《Silent Cultivation》


 Chapter 1: His Last Day on Planet earth

    So, i''m not the one writing this, my friend is, but he is hesitant topost it online, and i only recently convinced him to let me post it for him. If it does well he will make his own account and continue posting it himself. so please support him in his creation


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    Chapter 1


    His Last Day on Planet Earth


    Joseph Long is a sixteen year old gent, and this is the story of how he died.


    He was your average everyday guy. Brown hair, dark eyes, 1.8 meters tall and weighing in at 13.5 stones. On his last day, he distinctly remember wearing an uncomfortable shirt, it had a large picture with a band named Volbeat covering a large portion of it. He had bought it at a concert a year prior. He had his headphones plugged into his head the incessant bassline and guitar solos shaking his skull and giving him goosebumps. He also remembered a time he had attempted to form his own band, he had imagined himself to be as good as Clapton, as it turned out, he was not. Joseph still wrote his own music though but had no way of knowing if it was any good or not.


    Joseph was in secondary school, fourth year. He had his books in his bag, his papers most likely splotched in more red ink than they should have been had he been more studious. The most prominent reason as to why he wasn¡¯t a better student was because of the pub by his parents two story apartment. Joseph was heading there at this time, pack still attached to his back and he had about thirty pounds burning a hole in his pocket. This was a regular occurrence for Joseph, he would meet friends at a pub and enjoy a brew a few nights a week.


    Joseph also remember having wished that he had earned a bit more earlier that week instead of playing computer games. He actually worked as a refurbisher that year, he would shine computer towers right up and remove the hostile programs and viruses in moments. Joseph actively looked for the ¡°how, and why¡± about everything. so, naturally his desktop setup was splendid. He had one computer for free time, and the other was to answer his every burning question, Joseph used both of these far more often than he had worked though.


    Joseph had finally reached the pub, and met with one of his ¡°friend¡¯s¡± they all called him Jim, but Joseph didn''t think that was his actual name. They had always done dumb stuff together. One time was jumping on, then off of a moving train. Another was experimenting with hallucinogens. This ¡°friend¡± was what Joseph¡¯s parents called a bad egg, but Joseph had been convinced that he just wanted to enjoy his time however possible. Joseph was wrong.


    Joseph clearly remembered that it was a particularly rowdy day at the pub, it had also accommodated for their meager amount of money. That last day they were merry, downed a few pints, then attempted to play billiards with a tough couple of fellows. Jim, Joseph¡¯s ¡°friend¡± had been acting odd the entire time though, almost like he was nervous. Even through all of that they played some billiards and hustled some games. They also managed to get very full of their drunk selves, Jim even began to loosen up a bit. After a while they had bet all they had on the next game. Then walked away with full pockets.


    Jim and Joseph then left the pub, stupid grins plastered across their faces. They turned two corners, then took a cab to get back home. Joseph¡¯s friend got off the cab before himself, then he headed home as well. Joseph lived a few blocks away from Jim, Joseph paid the cabbie with some of his winnings. Joseph headed inside his house, up the stairs, then to his room.


    Joseph knocked out almost immediately. He remembered waking up in a drunken stupor in the middle of the night to a crash in the dining room downstairs. Despite that, he continued to lay in his bed, regardless, thinking it was one of his siblings, maybe even one of his parents were up for a midnight snack. Joseph had fallen back to sleep almost as immediately as he woke without a worry.


    Joseph awoke again, a hand covered his mouth and nose. Dazed and scared he tried to scream, but to no avail. At that point, he pissed himself.


    ¡°Shh, shhh¡±. He had heard from the assailant. All he was able to do was attempt to scream a muffled cry and flail about drunkenly. He remembered when his eyes then began to clear he could clearly see the face of Jim, straddled atop his body. ¡°Be silent or you¡¯ll wake the street!¡± Joseph¡¯s friend exclaimed in a hushed tone, he seemed to be nervous again, but Joseph barely noticed since he was still a little drunk.


    Joseph quieted down and asked him what he was doing here. ¡°Those two nitwits back at the pub followed me to my home!¡± He replied, hushed but still exasperated. ¡°I think they are on their way here too!¡±


    ¡°Well of course they are, you led them here.¡± Joseph claim, the hand was still muffling his partially slurred voice.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    ¡°No, no bloody idiots like them could have followed me, I¡¯m too quick.¡± His counterclaim did not remedy the situation.


    ¡°They wouldn¡¯t know where I live if you didn¡¯t come here.¡± Joseph slurred several words, barely coherent.


    ¡°No, they knew where I lived, they could be here any moment! We must leave!¡± He practically shouted it that time.


    ¡°Alright, alright, I¡¯ll go,¡± Joseph said to appease him. He got up, still fully dressed, and slipped on his trainers, then wobbled out of his bedroom, only to be stopped at the stairs.


    ¡°You boys are rather dull aren¡¯t ya,¡± one of the large men from the pub said, as he was standing at the bottom of the stairs, the door behind them had been left wide open. Joseph and Jim were dumbstruck by the single man being in front of them, nothing stopped the guy from the pub from doing what he wanted except waking up Joseph¡¯s family and having to deal with them too. Joseph doubted that they were too worried about dealing with a groggy family in the middle of the night. Besides that, his family lived in London in the twenty first century, it wasn¡¯t as if they owned any guns to protect themselves.


    Joseph and Jim both stood frozen in place, it was as if they could run. A second brute stepped out from a room behind them, almost silently. Joseph gazed drunkenly at him, his eyes fixed on a point at about his hip. He did have a gun, and was looking similar to a 1920¡¯s American mobster while a fagg hung loosely between his lips. ¡°We can give you your money back,¡± Joseph said, while he attempted to stop himself from quivering.


    ¡°We never wanted that money,¡± the man at the bottom of the stairs claimed loudly, uncaringly. ¡°We just want everything you own.¡±


    A robbery, is it? ¡°Then go ahead, we won¡¯t stop you,¡± Joseph replied quietly, he was still shaking, his drunkenness was nearly gone from adrenaline.


    ¡°Ahh, then everything is good,¡± the man behind Joseph whispered, Joseph felt his breath on Joseph¡¯s neck, his hairs stood on end. The man immediately grabbed Joseph''s hands and tied them together behind his back. He then punched Joseph in the back of the head and Joseph blacked out.


    He come to some time later, he was laying on his side, his family was also nearby, all of them were bound as well. Joseph¡¯s head was throbbing for what seemed like an eternity while he watched as the two men, like a moving crew took everything of value in the house outside.


    Ten, maybe twelve, grueling hours passed by while Joseph''s family''s home was being disassembled from the inside out, he became bored out of his mind. He slept, he watched, he even attempted to communicate with his parents through his eyes how sorry he was that this happened. Their eyes were filled with tears, they looked like they had been roughed up as well.


    Finally, when the sunlight started to peak at the horizon. As uncomfortable as Joseph was, laying in piss covered pants, slowly his legs became covered in a rash, hands tied behind his back in an awkward position, and legs tied to his hands making him feel like he was being prepared to become a rotisserie pig, Joseph actually felt relieved. He felt that that today, everything could be made better, whole even despite his physical state.


    He felt like he could enjoy more time with his family after this. He imagined that they could eat as a family again, like they did when he was a child. He imagined that they could tell each other about their days again, like when he was in elementary and they asked what he had learned as soon as he got home. He remember playing with his siblings every morning before class, they would play video games till they had to get to class. Joseph''s mother would cook them breakfast in the morning, it was usually some kind of egg and meat, cereal was sometimes on the menu as well. Josephs loved his family, and wouldn¡¯t change a thing outside of reorganizing my priorities.


    Shortly after this, the captors had came inside a final time, they took the contents of Joseph¡¯s room and set it all beside the entrance of Joseph''s home. The man that was originally at the bottom of the stairs looked dead into his eyes, he declared, ¡°This is your fault.¡±


    At that moment, the man that was holding the gun just a few hours before pulled it out again, four shots rang out, and nearly deafened Joseph. Blood flooded the room, it had exploded across the living room, chunks of brain covered the walls, floor, and even ceiling. Joseph screamed, even through a muffled mouth, barely loud enough to be heard outside, despite the open door.


    Joseph¡¯s friend walked in, hesitantly and looked at the two men with wide eyes, almost ignoring the gore splattered about. The man with the gun looked back and smiled. The man that had killed Joseph''s family then yelled at Jim, ¡°It¡¯s your turn!¡±


    Joseph¡¯s mind was reeling, lost as to what they were demanding. His family gone, himself having witnessed such monstrosity. That¡¯s what these men are, he thought to thought, they are monsters, no, demons. Just as he thought that, he saw his friend, his eyes were blank, as if he wasn''t even awake, still ignoring the carnage that was displayed in the room, making his way towards Joseph. He looked absolutely determined at this moment Joseph realized that Jim had been planning this. He must have been trying to get into their gang, he thought to himself. He caused my family''s death. He was the worst of the monsters. His trainer appeared in front of Joseph, not the same as he wore while Joseph and Jim were enjoying the night out, but wellington boots, ones that were covered in not just the blood of Joseph''s family, but the blood of small animals Jim had hunted over the last year, probably tortured them even, that is usually the ¡°M.O.¡± of a monster.


    ¡°Do it, we¡¯ve got to go,¡± Joseph heard one of the men outside of his sight scream. Joseph turned up to his friend, Joseph''s eyes pleading, his face covered in blood from laying in it for the last couple of moments. His face determined, Joseph saw jim¡¯s boot rise up. He heard him yell, almost as if he was doing a karate move that required extra power in order to complete. The next moment was a haze, he was still screaming loudly. Joseph¡¯s face felt a jolt, worse than ever before, not once, not twice, he couldn¡¯t even count how many times until Joseph finally passed out. His vision had blurred one final time. The pain in his head was extreme. If I live, he will burn, were Joseph¡¯s final thoughts before he passed out. His consciousness faded from his body, he saw his face, bloody, crushed, cheekbone penetrating his skin as his consciousness drifted away, that final grudge held onto tightly.

 Chapter 2: Orza

    Chapter 2


    Orza


    This is how the soon-to-be-hero managed to leave the menial existence of Joseph Long. What happened next blew him away more than anything, more than the boot of his killer, more than he imagined even his two sisters and parents went through during their deaths. The formally-known-as Joseph met divinity.


    There is no other feeling like it. It couldn''t even be compared to the effects of DMT. The best description would normally be described as heavenly. The being he met with though, he was scared of it.


    He couldn¡¯t see a face, nor a body. Not that he did not feel the presence of a finite being, but this felt like far more. ¡°Welcome,¡± a voice with no source entered his head. It hurt, echoing in his thoughts, wiping out any thoughts prior. He even forget how to speak for a while.


    What felt like minutes, maybe hours later he found an answer to his greeting. ¡°Wh-what happened? Where am I?¡± His voice makes no sound though, silent.


    ¡°You only need to think your answers, speaking will not do here.¡± The voice demanded in his head, echoing once again destroying everything else in his mind. ¡°You were killed. You are in my home. Normally you would be sent along on the path of reincarnation, like most others, but I pulled your soul to my palace instead. Though your senses are useless currently, I can assure you that this place is akin to what you would believe to be heaven.¡±


    More time passed, time he couldn¡¯t discern the passage of. Time seemed to both fly by and stand still at once. He could finally reply once more, ¡°What is this place?¡±


    ¡°I already told you. Do not repeat yourself, it wastes time,¡± He answered, far faster than the once was Joseph Long, still destroying his stream of thought with every word.


    ¡°Ok, what am I doing here,¡± Joseph asked, attempting to speed up the conversation but his thoughts seem like they were being syphoned. Each individual thought took several moments then several more just to piece together. It was agonizing trying to form a coherent sentence. That conversation seemed to last hours, time was destroyed in his mind, his senses could not perceive it.


    ¡°I called for you. I need you here to complete a mission for me. This is the only way I could bring you to my home, then send you where I need you,¡± The being claimed. This destroyed his calm, his brain no longer ringing at each word, but only once each time the being spoke a sentence.


    ¡°What do you mean, ¡®you called for me¡¯¡±? He ask, beginning to think that he was the one that had his. family and himself killed.


    ¡°I put an itch in your friend¡¯s, if you can call him that, ear. His father was a gambler and in order to get his own family out of debt, he took your family''s items. The particular gang he was helping required him to commit some of the crime too, to ensure his silence. In order to save his family, he had to kill you. Your family was quite unfortunate though. They were good people, they did not need to die. But, they can¡¯t mourn you now, so all¡¯s well I suppose.¡± The being explained, flippantly, as if life was merely a tool to be used as it pleased. He continued, ¡°I have a job for you, a mission if you will¡±.


    ¡°You had me killed for your mission? Couldn¡¯t you use anyone else for this? My family didn¡¯t deserve this!¡± the has-been-Joseph was pissed, his whole life was destroyed for some desire of a monster like this. His thoughts were becoming a bit easier to connect together as they spoke, they still took ages to form a coherent sentence, but he could almost imagine that one sentence only took a day rather than a week to form.


    ¡°Yes I did. I needed you, and couldn¡¯t wait.¡± His claim was unburdened by empathy for his actions.


    The feeling ¡°Joseph¡± got when he first became aware of this place no longer felt as heavenly, but reminded him more like what he imagined purgatory to feel like. He felt no good intentions any longer, no bad intentions either, but it no longer exemplified heaven.


    He was never a big believer when he was alive, he couldn¡¯t believe anything that has been happening for¡­ How long have I been here? How do I leave?


    ¡°You have been here for a long while. Several weeks already. It is nearly time for you to leave. But alas I regress, will you, or won''t you carry out this mission for me?¡± He calmly asks, as if he is giving "Joseph¡± a choice.


    If I don''t? ¡°Joseph¡± muse, what''s the worst you can do? Kill me?


    ¡°There are far worse things than death child, for example, torturing your soul until there is nothing left. I suggest we do this the easy way though. The way that involves you becoming a hero.¡±


    As reluctant as ¡°Joseph¡± was, he was given no choice. It was either work for this thing, or have his soul tortured. Flickering pictures of some kind of hell flashed past his mind. Fine, was his entire answer.


    ¡°Expect to hear from me in the future.¡± His answer to ¡°Joseph¡¯s¡± thoughts scared him. Is he a man? What is this monster even?


    ¡°I AM A GOD!¡± ¡°Joseph¡¯s¡± mind exploded with his scream, ¡° Joseph¡± was shaken, deformed and destroyed.


    He was gone, nothing but mind.


    This feeling was far more weird than even being with that self proclaimed god. He felt as if he was destroyed and reconstructed in seconds. There was no pain though, he imagined that to be the work of that being, he did preserve my mind even though my body was destroyed.


    This was a terrible feeling, no body to move, no nerves to feel. It only felt like seconds had passed since he had been embodied, been with the being that claimed godhood, now he was nothing.


    What is this hell? His first thought, followed by, I will never piss that guy off again given the chance. Over an eternity, his body began to shape once more. During that time he had ample time to think, ponder over everything. He even slept a bit, or so he thought, but his eyes wouldn¡¯t work awake or not. He did remember a distinct feeling of limbs though, but he had no control over them. So, to pass the time, he thought about the issues he had been facing prior to his current predicament.


    His thoughts were all confused at first. All he could think of was how he had suffered. Both of his parents, both of his siblings, himself. All of that death for a mission. Even his friend who he had his first pint with, whom he trusted with his life, until he took it; Jim could never be forgiven. He couldn¡¯t imagine that he would ever meet him again, but at that moment ¡°Joseph¡± vowed Jim would go through as much pain as Jim put him and his family through.


    The next set of thoughts were of that god. Specifically his mission. What right did that monster have to take my life? That thought ran through his mind every moment for days, or weeks, he still couldn¡¯t tell. What kind of mission is worth so much? Then a selfish part of his mind hit him, I had better be compensated, royally. Even though he couldn¡¯t imagine what amount of riches was worth his family. He had imagined the mission he had mentioned as well. He could tell that it had to be severely important if even a god couldn¡¯t wait for a more timely death. He couldn¡¯t coax a car accident to happen even that would have spared ¡°Joseph¡¯s¡± family. Maybe that being is a sadist, maybe he loves death too much to ignore the chance to cause more of it.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    After some time he had come to a startling realization. The reason his arms and legs couldn¡¯t move was because they were tiny, fragile. My body a short while ago was nothing like this, or was it? He couldn''t remember such a situation that his own body wouldn¡¯t answer his thoughts. He was erratic, he moved when he wasn¡¯t expecting to move, his body would freak out even when a small sensation occurred. His mind however would relish those sensations.


    He began to work out that he was now in the body of an infant. Great, I have to endure puberty a second time too, even his thoughts were sarcastic. Though it was a curse, he had also found it a blessing. He never did try very hard in school, he also never had tried very hard in his extracurriculars. As a matter of fact, the only thing he''s actually tried hard at was playing on computers and being smarter than his classmates. Of course he wasn¡¯t more intelligent, he was merely better at finding the answers then they were.


