to the corpse to inspect it, I felt that the wound in my left shoulder had completely healed, leaving only a small scar in its place. It will probably never fully heal, which I don¡¯t mind because it tells the story of how my first monster was slayed.


    It felt amazing to move my arm again, and having no headache any more. Furthermore, I felt stronger and lighter than ever, just as light as a bird must feel, when flying through the never ending blue. I guessed that this was all the effects of the strengthening stone. Which meant the pain from swallowing the stone was worth it, and my distrust for it was completely unnecessary¡ªthe stone even saved me from certain death. But I hadn¡¯t much time to think more about something like this, as I wanted to be home as soon as possible.


    I walked some steps forward to the iw¨¤rts corpse, I lifted the wolf and carried it over to the tree where I had been sitting, the whole process being much quicker than I anticipated because of my now much stronger body.


    Then I rapidly gathered some leaves, grass, and moss to cover the iw¨¤rt¡¯s dead body so that it would be hidden and would less likely be stolen or eaten by wild animals. It took me only some minutes to do this. If one asked why I did so, the answer is, that I could so show my parents at least my achievement, and maybe calm my parent¡¯s rage. When coming here my parents could dismantle the wolf, something I couldn¡¯t do even if I tried, and later on sell its parts.


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    When I was ready to go, I noticed my clothes were completely soaked with blood and when I smelled them, a reek entered my nose I could have never imagined. But there was not much I could do about, only to run back and wash my clothes in the river. But that would take way too long if my parents search for me, and I don¡¯t want them to worry about me.


    So I decided to finally start the journey back home, after putting my backpack on again.


    I quickly made my way to the dark forest, across the plains. Before going through the forest the same way as before, in reverse. In the forest I was trying to go rapidly, but not to fast, as getting the attention of dangerous beasts was the last thing I wanted to happen. Finally I came after a long time out from the woods, but instead of resting I picked up my pace and ran the last few meters to the beginning of the stairs. Thereafter I began to descend them until I reached Aldorem. The sun was still barley shining in Aldorem as I arrived, so the streets were crowded and filled with a mass of people, as always.


    I ran down the path I so often walked, until I reached home. On the way, I could see flyers everywhere with my face printed on them and underneath written ?missed.¡°So I ran as fast as I could until finally arriving at home. I rang the old bell in anticipation and waited until someone finally opened the door.


    In the door stood my father, and behind him my mother. They looked at me as if they¡¯d seen a ghost, while slowly tear after tear rolled down their eyes, and shortly afterwards, they hugged me without saying a word. Then they let me in and asked where I was, what happened, and so on. Before I began telling them everything, I changed my bloody clothes and washed myself.


    Afterwards I told them everything, beginning with me sneaking out of the chasm secretly until my fight. My parents gave me something to eat while I told them everything, because I was really hungry.


    The first reaction of my parents to the story was them telling me, how disappointed they were in me, due to me lying to them for a long time, and going outside even though it is a harsh environment with many unknown dangers. And then came the worst part they told me, that I just lied to them about killing the iw¨¤rt, this made me angry, and so I told them to go with me there and see for themselves the corpse I had hidden.


    Even though they readily agreed and even told me in a provocative tone that they would dismantle it for me if it were true and give me one of the materials I wanted from the wolf, I would still receive a huge punishment, for lying. And if my story proofed to be wrong I would receive additional house arrest. As I knew that I slew the wolf for real, there was nothing for me to fear and I would even gain one free piece of material, so I was quite happy. But the house arrest was regrettable, but still bearable.


    After we finished this topic, my parents told me that I had already gone missing for two days and that they were happy that I was still alive. Even though it might seem like they were only angry at me


    In the end, before they sent me to sleep ¨C It was already late after the long conversation ¨C they said that if I arrived three days later, then I could have seen my own funeral, and I should never do something similar again.


    Thinking about what my parents told me, I decided to train my senses more and to pay more attention to my surroundings in the future so that I wouldn¡¯t ever be ambushed again. But over all I decided that the time has come to train until I am so strong that no one can harm me ever again


    Whit these thoughts I went to my sleeping room, threw my backpack in the corner¡ªthe carving was still in it because I hadn¡¯t remembered to give it to my dad ¨C and then fell in bed.

 Chapter Four; Part II: A surprise for my parents

    I slowly awoke from my nice and sweet dreams while hearing noises from my slightly opened window. I could hear carriages rolling over the roughly paved streets, birds singing their lovely songs, people speaking and shouting from the market.


    But those things never bored me, even after hearing it over and over, every time I awoke. After listening to the noises for a few minutes I stood up and shut the window. Then I wanted to go down stairs to surprise my parents, by preparing breakfast, but on my way out I spotted my backpack in the corner. So I turned around, went back to it and unpacked it ¨C which I wasn¡¯t able to do yesterday any more. In it was still a bottle half filled with water, which I put on my night-stand next to my damaged pocket knife. And thereafter I found the main reason why I unpacked it, pretty fast, as it was quite big¡ªthe carving for my dad, which was luckily still in one piece. I placed it beside me on the floor, brought the backpack back to its previous place and then went with the carving downstairs.


    In the dining room I prepared the table and placed the gift for my dad on his seat. Having everything ready, I went upstairs to wake up my parents, they were quite happy as I carefully waked them up and hugged them. After a short time my three siblings to came into our parents room, after some time playing a bit around, all got some fresh clothes on and went down.


    As they saw my surprise for them, all were happy, and my father seemed even more surprised, as he saw my gift for him. At first, he stood there still and stiff, like a dummy, without changing his expression, until his look smoothed and he took the gift in his hand. He looked at it from all sides while smiling before giving me a long hug. Then he told me how proud he was of me for making such a beautiful work.


    After our breakfast, my father placed the gorgeous carving on his desk¡ªnever to be forgotten again by him.


    When our nice breakfast ended my parents made everything ready for the expedition out of the chasm, to the place where I fought the Iw¨¤rt. They decided we would go already today, as both of them didn¡¯t have to work today, so they had more than enough time for it. For the adventure, they packed their luggage in one bag and took another two with them to later fill with the disassembled parts. They packed into one food, water, sharp knives, and other things, whereas I only took my pocket knife along with me to carve while my parents were working.


    Before finally starting our journey, we rapidly delivered, on the way to the stairs, my two brothers and my sister to my grandparents. Thereafter my parents followed me on the way to the alley with the staircase at its end. As we stood before the nearly endless staircase, the surprise could be seen in my parents faces, they couldn¡¯t believe what they were seeing even when it was in front of them. While the sun was still hiding behind the chasm¡¯s edge, enlightening only the topmost part of the chasm, we finally climbed the first steps, one after another.


    Going up all those stairs was a struggle as ever, and even more so with my parents, who needed every now and then a rest, and asked often how long it would still take. But we made it all the way to the top until the early morning, even through all the breaks and my parents questioning all the time, whether we would even come out from the never ending tunnel.


    Arriving at the top, we decided to rest in the shade of a tree, out of the blazing sun, and then eat our lunch. As we sat there, we could see all of Aldorem, and its streets were filled with thousands of people doing there business.


    After resting, we made our way through the forest, which was easier with three people and only took us about half the time I normally needed. The whole journey was unadventurous and kind of boring; nothing out of the ordinary happened; there were just different shades of green and grey wherever I looked. But my parents didn¡¯t thought so and looked around all the time, as if they never saw trees in their life¡ªwhich wasn¡¯t impossible...but unlikely.


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    Coming to the plains, I realized a huge problem: all looked the same, and there was nearly no chance to find the spot where I had hidden the corpse.


    So we searched the plains for the place where I had hidden the dead iw¨¤rt, which took its time. In the end, I was the one who found the right place and yelled my parents to come here.


    As I removed the leaves, with the help of my parents, they seemed shocked to see what lay underneath. They just stared at the corpse, then looked at me and back in disbelieve. After a short recovery, my mother said we needed water to clean the dirty wolf before dismantling it.


    There were two ways of doing this: either to get water or to get the corpse to the water. But getting water from the river to this place was impossible due to a lack of transportation possibilities.


    So we decided on option two, and two hours later we put the wolf down on the riverbank. We washed it there, and afterwards we split up because my parents thought it was nothing for me to see the process. So I went to my spot, which got me bored after sitting there for hours, so I decided to go along the river and search for new spots and then carve there.


    Firstly I got my parents quite easily agreeing to my idea, who where just beginning with their work. Whereafter my journey began, I crossed the river, then went upstream around a hump, then even more eastward, until a huge hill came which I climbed up to its top and then went it down a bit.


    Behind the hill, I had a beautiful view of a valley through which the stream flows on its way to Aldorem. The valley was full of plants and some huge trees that stood out from the rest. It was quite noisy inside the valley, the birds were singing their songs and the river was murmuring quietly. Beyond the valley, I could see many more hills and, in the distance, clearly the mountains, where the river has its source. Far at the northern end of the mountain range, I could finally see snow on the mountains again for the first time since May, which means that winter is getting closer and closer.


    I sat on top of the hill for many hours, waiting for my parents to finish, which took a long time. Meanwhile, I was carving on a new project, a gift from me to myself; it will be a trophy, a memory and a memento for my first killed beast. The carving will be that of a majestic iw¨¤rt howling into the sky, with a knife pierced trough it¡¯s heart by a little human¡ªmyself.


    Time passed quickly, and it became quieter and quieter as the birds stopped chirping and the soothing sound of the river faded into the background. Which wasn¡¯t apparent until I realized it.


    Towards the afternoon, I heard my parents shouting for me to come back rapidly. This was easier said than done, and it took me considerably longer than it did to get here because I needed to be very careful going downhill so that I didn''t fall all the way down and hurt myself.


    After I was on flat ground, I ran over the steadily falling ground to where my parents and I split up.


    When I got there, I couldn''t see much, just my parents with their overstuffed backs. When I asked them where the rest of the wolf was, they just pointed to a spot in the grass where there was a pile of dirt, with some wildflowers on it.


    On the way home, I carried the back with the items we brought with us around, while my parents had the honour to carry the heavy, overstuffed backpacks with the dismantled parts. On the way I asked them some things that interested me. Like what they are gonna do with all the material, how it can be used, and what one can make out of it. They told me that usually the only interesting loot is the beast''s skin for clothing or equipment and its claws or fangs for blades, spears and arrows.


    Late in the evening we arrived home, we all were pretty much done and where out of power. We all decided to first all get a nice shower and then eat a nice, good meal. Sitting at the table, while eating I asked my parents what was now with our bet, they just pointed at the still packed backpacks, and told me to chose what I want to take. I decided myself after some time thinking for the longest and sharpest teeth I could find. With the plan in my head to make myself a knew, better knife with the teeth. But for this I would need a handle, which I thought wouldn¡¯t be a problem as I knew how to carve one.


    As I was pretty much half the time asleep while eating, I decided to immediately go in my room and to sleep after choosing my loot. My backpack I threw carelessly in the corner, the teeth I placed carefully on my bed-side table, and at last I threw myself into my beloved bed, where I directly fell asleep.

 Chapter Five: The first day at school

    The last months quickly went by and before I knew it November was already knocking on the door. Weather changed over the course of the months and these days it is the opposite of summer. The temperatures reach far below zero degrees, and it snows every now and then. Even the chasm wasn¡¯t know as boring to look it, snow lay in all tiny cracks and on all little cliffs, making some nice white accents in the so boring grey.


    Since back then, where I was punished for sneaking outside, I did it only one other time, which is know a few weeks ago. As was outside I couldn¡¯t see the normally dark forest or the green plains; the trees were all naked, and a big layer of snow covered the world. In the distance, the mountains were completely white, without even one little grey spot.