    He did learn quite a lot, he studied things most would find useless or boring. He had learned a fair amount about all kinds of things, but was an expert in nothing. Is this the kind of thing that that god wanted? No, I have a feeling that I possess some kind of skill that he was specifically searching for, but I cannot think of what that might be. Could it be that he needed a mind that could already write code? No, he would have taken someone better at it than me. Maybe I will never know. He was confused as to why that being didn¡¯t pick someone else. I couldn¡¯t imagine anyone else not being more fit for such a position as the one he put me into.


    After all this time thinking, he had become more and more formed, more complete. He was becoming a full fledged person in the womb. This will be awkward when I am born again. His thoughts began to take the form of sleight praise to the being over this. He has given me a family, to replace the one he took. It won¡¯t be the same, but at least he didn¡¯t put me into a mother that would have an abortion. The mother even sometimes listened to music. She must be semi-smart at least to know that such a thing is good for a developing fetus.


    He has also left my memories intact, this is maintaining the one ability I will have over those in this predicament. If he wants help, he will help me more. I wonder what else I can convince him to do for me.


    His thoughts were on revenge, on the hatred and awe for that nameless being, even his thoughts on the new family that he would soon be entering all became boring. He had even attempted to work complex math problems during the rest of his imprisonment in the womb of his new mother. This seemed like a brilliant idea at first, but he didn¡¯t know which answers he was getting right or wrong, and he was just as bored after as he was before. The biggest issue though was that he had no paper therefore nothing to write his calculations on, so it would become lost in the void of his mind after becoming semi complex.


    After that, he began to imagine what he would look like. This held much greater grounds in his still developing brain. Would I be tall? Strong? What about my face? Could I have freckles, what about a big nose? This is how he spent a long, long time. He soon gave this up as well, since he couldn¡¯t actually feel his own face, he was also kind of apprehensive. What if I look ridiculous. What if my face was still smashed, what if I am disabled?


    His next attempt at entertainment was created by way of reciting stories to himself, but this did no good either. He was too impatient to follow the whole story he had read, but instead skipped to the end. This became an issue for him for a while, but one would be surprised as to how patient one becomes after nine months.


    He had masterfully began reciting stories in his mind until he felt he was as good as the bards of old. Of course this was his arrogance as he had been practicing for far less than even a year, while they studied it their whole lives. His mind wandered in this way, back and forth between foolish attempts at maintaining his sanity via story or problem, or running back into the familiar hate towards deities in general and hate towards his ¡°friend¡± Jim.


    He had become tired at this moment, tired of waiting. No telling how long it has been since his death, but he knew it has been a long time, no more than nine months, but still, what if it had been years that he was speaking with that self proclaimed god. A final thought entered his mind at this moment, what if I am not human anymore? Elephants are in the womb for two years. Could it have been so long? Let''s hope that this nameless being did not return me to the Earth as some beast with no use, even to the Hindu that kind of reincarnation would be due to bad karma, and I don¡¯t think I was ever bad enough for that.


    Just as he finished this thought he could feel it, the squeeze. Immense pressure forcing him out. Exiling him from his home of relentless boredom and ceaseless thinking. Forcing him into a new life. He became relieved to see that there was a doctor at the end of the tunnel instead of a long drop toward the bottom of a forest floor. I am human. Just then, his vision blurred and for the second time in his remembered existence, and once again he met divinity.


    This time the setting was more acceptable, his mind was far less destroyed than the last time, it was also more powerful. Maybe this is due to my physical age, he thought to himself.


    ¡°Right you are child,¡± the disembodied voice rang through his head.


    What can I call you? He asked, his curiosity getting the better of him. More than anything he wanted to give a name to the faceless being that took his life, then gave him a new one.


    ¡°You can call me Orza,¡± The voice replied, less in his mind now, the setting was becoming more and more like that of a giant garden. A face appeared, similar to a cheshire cat, just eyes and a mouth, smiling disgustingly at him.


    What do you need of me? The final question, the most important question, the best question he could think to ask.


    ¡°I need you to help me complete my quest. The details will come later. Until that time, I need you to become better at everything.¡± The most direct answer he assumed he would ever get came out of the face of the being. Orza became slightly more tactile, still translucent, but he had form. ¡°You are now in a different kind of place. This place is of swords and magic, the men and women are hard and you must become tough.¡±


    Did you bring me here to leave me without help in your mission? His selfish desires leaking out slightly, attempting to make life slightly easier for him.


    ¡°You will not need my help any more than I have already given you,¡± Orza answered, though his answer felt extremely insufficient.


    What does that mean? He asked, genuinely curious about what gifts were given to me by Orza.


    ¡°You have talent in all things you set your mind on. This goes without saying, you must still work and learn. If you do not, then this venture is wasted. Likewise, if you are no longer sufficient for your duties, I will return you to your grave.¡± The threat shook him, it seems as if he didn¡¯t do as Orza says he would kill ¡°Joseph¡± again. The only solace ¡°Joseph¡± would be able to claim is that he has given me the ability to prolong my usefulness.


    He had noticed that this conversation lasted just a couple moments instead of taking months, or even years, as the previous conversation had. Probably since he now had a definitive form rather than being a disembodied soul, but that is inconsequential. Finally Orza uttered a sentence that left him feeling extremely odd, as if he missed something important. ¡°I will return soon, Silent.¡± he could not imagine such a sentence would make any sense unless ¡°Silent¡± was a noun.


    Why would he call me Silent? He asked himself, the garden and Orza cut from his view far more rapidly than the last time. He left the garden as if he were waking from a dream, in fact, it may have been a dream.


    At this time, he could finally discern that it was late at night. Time no longer stood still for him, days finally had meaning once again, and though it may be a while before he would gain the ability to speak, he could finally hear a voice other than his inner monologue, and that of Orza over this next period of his life. At this revelation, he was not exactly happy, but not sad either. He could feel that he could be happy in this life given time.


    His eyes barely open, seeing blurred faces as he is passed from a ragtag doctor, who looked more like a random lady than a medical professional, to his new father, then to his new mother. His eyes rest on her, trying to focus hard enough to see beyond the blur of new eyes, to picture her face, but all he could really see is that she was some kind of caucasian descent, and bright blonde hair. ¡°What is the name of your baby, sir?¡± The ¡®doctor¡¯ asked his new father. His ears are new, powerful enough to understand a little of what they were saying. The language is very similar to english, more of the American english than my homeland¡¯s, but I can work with it, adapt to it. This may be the talent that I was given by Orza.


    ¡°His Name Is Silent, Silent Black.¡± The man¡¯s voice from beside the-now-Silent¡¯s cozy nest in his new mother¡¯s bosom claimed.


    Odd, I guess my surname is now Black, but my given name is rather unique. I don¡¯t know if this will be good or bad, he thinks, just before he realizes that he is already needing rest again.

 Chapter 3: Now That Silence is Born

    Chapter 3


    Now that Silent is born


    Silent. Why have I been cursed with such a name? Silent¡¯s ponderings haven¡¯t pushed him any further than the day he was born, again that is. Having completely forgotten that Orza claimed reincarnation was a normal situation.


    I can¡¯t imagine that it is a family name. He thinks to himself while his mother is holding his legs far above his head, cleaning yet another mess silent has created unwillingly. Even three days after his ¡®birth¡¯ he is confused. I am sleeping almost all day, and I am always tired, it is like this place that being stuck me in saps my energy constantly. In truth, Silent was unaware that babies needed to rest so often just to grow, let alone have brain function at the level of an average teenager. Also, this planet worked wonders for Silent that he would only find out about in the future.


    Silent didn¡¯t particularly enjoy the beginning of his new life. At first, all he ate was breast milk, which was gross, not because it tasted bad, it didn¡¯t taste terrible, it was actually kind of sweet, it was mostly the stigma against it. The bad part was that Silent remembered every moment of protruding out of his new mother each time she lifted her blouse to feed him. At first he wouldn¡¯t have anything to do with her, but after the first few hours he was so famished that he thought he could eat even spiders and not regret it.


    After a couple of days Silent began to ignore his qualms about breastfeeding, and began to think of more important things. He constantly reminisced on his former family, Silent had two sisters before that he had constantly ignored, the youngest was nine, the older sister was twelve. Silent imagined thousands of times since his death getting revenge because of what was done to himself, but he once more neglected his siblings, even after death he felt he was a bad brother. His parents however were older, they were already fifty when the monsters attacked them. Part of him was relieved at their early death since they didn¡¯t have to watch their children die in front of them. They also didn¡¯t have to endure old age after the Long family travesty. If they had survived, Silent¡¯s previous father would likely commit to a self destructive lifestyle of alcoholism and living on the streets, while his mother would have most likely not been able to survive after her children¡¯s deaths.


    Silent continued about his life for the next several months hating himself, saying to himself that it was his fault that his family had been murdered. I should have listened. This single thought permeated his mind more than anything. His previous parent¡¯s had constantly warned him about his ¡°friend¡±. They said Jim was no good more times than now-Silent cared to remember. He had entered a state of self loathing greater than any amount of hormones had produced when he had first began to go through puberty.


    After another several months of his monotonous trifecta of eating, sleeping, and making a mess of himself, Silent began to have more and more control over his body. Silent began crawling as early as he could physically handle the stress of holding up his own head.


    Silent found that crawling was rather ineffective in moving about his new home though and began to sit and scoot on my rear across the ground. This allowed him to be just a little bit taller as he moved, and he didn¡¯t have to rely on coordinating his underdeveloped muscles to move.


    While he was learning how to move his new body Silent continued to think of the reason that his family and himself were killed in his past life. Silent would scoot to a secluded corner of the house as often as he could and cry as well as hate both himself and the being that forced his unfortunate situation to occur.


    This obviously caused Silent¡¯s new parents to worry about him. They thought that I was hungry or tired. They didn¡¯t know that he wanted to wallow in my self pity for just a few more months before his dexterity allowed him to speak and walk.


    On one such adventure to a secluded corner Silent had entered a room of a house that he had never entered before. In this room was a person he had never before met. Silent knew of his mother, and his father in this world, but this person was not either, this person was a woman that had reached the point in life in which the hourglass was heavier on the bottom than the top. The woman had an aura about her that drew one¡¯s attention immediately. Even in a crowded street, she would be noticed with ease. Silent had taken a liking to her as soon as he had seen her. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    ¡°So you have finally wandered into my room,¡± she said soothingly, her voice compared to any other Silent has heard is like water over oil, it is bewitching. Almost immediately he had come to the conclusion that this woman was magical. No one should be this great and not have the assistance of some kind of spell, Silent jumped to this conclusion with the only evidence being her voice and presence.


    ¡°You are quite sharp, aren¡¯t you little one?¡± She questioned rhetorically, gazing at silent all the while. A sweet smirk was on her face. Her eyes pierced Silent¡¯s soul. He had never been looked at like this before, it felt like the sins he had committed in this life and the last were obsolete with one gaze. Even the bright smile of his happy mother wasn¡¯t so great. Silent felt as if he would do anything to constantly earn such an understanding and happy look.


    I¡¯d like to think so, Silent thought to myself, overwhelming joy danced in his heart because of the praise of this senior citizen. His heart was filled with nothing but praise for this lady. Her brown hair looked as if life was abundant in it even after a lifetime. Her nails had no signs of her true age. Her eyes were a verdant light violet, like a flower freshly bloomed in the spring. The only sign of aging at all on the woman was crow''s feet at her eyes as if she squinted for a living and grew small wrinkles about her cheeks from countless years of laughter.


    ¡°Most people do entertain the idea that they are bright, but I have a feeling that you will do great things Sai,¡± She said, this had been the first time Silent Had heard such a nickname for myself, he became caught off guard just from this, let alone the seeming conversation he began to having with this grandmotherly woman.


    I wonder if she can hear my thoughts, read my mind like a book even? I wouldn¡¯t put it past someone in this place, that being Orza did say this place was one of magic and swords. Silent¡¯s thoughts continued as he stared at this woman, his eyes spread wide as if he had seen a miracle. Silent lifted my arms up as if to grab at some of her presence, grasping at the air, hoping to grab hold of some of the mysterious charisma flowing off of her invisibly, his legs still stuck out in front of me at an awkward angle that only gymnasts and babies were capable of.


    ¡°The mind is not like a book, but it is open to those who have enough power, and you, Sai, can call me Grandma Black.¡± She explained all of this in a single breath. His suspicion confirmed, she does have access to my deepest thoughts. As soon as she said this Silent began to worry. His mind flashed to the thoughts of his regret, his fear, his self loathing, all of his worries of his past family, all of his experiences in his past life. In seconds, Silent had thought of all of this and let out a small squeak before turning around and scooting as quickly as he could toward the door of this secluded room and the mind reading of ancient Grandma Black.


    ¡°Oh, did I scare you, you shouldn''t carry that much resentment anyway, it is hard to fathom how you could even remember any of that, ¡± her sweet voice once more came from behind him. ¡°I knew about your past as soon as you had entered the womb child. Even then, your mind was active.¡± he turned his head to look back at her one last time before exiting the room, mind games like hers scared Silent more than even the gun that the brute in his old home had. ¡°Sai, whenever you¡¯re ready, come back here. I¡¯ll be waiting for you. We will have a lot to discuss child.¡± Her call echoed through the three room hall, loudly yet soothingly. It had reminded me of one day when Silent¡¯s own grandmother had dropped him off at elementary and said that she loved him out of the window of her small car while driving away.


    The following days after his scare were far less eventful than meeting with an elderly mind reader. Silent had avoided that back room though at all costs, when he finally began to be capable of walking he had begun taking a roundabout way to the bathroom just to avoid her always partly opened door. The route that he took naturally avoided the part of the door where she could see directly out of it and into your soul. Silent¡¯s new parent¡¯s however coerced him into taking the faster, and seemingly more dangerous route a handful of times though. Each time, Silent could see a sliver of her face through the crack in the door and see a single eye staring back at him, locking him into place.


    More than a year after his re-birth, Silent had finally learned that that woman was in fact his grandmother on his father''s side. No one that spoke to her called her by name, my father called her ¡®Old lady¡¯, Silent felt that this was rather disrespectful when he first heard it, but realized that it was endearing after a while. Silent¡¯s mother however merely called her ¡®Ma¡¯am¡¯, there was far less endearment in her tone, so naturally Silent came to the conclusion that she was his father¡¯s mother, and that his mother didn¡¯t enjoy living in the same house as her mother-in-law, Silent of course was unaware that his grandmother had trained his mother and that is how she and his father met, nor was Silent aware that his grandmother was countless years old and she was still training my mother.


    Silent¡¯s parent¡¯s had found after a few short months after my birth that he was not a fan of their baby talk and he did not respond to it at all, but now after about a year and a half of growing up in their house, they found that he was far more eloquent than they had raised him to be. Silent listened as his father told his mother about the news in the town. He watched as they cooked odd food, that, while it didn¡¯t taste foul, it could not win any prizes either. Eventually, Silent began to form his own words and could now investigate this new world of magic and swords.

 Chapter 4: Family Meeting

    Chapter 4


    Family Meeting


    The first question Silent asks his parents, ¡°Who is you?¡± It might seem foolish, but in reality, it was a very appropriate question. Granted his first words did give them a fright. Silent¡¯s tongue was not dexterous enough to really ask anything important, but he figured that given time, he would grow out of this awkward stage.


    ¡°Umm, we are your parents, you know us.¡± Silent¡¯s new father¡¯s brow creased and he squatted down to meet silent at eye level. His eye¡¯s looked worried. Silent¡¯s mother stood behind him worry was strewn across her face as well.


    ¡°No, what is you name¡¯s? What do you do?¡± Silent asks, he gave up on attempting to make an ¡°R¡± sound with his toddler sized tongue.


    ¡°Oh, well son, my name is Lavits, and your mother¡¯s name is Lilith. I am a part of the chief''s guard. I protect him from any bad guy that comes near.¡± Silent¡¯s new father, Lavits, said assuredly. It seemed as if he wanted to teach Silent as well as look cool in front of him.


    ¡°What about Mom, what does Mom do?¡± Silent continue questioning. His parents look at each other in bewilderment.


    ¡°Well son, Mom doesn¡¯t have to work really since I make enough at my job to provide, but she sometimes helps people that are hurt in our village.¡± Silent¡¯s dad answered sincerely, Silent could tell that he worried about her, even though Silent inferred that they have likely lived in this house their whole life, and knew everyone fairly well.


    ¡°Oh. Who is the old lady?¡± Silent continue to ask quietly, in case she could hear. This question in particular had bothered him since he had met her.