    In the last few months, many things have happened. My mother and my little brother celebrated their birthdays. These were both beautiful and merry days, but also annoying to organize as I helped my father with it, and needed to get a present. They both got a little sculpture of themselves, which I carved. My carving skills have improved a lot over the time.


    I was also not lazy with my old project and finished my Iw¨¤rt trophy, which now sits on my bedside table. It took me a few tries to get it perfect without destroying it, but this gave me much experience. So I decided to begin an even more difficult project to learn even more. This carving may take years to complete and is on a completely different level of difficulty¡ªIt will be a carving of the entire chasm with Aldorem at its heart.


    But before I began with this carving, I carved a sturdy handle for my sword. The hilt is made of spruce wood, 10cm long, and carved with a nice pattern. After I finished it, I gave it a final polish and painted it. Then my parents gave me some kind of liquid to treat the wood with. This treatment made the wood less sensitive to corrosion.


    For the blade of the knife, I took the teeth of the iw¨¤rt and sharpened one edge even more than it already was. Then I ground down the teeth to get the shape I wanted. In the end, the teeth on one side looked rather flat and boring, while the sharpened side looked menacing. It was extremely sharp and had some indentations, making it look like a saw.


    When I had all the parts ready, I assembled them together and used a home-made string to hold them together. Yesterday, the weapon was finally finished, and I was able to test it. I used some simple targets to see how sharp it was, and to my surprise, it was really sharp. It was able to split a piece of paper in mid-air and could easily slash through flesh and bones. Afterwards, I did some air sparing just to find out how perfect the knife felt in my hand, but it was hard to test much more than that. But overall its performance was excelling.


    This knife will for sure would have been useful in my fight against the Iw¨¤rt back then, which speaking off, made me realize how weak I am. And due to this realization, I decided to work out every day and learn how to fight from my dad. The training made me much stronger; I would now definitely win a 1v1 against another Iw¨¤rt without getting hurt, but I don¡¯t plan to stop here. I want to get stronger and stronger and even stronger. I want to stand a top of the world, I want to be the mightiest, I want to be able to protect all my friend and famille and I will eradicate all monster¡ªbeginning with the Iw¨¤rts.


    Today is the day I have been looking forward to since my birthday¡ªmy first day at school.


    Due to my excitement, I awoke pretty early this morning and couldn¡¯t sleep any more, so I decided to do a little workout and wash myself. When I was done with it, my parents had already awoken and prepared breakfast for the family.


    After our breakfast, I went to the school with my parents, where already many of my friends were standing in front of the huge building. All of us waited there until the time came for the headmaster''s speech to begin. To be exact, my parents waited, I and some kids I know played around all the time. The principal was standing still and imposing between the mass of people and the huge building. As more time went by, the place filled itself even more, and I could see many more of my friends.


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    Then, after about 15 minutes of waiting, the principle started his speech. The moment he started, everyone fell silent and looked at the rather tall, gray-haired person.


    In his speech, he talked about the school system, the most important rules like ?don¡¯t fight, under any circumstances, against classmates in the school; be nice; listen to your teachers,¡°and finally, where we can find all the facilities and rooms.


    Then he told us kids in which class we were and where we could find them. In my class, there are three of my friends, but there are also two guys I hate because they are known for bullying. But all in all, the class isn¡¯t too bad, and I guess all classes have some problem child''s.


    After the headmaster''s speech ended, we all ran exited to our new class, where our teacher was waiting for us already. My teacher was a guy with black hair who looked untidy and lazy. He told us to sit where we wanted, so I sat myself in the third row next to my friends. The little classroom was located in the second floor, the walls were plainly white and we had four windows. The room was all in all boring, really boring and seemingly pretty old already.


    After we were all seated, the teacher played "get to know you games¡± with us, which was of little help to me because I am bad with names. At the end of the lesson, the teacher gave us our timetable and told us what materials we needed to buy for the lessons.


    Then we had a 10 minute break, before the next lesson began, in I talked to some of the people unknown to me. The new guys were all pretty nice and open excluding two or three, who were shy, really shy. The break was sadly fast over, and the second lesson started, which was math. The teacher was an old but nice woman who took her job quite seriously. Some of my classmates had problems with the basics of math and didn¡¯t understand it properly, so the teacher needed to explain everything more than once. This really annoyed me, because I had no problems and learned fast.


    As it was the first day for us at school, we only had three lessons, and so the last lesson for this day arrived after another short, but nice, break. It was a practical lesson at the training Center, located in the outbuilding. Our fighting teacher came to our classroom and led the whole class there.


    Arriving there, he showed us around and told us we were able to spar with each other here and watch the older students fight and train. Another thing we can do here is train our bodies with the training machines all over the place in our free time, but not during lessons.


    The teacher then went with us to a fighting stage and showed us some basic skills with a variety of weapons. Then he let us decide on one weapon we wanted to learn today. I decided fast and took two wooden short-swords from the weapon stand¡ªbecause I always wanted to try double-wielding. While the others took swords, shields, and broadswords, there were even some exotic weapons picked, like bows, throwing stars, and whips. But all weapons had one thing in common: they weren¡¯t deadly and were only for training purposes.


    After we all decided on a weapon, he let us train for ourselves and only gave us now and then some pointers, which were of immense help. Thanks to his help I could improve my technic quite a bit.


    Then, at the end of class, he let us all spar with each other to see how good we were. I had two spars, which I both won easily. The first was against one of my friends, who picked a shield and sword. He just charged in and thought his shield would block all my attacks while he could easily defeat me with his sword. But I just blocked his dash with one of my swords, which broke his balance, and then used the opening to win.


    The second spar was with a girl who wielded a katana; she was one of the girls in my class that I didn''t know. I won against her too, with only two moves. Firstly, I deflected a slash coming from the right with my left sword and then used the other sword to attack her, which made her give up as I only stopped my wooden sword half a centimetre before her face.


    Then, after some other exciting spars from my classmates, the period was over and we were allowed to go. And so we all did, even though I would have liked to stay and use the training machines, but my parents were waiting outside.


    I went outside, and saw them standing right in front of the entrance, they hugged me on sight, and then we went home. On the way, they asked many questions, and I answered them.


    Arriving home, we ate, and I asked them if it was alright if I used the training facilities after school. They said ?for sure,¡°which made me quite happy, but they also said that I should do a break at least one day every week.


    The rest of the day, I spent outside and played with my friends before finally going to bed late in the evening.

 Chapter Six; part I: School life

    Since my first day at school, time has flown by, and now a whole year already passed. Over time, I absorbed a wealth of knowledge at school and earned a reputation as one of the smartest students in my class. Through this I became popular and have made many new friends, my parents began to think of me as a prodigy.


    But I am not only known to be smart, I also became acknowledged as the strongest and got the title: ¡°the unbeatable¡±. This title I got due to never losing a match against one of my schoolmates. I only lost against a few of the instructor, like the ones who is supervising the training Center.


    One of them, to be exact¡ªthe strongest of all¡ªI challenged often. After sparring with him daily for six months, I finally emerged victorious. His background as a former military lieutenant made the achievement even more rewarding. He told me that he loved his work but, at the end of the day, got too old to serve further in the military, and so he decided to train the younger generation. I personally like his attitude and his character.


    After being defeated by me, he was quite surprised and wanted to be my personal teacher after school because he likes me and sees my potential. Thanks to him, I progressed fast in my weapon skills; I learned even some weapons I didn¡¯t know existed but got the hang of them quickly.


    But even now, with his training, I still do my daily work-outs and go to the training center in my free time, to use the gym. My friends joined me in training frequently, and we often sparred together. However, I was always the last to leave, dedicated to my practice. And sometimes while I was training, my friends were playing outside and skipped the training. But I, I never even considered skipping. There were hardly any days when I came home without my muscles aching and sore. But thanks to that, I am now much stronger, faster, stretchier, and more manoeuvrable than ever.


    My parents think that all this training is quite dangerous for me because I am still young, but they still try their best to support me.


    During my rare moments of free time, I would often get out of the pit and head to my secluded spot, where I engaged in one of two activities. I would either practice with my self-crafted knife or carve on my project. When I train, I normally just use wood as a target or sometimes go hunting in the forest for little animals, like rabbits, snails, and other edible animals. Until now, the biggest animal I killed was a fox, which I then dismantled at home for the flesh only to be eaten. Out of its teeth, I made three pocket knives for my siblings as a gift. The other things were plainly sold for a bit of money. Many of my early hunts ended in failure due to my noisy approach, but over time, I honed my skills and greatly improved my stealth.


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    When I wanted to carve, I went to my favourite spot, where I held my carving of Aldorem hidden behind the ancient tree. Then I would take it out and begin to carve on the already-half-finished carving. Wven though it is already the third try, it looks really good and can already be considered a masterpiece.


    That is all that happened, but today, November 11, 937 AV, was a special day. My first year in school is over, and I will hopefully become a second grader if I pass the test. In the aptitudes test, one needs to write a huge exam covering everything we learned this year and afterwards do a show fight, which is scheduled ¨C which shouldn¡¯t be a problem for me. The only thing I was worried about was the exam.


    As I arrived today at school, I saw the new kids standing in the front yard of the school. It looked the same as last year, when I was in that position. But I went by fast and then into the training Center, where all the students were gathered and sorted by class level. In the middle of the room, on the fighting stage, stood the vice principal. There was also a huge crowd in one of the corners, and in it were the lists with the results of the exams.


    I headed in great anticipation straight to the lists, I fought myself through the crowd until finally being near enough to see most of the results. Scanning through it I got more and more excited until finally finding my name. At first I didn¡¯t want to look at the result, but then I did.


    I luckily passed, relieved I went to my class, but judging by the faces some of the students made, many didn¡¯t pass the written exams. For all those who didn¡¯t pass the exam, they were also allowed to go to the next class if they were skilled enough in practical fighting, so there was still hope for them.


    Arriving by my class I was happily greeted by all, they all spoke about their scores, who made it and who didn¡¯t and so on. It was quite noisy in the gigantic hall until suddenly a sound louder than anyone could make rang all awake. Everyone went silent and looked where it came from, it was a bell, a little bell in the hands of the headmaster¡ªeveryone started wondering who such a little fellow could produce something so loud.


    After the bell rang, the vice principal began his speech and then proceeded to begin with the matching of show fights. All students got three random matches where we could show our skills, and afterwards we could challenge each other if we wanted to. Then, at the end of every match, the three judges, who were all advanced instructors, would give us points from 1 to 10 based on the skill we showed. So the maximal points are 30, and in the exam, one could reach up to 100 points. Then they were added, and to pass the class, one needs at least 60 points.

 Chapter Six; part II: The first aptitude test

    My first match was against a girl from my para class; she has blond, long hair falling down over her shoulders and fights with nunchakus. I picked myself a spear so that I could use its long range; the weapons are all created so that we couldn¡¯t hurt ourselves too badly.


    The fight was pretty intense because as it was my first time fighting against someone using this kind of weapon and I needed to adapt myself to her unique fighting style. At the start, I tried to just stab her, but the girl jumped sideways, easily dodging the attack. Then she tried to run close the distance so that she could easily beat me in close combat. But I didn¡¯t let it go her way and jumped backwards to avoid engaging in close combat and prepared another attack. The fight went on for quite a bit like this: one of us would attacked, the other dodged, and so forth. But by the end of the fight, I could clearly see her pattern and understood how nunchakus worked, so I defeated her with a clean attack. We both got 9 points for our performance from the instructors, which made us both quite happy.


    After a long wait and many exciting matches, I was preparing to fight against one of my best friends. We both knew each other since we were little babies and were always close friends until today. Nowadays, we often train together in the training Center, so I know his exact strength and movement through all the spars we had. He is actually really strong and has good fighting skills, but until now he only won twice against me from the hundred fights we had.