    ¡°That is your grandma, you must not harass her, she will not endure it.¡± Lavits, Silent¡¯s father, said rather strictly, as if he too was afraid of what she would do if Silent pulled on her hair or asked too many questions and annoyed her. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    ¡°Is she mean?¡± Silent asked, annoyed at himself for not being able to say ¡®scary¡¯.


    ¡°No, no, she isn¡¯t mean. She is just set in her ways.¡± Silent¡¯s father¡¯s claim made Silent¡¯s mother frown, but she did not butt in nor correct him.


    ¡°Can she weed minds?¡± Silent¡¯s last question slipped out, his ¡®R¡¯ sounding like a ¡®W¡¯, but still getting the point across. As soon as the words left his lips though, his parents both looked horrified. Did I commit some kind of taboo? Silent thinks to myself.


    ¡°Where would you get that idea?¡± his mother asks sternly yet quietly, as if they are being watched and she had to quiet down someone who was being rowdy.


    ¡°Maybe Ganma is good at weeding expwesions,¡± Silent says hurriedly, he caught on immediately that this was a talent that must be kept under lock and key.


    ¡°Yes, yes, that must be it,¡± Silent¡¯s father says, his voice was shaking a little. He follows this by reprimanding me ¡°You must not talk like that son, it is bad.¡±


    ¡°Ok dad!¡± Silent exclaims, as if it never happened while thinking to himself I guess I will have to suck it up and bother this grandma of mine, maybe she can send and receive thoughts, it would be much more convenient to actually know what is going on.


    Silent waited several days between that conversation and actually meeting with his grandma, afraid that there is some outside oppressive force who would kill him and this new family if a coincidence like that conversation and him sitting in that room and staring at the old lady were to take place too suddenly. I might be paranoid, but paranoia is only an issue if you have nothing to fear. He thought to himself, I hadn¡¯t lived cautiously in my previous life, but the pain I felt while getting my head stomped in had definitely left a scar, he thought to himself again. I will never put myself in a life and death situation again. How many times does someone get a second chance? Once in ten thousand lives? That still isn¡¯t much. Compared to how often it could be believed to have occurred in his last life, how many people could actually say they came from a different world or time? He felt kind of excited over the situation, he had lived a life that seemed far more advanced yet is now living in a plain of existence in which neither computers nor even electricity exist. He could quite literally change the world. He could make everything here more convenient for everyone, he could be this planet¡¯s Nikola Tesla.


    He was unaware however that some people had the power of a super reactor stored within their bodies and they were capable of destroying everything he had ever known in just a blink. In this life, this goal was set before him without him even knowing it.

 Chapter 5: The Elements

    Chapter 5


    The elements


    In the early life of his Silent began to do things that no one thought possible, magic was quite simple, it required a will and a power supply. Of course he needed to train for the power to do these things.


    In this life he had learned by the age of five all of the elements that his tribe can use and or control, it is actually sad that it is so little elements but it took two years of effort, he thought to himself after such a long and exhaustive situation.


    This situation was actually brought about by my father, Lavits. A majority of the people in this life had minor control over the elements, if they did not have any control they would become beggars. Usually those people with no strength had extenuating circumstances that caused such a situation, like they were born without profound strength, or they had lost their strength in some way, such as raiding a labyrinth or dungeon.


    In the case of Silent¡¯s small town, it was more often the former rather than the latter. But in the two cases of the latter he had learned a couple of important things. The first person that gave him this knowledge was his grandmother who had psychic powers to some extent, this was an absolute secret to just his house. While the second had unknown powers by everyone in the town for almost sixty years.


    Silent¡¯s grandmother''s psychic abilities actually weren''t what the clan believed psychic abilities could be. They had assumed that these abilities were power to control others minds and telekinesis, but his grandmother only had the ability to communicate through her mind. From what she told him, this ability was naturally occurring and could not be achieved through training or cultivation. The issue that arise from having psychic powers in his tribe was that in order to become more powerful, the chief wanted to use people with these abilities to conquer other tribes. If a person could control the leaders of other tribes, they could just be used by them and forced into swearing fealty to the chief thus expanding his power. This was why Silent¡¯s parents and grandmother kept absolutely quiet about this ability. If his grandmother were to show a hint of it the chief would put her in a life and death predicament and she would fail causing the entire tribe to be in danger.


    Silent¡¯s mother, his family''s second secret weapon, had control over fire on a cultivated and extreme manner. He learned from her when he was three how to start a fire in order to cook food or to keep warm. The most minor of spells were simple to him. No one in the tribe knew of her fire expertise and she liked it that way. The chief would have forced her into his army long ago otherwise and also went to war with nearby tribes just based on her mastery.


    Silent¡¯s mother taught him how to control the basics of fire in just a single month. His family was convinced that he was some kind of genius, the fact was that he understood fire far better than the average person at the time did due to his previous life¡¯s education. He understood the chemical reaction that occurred during a combustion reaction, so he could learn the idea behind the most basic fire techniques in a matter of hours. He could start the fire in order to cook with a snap of his fingers at three years old, by week''s end, he had the ability to hold a fireball in midair in order to create light. He had understood far better than his parents that fire runs off of oxygen and in order for it to survive best, he must move more oxygen to the place that he wanted the fire to be lit. So, his most elementary fire power from his mother came in the form of ignition. While his fire ability became incomparably stronger through his father¡¯s power. Silent¡¯s father had wind based powers.


    His power was seen as one of the top powers in their small tribe, he boasted a power as strong enough to be able to kill most people in the city without even a second thought. He could move the wind in a way that caused people to move slower than he would. Their maximum speed would fall to less than half and his maximum speed would remain the same. He used his power to stop any evil monster that threatened the city. He had also used it during the battles their chief loved so much, aiding his army and hindering the opposing army. Silent¡¯s father also showed him how to use his powers on a basic level, he had to first use his weapon to create a small gust, but he then amplified it tremendously. Usually his father carried a bow and a stave. With the bow he could unleash an arrow so quickly that the target wouldn''t have time to move. But his real mastery was with his stave, every swish would move an enemies weapon enough to take them off target, every thrust would be unguarded every slash brought about the power of the gale.


    In just as quick a time as Silent had learned basic abilities in his mother''s fire, he learned the basics of his father''s wind based power. These abilities enhanced each other dramatically. Silent used the wind to flame the fire. This was by far his most powerful ability.


    His other power came from a book in my chief¡¯s large house, this was the power over earth. As there was no one to teach him this, he had only been able to read about it and make up his own spells to use it. This trial and error style learning however was how he learned best. After month three Silent had discovered how to create earth matter out of the energy around him, he could then use his wind to create a small scale sandstorm which could be used in battle very effectively. He could also use it with my firein order to somewhat create steel. This process used so much energy however that his tiny body could not handle it for long enough to make anything out of this steel.


    In a total of just over one single month, I had learned all elemental abilities my family had to offer, but his tribe was skilled in a single other ability that only the chief could use, this was thunder. When his father first told him about this and how thunder came from the sky or the chief¡¯s hands Silent had originally corrected him, Silent asked if he meant lightning, but apparently in this world, lightning was merely the light, while thunder was the power behind it. The first thing Silent thought of after he was told this was in a popular game on earth one of the attacks was called thunderbolt, grew immediately associated his current situation with this memory. After learning about this power, he had to give up any more insight into it until such a day that he could be taught the intricacies behind it. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    During these few months of vigorous learning of elemental powers Silent had also learned some of the intricacies as to using this power. In the beginning, just making a small spark would consume his energy vigorously. The way he looked at it was that his energy reservoir was only large enough to be used for a small thing like making a spark, after the second day, I could make 3 sparks in succession. After the third day Silent, was able to start and maintain a fire for 3 seconds before his energy ran low. By the end of the month, there was enough energy in my reservoir to maintain a small flame continuously without depleting my reservoir at all.


    Sai¡¯s mother, Lilith, explained to him that his body naturally absorbs the energy of the earth and heavens, and that it takes time to refill your energy when depleted. This made sense to him until the point that it felt as if his energy wasn¡¯t being depleted at all. Silent then asked his mother again and she merely told him the same thing, the natural energy of heaven and earth refilled your energy over time.


    After finding no answer from his mother, Sai naturally asked his grandmother. Why is it that I can maintain a constant flow of energy output but never decrease my energy reserves? Sai thought to her while in another room, assuming and hoping she was listening. Sai did this to maintain the illusion that his grandmother couldn¡¯t communicate at all, just incase someone were to discover her ability through context clues.


    Her answer was far more insightful than he had expected or first experienced, You¡¯re absorbing energy faster than you are expending it, if you were to use more profound spells, you would spend energy at a faster rate and not be able to maintain the spells as long as you currently are. After expressing his thanks to his elder, Silent had created some theories of his own.


    Sai theorized that during this period of growth, the more energy he expended, the more space in my energy reservoir would be available. As could be seen with the growth from his first day to his second day, he had found that he had significantly more energy to expend. The next thing Sai had to do was put hours theory to the test. He had to use more energy.


    Directly after this, Sai¡¯s father Lavits returned home from his morning rounds.Sai asked his father to teach him how to use wind powers. Sai¡¯s father of course was excited over this, him being able to teach his own son how to use his most powerful technique was a dream come true for him. To him, having a successor of his abilities was of paramount importance to him.


    The only issue with this was the tribe. In order to cultivate anything that the tribe practiced in, one had to get express permission of the chief. Usually this was not a problem, but usually children started their cultivation at the age of thirteen, learning how to use your powers was a coming of age ritual. Anyone who violated this would be killed by the chief immediately.


    ¡°I¡¯ll be glad to teach you son, but we have to ask the chief first, if we don¡¯t then he will come after us. He is far more powerful than your mother and I combined, so this is a necessity.¡± Of course Silent understood this as well, if the tribe were to just give away its secrets to anyone, then the tribe would more likely than not suffer. Therefore, the chief¡¯s advisor kept a record on all of the people in the tribe that had elemental powers, and the level at which they could use them.


    This also meant that the chief would go after people that were getting too strong as well, in order to maintain his position, the chief had to be the strongest cultivator in the tribe. If that position was threatened, then the chief would take action against anyone who potentially threatened his power. The hinderance of having such a person as their clan chief is that their clan¡¯s cultivation was rather poor. The benefit however was having a unit of cultivators that were all on the same strength and could be used as a cohesive formation.


    After asking his father about cultivating in wind, they both had to pay a visit to the chief. That very day Sai¡¯s father and himself went to the clan chief to ask permission to cultivate wind.


    The village as a whole was only a couple hundred acres in size, there were however six hundred people that lived in the tribe. The distance to the center of the tribe could be walked in less than an hour by even a three year old. This meant that Sai¡¯s cultivation would be set back at least two hours, possibly all day. Of course this worried him since he was not able to expand his energy reservoir the entire time, it was a secret that he could cultivate fire, and his father could not teach me anything about cultivating wind at all until he was given permission.


    After reaching the chief¡¯s luxurious home, Silent¡¯s father knocked on the door. The chief¡¯s home was at least four times the size of their own small three bedroom house. It even had a second floor, which was astonishing given that it was made out of earth, there wasn¡¯t any structural posts besides solid rocks taller than a person. A servant answered the door soon after knocking. The solid stone door was pulled open as if it weighed no more than a hollow wood door of Sai¡¯s previous life. ¡°How may I help you Lavits?¡± The servant asked, behind his back, four guards could be seen at the end of the foyer guarding yet another door.


    ¡°My son would like to cultivate wind magic, we are here to ask permission from the chief.¡± Silent¡¯s father was direct and succinct in his reply, he held no emotion in his voice even though he told Sai multiple times that he was nervous about whether Sai would be allowed to cultivate wind magic.


    ¡°I will inform him immediately,¡± the servant stated after taking a glance at my eager face, his face turned sour as he turned around and walked back to the foyer, ¡°you two can wait in here while I inform the chief.¡±


    After several minutes the servant returned to the foyer sweat beading up on his forehead from presumably rushing to the chief then back. ¡°The chief will see you now,¡± the servant said looking toward Silent, but not ignoring house father. ¡°the chief only wishes to see the child right now, you may remain here or we can escort the child to your house when the chief is done with him.¡±


    ¡°Then I will have to trouble our great leader, I have business that I must take care of.¡± My father said to the servant, he then turned to Sai and knelt down to his tiny hight, ¡°Do not anger the chief, always be respectful. Address him as ¡®Chief¡¯ or ¡®Great leader¡¯, good luck son.¡±


    Silent nodded, agreeing to be completely respectful to this leader of their tiny community. He then turned to the servant and asked ¡°Can you show me the way, please.¡±

 Chapter 6: The Chief

    Chapter 6


    The Chief


    As Silent followed the servant towards the far end of the massive house, he passed by at least a dozen more servants, some cleaning, some caring dishes, some carrying freshly tanned leather armor. There was one in particular he notice merely waiting on four beautiful and scantily clad women. None of which looked any older than he had before his untimely demise in his previous life. Their breasts were bare and they only had on a small amount of cloth covering their feet and nether regions. Sai stared nearly the entire time at them, his face bright red with embarrassment as he made a twenty foot walk through their room toward the room the Chief was in.


    As Sai passed the threshold of the exit of the room the ladies were in, he heard them snickering in hushed tones. Sai continued to make my way to the Chief''s room led by the servant, up the stone stairs and finally stopping at a door near the center of the hall. ¡°Boy, knock on the door, introduce yourself, then do what our Chief tells you to do. Only at the end can you ask permission to learn the clan¡¯s wind or earth arts.¡±


    After he said what he felt necessary, the servant left Sai standing in front of the stone door. He knew that the chief was on the other side, and Sai was certain he knew Sai was there. Sai knocked on the door and awaited a greeting. ¡°Come in,¡± the Chief said, his tone was cruel and filed with disgust. Sai reach up to the door knob and twist it with all my might, a small click sounds off in the mechanism. Sai began to push, harder and harder, he just couldn''t budge the door. ¡°Can''t open it, can you?¡± The Chief asked.


    ¡°It seems that I''m not strong enough, I beg your pardon Great Leader, but it seems I need help.¡± Sai begged the leader. The way I see it, the more abilities a can control, the less likely I will ever be put in a situation I cannot survive.


    ¡°Fine.¡± Sai heard from the other side of the door as it slowly pushed itself open. Sai stared blankly as the door itself shrinks and is unhinged from the wall then moves inwards, as if it''s hinges were on backwards. He hesitantly stepped through the opening and see a large man sitting on a stone chair staring at him, thunder swimming through his violet eyes. ¡°Come over here child, take a seat,¡± He said as the stone stool that was originally the same height as Silent slowly became half his height. Sai hurriedly scuttled up to sit on the chair, remembering to thank the Chief before taking his seat. ¡°What''s your name, boy?¡± The Chief asked, even though Sai knew that he knew the answer.


    ¡°My name is Silent Black Great Leader, I''m the son of Lavits and Lilith,¡± Sai answered the redundant question succinctly.


    ¡°Good, you aren''t an idiot. Do you know why we generally wait before giving out our elemental abilities?¡± The chief asked, this time the question wasn''t as unhelpful.


    ¡°Because children are poorly disciplined and cannot be trusted with powers that could destroy our tribe. Of course, there are always extenuating circumstances.¡± Sai replied, his last sentence did nothing to waver the Chief¡¯s thunder eyes.


    ¡°And, that is why you are here? In the hopes of learning how to control an element?¡± Another redundant question from the chief that Silent of course assented to. ¡°What do you know about elemental magic?¡±


    ¡°Elemental magic allows you to control the elements at the cost of some energy.¡± This was the only answer Sai could muster up since he didn''t know much more than that.


    ¡°For the most part, you aren''t wrong. In order to use elemental energy, you have to expend the energy of heaven and earth. After absorbing some into your body naturally you can spend it. After gaining basic insight into these elemental abilities you can be considered elementary ranked. After sufficient ability is seen, you will rank up till you reach the second large rank, novice. There are ten sub ranks to elementary elemental magic and each takes a toll on your body as will as provides many benefits. The reason I''m telling you this is because if you reach too high a rank, your body won''t be able to hold the energy inside but it would instead destroy you. If I were to give you this cultivation technique before your body could physically handle the energy, you would die, and I would be out a potential soldier.¡± the Chief explained. ¡°Until you can open that door relying on your own strength, you cannot be allowed this ability. Now go.¡±


    ¡°So, all I have to do is open the door?¡± Silent asked, sauntering towards it. He reached up to the handle, pulling his whole body up with it, his legs in a squatting position on the stone. Sai pulled with all his might, his shoulders were strained, he pushed with his legs until he felt cramping. In the end the door still didn''t move. Sai fell straight to the floor. The Chief then told Sai to keep it down, ignoring his inability to leave.


    At the end of the day, Silent was laying on the ground in front of the door the Chief gets up, the door shrinks a small amount, no more than a hair''s breadth, he swings it open forcefully and walks out, the door returning to its original size. It look as if I''ll be locked in here over night. Sai look throughout the room, at the few books that his small tribe has he opened one up that had a symbol on the cover that represented a rock. The book was made entirely out of stone, it wasn''t too heavy however. After opening it up, Sai realized it was too dark to see. He lit a small fire at the top of his finger and begin to read. The book was actually rather short. Only twelve pages. He read through the book several times before understanding any bit of the intricacies of the earth element. But he used what he already knew about energy manipulation in order to discover the bare minimum of manipulating earth. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    He then grabbed the door handle and willed the entire door to shrink just a hair. Sai tried once more to open the door, pulling on it the same way as before. It began to move. Sai easily pulled open the large door albeit, not completely with his own strength, but enough to be able to go home and give it a try again in the morning. He followed the same route he took to get to the Chief''s study. Down the stairs, past the hall with the mostly nude women, and finally to the foyer where he met once again with the servant that brought me to the Chief.


    ¡°So, you opened the door?¡± The servant asked rhetorically. Sai answered anyway, still with the utmost respect, even the Chief''s servants were held higher up than him on the social ladder.


    ¡°Yes, I did manage to move the door enough to slip out, but not enough to change our Great Leader''s mind.¡±


    ¡°I see, I am to take you home now. You can try again as often as you would like, but it is suggested to be a bit older and stronger first,¡± the servant explained. ¡°Why don''t you show me how you moved the door upstairs by opening this one?¡±


    ¡°Of course, forgive me if I can''t though, I am rather tired.¡± Sai could open the door rather easily if he used my minute mastery over earth magic, but it seemed as if the doors are all too large for their stone casing to be pushed or pulled without shrinking them first. Sai once more put all of his power into pushing the door, it of course wouldn''t budge without the application of earth magic.


    Sai knew that if he were to show that he studied earth magic without the Chief''s consent though that he would be in trouble. So, the options were limited to hiding the truth, or getting caught. As someone who has experienced death before, Sai was not wanting to get caught.


    ¡°Hmm, It looks as if you found a second way to exit the study, sheer willpower. Never mind that it would take more force than your father can exert just to move this door.¡± The servant said sarcastically, ¡°You need to open it. Now.¡± After he explained this to Sai, he realized. That he already knew Sai could manipulate earth, so Sai naturally shrunk down the door and pulled it open. His tiny body being more than enough to move the door somehow. ¡°Come along boy,¡± The servant said walking through the door toward my house.


    I''m not in trouble? Sai thought to himself as the servant walked next to him towards Sai¡¯s house, it is now night time out, one of the moons hung hung high in the sky, the other could barely be seen in the distance. ¡°You were actually rather quick. It took your father nearly a week to open each door,¡± the servant claimed. Dao then realized that what he had done was exactly as planned by the chief. ¡°I''m particularly surprised that it only took you a few hours, and you could see the difference in size¡±


    ¡°So it is a test?¡± Sai asked.


    ¡°Of course. It is required to learn basic skill in earth magic before any other magic so as to form a more cohesive team on the battlefield. The Chief thinks very highly of you since he let you take the trial at such a young age.¡± Claimed the servant. ¡°The Chief is even escorting you home.¡± The servant, or now revealed Chief claimed, ¡°if I didn''t expect great things from you, I would have turned you away at my door.¡±


    Things took a definite unexpected turn at this point. ¡°Wait, you''re our Great Leader?¡± Sai asked.


    ¡°Well, of course. You think that big oaf could take care of our small village? He took twenty years just to learn my lightning magic. He does do well to listen to my orders and follow them to the letter, so I can''t berate him too much. He told you about energy expenditure, yes?¡±


    ¡°Uh, yeah.¡± Sai said, still hesitant as to some kind of trick. What does he have to gain by lying to me? Sai thought.


    ¡°Oh, I gain nothing, I''m divulging the truth to you like I do everyone who passes my earth trial,¡± the man said, obviously hearing Sai¡¯s thoughts. ¡°You would do well to learn some ability in hiding your thoughts. After you learn wind magic from your father seek me out again. At your rate of progress I will expect you in about a three months. At which point, I will teach you some important information that very few in our clan know.¡±


    At this point Sai began to get excited. Also confused. The Chief didn''t seem to be some kind of warmonger. It seemed like he genuinely cared about the people in his tribe and their ability. I''m not even a part of his lineage and he doesn''t seem to mind, he is offering to be my master either way, Sai thought, ignoring the fact that the Chief could hear him.


    In the next month, Sai had learned all there was to know from his father about wind magic, even his ability to control a gale. It all still felt very basic though, even to him who had barely scratched the surface. After learning about wind, Sai subsequently spent three more weeks learning earth magic. With no one to teach me more than the most basic of basic information regarding it, Sai grabbed a book on it that was in his house like every other person''s house and began to practice it too. By the end of the third week, Sai had enough magic energy reserved to create his own house before running out, being as young as he was and as talented as he was though, Sai had to keep it hidden until he could truly protect himself and his family. Sai made a vow that very day, I wouldn''t go through losing anyone I cared about again, ever again.

 Chapter 7: Daos of the world

    Chapter 7


    Dao¡¯s of the world


    Well before his three month deadline to learn his clans mediocre beginners level magic, Sai headed out of the house and towards the Chief¡¯s mansion. After half an hour of walking, wind on his back thanks to his level one elemental wind magic, he reached the home of my clan chief. Sai knocked at the seemingly unguarded front door.


    ¡°Hello,¡± a man dressed as a servant answered the door, completely overlooking Sai. After a moment, he looked down to Sai¡¯s tiny body then exclaimed, ¡°ah, it has already been a month and you have done what your elders are still incapable of doing. Show me, I need to see your wind technique!¡± At his demand, Sai lifted his hand and presented the essence of wind. In many novels Sai had read when he lived on Earth, essence of an element was the highest point of understanding of the element. On his new planet however, learning the essence just shows that you are capable of drawing in energy of that specific element from the heavens and earth. This means that at his level of understanding, he was barely capable of drawing in the wind energy that is around him, let alone having the utmost understanding of the wind element. Of course, the Chief was unaware that Sai knew this much already, so afterward the Chief brought Sai inside to his study, which was now void of the intimidating violet eyed ¡°chief¡±.


    ¡°Sit, sit. No need to stand on formality here. I invited you here to tell you some important information on magic as well as some important information in general.¡± Sai sat, as the Chief said and he continued to speak. ¡°Firstly, you are only at the most basic point in magic, control over the essence just means that you can only use the most basic amount of magic, that which comes from the heaven and the earth. This means that your journey has only begun. At this point, you can be considered to be in the elementary stage, or stage one. Each stage is also divided into sub-stages, elementary stage one, elementary stage two, and so on till you get to stage ten, which is the maximum stage for each group. I only know of a handful of groups, the first being elementary, the second being named the basic stage, and the third being apprentice stage. I can assume there are at least a handful of stages past that, but the highest stage that I know the name of is the apprentice stage. You getting this so far?¡±


    ¡°Oh, yeah, basic stuff. I can barely move wind, so I am barely considered an elementary level mage,¡± Sai replied. All of this except the stages of success in controlling elements he had already knew just from experience. Sai wondered about what level was average in their village at that time, hoping the Chief couldn''t tell he had already learned these things.


    ¡°Ah, yes, the average of our village,¡± the Chief says, obviously hearing my thoughts despite that. ¡°You are currently the most promising member of our village, you seem to have gained a basic understanding in three elements, I had originally wanted to teach you about my thunder magic, but too much of a good thing will be a bad thing in this situation. It will hinder your growth rate rather than help you to be stronger. Im sure that this didn¡¯t answer your question, but currently I am the strongest in our small tribe, my strength level is already at elementary level two. This means that the average level is also in the elementary stage, with your father having barely reached the basic level.¡± The Chief explained, continuing to explain further, ¡°The most important thing is that there are multiple ways to reach each level.


    ¡°Each level can be reached by either learning magic, which can only go so far, or learning to use a weapon, which can only go so far as well. You are limited by your own ability with either. For magic, as long as you have some reserve magic, you can continue to use it. After exhausting your reserves though, you must expend your life force in order to maintain a spell, after so long, there won¡¯t be any life force left and you will die. Similarly, if you are training with the sword or spear, and exhaust your energy you will make a fatal mistake or use too much energy and expend your life force in a different way. This is the set of skills that our tribe accels in, physical capabilities. On average, our warriors are at the basic level in direct combat, your father is just a step below me at the beginning of basic level one, while I am at the peak of basic level one. As this is our primary technique such, I will begin to train you in weapons so as to boost your overall strength, this will also help you to understand the elements.¡±


    ¡°I have a couple of questions, if that is alright?¡± Sai asked, unsure if he was even allowed to speak in this situation. After getting consent to ask Sai began, ¡°How many elements are there?¡±If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    ¡°There are quite a lot, they are wood, wind, water, thunder, ice, fire, earth, steel, light and dark. These elements are then broken down from these elements into dao¡¯s. For example, your father practices the dao of the gale. The dao of the gale is a subset of the dao of wind. This was told to me by my master many years ago, before I returned to the tribe to lead.¡±


    Sai had felt like he had struck a gold mine here. Most people wouldn¡¯t even be told about the major dao¡¯s or the fact that they had subsets until they reached a point where they had learned more than the most basic information about the dao¡¯s, such as his situation. Sai had also realized at that specific moment that dao¡¯s that existed in the heavens and earth likely made up the heaven and earth.


    ¡°I will have to stop you there, your wild speculations, even if they are correct will not be of any help to you on your path of cultivation. What will help you is¡­¡± The Chief¡¯s voice trailed off, his body slowed down, as if covered by molasses till he stopped moving. The birds outside became quiet, and a single fly hovering around the corner of the room stopped moving mid flight. This situation genuinely scared Sai. What could have literally turned off time?


    ¡°Oh, come on Sai. You¡¯re smarter than this.¡± The ephemeral voice from Silent¡¯s second birth returned.


    Oh joy, Sai thought. The guy who killed my parents is back again to tell me how I can help him with whatever was more important than my family and myself. Oh please great Orza, command me to do thy bidding, that is what I¡¯m here for. Sarcasm filled the tiny voice in Sai¡¯s head, he knew that thinking was a faster way of communication between himself and Orza, Sai had also hoped that this self-proclaimed god understood what sarcasm was.


    ¡°Yes, I do know what sarcasm is, and your humor only amuses yourself. I could have left you in this situation learning absolute bullshit from this idiot. So, this guy, your Chief, he has no idea what he is talking about, and that is why he has only reached the second stage. There are eleven stages that you need to worry about now, and you will likely take decades to even get to the halfway mark. Only after that can you finally reach a higher plane of existence.¡± Orza explained, clearly not happy that he planted Sai in such a backwater tribe that had little understanding of the dao. ¡°Keep wondering about how the world works, that is the path to cultivation. Like on your old planet, understanding how the world works meant that you could use technology to control it. On this planet, my planet, you use cultivation in the same way. Technology is a luxury that only those who cannot cultivate use. The next thing I will tell you to help your cultivation is that you do not need a book or master in order to absorb elemental energy from the heaven and earth, you merely need to learn how to sort this energy in order to use it. Penultimately, there are thousands upon thousands of dao¡¯s and you will do well to learn the basic ones first. final thing I will tell you is that there is a fundamental difference between following the path of the mage in order to cultivate the dao and following the path of the warrior to cultivate the dao. You want to do both. Do not, set your sights on a single path, this will lead to greater power in the future.¡±


    After Orza¡¯s long winded explanation of the dao time returned to normal, the Chief continued without realizing that he had even been stopped. ¡°..picking one single path and seeing it to the end. This will mean that you will begin with a dao of the gale, continue to the end, then find out something about the dao of wind that also works with the dao of the gale which helps you to reach the complete understanding of the dao of wind.¡±


    Sai understood both this concept and the concept that Orza presented. According to Orza, because all of the daos are linked, since the world is made up of a mixture of all of the daos understanding them together will build a stronger base understanding and help link all of them together. The Chief however believed that once you reach the end of a dao, you can then move on. It seemed that the Chief¡¯s way would allow me to grow my rank faster, while Orza¡¯s will allow me to grow stronger before finally raising ranking.


    The Chief continued to speak while Sai pondered on the best path to take in order to rank higher. Sai heard him mention something along the lines of studying a weapon and using it for a dao of his own, as well as using his fists as a dao based weapon. After hearing this, Sai¡¯s young self grew extremely excited. He had imagined waving a sword covered in flame and thrusting a spear with the power of the earth. His imagination grew wild as he thought of all of the possibilities. Maybe, just maybe this place is where I was always meant to be.


    ¡°So, Sai, what weapon do you want to learn? What weapon will you use to boost your power as well as mine?¡± The Chief asked genuinely, knowing he had lost Sai¡¯s attention. He was unprepared for Sai¡¯s answer, especially since it had gone directly against his idea of how to get stronger.


    ¡°I need to use them all.¡± Sai¡¯s claim shocked the Chief. Most people only used one weapon, but Sai thought that if he found a different weapon that was more powerful, if he knew how to use it, he could. The Chief recovered from his shock by assuming that Sai needed to try before he picked one, the Chief likely wouldn''t be happy over this.


    The Chief kept speaking to Sai about his upcoming training as they headed down to his weapons room to find some for Sai to ¡°test out¡±.

 Chapter 8: Picking His Poison

    Chapter 8


    Picking his poison


    During Silent¡¯s walk with the Chief to his weapons room, he explained what each weapon the tribe uses and what their benefits were. ¡°We have spears, like your father uses. These are generally good for straightforward attacks, you must learn to be both sturdy and fluid at the same time while using this. Another weapon we use is the long sword. This weapon allows you to use superior body strength to dominate an opponent, this weapon is also capable of some defense. The final weapon we use is the bow and arrows, these are obviously good for attacking while maintaining your distance.¡± The Chief finished as they reached the door, the Chief pushed it open easily and they walked in.


    The weapons room was by far the largest room Sai had seen in the mansion. He saw far more weapons than the Chief described, but Sai knew that what he meant was these three weapons he mentioned were the ones that anyone in the clan actually used and could teach Sai how to use. This meant two things, first, Sai wouldn¡¯t have any competition when he choose a handful of weapons that no one else uses, and last, Sai would have to learn on his own.


    As Sai walked into the room, he saw a wall that had multiple weapons hanging on it, there was a series of spears that looked poorly mass produced, almost as if Tarzan were the creator, directly next to it was a series of longswords. All required two hands, all were far too heavy for Sai, and all of them had very little defensive ability, therefor, Sai¡¯s worst fear would come true again. The last option was akin to a basket of wool next to a large number of tree branches. These bows were obviously unstrung so that they didn¡¯t lose their strength later when they were used, but no matter how elastic a bow was, it also had the defense of a twig in winter. Sai thought back to how characters in comics used a bow, and remembered that it was almost solely used for long distance combat, but in close distance, it could be used similarly to a staff. Sai decided that while the other two weapons were not for him, the bow and arrows might be helpful. Sai continued to walk though, he knew that if he grabbed a bow now that the Chief would want to train him in specifically that. Sai had little to no desire however to train in a single style, His desire was to train in something that could help him to defend himself and his family from anything.


    Sai followed the wall to the far side of the weapon room. On the side opposite the door there began a pile of weapons strewn on the ground, piled nearly as high as his head. This impressed him at first, until Sai noticed that almost all of them were medium length swords with the same insignia around the hilt. This obviously meant that a majority of these weapons came from a conquered tribe that specialized in broadswords, this also meant slimmer picking for Sai now. Sai rustled through the pile for several minutes, the Chief stood in the doorway and watched silently, muttering under his breath about how children never choose something easy. In the end, Sai found one that was perfect.


    As Sai¡¯s small body slowly climbed out of the pile of blades, scratches covering his torso, torn sleeves due to climbing through a host of daggers, knives, and a handful of wood axes that looked like they had no place in a room full of battle gear Sai had something in his hand. The perfect thing for him. A shield. It had a similar shape to a gothic cross. One where Sai could hold the shield in either hand while holding another weapon and still be able to see as well as attack with nearly no hinderance in movement. While this shield covered nearly his entire body, to an adult, it would have been a poor item. It would have barely covered their torso and only blocked attacks that were specifically on one side of them.


    This was the perfect weapon, while it had very little attack power, it had enormous defending power. The shield itself was made of wood and stone. The wood was a majority of the shield, the stone however wrapped the shield, almost as if it bound it together, and it had a crest on it that was shaped like a waning moon. The Crest was not in the center of the shield, but on the left wing of it, as if the stone would cover the shield wearer¡¯s heart if the shield were in the wearers right hand. The next thing that made this shield so perfect was that on the wings and bottom of the shield were sharp edges, as if it was sharpened in order to be used for attacking, the only side that was not bound in sharpened iron was the top of it. This was the absolute best option for Sai. He could protect himself behind this, and when he got larger, he can get a larger shield that would accommodate his increased size and strength, a shield made out of hardened steel meant protect against larger foes that look to harm Sai or his family.