    So the outcome of the show-fight was to be expected¡ªat least from us both. But still, we fought with all we had¡ªI with my dual blades and he with his loved dagger. The fight was thrilling; we clashed hundreds of times and moved faster than the human eye could proceed, but in the end, I won. We both got full points and could then finally calm down until the next fight.


    The fight was really enjoyable and refreshing, it was fun having such a hard fight with even one of my best friends. I think he too liked it and was really happy with his good performance.


    Time went by fast, and after half an hour, it was my turn again. As I was called upon the stage, I looked around to see if I could see my opponent. Mainly because I had never heard of his name, even though I was pretty sure I knew all the people in my grade level.


    Standing on the stage in anticipation, I could finally see a guy making his way towards me. His long, messy hair was going all over his face hiding it underneath, but from his silhouette I knew who he was. He is from my para class and is known to never speak a word to anyone. In class, he always sleeps, whereas in practical class, he just stands in some corner.


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    The sparring began shortly after he stood on the stage, and for his weapon, he took a knight-like sword. After the ¡°go¡± from the referee, he didn¡¯t move an inch and waited for me to attack, which I did. He deflected my first attack, like I anticipated. So I used my second sword to counter him and finish him at once. But, against all my imagination, the guy stepped to the side dodging skillfully, which made me stumble. Seizing the opportunity, he struck me with an uppercut I couldn¡¯t evade, and I lost the match immediately.


    ¡°Good fight,¡± said the guy while giving me a hand to stand up. Baffled I took his hand, and mumbled something coming close to ¡°good game¡±, only to then be left alone, he just went down from the stage and sat in the corner, where he came from. I got down from the stage right behind him looking in nothingness, still not believing what just happened. In my head I reflected what happened and came to the conclusion, I was still to weak and could have never taken him on. There was never a real chance against him, for him it was just playing around.


    All who knew me and my strength were mesmerized, as well as me, but this just showed me that I still had a long way to go and should never underestimate anyone. The referee gave me 4 and him 10 points.


    I came back to my class, where I was nicely greeted and encouraged by my friends. But inside, I was disappointed in myself and wanted to dig my own grave because I was too confident in myself.


    All the matches were done about 5 minutes after my last one, so now we were allowed to challenge each other and fight as much as we wanted. But I wasn¡¯t in the mood and decided to just sit there, even though I had many guys who challenged me. I didn¡¯t even look at the matches that were going on; instead, I looked at the floor while some of my friends gathered around me, trying to cheer me up. But it didn¡¯t help, and after we were allowed to leave, I went directly to the gym in the training Center and wasn¡¯t seen at home until late in the evening, to my parents great surprise. All the time while training I had always the moment before I lost in my head, and what I could have done to prevent my defeat. I thought and thought and thought and came in the end to one realisation I was still too weak, I needed to get stronger and swifter to be able to doge such fast attacks.


    Coming home, I realized that, at the end of the day, I still got 23 points for fighting and 92 points for the exams. And with this, I am one of the best students in the school and shouldn¡¯t cry about a lost fight, and instead be happy with my performance like my parents are. But they weren¡¯t happy about me coming home that late, even though it was such an important day. They would have much more preferred to get the information earlier of me making it in the next class. But it is as it is and they couldn¡¯t do anything against it. I still told them about everything, ate and then went to bed.


    And so I and many other of my friends were promoted to second grade; only two sadly couldn¡¯t make the cut. Which was quite sad, but I already said to them that we can still train together, have fun together and I would help them out if they needed it.

 Chapter Seven: The slaughter

    Since I lost to the silent guy, I have been training every day more intensely and longer than the last one. The last week I had been in the gym everyday until midnight, which my parents didn¡¯t like as I awoke them one time as I came home.


    So now they want me to stop training all day long and to take a break. We argued the whole morning about it, and in the end, they decided for me that I wouldn''t be allowed to train this week as punishment and thereafter to train only until two hours after the sun sets. I was pretty angry after our little talk, mainly because I couldn¡¯t even argue back and had to accept the punishment.


    But I decided directly that I wouldn¡¯t accept it and just keep training, and so after school was finished, I went to the training Center and trained with the advanced instructor on my technique.


    While training, I decided to tell him about what happened because he became like a big brother to me. He told me afterwards that my parents wanted probably only the best for me, but he agrees with me that the punishment of not training for a week is just too much.


    To end our training, we wanted to spar a little, which we always did when we trained. Back then, I would need hundreds of fights to even win one, but nowadays I have improved so much that there is around a fifty-fifty chance to win. So our matches became more and more exciting.


    But at the exact moment our swords clashed¡ªproducing a loud sound¡ªthere was a loud shout coming from the entrance.


    There, my mother and father stood, angry, staring at me. After I and my instructor halted, they slowly made their way to us. Arriving in front of me, they towered imposing over me with a gleam in their eyes. Then they began scolding me for doing exactly what I wasn¡¯t allowed to do, to train. In this moment, my parents were, for me, like beasts; I never knew they were able to be that angry. My instructor tried speaking with them but just got ignored, so he just stood beside me like some dummy.


    After being scolded by my parents for a long time and after a long argument about what they would now do with me, they dragged me home against my will. But they luckily decided to ignore this one time and not stretch the punishment out.


    At home, they then proceeded to ask me, ¡°Why did you do that?¡±. So I told them the truth about how I feel about all of this, but then they just shrugged it off and told me, ¡°Might be the truth, but you just overdid it, and a week isn¡¯t that much." I agreed, but inside I knew that wasn¡¯t the case.


    That day I decided it would be best to sleep early, so as the sun set, I went to bed and slept nicely through the whole night. The next day, when we were school-free, I awoke early, even earlier than my family.


    So I just stayed laying in bed, thinking about many things, but mainly about whether or not I should run away and where to, so that I could train without being disturbed.


    The destination was quickly clear¡ªmy spot outside the chasm¡ªbut with what consequences? In the end, I decided to go because I just wanted to be away from them, and a bit of training wouldn¡¯t be bad for me. Furthermore I really like it there and I can enjoy the beauty of nature.


    So I quietly packed my backpack, gently went down the stairs towards the exit, and then I silently pressed down the door handle and went out of the door. Walking outside, I felt the chilling wind blowing over my face. The streets were still empty, and there weren¡¯t any noises. The only thing I could hear was my own breath and my little heart beating.


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    I hurried down the streets and alleyways until I reached the rough staircase. Without much hesitation, I began the long climb, which took me quite a bit of time, but the longer it took me, the warmer it got, which made the last few meters much more pleasant.


    In the meantime, my parents awoke and then prepared breakfast for the family. As they called all down, they realized that I wasn¡¯t there. So they went in my room to look for me, but what they found was no surprise to them. An empty bed, and a vanished backpack. They combined quickly and knew where I was going, but before they started to follow me, they decided to eat, pack their rucksacks, and then give my little siblings to our grandparents. Afterwards the chase began.


    While they were down in Aldorem, I was already sitting on a stone in front of the dark forest, drinking and hiding in the shade of a tree.


    Having a nice break I went into the forest and followed my normal path, but in the midst of the forest, I saw some traces. They seemed to come from dogs, but dogs don¡¯t survive out here, which led me to the conclusion that these must be from Iw¨¤rts. Because they are the only wolf species I know of with the capability to survive here.


    The moment I realized that I knew what I was gonna do, I would power myself out and train ¨C and at the same time, take my sweet revenge for the bad wound the iw¨¤rt back then inflicted on me.


    Silently, I followed the track, but the longer I followed, the more traces I could see. They were coming from all directions and melted with one. But there they seemingly disappeared, so these wolves must have trampled only in the traces of the one before them¡ªmaking them really smart. Because so as it is I can¡¯t know¡ªand every other predator¡ªhow many of them there are for real.


    After following them further, I could hear here and there their howling. As I was quite close to them, I began moving through the trees to not be seen by them¡ªgiving me a nice little advantage.


    On a clearing, I found all the Iw¨¤rts; there were 24 of them, but none of them saw me until now. They stood around in a circle around one of them, who seemed bigger and stronger than all¡ªprobably their leader.


    After seeing the situation down there, I readied myself and then jumped down on the nearest iw¨¤rt, my knife pointing down at his head.


    I stabbed deep into his head, piercing trough his though shell, which killed him. I was happy, as I found out that my new knife was so strong. Before any of the iw¨¤rts could react, I ran towards my next victim and took him down with a stab in his side. Then the other wolves began to comprehend what had happened and began attacking me. ¡°Let the hunt begin¡± was the last thing I said before beginning my slaughter. I killed Iw¨¤rt after Iw¨¤rt, while taking many attacks. It was now much more easy with my new weapon and my new found strength. As the fight went on my whole back was slashed open, and my left arm had been bitten two times, but I already took down at least fifteen of them. But my head got heavier and it was getting harder to stay sane.


    Then the last thing I remember was the alpha wolf biting me in the side, taking me down to the bottom.


    The next thing I know is me lying in bed at home, my parents sitting beside me and looking happily as I awoke. The first thing I asked them was, ¡°What happened?" They told me that they found me half-dead lying under a tree after they followed my traces while hearing the sound of the wolves howling in agony. Then they told me that as they found me, there were around forty dead wolves lying around. I found it sounded strange, as I only saw 25 iw¨¤rts lingering around the place. Which means there had been many more wolves coming from all around unnoticed by me, while battling. And seemingly I had killed all of the wolves by instinct in the moment I have no memories of.


    My parents told further that as they saw me in my desolate condition, the first thing they did was giving me some healing potions, which I luckily brought along with me. Then they carried me home and laid me on my bed, hoping for the best.


    Hearing the story, I hugged my parents and told them I would never do that again, while apologizing. But then I realized that I was really sleepy and fell back in bed before saying ¡°good night.¡± My parents just smiled, and were happy that I was alright.

 Chapter Eight; Part I: Live goes on...

    Day after day flew by, my birthday came, and I turned 12 ¨C sadly there were no really cool gifts. Then again, training, training, and even more training all day long until the day came when the competition was held for advancing to the next class. This time, I set myself a goal: to win against the boy I lost to last year. He was the hurdle I had to overcome if I wanted to be the best.


    The competition was this time the same as the last one ¨C three matches with a maximum of 10 points. This time I won all matches in seconds without a problem and got 26 points. While I was fighting, all in the hall were in awe because I dominated all my opponents, even though one of them was quite strong ¨C for the average. The whole time I watched all the matches, especially the one¡¯s of the guy who defeated me. He too won all the matches quite easy.


    As the competition ended and we could challenge each other to matches, I went to the one guy who defeated me and challenged him. He just shrugged his shoulder and then nicked, so we went on the stage and both readied ourselves. We both picked our weapons, like last time, and then stood there on the stage. As we both were ready, we respectively nicked at the other one, and so the match began.


    He was the first to move and slowly closed the distance. As he was about three steps away, I went for it and threw myself forward. I ran towards his left side; he reacted fast and swung his sword from above at me. I blocked the attack with my right sword, and at that moment, I turned my upper body so that I could look him right in the eyes. While tuning, I used the impulse to throw my short sword in my left hand with full power at my opponent while targeting his shoulder to make him unable to use his weapon. But he saw it coming and evaded the attack, by a hair strain, twisting his shoulder backwards. While he evaded, I used the chance to jump back and get a stable stand.