    Sai grew excited as he had grabbed his first choice, Sai then set it down near the center of the room and climbed back into the small ocean of blades. The Chief lightly yelled, to get Sai¡¯s attention ¡°Maybe you should pick from the ones that we can best train you in, you will definitely learn better from those.¡± His slight reprimand did not deter Sai however. Sai had his sights set on something that would be helpful as both a close range weapon and a mid range weapon now. Something that was long range would require Sai to put down his shield, and something that was exclusively short range would hinder his ability with his shield since it could be used for both attack and defense. What Sai was looking for now was either a whip or a chain that could be used similarly. In the end though, Sai couldn¡¯t find anything like that. This meant that Sai would have to buy one or make one.


    Sai¡¯s thoughts behind a whip or chain were that if he had something mid ranged like that, he could use his shield close range, and use the other long range. It went further than that though. Sai also thought about how whips and chains could tie down opponents, they could essentially eliminate someone from the battlefield for at least a short period of time. A chain could tie someone down and used its heavy weight in order to hurt an opponent, while a whip used speed and its shape in order to lash and even cut an opponent. But the core of both was binding an opponent so that Sai could then close the distance and use his shield against them without struggle.


    In the end however Sai had grabbed a blade that was attached to a rope, it could do the same job, but it wasn¡¯t exactly what he had wanted. After grabbing that Sai went to the side that had the disassembled bows and grabbed a string and branch. Sai went back to the center, grabbed his shield and looked expectantly at the Chief, the Chief looked back at Sai as if Sai was crazy. He didn¡¯t argue with Sai¡¯s choices, but instead told Sai to follow him. Sai was over encumbered, and knew that the Chief was using this as a way to tell him to not overestimate himself. Naturally, Sai strung the bow and wrapped it around his collar similar to a satchel. Sai then had a free hand for his rope dart, and his other arm was covered with his shield. Sai followed directly behind the Chief into a room closeby.


    Sai¡¯s next experience would be to learn how to use what he had at his disposal in order to protect his family. More importantly, to never be trampled under the foot of anyone, ever again. The Chief opened the door to a large room that was covered in cloth suited scarecrows. A wooden sword was tied to their hands, and Sai knew that the Chief was making another point. That point being that the shield and rope dart weren¡¯t practical to learn in our clan. ¡°You can always use this room to practice your...uhh...weapon skills. I doubt that your choices will be very suited to this environment though.¡± The Chief said disdainfully, as if he was watching an oyster being split to find no pearl inside. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    ¡°You are probably right Great Leader. But since this is the only training room, I must do my best to keep up with my peers.¡± Sai replied, knowing that no matter how hard he claimed he would try, the Chief would still be disappointed.


    ¡°Then I will leave you to it, you may enter the weapons room again if you decide to change anything.¡± A hopeful tone in the Chief¡¯s voice let Sai know that he expected Sai to follow the rest of the clan in practicing with a spear or longsword as well. A weapon that would be more primarily attack based, a weapon that would be more helpful to the other people in the clan.


    The Chief shut the door as he walked out, leaving Sai in the training room with the sound of a single other person hacking and yelling at the far end. It was polite to take the furthest station to train at from the door, so people would know how many stations were left. From what Sai could see, the other person that was in the training room amidst nearly one hundred scarecrow shaped punching bags was at the furthest station. Sai walked to the very end, on the opposite side of the room as the other person. He pulled his shield up and began to practice.


    Sai paid close attention to the other person while deciding on a good stance to properly carry his shield so that he could use it to its maximum effectiveness. Sai had found that he had also been paying attention to Sai, but rather inadvertently. The other cultivator would look during a particular spear flourish that he had not been practicing until Sai had taken his spot. This flourish looked almost like he had made it up specifically to attack people on all sides of him as well as to keep an eye on what was going on around him. After several times of spinning and whipping with his spear, he stopped. He just turned around and stopped facing his scarecrow like dummy, and watched as Sai hefted the oversized shield up and began swinging my dart knife around as if it were a yo-yo.


    Sai had witnessed on a show in my past life that someone used this sort of weapon to wrap around an opponent, so Sai assumed that that was the best option for training, wrap the opponent with the knife. After a single attempt at this though Sai heard the other person in the room yell, ¡°What the hell are you doing boy?¡± A simple question that required a three word answer.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Sai replied casually. He further explained, ¡°It is my first time using a weapon, so I am still trying to get the hang of its particular nuances.¡±


    ¡°Damn right you don¡¯t know. That particular motion you are trying to carry out requires a ton of practice with no one nearby, if you were to swing that knife around and let go a second late it could be aimed at the other side of the room. What you need to do if you are wanting to train in that damnable thing is go to the weapons room and get a throwing knife first. After becoming accurate with that then come see me again.¡± His rebuke stunned Sai, it also helped quite a bit. Sai understood the premise that accuracy was more important at this point than any kind of technique. If he could use the knife to do the most powerful moves, it wouldn¡¯t have much point if Sai couldn¡¯t hit the target.


    ¡°Thank you for your insight. I will do just as you said.¡± Sai replied, truly thankful despite his tone. Sai then did what the man had claimed Sao should do. Sai then grabbed a handful of throwing knives that were at the bottom of the pile of weapons, then Sai returned to the room. Sai grabbed the knife by the blade as he had seen on the internet in his previous life, then Sai whipped his arm down as fast as he could, letting go when It was nearly straight. The knife flipped end over end several times before crashing directly into the ground like a meteor.


    ¡°Is that how you plan on throwing your dart knife too? Are you gonna line up the shot? Flip it over and over? Hope the rope doesn¡¯t get in the way of the blade or deter its destination?¡± More rebuking came from the man on the other end, it was obvious that he was enjoying himself. He seemed to know the best way to use both the dart knife and to use the throwing knives. He was the perfect person to be in this room to help Sai learn.


    ¡°How do you propose I throw it then?¡± Sai asked, hoping that he would show Sai.


    ¡°Like this,¡± he replied, a single second later, Sai felt wind brush past his face. A knife that Sai had never seen was embedded deep into the chest of the scarecrow. Sai had completely missed his instruction, but it left the impression that he would be the person that Sai would go to with any weapon based question that he might have in the future.


    ¡°Can you show me again, just slower this time?¡± Sai asked as the man walked over to Sai¡¯s station, grabbed his knife and began to walk back. He assented and told Sai to watch carefully this time. Instead of watching the knife, Sai watched as he threw it. His entire body was put into it. The knife left his arm as if it really was a dart, he had a small amount of follow through. Sai memorized even the way his hip and foot moved as he twisted like a spring. Sai turned just after and again felt the wind drive past him as the blade sunk deep into the practice dummy. Sai had felt that it was his turn to try it exactly how the expert did.


    Sai grabbed out his own knife, mimicked the expert¡¯s motion, his footwork, his breathing even. Sai released the blade. Sai didn¡¯t have nearly enough power behind it, but as long as it went the correct direction, it would be enough of a root to start growing better. It fell to the ground after missing the target by a single inch on the bottom. Sai pulled out his other knife to repeat the steps again. This time Sai was going to compensate for a few inches in order to stab it into the center of the practice dummy. The second time Sai had overcompensated and missed by nearly three inches in the on the top. This weapon was extremely finicky, even a slight change in any number of things and it would miss its target. The third shot however, Sai had stabbed the target right in the arm. It wasn¡¯t a deep stab, but at least he hadn¡¯t missed. At this point, It had become Sai¡¯s goal to hit the target one hundred times at this distance without missing once. Only this way would Sai feel confident in changing locations to a further one.


    After an entire three hours, wearing himself out several times with both arms, had Sai finally given up for the day. It had been a good experience, Sai had slowly begun to learn how to use a rope dart and he had partially mastered the throwing knife at just over two meters. In a few days, Sai was certain that he would be capable of hitting the target one hundred times consecutively.


    As Sai started to wind up my rope dart and collect my throwing knives that person that was still practicing at the far side of the room returned. ¡°Are you finished already?¡±


    ¡°Yes. I am still too young and haven¡¯t built the endurance that I need to in order to do this all day like you.¡± Sai replied kindly.


    ¡°If you need any more help, you know where I am boy. When you finally master the throwing knife at the same distance that your rope dart can travel however, come back to me. I will help with that.¡± This person was extremely helpful.


    ¡°Can you tell me your name, or at least what to call you?¡± Sai asked him, hoping to learn more from my father about this comrade.


    ¡°Just call me Quartermaster. I am the keeper of the weapons and arms in our tiny village.¡±


    ¡°Yes sir, I am called¡­¡± Sai try to reply.


    ¡°I know who you are, the Chief thinks very highly of someone who has already embarked on multiple elements yet hasn¡¯t even reached the age of seven, the age that we normally start you boys. I expect to see you here tomorrow.¡± The Quartermaster cut Sai off, then made him feel semi-threatened. Sai had planned on training tomorrow as well, but he hadn¡¯t planned on training here, Sai had wanted to train in the outskirts of the forest so as to see if any of the elements he used would help him with weapons training. Sai hadn¡¯t told him that though, Sai merely assented and put all of his weapons except his shield and bow into a sack and headed home for the day.

 Chapter 9: An Art

    Chapter 9


    An Art


    Sai had returned home after a long day of throwing then picking up stone carved into the shape of a knife. Sai was very confused as to why we used stone weapons still even though the Chief knew about steel and that it was far more powerful. He was also confused as to why his tribe only had steel daggers, was my tribe so primitive that we couldn¡¯t forge steel? Could we only take from those that did forge steel? If that was the case, being earth element oriented, why is it that we only had stone weapons as well? I was nearly capable of that and I had only reached the beginning of the elementary level. Why couldn¡¯t we use stronger ore¡¯s than stone? Sai¡¯s mind was reeling, he continued about this line of thought until he had reached his house.


    Sai had also noticed as he walked that even though his house was on the outskirts of the tribe, it was also one of the largest. It almost seemed like it was a bastion of resistance, Sai figured that this was something that had to be asked about when he got inside. Sai had an exciting day. He was excited to show his father what he had learned that day. Naturally Sai was proud of himself in both his ability in magic, and his ability with the knife dart, granted Sai didn¡¯t have much practice with his shield, so he doubted he was any bit proficient in it. Sai walked in the door, his shield covered his entire arm and dragged on the ground, his rope dart was wrapped around his arm, bow was on his back, strung across the arm that wasn¡¯t holding the shield. he had multiple throwing knives weighing down the pockets of a thick sack tied to his waist. his tiny body was covered in sweat and he was armed to the teeth. It was an amusing sight seeing a three year old, a child at an age that most children die from disease armed to look like they are going to war.


    Sai opened the door to his house, Sai¡¯s mother was cooking, his father was sitting at the kitchen table that was made of stone. Sai realized that compared to Earth, this planet that he hasn¡¯t even discovered the name for was completely incomparable. On Earth, you would have a computer that could literally get you any amount of information in seconds, while on this planet, the people Sai knew of couldn¡¯t even figure out how to work steel or wood. In this world, people used swords and magic, on Earth, people had guns, planes, ships as large as Sai¡¯s entire tribe, it was really not comparable.


    Sai was still confused as to why Orza wanted him here instead of someone else, Sai had been used to a leisurely life of computer work and schooling. Sai was not sure what Orza saw in him specifically. Sai continued to think about how he could have taken Jackie Chan, or anyone who would have been more used to this cultivation based lifestyle.


    Sai greeted his dad as he began to disarm himself. Sai said hi to his mother, but she didn¡¯t like to be bothered when she was cooking, so he left it as a mere greeting. Sai¡¯s father watched as Sai unloaded nearly 30 pounds of armaments from himself. His weapons weighed nearly as much as he did. ¡°So, you decided on a weapon today,¡± Sai¡¯s father stated sarcastically.


    ¡°Yes, I am leaning towards just the shield and rope dart, but I would have preferred a whip.¡± Sai claimed, happy for his choices despite the teasing.


    ¡°Why would you choose weapons that our tribe doesn¡¯t train in?¡± Sai¡¯s father asks, Sai could feel him reprimanding through his question. His face was tight, Sai could tell he disapproved.


    ¡°A shield suits me better. I want to protect myself and others. I can¡¯t do so if I am carrying a longsword, with that, I can only attack. I do realize that I may need to use something though that can be used to attack, so I can use my shield for close range, my rope dart for mid range, and the bow for long range. If I really need to, when I get a bit more powerful, I can use magic.¡± Sai claimed, He had thought through this very thoroughly,


    ¡°That isn¡¯t the point son,¡± Sai¡¯s father began, ¡°the tribe isn¡¯t about you. It is about survival, we can best survive if we are a team, if we know each other¡¯s strikes. With that rope dart, can you even hit the target? With that shield can you strike an enemy? With either of those will you fall in line with the rest of our army, or will you just get in the way? You are young, so you don¡¯t have experience.¡± Sai felt ashamed about his choice. he thought that he had chose for the good of the tribe, for the good of those that he cared about, but Sai had not realized that there was a situation such as this, a situation where Sai was in truth being selfish.


    ¡°I will trade them in if it is that big of an issue. But, I was thinking about our army, I would need to see it before I decide what I want to do after that.¡± Sai lied that he had any intention to change his choice, but rather Sai intended to help our army. If the tribe¡¯s army also used large shields, they could form a legion, no different from a roman army from ancient times on Earth. Of course Sai knew that the army would have to be convinced and that the only way to convince them would be to push himself harder and show them how effective having defense actually is.


    In truth, at such a level attack power wasn''t such a big deal, as long as you had a sharp blade and quick reflexes you had enough. The most important thing at this level is your agility and your defense. If Sai could explain this to the leader he could not only make the tribe stronger, Sai could help them to learn about absolute defense. Defense that is so strong that no matter what blade, it cannot break it. At that point, your enemies would be a stick and you a boulder, the only outcome would be their store hands and tired bodies after beating so much. After that, the only thing you would need to do is quickly finish your enemy and continue to advance. Sai would have to explain this to the Chief thoroughly when he saw him tomorrow. Hopefully he will see things my way and train or next generation to be more like a Roman legion.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Sai sat quietly thinking these things while he waited for his mother to finish dinner. Sai pulled all of the energy around his body while waiting, Sai was not in a particular meditative stance, just sitting in a chair that is at least six inches taller than all the others. As Sai gathered the energy around him, he began to test his best ability, the ability that computer nerds are gifted with most, multitasking. This was a particular rarity since there was no one else in the tribe that could break away attention from drawing in energy at all or it would immediately stop flowing towards them. Sai asked his father while still drawing energy in visibly, specks of red, gold, and green hover about his body, ¡°Before I give up my current weapons, can I spar with you? I really want to know if I was any good at them.¡± Sai tried to be as innocent as possible. He never actually planned on giving up any of those things laying on the floor between the table and the wall. He had rested them there because that area was one where no one sits since Sai¡¯s grandmother never leaves her room.


    Sai¡¯s father answered, Sai knew he was going to teach Sai a lesson. ¡°Sure son, we can do that after dinner.¡± He felt that even if Sai was a master at any of these that Sai would turn out no different than the fastest gazelle, eaten by the hoard of alligators, only in groups were you safe.


    ¡°Yay,¡± Sai exclaimed. he really wanted to show off his skills, even though Sai knew he couldn''t win, and he knew that his father was going to teach him a lesson, Sai was excited to use his most formidable weapon, his shield.


    Silent¡¯s mother finished making supper, his father watched as he ate. Sai assumed that he was imagining how hard to discipline him for not following the status quo, but Sai didn''t care. Sai was elated that he could spar with someone that wasn''t a moldy sack of old grass.


    As soon as supper was over, Sai grabbed his shield and rope dart, but left his bow behind, Sai¡¯s father wouldn¡¯t be upset if Sai learned the bow. Sai¡¯s father went into his room and grabbed his spear. They met in the back yard near the woods.


    ¡°Are you ready son,¡± Sai¡¯s father asked leisurely. Sai assented enthusiastically. ¡°OK, then I''m coming.¡± Sai¡¯s father thrusts his spear out in a one handed stance, not using any of his wind powers.


    Sai however hefted his thick shield up and put all his strength behind it to block.


    The spear resounded off the shield with a clang, Sai knew his father was holding back, but Sai could still see surprise in his face that Sai could even block that attack. He came again with a fraction more of his strength. Sai figured that if he held his shield at an angle the spear would follow the shield and only scrape it rather than Sai¡¯s arm taking the full force.