    The attack was a nice try, but now I had only one sword left; the other was lying in the corner, where it would be hard to recover it. And I don¡¯t think my opponent would give it back to me that easily, but I still needed to try. But for more thoughts, there was no time, because I was awoken by a broad sword hitting the ground beside my left while nearly hitting me. I only evaded it because, in the last second, my instinct helped me and made me turn my body to the side. But he didn¡¯t stop there and made an upper cut, which I evaded by jumping back, only to then throw myself forward and slash from above at the guy, who blocked the attack with his sword. Then he pushed me back with his insane strength and attacked me quickly while I was mid-air. But in the last moment, before being defeated by the incoming slash, I turned myself mid-air on the side, only to then, shortly before hitting the ground, roll off. Thanks to that, I had a free lane to my second sword lying on the ground. I didn¡¯t hesitate and ran for it while being followed by my opponent. I could pick it up again while nearly being hit by an incoming attack, but now I again had my advantage back.


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    I charged at the guy after shortly gathering my breath, only to be blocked. But this time I didn¡¯t make the same fault, as last time I fought him and toggled my speed, twisted my body sideways, and then stabbed him. But he easily dodged the attack apparently and began with his own attack, which I blocked, causing me to be pushed away from him. Then he went all in with an over-head attack, faster than I could register, and struck me down with one clean hit.


    And so ended my fight against him again in a loss; he just went down the stage again after winning saying only ¡°nice fight¡±. This made me furious, but I suppressed my feelings and decided to definitely win next time.


    So I began exactly this day to prepare myself for our next fight in one year, and every day I trained, spared, hunted, and trained more. A year went by faster than I would have loved it to, and through all my training, I was now strong¡ªreally strong. In comparison to now, my old self from two years ago was a little child; even the advanced instructor, whom I could barley win against, now had a near zero chance against me. My footwork had made the most improvement over the year; I was always stable, and now it was really hard to make me stumble. But the thing I am most proud of this year is that I made myself a second dagger with another iw¨¤rt teeth I gathered from the dozen wolf corpses.


    But even though all I did this year¡ªall the struggle I had while training, all the sweat I sweated, and my huge improvement¡ªthe fight ended in a tie. We fought for a quarter of an hour straight before we both collapsed from exhaustion. The fight was perfectly equal; there was no clear winner; we countered or evaded each and every attack; we seldom took hits. But when we took a hit, we did so only to hit our opponent. The fight was epic until the last round, where we both ran forward, only to meet halfway and then hit each other. We both fell down and couldn¡¯t come back up due to exhaustion. Only after a nice hour of sleep we both awoke in the school infirmary, there we both spoke with each other about the fight, we gave us both some pointers and had fun chatting. He was actually a really nice guy, which wondered me, as he is known to be an outsider. He even said: "Nice fight; you are quite strong. I would have never thought there was someone here that was on the same level as me." I answered him and told him he wasn¡¯t half bad either. He thanked me while looking kinda unsure. After our little conversation, I was happy that I got myself a good rival, but also that I was the first person to hear ¡®the guy who never speaks¡¯, speaking. After a while we both were allowed to leave and go home, we departed at the school exit. And so the day ended on which I got to know my first real rival.


    At home, I was a bit disappointed in myself for losing, but I also realized just what kind of monster the guy is. But now that I knew his strength and technique, I was confident that if I trained further until next year, even more than before, I would definitely win.

 Chapter Eight; Part II: ...and on

    Next day at school I was besieged by my classmates the moment I stepped into the room, as they all asked me about the fight and praised me. I was really overwhelmed by them and could only answer some few questions before the teacher came into the room and persuaded us to take our seats. The day went by as normal after the little incident, nothing out of the unexpected happened.


    The next few days went by as normal: train, train, and train. But after a week had passed since the competition, I met the guy I tied with in the training Center, which would be normal, but I never saw him here before. I walked towards him on sight and asked him what he was doing here. He told me that he wouldn¡¯t give me an easy win next year, and so he would train too. I liked his spirit and told him if he wanted we could train; he agreed without thinking much, and so we spared, spotted, and trained with each other. But even though we were good friends after a while, I never learned much about his family or life. The only thing I know about him is his name, which might as well be fake. Because he said to me that I could just call him ¡®Nian¡¯. But I didn¡¯t mind his whole attitude and situation and didn¡¯t ask further.


    Nian and I trained much over the year until our day came again when the competition was held. This year, 940 AV, is my third time in this competition, and I will probably be promoted to the fourth class.


    This time I won once again all matches and even got 29 points, but later on I challenged Nian, who had also easily won all matches, just like last time. Maybe not as flashy as me, but even then it was quite an impressive sight. The fight began with a huge uproar of the crowd, as our epic fights got known over the year. All the crowd cheered for either one of us.


    The fight began with a coin falling to the ground, and at the same time our swords already producing a rumbling. For us it was normal speed, but for the normal spectator insanely fast.


    This time we fought for nearly an hour straight. We both fought so often against each other over the year that we knew nearly all our moves, but only nearly. And so, after we were both quite tired from fighting, I used all my remaining strength to finish Nian off. For this, I waited until he attacked with a swing from above, but instead of blocking, I ducked myself and quickly went near him. Through this, his huge sword swung down behind me, and I safely avoided the attack. But instead of trying to step him, which would make him jump back, I let my weapons fall to the bottom and clasped his lower body. So he couldn¡¯t move or attack me. I threw myself on the floor and threw Nian over my left shoulder forward. He landed on his back and couldn¡¯t stand up any more, and so I won with my newly learned martial arts. I am still nowhere near to master them, but they are a nice addition to my fighting style.


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    My win made me really happy, and I enjoyed being the strongest once again. But I knew I could as well have lost, and if I stopped training, I would instantly fall behind my rival again.


    And so I and Nian trained all those years we were in school together, and every year we would do a more epic fight than the last one. We both got known in the school as the strongest, and many stayed after the competition to see our fight. Normally, no one would even think about staying longer than they had to, but just for our match, they did. We were even closely watched by the headmaster, who rarely took interest in students, but maybe he saw potential in us both. Sadly I couldn¡¯t yet see the headmasters strength, even so he makes the impression, just by looking at me, as if he still could crush me easily. And year after year I began to see more through his strength, and the more I did the more respect I had from this guy.


    And so time flew by until I was finally 17, which meant that this year would be my last in school, and when it¡¯s over, I would finally be allowed to do whatever I wanted to do. I already knew what I was going to do: I would join the military forces in Aldorem. The advanced instructor, who helped me train, still has good connections in the military and will help me get accepted there.


    But until then, I still needed to complete my last competition and, with that, successfully finish school. Which was still a bit more than a quarter of a year away from taking place. Like all the time I did before, I trained until then, but actually I changed my training habits a lot over the past years. Now I also meditate and do some martial arts, like judo, muai thai and taekwondo; furthermore, I specialized in dual-wielding daggers and short swords, but also in fast speed and strong attacks with high accuracy. For being more deadly, I learned all the weak points not only from the human body but also from many different animals.


    For training, I build, near my favourite-spot, outside the chasm, a whole training area. There is also a parcour, with traps that I need to avoid, targets to shoot at, rocks to climb up, and much more. I usually go up there four times a week, and sometimes I take Nian with me. Then I train pretty intensively or go hunting nearby. Over the last few years, I got really strong and could easily hunt anything in the forest, except for bears. All different guys told me that they are just too strong and have a great defence; there is just a little chance that I can really damage them they said, so I didn¡¯t even try.


    Nian and I started only sparring every month once since last year, because until the next match, we could now think of many new techniques and we would be able to put up a knew challenge against each other. Before, we spared so often that our fights began taking hours and were getting boring as it was every time just the same as we knew each other''s techniques so well. But now as it is, our fights have begun to be more enjoyable again. Through this I am really hyped about our last fight, which will give away the final winner of our rivalry. So I will train even more than normally until it, and hopefully win.

 Chapter Nine: Unexpected encounter

    Looking down upon Aldorem, I could see the city slowly awaking from its deep slumber. The streets were slowly filling with people, who seemed to be like little ants from up here. Noises from deep within the chasm could softly be heard, which the now active mines produced.


    For a good while, I overlooked the chasm, but as I finished my breakfast, I spun around and stood up. Stretching myself, I could see the old forest with its ancient trees still standing strong. From many of the mossy giants, lianes hung down or other plants grew onto them. But not only that, there were also millions of little animals housing in and on them.


    Normally I would now search for my way, which leads to the other side of the forest, but I wanted to hunt today in the forest and so decided to just go randomly in it to discover new parts I didn¡¯t even knew of. Because of this, I decided to first go north for some kilometres, while orienting on the forest border right from me. Somewhere I then went into the dark forest.


    I went straight into it, and then the first tree up onto its branches. From there, I ran from tree crown to tree crown while being nearly noiseless, until I saw a little squirrel searching for edible things on the forest floor. So I quietly took out my dagger and then rapidly threw it towards the animal. I hit it in the head, killing it instantly, so I dropped down, collected it, and put it inside my back.


    I went up in the trees again to search for my next victim, which didn¡¯t take long to find. But this time I was too loud, and the rabbit ran away before I had my chance to assassinate it. So it went on for some hours, but at the end I could only kill two rabbits, a squirrel, and two giant frogs, which were each about 30 cm high. With the little hunt, I was quite happy and decided to take a short break.


    I decided to go further northward, due to already being far away from the forest¡¯s west border. On the way I found something I really didn¡¯t expect¡ªa lonely Iw¨¤rt walking around. I thought I killed all of them, but seemingly one survived, and now rooms trough the forest. But it could also be another tribe of those wolves, and so I scouted the area without finding another one of them. As I came back, the Iw¨¤rt sill stood solitary there. I Jumped down from the tree onto him and stabbed him in the head. The beast fell down¡ªdead, and with it, the whole wicked race was slayed, probably. But still I sworn myself to kill them on sight, so that one day, there will be none Iw¨¤rts left.


    Further North I went after the unusual encounter, only to find myself at a dead end, where going further in the bushes was nearly pointless as the forest got too dense. I decided to go a huge half circle and then go another way back to where I came from.


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    I was half way back, to the point, where I entered the forest; when something gigantic, fluffy, and light green entered my sight. It picked up my interest, and so I halted and slowly sneaked up on it. Being nearly over the thing, I realized what I found¡ªit was a Wig¡¯ry. I wondered, as this is a species that lives only in the southern parts of the forest, so what does it do here? It might be on the hunt or it was here because it was banned from its tribe. Either way it was alone here.


    I looked for quite some time at the monster, which is said to be the strongest species living around here in the forest. I was quite fascinated because I had never seen one before, due to avoiding the Wig¡¯rys territory. The beast looked a lot like a bear, but in extra large and on steroids, its fur was all green, only differing in its shades now and then. It¡¯s face looked intimidating; two teeth were growing out of it¡¯s mouth ¨C like a sabre tooth¡ªbut one of them was seemingly broken off in battle.


    ¡®Should I try my luck and see whether I can beat this guy in a 1v1 or just miss this once in a lifetime opportunity and go now further?¡¯ I asked myself. But then it snapped in me, I always evaded these huge, fluffy bears because they are known to be strong, which is for sure true. But who said that I wasn¡¯t strong enough to kill one or two of them? Over the last few years, I have grown so much and learned to fight really well. Furthermore, my strength is only slowly growing because I am already trained to my body''s limit, which is even higher than that of a normal person due to eating the strengthening stone. And a fight like this where I come to my limits might help me break my body limits further.


    As I thought I did, I took out my dagger in my right hand, fixed it with tape, and then hung my backpack on a nearby branch. As I was ready I jumped down right on top of the bear, with my dagger head first. I aimed right at it¡¯s neck, but the Wig¡¯ry realized the assault in time and could evade the deadly attack by leaping forward, but still got hit in its lower back, which must have hurt quite badly.