    Sai had figured correctly, the arrow fast spear slid past Sai¡¯s shield and left his father''s armpit open. Sai knew that he wasn''t fast enough though to hit his father, and with a blink Sai¡¯s father had retracted his arm. Lavits¡¯s spear skills could be said to be the best within several miles yet he had never experienced such an odd situation. A situation where he wasted all the strength he put into a strike yet the opponent only needed a small flick to leave him vulnerable.


    Sai¡¯s father gave up on stabbing and instead swung from overhead. Sai hefted the shield up at a similar angle and the spear glanced off once again. This time, Sai¡¯s father didn''t finish with a single strike, but instead a combination of an overhead seeing and a sweep to the feet. Silent wasn''t fast enough for such a change and the massive bruise that swelled up immediately proved it.


    While laying on the ground, Silent¡¯s father brought the spear back up and went again for an overhead strike, looking to duplicate his previous feat. Silent blocked once again and allowed his spear to fall to the ground as it barely hit its target. The sweep followed again and this time Silent jammed the shield down and caught his spear between the side and bottom of the cross. With a small twist Sai pulled it from his leisurely held grip.


    Silent flicked his spear away with another twist and stood up. ¡°You do have some skill with that shield son, but remember, this is a spar, and you shouldn''t rely on something that your brothers in arms don''t use. Your shield is a great tool for your own protection, but it won''t help with your fellow soldier''s, we need a wall of blades, not a wall that the enemy can climb.¡± Sai¡¯s father reprimanded even though Sai had removed his weapon. He then created a swift gust of wind and his spear flew back into his hands. ¡°I''m going to take this more seriously now.¡±


    ¡°I''m ready,¡± Sai answered. Silent knew that a world of hurt was coming, his father couldn''t lose to his own toddler. He gripped the staff with both hands and thrusted. After Silent¡¯s father used the same technique he spun around rapidly and struck Silent with the butt of his spear. Sai could already feel a welt growing next to his hip. Silent would remember this move as well.


    Not even a second later Sai¡¯s father struck again. He stood with his side facing Silent and gripped his spear at an odd angle one hand pulled one way while the other hand held it down, the spear acted like a bow with a cut string and flung its head towards Silent. It glanced off Silent¡¯s shield again and again as my father used the momentum of the initial swing to loop the spear around his body and strike harder with each consecutive blow. No matter how hard he struck however it continued to be deflected. The faster they came, the harder they hit, the easier the shield ignored their power.


    One final strike against the top and Sai¡¯s father swung around the same as before, a swift twist around his whole body to bring a blow to the side. This time Sai was prepared however. As he spun around, so did Silent. Though Silent was weaker, he wasn¡¯t any slower, having borrowed momentum from his father¡¯s strike Sai met that spear again. Just as the spear and shield collided a thin knife darted out from under it. Sai allowed it to barely cut his father before grabbing the rope it was attached to and yanking back.


    Sai would never harm his family. He would even do anything to protect them, but Sai was a child from Earth, he was not a fan of bending to other people''s will. Especially when his deviation is for the good of others. If there is anything Sai was scared of, it was death and slavery. Not slavery in the literal sense, slavery like Stalin in the USSR, ¡®you are free to do what you want, but only if I tell you It¡¯s okay.¡¯


    After drawing the most minute amount of blood, Sai knew, he knew that his skill with these two weapons was an art.

 Chapter 10: A Monstrous Foe

    Chapter 10


    A Monstrous Foe


    Lavits had discovered that Sai was just as strong as him while he was only using a small fraction of his strength. He discovered that the only way he could actually beat Sai was to overpower his own son. Lavits could easily do so, but he realized at that moment that Sai had made the right choice in his weapons.


    I might be clunky, I''m still slow, and I have nearly no strength like a small child should. But I do have skill, skill that goes against what my father believed possible, Sai thought. Lavits looked at his son very surprised. He then said ¡°You can keep your shield and sewing needle, but you must find another weapon that the tribe trains in and use it. You don¡¯t get a choice in this matter.¡± His father¡¯s tone was sharp, but it could be seen that he had approved of Sai having ability with his shield. Sai proved that not only did he have talent with the armament, but he was also an extremely quick study. Sai had left the small skirmish with only two bruises, while he had even inflicted one unsuspectingly on his father who was considered the second most powerful person in the tribe.


    Sai was worn out, he had used up all of his energy for the day, he needed a moment to recharge. While his father went inside, Sai laid down, his head propped up on his shield, rope dart still strung around his wrist in a way that he could use it at any moment.


    Sai¡¯s mother who had watched the whole battle from a small patio behind the house came over to Sai. ¡°Your father just wants you to be safe, there are so many young men that go out with him that don¡¯t return.¡±


    ¡°I know,¡± Sai replied, ¡°Dad doesn¡¯t understand the benefit of shields though. While he claims that the enemy would simply climb over, the case is actually that if an army were to carry a shield, that army would have no way of losing a battle except by being entirely overpowered. I hope that I could show him today, the only way that dad could have won was to use far more strength than I used. Maybe if we adapted my way of fighting, there wouldn¡¯t be an enemy that would take up arms against us again.¡± Sai explained sleepily. His logic was far beyond that of any child, it was even beyond that of his elders in the tribe.


    ¡°That may be the case, but be sure that you have sufficient strength in order to backup your thoughts. Your father has been outside our tribe many times, he even went to study at a school when he was younger. He has experience that you do not. Instead of proving something try to learn something.¡± Sai¡¯s mother said to him before turning around.


    Sai had not expected that something like a choice in weapons would create such a riff in his family. While he loved his new family, he still could never get past his old family all being killed because he didn¡¯t have the power to defend against those thugs. Sai decided that he would have to disappoint his new family in this case in order to protect them in the future.


    Sai had actually fallen asleep outside behind his house. He had woken up in his bed though. He woke up to a faint voice in his head. It was his grandmother. His grandmother rarely reached out to him without him reaching out first, but in this instance it was refreshing. Sai boy, do not take what your parents have said to heart. They are looking out for you in the only way you can. I have seen your past however, and I watched your fight. You will do great things in the future for this tribe if you continue on this path. We will be able to rule over our own valley without any issues when you finally reach your father¡¯s strength. Do not worry too hard. Continue your work and great things will come.


    Sai¡¯s grandmother saw right through him, she saw that he was worried, and upset, but she said the exact thing he needed to hear. He was going to continue his plight. To defend his family, defend himself, and never be hurt again. Today was the day for him to truly start his training. His plan today was to train in the woods, to see if his magic enhances his weapons strengths.


    He got out of bed, ignoring that that wasn¡¯t where he went to sleep. He was determined to make his own breakfast today through hunting as well, so after getting dressed and grabbing his shield, bow, rope dart, and throwing knives, he headed out the door towards the woods in the back yard. This was the first time that he had been in those woods, so he wasn¡¯t sure about what he could meet in there if he went too deep. Therefor, he stayed relatively close to the edge, though he couldn¡¯t see his village, he could tell exactly where it was.


    Sai then started with his rope dart, he had thrown it a handful of times, making sure that he could hit a small tree with it. It was obvious that he could do such a thing. He then began to use magic with it. He started with hunting squirrels and other small animals, though he didn¡¯t cook them, he actually gathered them all and with a makeshift net he hung them from a tree branch to use for bait later.


    He began to use his magic in tandem with his rope dart and quickly found that hunting was extremely easy with both magic and a weapon. He began by using his earth magic in order to build small barriers that would trap the prey. Then he continued by using wind magic to speed up the rope dart. But he had finally found that wind magic had another ability that was unique. He could use it to stop flying animals then strike them at the same time with the help of a different wind current. Hunting really was too easy.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    His next venture was to figure out a way to use his earth and fire magic on his weapon in order to help him hunt. He had thought of very little however on either of those fronts. Sai had imagined a flaming knife dart travelling at high speeds toward a target, but the further away the knife dart got, the harder it was to control the fire attached to it. Every time he did, it burned out.


    His next venture was more promising. He had tried to use his rope dart with the power of earth. In this way, he could throw the dart, and while it was moving, he could engorge it. It would be far more massive than originally then it would strike the target with more weight, therefore more strength. Physics won that battle however. As it would fly out of his hand, it would gain too much weight and fall to the ground. Even if he was stronger, he couldn¡¯t help with the exponential weight gain in the rope dart¡¯s weight.


    After several hours of trying time and again to morph fire and earth into his rope dart, he came up with no results. Eventually Silent decided to use specifically magic to hunt. The makeshift net had already been weighed down with dead rodents, so Sai had to make a second. He had planned on using these as bait to hunt something larger, but didn¡¯t expect to fail so much in his endeavor.


    Silent was currently downtrodden, but he knew that he shouldn¡¯t give up. He had talent given to him by a self proclaimed god, and he was considered a genius. Instead of giving up, he decided that he would practice with his shield while taking a break from his rope dart.


    As can be assumed, there was very little Silent could do in order to practice his shield techniques outside of bashing trees or small animals with it. Silent instead used his bait to bring in a beast that would cause him to need his shield. He had hoped for a single coyote or some other predator that he knew that he could handle solely with magic.


    After flinging away several dead rodents in a small trail from a creek to his location, Silent left the makeshift bag of raw meat and bone in a clearing. He then waited. While waiting, Sai was drawing in the elemental source energy from around him. In his current location there was quite a bit of gold and light blue specks, while there was far less red swirling around his body. At this point, Silent would be considered elementary level one still, it was far easier to raise your level with your physical cultivation, but when you finally fill up your body with elemental energy completely, you would be considered a master of the elementary level and you would move to the basic level. At the basic level, you were capable of condensing your energy that is inside of you into a small ball in the pit of your stomach, the place it rested was called your dantian. After condensing your energy in that pit, you had to multiply that energy by filling up your entire body again and again until those little balls of energy filled up your entire body once again and once more condense into a smaller form. This process theoretically would repeat infinitely or until your energy can no longer condense or grow yet still fills up your entire body. In short, if someone were to reach the end of the elementary level, and the ball of energy condenses, but it still fills up a majority of their body, they will be limited to only a fraction of the way through the basic realm.


    This means that the realms for energy are essentially percent based, but you cannot reach past one hundred percent energy in your body or it will leak out. This also means that the denser you can create each ball of energy in your body after the elementary realm, the more likely you are to reach a further realm. This finally means that while martial cultivation has sub-levels, magic cultivation is more ratio based. The current Sai would be considered forty percent of the way to the peak of the elementary realm, or as his tribe claims, level four elementary.


    It must be said that this energy that is being stored is not the same as the energy that one normally uses. The energy that one normally uses is specifically in the dantian, while this energy starts out in the dantian and expands to the rest of one¡¯s body. If one were to expend this energy, they would actually harm themselves even though they would have extreme gain for a short time. It must also be said that the only true gain in size of the energy reservoir occurs at the beginning of each realm, where your dantian is being filled completely with energy, or when you finally reach a new realm where all of your energy is again condensed into your dantian.


    Finally, this kind of cultivation also helps to cultivate someone somewhat in martial cultivation, by adding energy to one¡¯s body, they are also strengthening their body, though not as much as average martial cultivators would. Someone in the first level of the basic realm for magic cultivation would have a body as strong as someone in the fifth or sixth level of martial cultivation.


    While waiting quietly for his prey, Silent had filled up a significant portion of his body with energy, he would now be considered the fifth level of the basic realm of magic cultivation. He would only be considered the first level of the basic realm in martial cultivation though. In order to raise a level in martial cultivation, one would have to double the strength that they had in the previous realm.


    This needs explained because at this exact moment, waiting patiently for a beast to attempt to devour his bait, Sai had reached elementary level two in his martial cultivation. It was not weird that he reached it at such a young age though. The average person on his last planet was almost at elementary level four, while some of the strongest people were in the fifth or sixth level. This means that Sai could now lift twice the weight, hit twice as hard and block twice as strong of attacks.


    While waiting, drawing in energy, finally a beast came. It was not the beast he had expected however, it was a magical beast that was also rather strong. At that exact moment, a mountain lion had entered Sai¡¯s line of sight.


    Sai immediately hefted his now far lighter shield. He planned on jumping from his position several meters up a tree and using magic to aid him with his kill.

 Chapter 11: A Masterful Combination

    Chapter 11


    A Masterful Combination


    Now was his chance, Silent had his rope dart wrapped around his arm,his shield was in both hands as if he were going to use it to stab the lion. At this same instance he used magic on it to make it larger and sharper.


    To no avail though, the mountain lion had seen him and moved. When he landed Sai already pulled his shield up ready for an attack. The lion was going to give it to him.


    Sai smacked away a claw, leaving the lion¡¯s rib cage open but also exposing himself. This was a lesson he would soon regret. The lion was much faster than him. It recovered in a moment. Sai however was still very exposed.


    Four massive claws tore deep into Silent¡¯s chest. He would soon lose a lot of blood. Sai was scared, he chose the shield because he knew that it would help protect him and those he cared about. This time though he learned that speed was also extremely important, and that a shield only works when it is facing an attacker.


    Sai had heard of a spell however that was meant to heal small wounds, but he couldn''t remember it. He did remember however that if you pack dirt into a wound it would stop the bleeding. So at that moment, adrenaline pumping into his veins he willed the earth magic to create a small and tightly packed clot of mud to be shoved into his chest.


    The lion brought his paw up once more to strike. This time Silent knew what to do, he let the claws get just in range of the shield and twisted. The edge of the shield cut at the beats foot pad and caused it to be more weary.


    It got into a low stance, and swiped arty Silent¡¯s ankle. This time Sai shoved the shield deep into the ground, slicing directly into the lion¡¯s claws and making it impossible to move. Sai then thought of a way, the best way to defeat this lion. He drew back and whipped his rope dart around in an arking fashion. Right at the point where it hit the lion¡¯s spine there was an explosion.


    Sai theorized that he could instead of merely throwing the blade with due on it and just cauterizing the wound as it entered, he could detonate the point of impact.


    A large and deep hole appeared in the overgrown cat''s back, nearly removing it''s shoulder in the leg that wasn''t stuck. The lion roared painfully, sounding similar to a woman¡¯s scream when it lost use of both of its front legs, one trapped, one nearly removed. The lion was almost literally on its last leg.


    Sai didn''t stop there though, after he destroyed his own weapon in this fight to the death, he reached into his bag and pulled out a throwing knife. He flicked his wrist and at the same time extended the knife with earth magic, it didn''t have time to even turn when it embedded deep into the lion¡¯s eye. Splitting it''s retina in two and cutting into the lion¡¯s cerebellum.


    The lion was inches from death when Sai yanked his most powerful weapon out from the ground and used wind magic to push the back of the shield, allowing it to move faster than he could with merely his own strength. He bashed the butt of the knife as hard as possible into the skull of the lion. Sai had won his fight by severing the right hemisphere of the Lions brain into a top and bottom.


    This life and death experience had never been known before by Sai. He had never been in a true fight besides the sparring session the day prior with his father. He ripped his throwing knife out of the mountain lion¡¯s limp face. There was plenty of brain matter and blood on the knife, but as it was mostly magically created Sai shrink the knife down to normal size and flung the bits of tissue away.


    Sai had experienced a grand battle already today and the sun had not even reached an apex. The second moon was nearly finished falling in the corner of the sky and Sai had just started a fire in the woods behind his house. He created a small grill to sit over the fire and began to skin the lion. While doing the tedious job of skinning and quartering his kill he reminisced on his battle.


    Though he lost his second favorite weapon, Sai had learned several lessons and a new way of using weapons in order to win fights. Spontaneous explosions on contact. He just needed a way to use this without going through a new weapon every single time he hit an opponent. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    He finally placed the hind quarter of the beast on the grill and had begun to use his throwing knives again for practice while his very stringy and gamey breakfast cooked.


    Sai first threw one of his knives and used wind magic to make it faster, this had little effect other than helping with accuracy though by removing crosswinds. He then threw his knife with earth magic, expanding it as soon as it left his hand. This again showed to be very heavy and off balance, but he had compensated for that, so he still struck his target.


    Finally he threw a knife that he made through earth magic, as soon as its tip scratched the tree, it exploded with the same power that destroyed the lion¡¯s leg. A swift whoosh went right by Silent¡¯s ear and a thud could be heard behind him.


    The knife exploded off of the tree and shot back at Sai, narrowly missing him. Sai had one final idea seeing that. He grabbed a new blade and used all of his magic at once.


    His first time using a combination spell, Sai was unsure how much energy it would take. He prepared to throw his knife and used a wind magic on it to perfect its accuracy, a earth spell on it for when it left his fingertip, and an explosive spell for when it just left his touch it would explode out with extreme shouted and energy.


    The result was beautiful. The knife that originally weighed no more than two pounds grew to the size of a javelin and weighed nearly ten pounds. It also struck faster than Silent could blink. Directly where Silent was aiming there was a hole in a medium sized tree. This hole was still smoking when Sai went up to check his handiwork.