    I landed smoothly, stood up, and looked the bear straight into his green eyes as it spun around. Looking angry at me, the bear barded its teeth and then jumped forward, opening its mouth. For it¡¯s size, it was unexpectedly rapid, but still far away from my speed, so I evaded the attack by jumping over him and using the chance to slice the wound from before more open. The Wig¡¯ry cried in agony as, but reacted fast by turning around again. Without giving the monster a break, I leaped forward instantly. The beast didn¡¯t expect it, and so I stabbed it deep in its chest, only to jump back again before he could respond. The bear seemed to still had hope left to defeate me, he threw himself down on me, but too late, as I was already out of its range. Using the fact that the monster was now helplessly lying upon the ground, I ran over it to the deep flesh wound I had inflicted and stabbed deep into the Wig''ry; who, let a loud cry escape his mouth before dying. The sound made all animals in a mile radius flee from whatever the cry made.


    I was flabbergasted that the wig¡¯ry was so easy to kill, but I realized that I might have gotten really strong. So I decided now go hunting in the Wig¡¯rys territory, if those are really just some big bears, it shouldn''t be too hard.


    After dealing with the monster, I decided to take the one tooth that was still intact with me to use as a new weapon. I couldn''t carry the rest of the enormous corpse home that easily, so I will probably come with my parents tomorrow to dismantle it and bring it down.


    But for now, one tooth was enough, so I went back to the entrance of the forest and then down into the chasm. Coming home I excitedly told my parents about my new accomplishment, who just congratulated me.


    This day I slept really well and long.

 Chapter Ten: Part I: Graduation

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 Chapter Ten: Part II: A last fight

    As all the matches were over, we both readied ourselves and got on stage. I took my standard equipment¡ªa short sword in my right hand and a dagger with a reverse grip in my left hand¡ªwhich was taped to my hand. And a second dagger was attached to my waist. Nian just took a huge broadsword.


    All the weapons were crafted from wood and were not lethal, but they still hurt on impact. I sadly knew from experience.


    This was the last time we stood against each other; we both knew that, we both were concentrated like never before. This match would decide the ultimate winner of our rivalry, and with this knowledge in our heads, we rushed forward the moment the coin fell, which the referee threw. The tension was apparent by the naked eye, the air was oppressing. We met halfway; our swords collided heavily¡ªwith a roar. Nian has gotten stronger, even stronger than me. I felt it as I struggled to push against his attack. But I was still more agile than him, so I went sideways causing Nians sword to hit the ground.


    I could have countered in this moment but decided against it because it felt like a trap. Nian then, as he realized I evaded his trap, leaped at me and started an onslaught of attacks. I blocked some attacks but tried to avoid them as often as possible, due to their strong impact, even though I could do so. If I were to block every attack I would fear my sword shattering.


    Nian never left any openings, his sword art was peerless, so I needed to create a chance to win¡ªI thought while avoiding Nians slashes.


    So the next time he swung his sword at me, I blocked the it and then stepped forward to stab at him with my short sword. Nian only evaded it, thanks to his instincts, turning sideways. But he forgot to put pressure on my dagger with his broadsword, so I took the chance and attacked him with my now free dagger. Nian was quite surprised, but he could rapidly regain his concentration and evaded attack after attack. Until he saw an opening that he knew to use well, he quickly turned himself on the spot and swayed his sword at me. I was too slow to register the attack and got hit on my left side. Through the hit, I was sent flying all over the stage.


    Standing up, I felt my whole side hurt like hell, but I pushed further and ignored the pain. So I rapidly began to attack again. But I had now even less of a chance due to being wounded, and so I received hit after hit. Meanwhile, Nian only got a little wound from me. I thought it was already over, and I would never be able to win this fight any more.


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    But as I lied there, half beaten and overfilled with pain, I felt a warm feeling in myself. Somewhere around my torso. It was like back than in my dream, so I concentrated myself on the warmth. This time, I found the point much easier. There it was, like a little green ball, holding an enormous amount of energy. It was more like the energy was imprisoned in the ball. And so I tried breaking the ball with my mind. At first, nothing happened, but then cracks started to appear. And finally, it broke, releasing a burning sensation in my whole body while easing my pain.


    From outside, the crowed saw all my wounds healing up rapidly, and a new shine appearing in my eyes.


    As my pain was now gone and I felt stronger than ever, I stood up again, only to see Nian already running towards me, ready to attack me. But it was not like before; he felt slower¡ªnot much, but a bit. His insanely fast strike, I could dodge easily now, Nian didn¡¯t stop there and began another onslaught of attacks. This time I could dodge them much easier than before, and I even saw many openings. So I took one and hit him with my short sword right into his abdomen, sending him tumbling backwards.


    I used the chance to hit him again, this time with my dagger in his side, but he could block it. He tried to start a comeback and gain the upper hand again, which I didn¡¯t allow him to do. I was much stronger than before the strange event happened. So this time I could easily hold against his attacks. Also I could now compare to his insane strength, and push back when blocking, which irritated Nian, who jumped backwards, as he realized it. I didn¡¯t let him flee, and I leaped forward, attacking him from all directions. He was still able to evade some attacks or block them, but he got hit more often as time went on. From there on, I completely dominated the match. Nian was unable to fight back, and so at the end, I finished him off with a nice swing from my short sword, which brought him to the ground.


    Nian stood only up after a long time passed, as he was too exhausted. He only awoke as the little party was already going on. I was by his side the whole time, with my family. The moment he awoke, he said to me, ¡°congrats, you monster.¡± I just said thank you. After my family left, he asked me the question, I already knew he was going to ask: What happened¡ªthat you went from being beaten-up to easily dealing with me?


    So I told him the truth about what happened, and to that, he just said, ¡°To awaken this young, without help is just insane." I didn¡¯t know what he meant by "awakening," so I asked. He told me not to worry too much about it and that it just meant that I could now learn magic and wizardry. But he neither knew how one could learn it, so I¡¯ll have to try myself.


    After the party ended, I looked one last time in Nians eyes, shook his hand, and said to him, ¡°Goodbye, I wouldn¡¯t mind seeing you again," to which he replied, ¡°Then I will get my revenge, bro. See ya" And so we parted, maybe forever. I went home, and he probably too.

 Chapter Eleven: The military academy

    After graduating from school, I still had until the first of next year, which was still a quarter of a year away. In this time I did what I always did: I trained, hunted, and fought. I could even eliminate many Wig¡¯rys at the time and hunt many more animals in the forest. But I didn¡¯t only do this; I also explored more areas along the stream, coming from the east. There I found new species I never saw, I studied them because they were kind of interesting.


    I now had much more time for this, thanks to having no school to attend to, but I also used the new won time to finally finish my carving. The carving of the whole chasm with Aldorem in it ¨C I made it inside a cut-off tree. It has many details; every house is a masterpiece, and the chasm itself looks exactly like it does in real life. I am really, really proud of myself, and now the carving stands at my favourite-place¨Cunder the ancient tree, beside the stream. On the carving itself, I put a class panel, and now I use it as a table. The masterpiece itself is a meter high and half a meter wide.


    In the middle of the winter, as a huge snow layer covered the region and Aldorem¨Cthrough which the world seemed to be colourless¨Cthe year approached its end. My last few days have come in my beloved home; next week I will be sleeping and living at the military academy, located outside the chasm. The last day, my parents used to make a huge party for me, and to celebrate the new year.


    The first day of the year was a Thursday¨Ca pretty cold one. Going outside with my parents early in the morning, I could already see the military carriage standing beside our house to pick me up. So I went inside, took my already packed baggage¨Cwith the help of my parents¨Cand went to the carriage. Once I am inside of it, I will not see my parents again until the two weeks of summer vacation. So before going inside, I hugged them for the last time, said goodbye, and wished them prosperous lives. They waved goodbye at me and probably shed a tear or two, as well as I did.


    I hopped on the wagon, in it were already three guys my age and one adult driving. We drove further through Aldorem¡¯s streets until the carriage came to a stop, there we stood for around a minute until another guy my age came out of a nearby house. He greeted us nicely, and then the trip continued. Firstly, to Aldorem¡¯s main road, then out of the city, following the, due to it being early, nearly empty street. Then, after a long climb out of the chasm, the road advanced further south-west for some miles, until there was finally a sharp turn of the carriage, which then followed a field way coming from the north. Then it only took another five minutes to see a giant building coming nearer and nearer.


    On the way to the academy, I got to know all the guys in the wagon; the adult is an instructor at the academy. The guy coming last into the carriage is a second-year student who is one of the best in his class and talked much about his achievements, which I gave no attention to. While the other three dudes in here were all newbies, like me, one of them was the shy type of person who nearly said nothing the whole way. The other two were quite open, and we spoke a lot.


    The academy is a renown institute in the whole region, as it is known to be one of the best. All the students here are the best of the best when it comes to fighting and so on. And once a student graduates from the academy, he can go instantly to the army with quite a high rank or even become an imperial knight.


    Every year, the military academy only accepts around a hundred people. For this, all the best guys graduating every year get an invitation to a great test, where the best get selected to get a place in the academy. All the others get another chance the year after and are sent home again per carriage. The carriage I was in was the one that brought all the qualified people from Aldorem with it; all the other hundred wagons, that were parking in front of the academy brought even more people from all over the region.


    We all left the wagon, and the instructor told the second grader that he should go through the gate and follow the right path to the dormant. As the guy left, the instructor spun around and went forward, telling us to follow him. We went from the carriage towards the beautiful, with flowers and plants decorated gate. On both sides of it was a huge, around 4 meters high, wall. The wall was built with thick, grey stone. In comparison to the gorgeous green gate, the wall looked weathered, desolated, and imposing.


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    So I had my doubts about the academy, but as soon as we went through the gate, a nearly endless area opened up, filled with juicy, green grass; some trees; a little lake connected with some streams; an outside training place, where there were some guys training; and two ways. One of which went straight; the other proceeds right. Following with my eyes the right path, I could see three huge buildings some hundred meters away and four training areas, as big as the one that I saw first.


    The other way, which we then followed, went along a small flow and shortly ended by opening up in a gigantic place with no vegetation, but a stage on its other side. The area was filled up to the rim with many hundreds of people, who were all properly here to get accepted into the academy. If I were to guess, then I would say about 750 participants and another hundred or so teachers were gathered here.


    I and my group stood silently together at the edge of the mass of people. The instructor left towards where the teachers stood. Over the next few minutes, the area filled even more until the headmaster finally came on stage and began to introduce himself.


    We were told by him that the mass gets split up into ten groups, with around eighty people per group. I was included in the last group ¨C the tenth. Each group was then led by a three teachers to one of the training areas. Our group needed to go pretty far until we were finally able to even see the area where our abilities were tested.


    At the training place, the teacher tested all of us one after another in different disciplines. Reaching from sprinting, to how far we could jump, how high we could jump, how good our accuracy with throwing daggers is, how fast our reaction time is, how many pull-ups we can do, and so on. For each of the total ten categories, we got points according to our abilities reaching from 1 to 10, which were then added to get our final score.


    I was rather lazy and didn¡¯t even give my best, but without much problem, I got the best score in my group¨Cthe maximum. I was really disappointed in the test due to expecting so much and a new challenge.


    After finishing the examination, we were again led back to the place where we were before the test began. Our group was one of the first to finish, as there weren¡¯t as many people in it. So we needed to wait for the time being until finally all groups were gathered.


    The headmaster again came upon the stage; he told us that he thanked us for being here today and he hoped that we would make it, and so on. It was just another boring speech with no real meaning or important message. At the end of it, he ordered another teacher to come onto the stage.


    The teacher held some pieces of paper in his hand, which were the results. He was ordered to put them on a stone board, standing beside the stage. Doing so, he was besieged by many students wanting to see their place first, so the headmaster spoke a word of might and shouted all the noisy students down. Hearing the angry principal, all the annoying guys felt kind of dumb and went a few steps away from the board.


    As the teacher finally finished his job, all began rapidly to go towards the blackboard. The teacher fled away as fast as possible, as otherwise he had no hope to escape.


    Only I and some others stood in the back and waited until the most had seen the results. Standing there, I could see guy after guy and girl after girl leaving the area in a bad mood. While only a small part of them went upon the stage, as the qualified people were told to do. In front of me, I could see many people, and most of them, especially the ones in the huge circle around the black board, were nervous. I wasn¡¯t because I knew I had the full score and, with this, a nearly 100% chance to get accepted into the academy.


    The crowed eased down and lessened more and more, so I and all the ones waiting with me there went towards the result paper. And as expected, I was one of the 18 people who got a full score. Looking over the list, I found it quite shocking that to be accepted, one needed at least 94 points. After seeing my score, I went up onto the stage, and behind me came another few. Most of them too waited for the crowed to lessen and seemed confident from the beginning.


    When all were on the stage and the not qualified away, we needed to go to the teachers, sitting behind a table. They checked our identities and then gave us keys to our dormant. On the stage were even some guys who tried sneaking in the academy, but all got thrown out, and banned forever because they had no matching identities to the winners.


    I got my keys without problem and went to the dorm and into my room as the headmaster told us to do. In my room, I found myself with another three beds, where other guys from this year will sleep; I met them only after waiting for a few minutes.

 Chapter Twelve: A new found strength

    With me, there were three other boys, in my dormitory, one of whom I recognized as the one who was with me in the wagon. He was the one I spoke with all the time the ride lasted to the academy; he is open, and we became good friends over the first few weeks.


    The other two were complete strangers to me, but at least they weren¡¯t annoying and were rather quiet, laid-back, and chill guys. I didn¡¯t evade them and even tried befriending them, but sadly with no success. At least it wasn¡¯t my fault, as they didn¡¯t even want friends and avoided speaking at all costs.


    These two guys I only ever saw in the dorms late in the evening, as they both sat, in class, in the last row, behind the last possible corner¡ªfurthest away from everyone. No one even knows why they sit together, but neither someone asked them yet; they have already built up the reputation of being "outsiders." But this might be better for them, as they can concentrate fully on doing nothing without annoying dudes asking them dumb questions.


    In practical classes, they only do the most necessary, as in everything they are doing. But still they aren¡¯t the worst in tests. It seems like they are pretty similar to my old, good friend Nian.


    I myself have had quite a nice time in the academy so far. I made some new friends: a guy¡ªhe sat himself beside me in a few classes so we became friends; then the one sleeping with me in the dorm; and a nice girl¡ªI got to know during practical lessons. With my new friends I was a lot of my time, sometimes having fun, sometimes doing training. They were all humorous and gentle souls, I really learned to appreciate.


    My new teachers and instructors are also to my likings, they are much more easy with us and give us much more freedom. I too like the fact that the lessons are far more practical, and that we train our body everyday. But the best part is that we have a lot of free time, after our hard school days. I use mine to train in the training areas, which are accessible all day long for all students. With this I am no exception a lot of students do the same.


    All the lessons here are actually much better than back at my old school. I learned much more specific knowledge about war, strategies, signals, and more¡ªall the things a good soldier must know. The exams also went significantly up in difficulty, but were still doable, but gave me the need to invest more time into learning. Trough my huge efforts I was still as good as ever in school and my grades were as good as ever. I was one of the best in my class.


    The same was true for training lessons, where most of my classmates weren¡¯t nearly on my level of strength, but the teacher needed to make the training lessons good for all, which made it way too easy for me. Even after asking the teacher to give me something really hard to do, he disappointed me by giving me some simple and easy exercises¡ªin my opinion. But I didn¡¯t mind it, and eventually began to do my own workout instead of the lesson; the teacher allowed it as he saw that he couldn¡¯t teach me anything.


    After I¡¯ve awakened, I had began to train my mind up in my favourite place. But now that I was in the academy I needed to searched for a fine place onto the academy''s "garden". A long search later I even managed to find a place resembling my old spot, but in miniature. There is a little mound, on which grows a seedling; besides the hill, there is a little flow making its way into a current and then into a little lake with fish.


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    Here I sat day after day, enjoying nature, hearing the wind sing, the water sprinkling, the insects buzzing, and the birds chirping. The environment was beautiful here, and I came into deep meditation in a few minutes.


    As I was here for the first time, which was only a few days after joining the academy, I instantly fell in love with this place. So I began meditating, trying once again to find the sensation from back then¡ªwithout success. But thereafter I felt really good and so I began to come here day after day and mediated for around an hour per day.


    One day¡ªnot too long after beginning to regularly meditate¡ªI managed it, it felt like back then in my strange dream, but without the white void around me. As I felt this warm sensation again, I began tracing it within my mind, but this time it didn¡¯t feel like energy trapped in a little ball. It was more like a cluster, with a strong, energetic core emitting energy all around. But even though it felt much more clearer and present than the little ball before, it was far more complex and even further away from being perfect.


    And so I began experimenting with the energy; I could, to some extent, control it within my body. I could move the core with much effort, but rather easily the emitted energy. Moving the core felt fruitless, as nothing seemed to be happening while it costs me much of my mental power. So I experimented with the energy. At first, I drew things for fun, but as soon as I lost concentration for a short time, the energy all was sucked back to its origin.


    But doing so more often made the whole thing much easier, and so I did over the next few sessions. Until finally, after a week or so, I was able to draw images easily, at least easy ones, and even connect the figure from before to my core, which gained more movability. Having the energy flow connected back to its source, resulted in a steady energy flow, which strengthened me; but I couldn¡¯t hold it up for long, even in mediation.


    So I trained further, and finally, after a month, I made a huge breakthrough: I could finally feel the energy and slightly manipulate it even without meditating. Furthermore, I fully understand the energy now¡ªat least I think so-¨Cwith it, I could make ways through my body, and everything in its way would be strengthened in all aspects. Furthermore, the shorter the way, the better the strengthening, while when the way is longer, the effect gets weaker. I found it out due to some little experiments. So to conclude it, I have a fixed amount of energy in me, which I can manipulate in quality, quantity and in its location. Doing so results in strengthening of the parts where the energy is.


    So much to the theories, but even after more time passed I couldn¡¯t use anything of it in real life; only while mediating could I completely manipulate the energy and reconnect the energy to the core. In real life, I was still in the stage of trying to make little figures or drawings with the energy. If I tried to reconnect the energy to the core, everything would just collapse.


    Even after training constantly for week after week, I made only slow progress in terms of the energy, but even this little bit made me stronger. Because, I was stuck with my physical abilities, making me unable to improve much more, as I had reached my body''s potential since years. This was also the reason why I trained my movability and quietness progressively more and improved my technique instead of doing as much physical training as before.


    Back then, in my fight with Nian, as I managed to awaken, I didn¡¯t immediately feel it, but later on, I realized that my physical strength had now at least twice the potential from before. Which made me, after I realized it, train my strength again. As I had more than enough time here and even trained after practical lessons daily for a long time, I improved rapidly.


    I could never reach anywhere near my new maximum strength over the months in the academy, but after each time I meditated, I felt this goal going away further and further, which on one side made me a bit mad, as I wanted to be the best version of myself, but on the other side, I now could become even more of a beast. And what would happen if I could control the energy in real life, like in mediation? I couldn¡¯t begin to fathom my potential and new strength.

 Chapter Thirteen: Part I: A huge party

    My head spins and I fell right back into the bed I tried getting up of, as I am still a bit drunken from yesterday. It was a happy day, my 18 birthday, we partied a lot and had a good time¡ªI my friends and many more dudes from the school. But now as I laid on my bed, I remembered my family, albeit we exchange letters from time to time I really missed them. Since seeing them it had already been around 5 months. I can still remember it vividly and think back on these few days with a huge smile.


    Next time I visit my parents will be in a month, I am already more than exited. As of now I met with them two times, as we have every half of a year for two weeks school free. The last time I was at home we had long talks, they told me what happened in Aldorem, and I responded with stories of mine.


    In Aldorem naught has changed, only the people and the city aged a year more. But completely nothing is a bit harsh, actually was the city blooming more than ever. There were a lot of merchants and the mines had huge production this year. So the money was flowing in Aldorem, which was used to enhance the trading streets even further. But not only this, also the lanterns in the city were renewed, so now all was much brighter. Also there were more of the supporting structures build, to make sure Aldorem wouldn¡¯t be crushed in between the stone.


    As I said before, the people have changed, and so did my siblings. The tiniest of all, my sister was now in the fourth class. She is kinda a genius when it comes to theory, she knows everything and here grades are supreme. But in combat she is still lacking, a lot. So I took some of my time and trained her a bit, which immensely helped her, as I could read in their last letter I received.


    My other two brothers, who are twins, are now one year away from their graduation, and are bound to go to really good secondary schools. They are talented in fighting, and aren¡¯t dumb either. When they fight in a team they are the strongest, even I had trouble dealing with them, while training. They have insane coordination, strength and can cover each others weak spots all the time. Those aspects make them nearly undefeatable, when fighting together.


    My strength also made a huge leap again, I would say that I improved about two times. If I were to again fight the Nian, from 2 years ago, I would definitely crush him in no time. But the one from now I couldn¡¯t know, as never saw each other. But I believe, he is always a step above me, so I would keep being motivated to train.


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    As for my achievements and reputations in the academy, they both are great. I am not the best known, but also not treated like ghost. In the academy all things go over a kind of credit system. Every time one attends a class one gets one. To make it into the next year one needed at last 1500, which equals about 5 classes a day. So normally all students easily make it.


    The second requirement to advance to the next class is to pass the final exam, which one can only attend when one has good marks. This is were most students fail, as the exams are difficult, not even speaking of the final exam. But until now I could master them, and not to many failed yet.


    In the academy there is also another system, it is a point system, where we would gain monthly a fixed amount to buy things. Those points act like a currency around the place and are later also used in the real military. But we only gain some per month and so need to get more on our own, which is only achievable by selling goods to the salesman-guild. Many search for herbs or fruits to sell, while others, like me, go around decapitating monsters and selling their valuable body parts.


    The whole system is in my opinion really good and is quite helpful. By the way for the point one can buy many things, like armour, swords, items, but also services. Like personal tutoring, training and everything one can think off, others would do for money.


    I personally, seldom used my money, as I never had any use for it excepted for eating. So I had accumulated a huge wealth over the years, as I really loved hunting. At the moment I am thinking whether I should get myself some good new armour, but that would be for another day.


    After all those thoughts went trough my head I, I again went into a deep sleep, only to be awake hours later, to chirping bird sounds outside. I stood up and saw around, I was alone in my dormitory, everything was normal. As I looked outside westward I could see the sun standing over the horizon, emitting beautiful yellowish rays. The sun was on the edge of setting down. I couldn¡¯t look away as I was mesmerized by the beautiful view, the more the sun went down the more reddish were the rays. It was the most gorgeous sun set I ever witnessed.


    While looking the sun go down I reflected on yesterday. I had been really drunk and my sight had been blurry, so I couldn''t remember quite well what happened. But one thing was still clear in my mind, it was the best day since a long time. We had danced, played games and did so much more.


    The last thing I can think of was me tumbling over and falling, but I guess the others helped me and brought me to my room, where I gad slept until now. Luckily today was school free so I wasn¡¯t worried about lessons. Which I would for sure all have missed, if they were today.


    As my thoughts ended I realized the light had diminished, the world is now toned in grey and black. I didn¡¯t know what I shall do now, sleeping was without doubt impossible, I wasn¡¯t even a bit tired. So I decided to go outside and stroll around the silent university campus. On my walk I could see many people, the workaholics who were still training fanatically, some lovely couples laying or sitting in the fresh, green grass and others who were too on my birthday and had the same problem as I. With the last group I mentioned, I we spoke about all what happened. We were six, in our little group that was finally dissolved around midnight.