    Sai had noticed that he not only put a perfect hole through this tree, but embedded his massive knife into the tree behind it. He walked the short way to the blade and inspected it. There was nearly no damage on it since he had used earth magic to protect the blade. If he had known about this great combination he would have been able to kill the lion with just a flick of his wrist. Sai had to try one last thing before he ate his roasted mountain lion.


    Sai lifted up his shield and swung it with the help of wind magic into the tree, at the end of his swing the shield had grown far heavier and larger. He used his fire magic once more at the end of his swing. The shield exploded right at the edge. There was no damage to the shield itself, there was even very little damage to the earth magic, but the tree had a gaping hole in the side. It looked as if a giant took a bite out of it. Sai moved slightly away from the tree as it fell down. He was happy. In under a single day he had begun to master combination spells and shield arts together. Though he was not too happy about having to look for another rope dart, he was excited.


    After choking down his terribly crafted breakfast Sai went back to the place he had promised the Quartermaster he would go. After a long walk he opened blade filled satchel, Sai added a new rope dart to his arsenal as well as a spear. The spear was to appease his father, but the rope dart was something he needed to find a good combination of magic and might with still.


    Sai entered the training room, headed to the spot he was at the previous day and began training. The quartermaster watched as Sai began to throw his throwing knife from further and further away until he couldn''t actually put enough force behind it to hit the target. Sai had discovered that not only could he hit the target without missing, but he could do it from twice the distance as before without missing, and at three times the distance with only missing once. Sai was a natural at throwing a blade.


    ¡°Stop,¡± the Quartermaster said, not reprimanding Sai nor praising him. ¡°Now use your rope dart.¡± Sai did as he was asked, he was able to do the same as before, not miss any target for most of the length of the rope dart. ¡°Good, now it is time to learn something new.¡±


    Sai watched as the Quartermaster took out his own rope dart and flung it towards a target, after sinking into it he pulled the rope hard and the knife flew out towards the dummy behind him as well. ¡°Woah,¡± Sai exclaimed after seeing his second favorite weapon used in a way he had never imagined.


    This helped me theorize a great way to use my weapon, a way that would allow it to use magic at the same time as Sai used it. Silent grabbed his new rope dart that looked the exact same as his old one and threw it. He used earth magic at the same time and it expanded. At the point where it was nearly going to hit, a small explosion occurred under the magically crafted stone. A small spear ejected from the original blade and glided through the dummy leaving a large and gaping cut in it. Meanwhile the blade itself flew backwards, no damage could be seen on it. As it raced toward the exact place Sai had planned for it to be embedded it grew once. It stuck itself firmly into the dummy.


    Silent yanked quickly on the rope and while it was gliding back he spun his arm in a small circle, wrapping the rope dart around his arm. A large grin covered his face while a big ¡°O¡± could be seen on the Quartermaster¡¯s. Silent¡¯s rate of improvement was unbelievable. In under a day he made a weapon he couldn''t even use do something that the Quartermaster of his tribe didn''t expect was possible.


    Sai spent the majority of the next few hours with the Quartermaster learning new techniques and then improving on them with magic. The sun had reached and passed its apex during Sai¡¯s training. Sai had one final thing to do before he would go home today though, so after bidding farewell to the village''s Quartermaster, he went to the topmost floor and knocked.

 Chapter 12: The Last Thing That Can Be Taught

    Chapter 12


    The Last Thing That Can Be Taught


    ¡°Enter,¡± a weary voice could be heard on the other side of the stone door. Silent did as the voice said. The door shrunk and then regrew.


    ¡°Chief,¡± Sai greeted respectfully, looking at both the large man that played chief and the servant looking man who held the position. ¡°I have a few matters that I would like to discuss please,¡± Silent didn''t ask, he knew the Chief liked straightforwardness and honesty.


    ¡°What is it?¡± The man who acted chief asked, confusing Sai. Sai replied anyway, assuming that there was a situation that required the Chief to need this secrecy in front of someone who was already told the truth about the matter.


    ¡°I wish to learn your lightning magic.¡± Sai claimed, a spark could be seen in the acting Chief¡¯s eyes.


    He responded quickly. ¡°That isn''t up to me. You must ask him,¡± the younger and larger man said, nodding toward the true chief.


    Sai quickly looked over to the knowledgeable servant like chief, still confused, ¡°Umm, what''s going on here.¡±


    ¡°You are asking for something that isn''t your Chief¡¯s to give out,¡± the strong looking man with lightning in his eyes said.


    ¡°I thought he was the Chief, he told me that you were his apprentice.¡± Sai voiced his confusion.


    ¡°Is that so? He always has taken all the credit.¡± The situation became more and more confusing. ¡°The truth is something that we keep very secret, but at this point, all you need to know is that we both have a position of power and that we answer to each other.¡± The bigger chief stared at the smaller one the same way that Lilith would stare at Lavits when he did something she didn''t like. ¡°From the outside, I am to be addressed as chief, the only other person that knows this situation is your father and it cannot be discussed.¡± The large Chief explained.


    At this point, Sai had a premonition that he left at the very back of his mind, hoping that neither of them could discern it on his face, or even through spiritually reading his mind. ¡°Umm, so, can you please teach me your lightning magic?¡± Sai asked once more.


    The more amiable Chief answered this time. While still standing by the larger chief who was sitting at the desk. The servant like chief had his arm draped on the back of the other¡¯s stone chair. ¡°I will teach you if you can prove that you can handle having learned earth and wind magic.¡±


    ¡°How do you want me to do that?¡±


    ¡°Create something solid with both, something like this chair,¡± The smaller chief said while tapping in the back of the other chief¡¯s seat.


    ¡°Easy,¡± Silent answered. Directly next to it, Sai built another chair of solid rock. He used the golden energy that he normally would absorb to create it with earth. He did this because creating anything solid couldn''t be done with wind magic, only its elemental essence. Sai had mastered both of these things, and even mastered the fire like version of this as well.


    While one hand was used to condense the essence of earth, the other hand was pointing downward, forming a chair for himself out of wind essence. It was light blue and looked like the sky on a bright day. Both of the chairs were finished at the same time, and required very little effort. The essence in then was spaced out enough to even make the chair of earth soft. If it were condensed though, the chair would only be large enough to be considered a misshapen shoe.


    The eyes of both chief¡¯s brightened. Sai sat down at this time. The smaller chief did so as well. With a satisfied look on his face he said, ¡°I do think it is time to teach you thunder magic.¡±


    Sai was very excited, but he had a few more things to do while here. The first was important to the Chiefs, while the second was impact to him. ¡°What should I call you two chiefs in order to differentiate you while speaking?¡±


    The small chief answered before the other could, ¡°You can differentiate us by calling me ¡®Little Chief¡¯ and calling him ¡®Big Chief¡¯. Outside of this room however just talk about us as if we are the same person.¡±


    ¡°I see,¡± Silent answered. This nearly confirmed the situation. ¡°Next, I would like to explore when I finish learning thunder magic. The best way I will be able to protect my family is to become much stronger.¡±


    ¡°This, your skill is great and will likely grow more outside of the village, you are still very young. We will have to think on this,¡± Big Chief answered.


    ¡°Oh. I was merely being courteous by asking,¡± Sai claimed, ¡°I will depart in just a few weeks either way in order to become stronger. My strength will be the tribe¡¯s strength, and my victories, the tribe''s.¡±


    The two Chiefs looked taken aback. No one had given them so little respect, even children. ¡°Why would I teach you thunder magic if you are going to treat us like this? Why would I even allow you to live?¡± Little Chief was angry. Disrespect like this towards the chief was punishable by death in the tribe.


    ¡°It is for the good of the tribe,¡± Sai tested. He knew that he would anger the Chiefs, he did so anyway to see if they were actually the people his father claimed they were. He wondered if they truly killed anyone who became too strong.


    ¡°Child, you best mind your manners. If we wanted to we would end your family and you. However we have great expectations of you. We expect you to become the next chief, after we are gone. If this is how you plan on treating us then we absolutely will find another person and you will be forced to stop cultivating.¡±Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    The threat was not a small one. Silent knew that he couldn''t actually defeat these two, one in the top of the elementary realm, the other almost at basic level two. Sai could absolutely beat anyone in the elementary level since one is only as strong as muscles can allow at those levels. The basic level in martial cultivation though made your skin and muscles as strong as a boulder. No matter how sharp the blade, you can''t cut a boulder with a simple slice. Also after reaching basic level two with elemental cultivation, one would essentially be as physically strong as someone at the the beginning of the basic realm for martial cultivation. So on this note, no matter how the Little Chief cultivates, his body is likely to be rock hard and unable to be cut with a simple knife or sword. This meant that Silent had to train before forcibly removing those two warmongers from power.


    ¡°My apologies Chiefs, I was testing to see if you were truly as rash as people say,¡± Sai lied. Something to be said about being able to see into other people''s minds,is being able to tell if people were being honest. If you had a way of blocking this, no one could tell, they would just be weary. But Sai did one better, he believed what he said in one part of his mind while hiding his intentions in another. In short, the Chiefs bought it.


    ¡°Who made that claim?¡± Big Chief asked.


    Sai didn''t know how to answer. He hadn''t prepared that far, so he closed his mouth and looked forward. It looked almost like he was blaming the Little Chief with his actions. ¡°I may have mentioned it once¡­¡± The Little Chief confirmed. In truth, Sai forgot that he had mentioned that his ¡®partner¡¯ was a warmonger.


    ¡°We will speak about this later, teach the boy then return.¡± The Big Chief was visibly angry. Sai however felt relieved. He had thought that the Little Chief wouldn¡¯t teach him knowing that he would leave the tribe soon. Sai knew however that if he were to leave, he would have to remove those two from power somehow. If he didn¡¯t do so, his family would be in danger. Sai just had to figure out a way to get them to leave voluntarily. His other option was to forcefully make them leave power, but they already want Sai to become the next chief. Sai was in a terrible position. Either put his family in danger, convince power hungry dictators to leave, or beat those dictators out of town.


    The Little Chief led the way to the training ground once again. He and Sai were standing across from each other, and he showed Sai the moves to make and explained the way that the energy of thunder is seen in the world. ¡°Thunder is powerful, it is also only rarely found in a way that someone could survive is by absorbing the energy of the thunder is by someone using it nearby. The fastest way is by someone using it directly on you. Earth being below you isn¡¯t like this, wind being around you isn¡¯t like this. Water can be found in most everything, so it doesn¡¯t require this, and fire can be found under the ground¡­¡±


    His voice trailed off. Sai knew that the reason for this was Orza. ¡°Take in these words. The best way to absorb any elemental energy is to be surrounded by it. This means that if you were to absorb earth energy in a deep river, you would find it hard to do so. This also means that if you were to absorb earth energy while on the ground, that will be the energy that you get most. This also means is that in order to learn some of the more powerful daos you would do best to surround yourself with those sorts of things. This also means that in many cases, it will be dangerous to learn these daos, and you will have to work harder and harder to learn more powerful daos because they will fight you harder and harder while you learn them.¡± Orza said without even greeting Sai. ¡°Also, this means that you must do your best to survive this experience, or you will die trying to learn how to use thunder magic.¡±


    ¡°What!¡± Sai exclaimed, Orza had already left though, time started to speed up at that same time. Meanwhile, the Little Chief was finishing his short speech.


    ¡°...Lightning however must be found by someone showing it to you.¡± At the end of his speech, he lifted up a hand, and like a person from a late 1970¡¯s science fiction film, lightning surged out of his fingertips. Sai reacted quickly and his shield was struck. As the electricity hit the shield, it broke through the wooden center. Sai began to absorb the energy while at the same time repairing his shield with earth magic. When the thunder flowed through his shield, it immediately wrapped around Sai.


    Pain, more pain than he had felt in this life before. It was obvious that the Chiefs were using this as a way of dealing with Sai. Little Chief, even after being so amiable was now trying to kill Sai. After teaching him how to use earth magic, he was trying to kill Sai with thunder magic. No matter how much Sai tried, he was incapable of creating some kind of defense against thunder. Sai was still trying to absorb the thunder.


    This was the breaking point. Sai felt his skin melting. It was either do or die. Sai knew that he would look like his shield if he didn''t do something fast. Sai grabbed his throwing knife and willed earth to climb up to it, his small body was barely able to move. All of a sudden the electricity being forced into him ceased. His makeshift lightning rod saved him.


    Not even a second later the thunder ceased from the little Chief''s hands. ¡°What are you doing boy!¡± He shouted. Clearly he was angry that Sai hadn''t already died. It was an attack that used a large portion of the little Chief¡¯s power, but his thunder was merely a static shock clocked to fifteen. It was able to kill, and it did have amperage, but it was not able to kill someone who was as versed in the earth element as Sai. Sai was like a ground wire, he couldn''t be electrocuted, but that doesn''t mean that if he took too much that he wouldn''t be melted from the thunder.


    ¡°I''m sorry, I need to try again, but that time I was unaware at your strength,¡± Sai explained. Clearly both knew that the actions of the little Chief were to kill. Sai however couldn''t strike back, not only because he hadn''t mastered absorbing thunder energy, but also because he didn''t have the heart to take a life. That kind of existence was not one he had signed up for.


    ¡°Fine. Again!¡± Little Chief yelled, at the same time, the makeshift lightning rod was engulfed by the floor. Less than one breath later violet snakes erupted out of his hands, arcing through the space toward Sai.


    This time, Sai was prepared. He aimed a standing meditative stance, and just before the thunder reached his ribs it changed into tiny beads of energy. Sai could absorb the energy that the Little Chief thought would be enough to kill him, but when the Little Chief saw Sai succeed he pushed more and more power out.


    Sai had to stop him this time, but had to also succeed. He allowed the thunder to penetrate his flesh and he absorbed it from there. Sai knew he had to make it look good, good enough that he would not be truly killed.


    Sai feel backwards onto the ground, the Little Chief walked closer and closer. Sai knew this was going to hurt, but he would have to survive it. Sai allowed the electrical current to rip a large hole into his chest. He remembered the spell to heal now, so he wasn''t too worried. Sai then closed his mind. A trick he had learned from his grandmother.


    By the Little Chief''s account, Sai should be dead. A training accident gone wrong. The spirit search that the little Chief did at that moment confirmed that not only was Sai looking dead, he no longer had any brain activity.


    Sai¡¯s eyes glazed over as if he were sleeping with them open. He truly seemed to be dead. The Little Chief didn''t maintain power for no reason though. A thick spike emerged out of the ground and impaled the small boy. Puncturing a lung and protruding from Sai¡¯s ribs on the other side.

 Chapter 13: Is It Fate

    Chapter 13


    Is it fate?


    Sai¡¯s body was suspended in the air, thick stalactite adorned with him as the garland. The Little Chief was satisfied with his work. He had ended an issue that could have caused him no end of trouble.


    The little Chief shrunk down the large stone tree that he used to impale Silent. He pulled a piece of cloth out that looked like a small blanket and laid it atop the child''s body. He promptly left the room.


    The Little Chief went back up to the top floor and continued about his business. The Big Chief was sitting at the desk, a satisfied look on his face despite the fact that the report read that there were two casualties during a recent hunting expedition.


    A scream could be heard from a servant. A wail that could cause ghosts to feel fear. Of course the two Chiefs knew what the commotion was about, but they still hurried toward the noise, panic on their faces. The Big Chief went to look at the body.


    Silent was still laying there, it looked as if he were killed while sparring. ¡°You,¡± the Big Chief said to a servant, ¡°notify the boy''s family.¡± He pointed at another servant, ¡°You prepare a funeral.¡±


    The crowd began to disperse, doing as the Chief said. The two Chiefs left the room as well to wait near the entrance of the house to meet Silent¡¯s parents and explain the situation.


    Nearly an hour passed by when Lilith and Lavits barged in. Lavits immediately began screaming at the two Chiefs, ¡°What the fuck were you two doing? Where is my boy?¡± The shout could be heard across the entire tribe. Lilith had tears welling up in her eyes watching as her husband began to abuse the Big Chief. ¡°I asked you a damn question! Where is he?¡±


    At this point, the Little Chief attempted to console, but it was no good. There is no pain worse than losing a child. Lavits was beyond reason. There was a fire in his eye at that moment. Lavits knew that it was their fault and he wanted revenge.


    A small knife flashed past the throat the the Little Chief. Blood sprang forth but stopped rather quickly, the Little Chief had been healed by someone. Only the Little Chief had the ability to restrain Lavits, and at this point, he couldn''t.


    Lavits whipped the knife back towards the Little Chief. More blood sprung forth bit ended just as quickly. Lavits spent an hour attempting to murder the person who had killed his son, but there were too many healers in that mansion. They wouldn''t allow it. Eventually Lavits had worn himself out. He broke down and began to cry.