    Then I went over to my mediation spot, whereas I¡ªas you might have guest¡ªmediated.

 Chapter Thirteen: Part II: A big surprise

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 Chapter Thirteen; Part III: Rematch

    The celebration went on and on, until it was finally time to open my presents. I had high hopes to get really nice things. I ripped open the first box, within was some money and a nice old book about herbs. I opened one after another, gathering a huge variety of books, but also clothes. The books were mainly about building, fighting and meditating, the things I was most interested in. The clothes on the other hand were nice and good, but kind of useless for me.


    The most interesting gifts for me came from my parents and Nian. Nian¡¯s present I really had no clue what it could be, until I opened it and could therein see a flacon with a yellowish coloured liquid. I was bewildered seeing it, as the only thing I could think it could be was an expensive enhancing Potion. They are crafted from a tiny bit of a strengthening stone, mixed with different kins of rare items.


    As I stood there still, Nian said, I should drink it before meditating this evening, it would help immensely. But I hesitatingly asked him, if it was really alright to accept something that expensive from him. He just shrugged it of, so I guessed that it wasn¡¯t something to worry about, as I was still clueless about his family. So I just thanked him a lot.


    The next gift came from my parents, and in it was a carving, it featured, my whole family, with me mist. They all stood shoulder at shoulder gazing forward. But they were nowhere the same, all looked different, all were unique in their way. As I saw it a tear rolled down my cheeks.


    The lively party, had been getting quieter as one after another all the guests left. Until finally only Nian, my family and I were left, the sun was already beginning to set. So Nian and I decided, we would have our fun tomorrow, whilst fighting. Today I would go outside with him and enjoy going around.


    Nian slept with me in my room, he was sleeping on the bed, while I was sitting on a pillow. There I was deep in my meditation, after taking the potion. And as Nian promised it helped greatly, my energy improved rapidly and I could control the ever growing energy better than ever. I could even to some degree shoot it out of my fingers in form of little lightnings. It was perplexing to see how much I could improve with the help of one little potion.


    We both awoke well rested, as the noises from outside became louder. Our plan was to go out of Aldorem, to my favourite place, as soon as possible. There we planned on fighting. As we went downstairs, we unexpectedly found my family preparing breakfast. They nicely greeted us and told us to already sit down. So we ate all together.


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    After it, my brothers asked my parents for allowance to see Nian¡¯s and my fight. They were allowed to, and so we walked out of the door, and then in the direction of the staircase. My brothers had actually never been there, so they were even more excited. I always wanted to show it to them, but my parents were strictly against it.


    As we walked up the damp, mossy way, my brothers were astonished. They looked at ever little plant sprouting from the cracks in the walls, and at every little insect running trough the dark tunnel. After emerging from the darkness, onto the way leading up, we took a little break. My brothers stood the whole time at the very edge of the way, having their eyes fixed on the chasm. Their eyes gleamed of joy, due to the unique, but beautiful sight.


    The rest of the uneven way, we conquered rapidly, At the top the wind greeted us with a light breeze and the birds chirped a songs for us. My brothers were fascinated, they seldom saw such a natural nature. While they were running around the plains, I was mesmerized once again by the sight at the endless, mysterious void of the chasm. Nian stood beside me, he looked into the far distance, maybe remembering something.


    We marched on as the sun was still a margin before it¡¯s zenith. In front of the forest I needed to search a bit, before finding my way, which had been overgrown by plants. But before submerging in the endless green, my brothers took me by my T-shirt and told me that they felt bad going inside. So I told them that this was normal and I had back then the same feelings. Furthermore I said that as long Nian or I was here, nothing could go wrong. With those words they felt comforted and so we went inside. This time we wandered rapidly trough the forest, as my brothers wanted to be outside as soon as possible. But I on the other hand enjoyed being here again, as I made many memories here.


    The gigantic plain, after the forest, we left behind us. Now we stood on the ancient bridge. All of us, even Nian were fascinated, but as we wanted to reach our destination, we stayed there only for a few minutes.


    My favourite place¡ªhere I wasn¡¯t since over half a year, I was so indescribably happy. My brothers and Nian were happy to be here too. They liked it a lot here.


    We sat down around the masterpiece of a table I had carved and crafted. There upon we ate our delicious meals, my parents gave along with us. Thereafter we talked a bit and laughed together.


    After that the rematch of Nian and me was next. We went over to the plains, where we had more place and could fight freely. So we took out our weapons, I my dagger and my short sword and Nian he had a new, even more impressive broadsword.


    We readied ourselves for the moment, The stone which my brothers would throw in the air would land. We both said before it finally started ¡°I hope for a good and fair fight¡± then we shook hands, and at last we gave a nod to my brothers. So the coin got airborne by the flick of a finger. Whilst it was in air, the whole world got quiet, there was only me and Nian in it any more. My concentration was on all time high, the coin fell in slow motion for me and fell and fell and fell.


    And then it hit the ground...

 Chapter Thirteen; Part IV: Let the match begin

    I disappeared, for my brothers, the second the fight began, only to reappear right behind Nian. But he already knows me and my extreme speed well enough. He stepped sideways, still with his back to me, in the last moment, to evade the assault. So my attack unexpectedly hit only air, then I nearly stumbled, through my momentum forward. Nian used my bafflement and slashed upon me with his sword. The attack would have hit for sure, if I hadn¡¯t regained control over my speed in time. Because instead of stopping as I had intended, I accelerated forward.


    As I once again made some space between us both, I readied again for the next round. I waited a little bit, but Nian didn¡¯t seem to intend to attack, so I did. This time from the front, I ran up to him with my sword up, trying to slash him from shoulder to feet. Nian blocked the attack skilfully, which made me try to puncture him with my little dagger, he almost was hit. But in the last second he dodged, while making a little gap between us again.


    Nian leaped at me, the moment he could. I was nowhere ready, as I was still standing there with my dagger trying to stab him. I realized Nian being above me, far to late, the only thing I could do was to block, so I took my sword above my head. One hand at the handle and the other on the blade, to support it. Than I circulated my energy trough my hand, and legs especially to help out. Our blades clashed, an unbearable sound, just like a thunder, was created. As I felt the hit and the weight of the sword, I felt endlessly weak. But still I pressed against it and used all my power. Finally our swords separated again, to my surprise.


    The short moment I used wisely to catch my breath, but I was rapidly interrupted through yet another slash. This time I was prepared, I ducked just a little and with precise movement I moved in front of him, while evading the sword. As I was about to puncture him he reacted in the last moment and leaped backwards. I used his worse position and ran after him, so he couldn¡¯t spin around easily and run normal. My onslaught of attacks was hard to endure for Nian, who was struggling to regain the upper hand again. I could damage him quite badly, until he finally broke out of my clasps and regained equal footing.


    Round upon round we battled, the fight was gradually getting intenser, but a clear winner was yet to be decided. I was pretty tired already but Nian was in a much worse state, as I progressively nibbled down endurance. Neither the less he stood strong and confidence, as if he was sure of his win.


    I realized, the match was about to end, so I decided to go all in. Nian, standing a good bit away, was aware of it as well. But he didn¡¯t move he waited for me to come nearer; as I moved closer I felt awkwardly out of nowhere, making me irritated. But flabbergasted I realized why, Nian was gathering all his inner energy, but not as I would, he gathered it in front of him. As I was inexperienced with this I didn¡¯t know exactly how to respond, but I guessed waiting wouldn¡¯t be a good option. So I leaped right towards Nian, on the way everything was like in slow-motion. The point where Nian was gathering his energy, was visibly by little lightnings, emerging from the area that was glowing in a blueish hue.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    I was halfway by Nian, as a big bulb, of this now blue energy, formed and with a fear in myself. If I hadn¡¯t been in mid-air I would have already gone astray, but I couldn¡¯t. After shortly thinking a bit I decided to use my own inner energy to counter it. So I let It flow through my body, to my finger, whereas I tried forming kind of a shield. Luckily I completed it just in time, as Nian bulk of energy was heading my way. Beforehand I never tried something like that, but once is always the first time.


    The destructive energy ball clashed right into my supposedly impenetrable shield, creating waves of destruction around us. Grass was burned, trees uprooted, deafening sounds were create and a little storm was caused. In the epicentre Lightnings fought each other. Seconds passed that felt like hours, as I needed to sustain the barrier, with my energy.


    Finally everything calmed down, where before had been a nice green field, now was dirt and a lot of smoke. In it I could see a silhouette known, it was Nian. So I got ready for next round, even though my energy was empty and my stamina at rock-bottom. But without even moving a finger he collapsed, so I went towards him. He lay there face downwards in the mud, I turned him around. He was just sleeping, as he used up all his energy.


    My brothers came down towards us both, they seemed worried, as they only saw the explosion. They were happy to see we both were alright, but at the same time they looked in respect at us, as they never had seen a fight like this. As Nian was knocked out, we decided to take a short break, and than bring him down to Aldorem, to lay him into bed. On the way I was overthrown, by questions from my brothers, who wanted to know how to do those cool things. I didn¡¯t really give them answers, but instead I told them, I would train them tomorrow. On the whole way Nian was carried by me, until we came back and I laid him into my bed.


    Next morning came, the sun was shining and it was yet another nice day, but also the last for Nian, who had to leave as he told me the moment he awoke from his long sleep. As he left I felt sad again, but we agreed to meet again and train hard until then.


    Now I am standing where Nian and I had fought, with my brothers. Over the course of the day I showed them a lot of things. New fighting techniques, skills and even the basics of mediation and Energy. At the end of the day they were satisfied and slept well.

 Chapter fourteenI: Learning magic

    During the further course of my stay, at home, it was really enjoyable, there solely were any issues. I had fun with my brothers, fighting; I enjoyed playing with my sister; I savoured speaking with my parents and loved being with my family. So the time ran by and the day I needed to go back to the academy came.


    As we had agreed, I met the wagon driver punctually at 7 o¡¯clock at the market¡ªThe same spot where he let us out. The other students came one after another too. The journey, was as uncomfortable as ever, and I was happy to arrive finally in front of the academy.


    Going over the vivid school-garden, many greeted me ans asked how I was doing. Some of my closer friends even came along to my dormitory, whereas I put down my luggage. Then I went with them and we sat down outside, in front of a little flow. There I told them about my stay, and even more about Aldorem. They were really interested in the city, as Aldorem was unique¡ªa one of a kind. The more I explained about it, the more they were fascinated.


    We sat there until late in the evening, thereafter we decided to go for a while hunting, before separating. I trained for myself late into the night.


    In the academy, the time went by and by, day after day. I learned new things, theoretically as well as practically. Formations, signs, orientating, new fight styles and more. My strength skyrocketed, I was now able to shatter rocks into fine pieces, and even unroot small trees. My potential kept increasing through regularly meditating, but it feels like I will unavoidably catch up with it soon. Which would result in stagnation of my strength, so I want to try avoiding it through focusing more on mental training in the future.


    My magic abilities just now, are pretty strong, even though I can only do the energy shield and the same energy-ball, Nian showed me in the fight. But I felt lately as if my mental training was getting more ineffective, so maybe I should try experimenting more with it.


    But all of this would need to wait for next year, as my second year at the academy was coming to an end and I had to learn really hard.


    I made it trough the exams and evened my way to the next class, I was on top of my class and in the top ten. I was really proud and took a good breather in the following break. This time I wouldn¡¯t go home, not because I didn¡¯t want to. It was due to the excessive snow this year, blocking the whole way, and the sight as well as the orientation. So I was needed to stay, which wasn¡¯t as bad as I thought. I had a lot of fun with my lots of friends. We played in the snow, looked stars in the night, played games and sat by a fire until late in the night. And of course I trained.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    The school began again and it was nice to see that all my friends passed and took classes with me. In the lessons I paid a lot of attention, when theory way explained, whereas in practical classes I would just do whatever I felt like doing. It felt as boring as ever.


    Winter was nearing it¡¯s end, as the snow melted away. As soon as I could I wrote a letter about all news and why I couldn¡¯t come to my parents. It was send away with a whole bunch of other letters. The following week hundreds of letter s came from the other direction, as well as one from my parents. In it they wrote about the bad weather, and how it affects Aldorem. They say it feels sadder and lonelier than ever. Furthermore, where the mines more dangerous and more accidents happened, but luckily not to my dad. They wished me in the end a good time; and so I had.


    Week after week I trained, but only my magic, I tried out new ideas and perfected them. So now I can give my defensive shield properties. Like bursting out energy when being hit, of the same strength; or being more effective against elements. Furthermore I learned to make the shield completely around me, so it can protect me from everywhere. But the best is I can stack them and create a multi-barrier. But sadly it uses most of my magic power to create even only four barriers, without properties, stacked upon each other. In my all day life I got used to having always one barrier protect me, so I wouldn¡¯t be killed that easy.


    Then I learned some new offensive magic. For once the energy-ball, than an energy-lightning and finally the energy-wave. Energy lightning is extremely easy to create, but gets potentially harder the furtherer away someone is. Also it has the negative side, that it needs to be given more magic power to stay intact. The effect depends on the amount of energy put into it and can vary from a little shock to a destroyed tree. I like it a lot as the attack comes with lightning speed, and doesn¡¯t require a long gathering of energy. The next attack is the energy-wave, it is sharp wave that originates from me and then goes in a straight line outwards, depending on the energy is strength as well as reach. The attack is extremely inefficient in itself. But the true power lies when one only directs the wave attack in a little area to attack instead of all around. Then it slices stones clean trough.


    But the highlight is without doubt, the energy-sword. It is like a sword, but created of purely my energy. It shines blue and is really good, I tested it out, and it can slice good, but not as well as my dagger, from back then. Which doesn¡¯t mean anything as I still am a noob with this type of attack. In the future I will definitely use it more often and train it.


    </a> My 19 birthday flew by, I received only some small, but nice presents and then half a year was already over again, and the next day I was to go back home.

 Chapter Fifteen; Part I: O.V.O.

    This year Nian wasn¡¯t able to attend my birthday, sadly. But still the calm days in Aldorem were a nice change compared to my time in the academy. Unfortunately, it wasn¡¯t long until I was yet again on my way home, which was luckily without any issues.


    No more than two days later lessons began again. They were kinda boring as always, expected from two. For once, fighting theories and for the other battle strategise. But the best lesson was yet to come, it was magic. Sadly it was only taught in the coming years.


    A few days went by and I decided, I would go hunting once again. So I went out of my dormitory around midnight, because I could sleep long the next day. As I went in the forest I became aware of silent but persistent sounds, from fists clashing, far away in the distance. I thought it was suspicious, so I went to investigate. Coming nearer to the origin of the sound I began hearing cheers and people shouting. As I approached more, I felt more and more awkward. No I must be quit near, but abruptly the cheers were crazily loud and vanished than at once, as well as the sound of fighting. I was quit irritated at first, but only some minutes later I could hear them again shouting and screaming. As I went silently through the trees a clearing opened up, around it where gigantic stones arranged as seats. On them at least a hundred people sat, of whom I could recognize at least ten from the academy. In the middle of them were two guys facing each other, ready to fight. Beside them stood a third person, which was the referee, as I learned the next moment. He made a hand gesture downwards, which made the two guys launch at each other. They were strong as hell, as I watched them I began to feel weak.


    After a little bit of fighting with myself I couldn¡¯t stop my curiousness and went down from the tree. As there was clearly an entrance to the ring, I went towards it. On the left stood an average looking guy, he seemed to be like the receptionist here. I came up to him and asked him what all of this was.


    The guy let out a sight and l inspected me from head to toe. Than he asked who the hell I was and why I was here. So I answered truthfully, I told him I found it by chance and just want to now what it is, furthermore I am a student of the academy. The guy had a menacing glance for a short time, until he answered:¡±Alright, this here is O.V.O.. Here everyone can fight, there are no rules, only when they are mutually agreed. The only bid is no deaths. Everyone can fight here for fun, for fame or for power, but also there are many spectators who are able to bet and have fun watching. If you want to fight or look, don¡¯t be shy to do so. But for fighting you need to be registered by me. You will even get a nice share of the money made, through the bets, when you win.¡±This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    I was quit unsure what to do in the moment, but still it didn¡¯t sound to bad. But at the same time I could see the intense fight in the background, which made me feel weak. Suddenly I realized something, my goal is to be the strongest, so why the hell shouldn¡¯t I take this opportunity to become stronger. So I gathered my certainty and told the guy ¡°yes, I want to be registered.¡±


    The process was quite easy, they only needed my name, my nickname, my age and I needed to swear I would never tell anybody about this place.


    After it I got a card, it was black and on it was in blood-red colour O.V.O., and beneath was an ¡°F¡± in green. Thereafter the guy told me that the matches where randomly made, within the classes. At the moment I was in the ¡°F-class¡± and with each match won I would get more points, to eventually get to the highest rank the ¡°Champion-class¡±. All who are ranked there are absolute beasts and have overwhelming strength.


    As all matches were already planned, I would probably not get a chance to fight, but still there might be someone, who wants a spontaneous match, after all are done. So I seated myself and watched and waited.


    In my head I analysed the matches and the participants, both who were fighting, right now, were forces to be reckoned with. They both fought unarmed, neither of both was particularly skilled, but they were bulky, massy and had a lot of power behind their punches. The earth was seemingly shaking as their fists bumped together yet again. Their endurance was notably strong, the fight lasted long, until one of them hit the other in his abdomen and knocked him out. The guy flew at least ten meters, only stopped by the stones around the arena. The stone vibrated vividly and even cracked. I stuttered in utter disbelief at the explosive power, but then it came to me, it wasn¡¯t just brute force. It was for sure a strong punch, but what made it so strong was the inner energy focused in his fist. The punch was risky, he left himself unprotected in exchange for the devastating power. If he was just a second late, the other guy would have hit him first and won the battle.


    The next few matches were quite eventful too. The next was a guy with two knives, he was without surprise assassin like, he had high speed paired with a deadly attack. His opponent was an average guy who seemed to be an all-rounder, but also participant of some kind of martial art. My guess was correct he used taekwondo, and was really a pro in it. As the dagger guy came at him from behind, ready to strike his opponent down, he spun around and kicked him mid-air, with a well-aimed kick in the back, flying towards the ground. The guy stayed motionless and lost, which showed the overwhelming strength of the other.


    Fight after fight went by, as well as the time. The last fight was no over with a precious strike of the fighter, disabling the opponent. While watching I realized just who vast the world was and how many people stronger than me exist. So I gathered my self-esteem and decided to train more again.

 Chapter Fifteen; Part II: Establishing a Name

    That Evening I hadn¡¯t got a chance to fight, so I went back and hunted some animals on my way. Back at the university I went to sleep. The next day I trained strictly and hard, until late in the evening. Then I went back to the spot, whereas just as many as yesterday were. I got up to the guy in charge and asked for my matches. He told me, because it¡¯s my premiere, the fight was scheduled quite early and I needed to win if I want a good image. Further he said I should sat myself, as I would get called upon the stage.


    I waited and watched the nerve wracking matches going on, right in front of me. The first one¡¯s weren¡¯t that interesting, as the fighters would get progressively stronger towards the end. My match was somewhat in the lower half.


    Finally my name was called, so I went into the arena, whereas I stood stiff, anticipating my opponent, who was yet to come. Every second felt longer as I waited, I was getting more and more excited.


    The person I was matched against came through the arena entrance, He was huge, chunky, strong, as he marched towards me with heavy steps, advancing ever so little. He was towering far above me looking down on me, ready to crush my skull. I felt minuscule, weak but I gathered myself and was now ready to face him.


    The referee dropped a stone, as it hit the ground I immediately leaped forward ready to punch the big guy. For all watching the fight I just disappeared only to reappear before the dude. The guy wasn¡¯t dumb either and got into a defensive stance the moment he couldn¡¯t see me. But I didn¡¯t want the fight to last too long, so I gathered my energy solely in my fist and punched into the abdomen of my opponent. He was neither able to block or react he flew away, carried by the force behind the punch. Even the wind was blown away, making a dust cloud. My opponent was knocked out by it, for sure. The referee looked to make sure, and so it was.


    I won the first Match in O.V.O. with surprising ease, mainly because of the match-up, still I would need to train more. But one thing I need even more is real fighting experience against humans, which I plan to gather here.


    Loud clapping marked my win, the whole audience cheered, screamed, roared and raged. As I left the arena without a word I heard the noise quieting down, I was greeted by the dude, who registered me, he told me I did just fine and next time he would get me a stronger opponent. He added I should come tomorrow again and this time I would get two matches. As I still wanted to train more I decided to not stay here any longer and go deep into the woods.


    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    Next day came, I went to university as I would normally do, but the whole time in class, I reflected on the matches I saw. So I really neglected learning the whole day, when we were free to go I made my path straight to the training ground in the east. Here I was quite often, as there was the best technique trainer. Albeit his strength being in the lower calibre he was sensational with his skills. Even I can¡¯t reach his waters¡ªyet. I explained to him situations, when fighting and against which type of person I was up against. Whereas he showed me skills, that were practical and the one¡¯s I should definitely evade using. The session with him was useful, but neither the less, the evening is getting closer ans closer, and with it my much awaited match.


    I emerged out of the shadows, drawn by the dense trees, into the light moonshine, giving me shivers down my spine. Today he shown brighter than ever, he was massive and beautiful toned in reddish, yellowish colours. I went straight to the seats, and began analysing the matches, while waiting for my turn. After some time I was called onto stage, this time my opponent stood already there with a smile on his mysterious face.


    The fight began, both of us rushed forward with our fists extended, they clashed together producing a sound as loud as a canon firing. Our strength and speed seemed to be about equal, I deducted from our first contact. The little fist bump wasn¡¯t the last, my opponent went into offensive, assaulting me from all direction. I decided to play it more defensive, to keep my energy for the second match today.


    The dude wasn¡¯t half-bad, but after the first round he was already getting clumsy, furthermore he was definitely not able to use energy, giving him a huge handicap.


    In the third round I decided, enough is enough and ended the match with a targeted punch containing energy.


    After all, I seated myself again, but this time I wasn¡¯t able to have quietness around me¡ªmany were standing around me from the crowd, bombarding me with questions. I just ignored it all, and was happy when my name was announced again, as well as the one¡¯s around me.


    I went down normally, as I would always do, but my opponent just appeared out of nowhere on the field. I was in huge disbelieve, questioning my eyes. But then it came to me, his energy was enormous, and in the air, there were still traces of energy usage.


    So this time I was up against a magician, no a sorcerer, maybe even a mighty wizard, who could crush me.


    As the match started, I was startled at first and unsure how to fight him, but then I realized an energy spear flying for my heart. I spun around to avoid it, but then came more of them flying towards me.


    Dodging all was really difficult, but suddenly, I got a good idea, I created my energy shield, and accelerated through all the attacks; towards the sorcerer, standing in the air, mighty and strong. He was surprised by the change, but was sure to teleport away before I could reach him. But I realized his idea, so I read his energy to find out where he was going. This information I then used and fired a gigantic energy ball, in this very spot. So without surprise the oh so big magician fell from the sky, accompanied by a loud sound and dust.


    With that I won, and was promoted to D-class, thanks to my exorbitant performance. The new letter shone in a fresh blueish on the card.