    After that outburst, the two Chiefs ignored the crime and brought Sai¡¯s parents to the training room. ¡°What you are going to see is rather gruesome,¡± the Big Chief said. He opened the door and a small blanket covered in blood was laying on the ground.


    ¡°Where is he,¡± the Big Chief asked a servant, ¡°where is the boy?¡± The servant became very confused since no one had entered or exited the room since he was posted as a guard there. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    ¡°Right here,¡± no louder than a whisper was made from the far corner of the room, behind a sack of hay on a post.


    Both the Little Chief and Lavits had exceptional hearing, there were many benefits in breaking into the basic realm.


    In the far corner of the room a small child was standing. Very much alive, and it was obvious there was no hole in him, though there was a large hole in his clothes and quite a lot of blood. The Sai¡¯s face was pale as can be from quite a lot of blood loss. But he still looked determined.


    ¡°Not as dead as when you left me last, huh?¡± Sai asked the Little Chief.


    ¡°It must be a miracle then,¡± sneered Big Chief. ¡°How did it feel to be brought back from the dead?¡±


    ¡°Ha,¡± Sai laughed, ¡°it felt truly agonizing.¡± Only this time, Sai didn''t rely on Orza to bring him back. In fact, Sai was mostly healed when the servant screamed and the two Chiefs came down just about an hour before. Sai had already been faking dead at the time when he was impaled, and since the spear-like rock had punctured his lung, So he couldn''t scream out. He truly looked as if he had died.


    Instead, after the little chief left, Sai began to use a healing spell. It sapped him of all remaining energy and only healed him most of the way. It repaired his lung and bones, but flesh and muscle were still missing. The blood pooled up in the place where he was punctured and looked as if he still had a hole in his chest.


    It just so happened that Sai was able to draw in enough energy to convert it to another healing spell, he just needed some time to replace the lost blood and recover from shock. Lilith was the first to react and had ran to her son. Ignoring her son''s blood covered clothes, she hugged him deeply. ¡°I''ll heal you more,¡± she said as a small light aspirated under her palm. Sai¡¯s face became less pale in seconds while the two Chiefs became more pale.


    ¡°I think you owe us an explanation. Why would my son have been harmed to this state in your own home?¡± Lavits questioned. He got an answer that he had expected.


    ¡°I was in my study when this happened. We will make a full investigation,¡± the big chief said. Lavits had already known better, but he could do nothing to either of them with the healers there, and he likely couldn''t beat the Little Chief at all of it was an actual fight.


    ¡°Good, I must apologize to you,¡± Lavits said to the Little Chief, ¡°I was angry and blamed everyone here.¡± Lavits had hooted to clean up his mess of attacking Little Chief. It was fairly plain that it didn''t work, but with so many people watching neither of the Chiefs did anything to him or his family.


    ¡°Can we go home,¡± Sai asked innocently. Today had been a very long day for Sai. He had neared death and narrowly escaped. He had also learned how to use lightning at the most basic of levels. Finally, he had learned that on this world, murder may be a necessary way to protect one''s self and family. Though it would never be his first choice, he would now have to harden his heart and if the situation looks bad, kill the person that is the threat.


    The black family left the two Chiefs mansion. Silent was being carried by his mother, not because he couldn''t walk, but because she was so anxious. After a far shorter walk that it usually took Sai, they arrived home.


    Add the doors closed an urgent voice entered the heads of of the small family, Thank the heavens he is safe. What happened child? The stream of thoughts came from Sai¡¯s grandmother. Then Sai began to explain the situation from the beginning through the connection created by Sai¡¯s grandmother¡¯s mental connection.


    At the end of his story everyone in the house was very surprised that he had been fast enough and strong enough to survive. Sai then followed up his story, Those two Chiefs will get what they deserve soon enough. There was a strong resolution in Sai¡¯s mental voice. Sai had a plan to end the oppression in his tribe. Their freedom will start at home and their safety at home will be the true start of Silent¡¯s adventure toward power. The power to protect the people he cares about.

 Chapter 14: A very long road

    Chapter 14


    A very long road


    That night, it was pitch black. An overcast night. Silent and his family had made a decision to leave that very night. Though it was a slow trip taking the physically disabled grandmother, Lavits and Lilith took turns carrying her similarly to the little green alien in one of Sai¡¯s favorite movies in his past life.


    When they left, Sai removed all traces of having had a home in that place. With a small tremor the earth engulfed the home, there was only dirt in that spot after he finished. Sai hadn''t made any friends while there making this escape easier for him. However, his parents who have lived there for years, his father had many brothers in arms. His mother was a healer and stitched up almost every single person that lived there. This escape for them was more psychologically troubling.


    The only reprieve to their conscience is that they knew that they would come back when Lavits broke through to basic level two. After he broke through, they would return and he would become the chief. Sai believed that it would be an Era of greatness for their tribe.


    They traveled day and night for nearly a week. During that time Sai created a earthen chair for his grandmother and willed it to move with the land, removing the burden from his parents that he caused. Sai¡¯s parents insisted that it wasn''t his fault, but the fault of the Chiefs who used their positions to live leisurely and without reprimand for their taboo lifestyles.


    Sai had found out that in order to gain power, the Big Chief had supposedly hired the Little Chief to kill their previous chief. Sai had also found out that they rose to power about nine months before he was born. Almost like it was the night of his conception that those two gained power.


    To Sai it felt like it was one of two things: a massive coincidence, or someone that claims to be a god meddling in his life again. Either way, Sai was determined to bring them to justice. He wasn''t sure how, but he needed to make his second birthplace safe again.


    During this trip, Sai discovered that he was particularly gifted in earth magic, possibly because it was the first he has learned, possibly because it has so many uses. Sai had recreated his shield that had broke. This time, it was far different though. It now only covered half of his body, but on that now, he had half of it in each hand. The two sides were shaped as if they could form an odd shaped gothic cross again when connected together. The bottom however was not flat like the last one, it came to a sharp point. The sides of it were small wings that when the shield was made whole would cover most of his legs and all of his head.


    Though his shield now did take up both of his hands, he still had the ability to use his rope dart. It took very little adjustment from his previous style. This time bending his arms was harder, therefore, his rope dart shot out more straight than before since he had to use power from his chest or waist. He could continue to use it with a bent arm, but he would have to throw it along with the weight of half a shield, and he was not strong enough for that yet.


    Over the length of the trip, Sai had done much improving. His magic level had risen by almost ten percent, he would not be considered by his tribe''s standards to be level 5 of the elementary realm due to constant use and regeneration. His physical level had nearly doubled though. Putting him at the bottom of the third level of the elementary realm.


    Though Sai¡¯s true strength was stronger thanks to his higher education, it was still not enough to match the speed or strength of even the Big Chief. If Sai could catch him off guard, he could still kill him, but Sai was not a person who killed. The Little Chief would be far harder. Being in the basic realm, the Little Chief¡¯s skin was too hard for a normal person to even cut. The only way that Sai had a chance at winning was superior magic skills, and Sai did not have those quite yet. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    On the tenth day of their non-stop journey, Sai was tasked with finally creating shelter. It must be said that earth magic is easy to discern the level of by two things, the hardness or softness of the earth, and the speed at which you can use it. Since Sai was barely even considered a beginner, and he had no techniques other than using his power to form into something, he took quite some time on this project.


    After nearly three days, Sai had completely finished a single room. He had planned on making more to the house, but his father told him not to worry about it. They rested there as a family for another week before they once more continued their move. Lavits knew that there were some expert trackers in their tribe, and that even after a single week they would be able to find them. Because of that, he had Sai make a small stove in their little shack. Sai took far less time making that than he did the single room adobe mud hut they had been seeking refuge in. Something like that only took a few hours since it required moving and adding and strengthening a single wall.


    Lilith had created a small fire in that stove that would last for quite some time. Afterwards, the four had left again, Lavits had made sure that this time, they had to walk on the same footprints, and for the first few days, he and Lilith would carry Sai¡¯s grandmother so as to make it look as if there was only a single set of tracks leading away from that place.


    During this time, Sai hunted with his father, he had shown off his skills with his knife and bow. He was becoming stronger and stronger. The four had traveled like this for nearly three months before Sai and his family had finally felt like they were no longer being followed or searched for.


    After those three months, Lavits had reached the peak of the basic realm¡¯s first level. Lilith had reached the eighth level of the elementary realm. Sai had grown the most however. He had reached the fifth level of the elementary realm with physical cultivation, this was as strong as a weak man on earth. He had also reached the seventh level of the elementary realm in magical cultivation.


    The elementary realm was by far the easiest to move through. For example, the first level of cultivation would be considered a ¡°1¡± then the second would be a ¡°2¡±, the third a ¡°4¡± and it would continue. At Sai¡¯s level it would be ¡°16¡± in physical cultivation meaning that he is 16 times stronger than he was half a year ago.this also means that in order to reach the next level he would need to be 16 times stronger than he was six months ago again. It could possibly take another few months to reach the sixth level of the elementary realm. At the end of each realm, in order to reach the beginning of the next realm you would have to multiply your strength 3 fold. This means that Lavits would essentially be over 1800 times stronger than Sai was six months ago. For Lavits to have reached this strength it took nearly thirty years of ruthless cultivation.


    Sai knew all of these things. He knew that the distance between him and the little chief was the distance between earth and heaven. He just didn''t care, he was going to go back there one day in the future, and he would get justice.


    Today however, Sai was creating a more permanent home for his family. Sai put quite a lot of thought into his new home. He thought about the design of it. He first would create a single room with just a door. After only two days of work, he had created what would in the future be the living room.


    Sai was not well versed in architecture outside of creating a single small room a few times over the past few months. This time however would be him creating a permanent home. This time would require trial and error. This time, even he would finish, he would compress the walls into true stone. He would have to account for the weight of the ceiling, he would also create several walls and doors. He would have to learn more about magic before he could create steel or wood, but he was currently content with using this project as a way of strengthening himself.


    After the living room was built, Sai had began to devote much of his time to hunting, gardening, and sparring as well. Sai knew the importance of having a full belly as well as honing all of his skills. This is how Sai spent a large number of his days.

 Chapter 15: A Life of Leisure

    Chapter 15


    A Life of Leisure


    Sai woke up on the first morning after creating that one room hut. He was planning to expand it so that it could fit generations of his family in it at the same time. Sai knew though that he should take a break and work on other things.


    Today, he was going to plant a garden. His parents had been worried about him when he began forage the ears around then for edible berries and vegetables. His father had thought he was going to go hunting. ¡°Wait up son, I''ll go with you,¡± Lavits said.


    ¡°OK,¡± Sai replied, he could hear his father grabbing his thick spear inside. Sai however only had his shield sitting on his back attached to a makeshift belt.


    ¡°Let''s get moving,¡± Lavits said. He had a carving knife hanging in a pouch on his belt, Sai had no intention of telling him that he would not be using it today. Sai did need his father today in order to help track animals, because animals know what is safe to eat, therefore Sai would learn what is safe to eat. Sai remembered a proverb as he set out into the woods, it went ¡®man cannot live on bread alone¡¯, Sai assumed that this could be replaced with meat and not lose its meaning.


    Lavits had his nose to the ground after fifty steps. He lined his eye up with the land and was on the trail of something very quickly. Sai had followed while standing upright. Not attempting in the slightest to be discrete.


    ¡°Get down and be quieter,¡± Sai¡¯s father reprimanded immediately. Sai was already less than the height of his father when standing upright, but his father was attempting to instill a skill into Sai rather than help with the hunt his father thought he was on.


    After just a few more steps, Lavits had once again set his head low to the ground to confirm that they were on the correct trail. Sai however paid attention to smaller animals. Squirrels were a good source of healthy nuts, rabbits were a good source of greens. Sai paid attention to those things. His father continued on that trail while Sai slipped more and more green things in his sack. His sack currently had several different nuts, something that looked like lettuce, and even a blue thing that looked like a carrot that several animals had been feasting on.


    Sai had made a mental note of where he had found these things since they eye so close to his new home. He caught up with his father, being loud the whole time to scare forest creatures. ¡°Quiet down!¡± An odd hushed yell came from a few steps in front of Sai


    ¡°I''m being loud on purpose,¡± Sai replied, knowing that his father would be confused, but Sai knew when to be quiet and when not to be. The wind was on their face currently, so he didn''t mind being a little loud. But if the wind shifted he would be quieter so as to not scare off woodland creatures too quickly.


    ¡°What do you mean it''s on purpose?¡±


    ¡°I''m not here for hunting, I''m here for foraging,¡± Silent answered, revealing the truth to his father.


    ¡°What? What are you even looking for?¡± Lavits asked. Like many ancient people on earth, Orza¡¯s world had men hunting while women would gather and forage. Lavits had never foraged, and he had never taught Sai how to forage, he didn''t know how Sai would even know what to look for.


    Sai opened his pack and pulled out a couple berries that he had grabbed after seeing a small rodent munching on them. ¡°Here, try it.¡± Sai answered his father knowing about his father''s sweet tooth.


    ¡°Are you sure about this?¡± Lavits asked


    ¡°Of course,¡± Sai answered. His father plopped the bead-like berry into his mouth. ¡°If animals can eat them and be nourished, I''m certain that we can too.¡±


    ¡°You''re right. I guess I will follow your lead then. What are you thinking we need next?¡± Lavits asked, thoroughly convinced that Sai knew what he was doing.


    ¡°Just keep going. When we reach a water source we can stop,¡± Sai answered. Sai had a second plan as well as foraging, but he would take several weeks to complete it. Sai had a very large scale plan that would make his family never have to worry about food or even spend much time looking for food.


    The two, father and son continued their journey for nearly a kilometer before finding a source of water. During that tone, Sai had shown his father what to look for in foods, he explained ¡°Anything a rabbit will eat, you can eat. Therefore, anything a rabbit will eat, we can grow close by our house and we don''t have to worry about finding food every day, we can just farm it.¡±This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    ¡°What about hunting?¡± Lavits asked. Lavits had never lived a lifestyle that didn''t need to hunt for food. There were no domesticated cattle or other livestock in their village. They had to go out and search for their dinner nearly four times a week, then they would salt it severely and preserve anything that they didn''t eat that night.


    Sai answered, ¡°If you wish to hunt then you can hunt. I however feel that having food at the ready will allow us to train harder and for a longer time, so I do not plan on hunting for anything other than sport or to test my skills.¡± After answering his father, Sai had showed his father all of the things he had picked up. Lavits immediately memorized them and began to look for those things as well.


    By the time the two reached the river, Sai had a pack full of greens and berries while his father had a pack that was full of mostly berries. This river was very special to Sai, not only because it was a source of life, but because it had many things nearby that could be eaten. Sai gathered handfuls of what looked like wheat that mice were snacking on and carrying away. He also grabbed a few more greens that would be helpful then handed his bag over to his father.


    ¡°Now what?¡± Lavits asked the question that he was most worried about, they had nearly thirty pounds of vegetarian foods, but that wouldn''t do much in the short run.


    ¡°Now, I work.¡± Sai said mysteriously. Sai lifted up his hand and a large deep trench formed by the river. Compacting earth from its natural state in the wild was rather easy, but making it into a large enough area to shift a river was not easy. Sai did not immediately start moving the earth by the river, instead he worked a large number of steps away, this way he could tell exactly what he would be doing with the route of the river.


    Sai began to trench out an area heading in a roundabout fashion towards his house. He figured that he would make an irrigation system in order to help his pants grow.


    On the first day, Sai had only gone about forty steps before quitting then following his father back home. This took most of the day however. Sai had to move nearly one hundred trees and shrubs before creating his channel. After several hours of moving trees and making the forest more dense, Sai had decided that this distance was not something that would be easily traversed.


    Lavits had offered to help, but Sai refused. ¡°Are you sure?¡± Lavits asked


    ¡°Yeah, this sort of thing is fragile and the animals and earth need to acclimate to it. If you were to do anything and it was faster, many of the life around here would die.¡± Sai explained.


    ¡°You''re serious?


    ¡°Why would I lie about this? Sai answered as a single tree was rumbling then scooting over inch by inch, step by step. Each tree took a long while to move. Sai had been aware that roots for trees were a very intricate and massive system, but he had been unaware that many trees would knit their roots together and have roots that spread out even further than their branches. Sai also didn''t know that he would have to move each tree while maintaining the density of the soil on top of it. On one instance he needed to borrow his father''s strength because a tree had fallen over.


    After the instance of the tree coming out of the earth, Sai had to forcibly swallow the roots back into the earth and solidify the earth around it in order for it to not uproot again. Sai then found how hard it was to not loosed the earth before moving it.


    Each tree weighed hundreds of pounds. Sai was only kind of aware about the effect of moving something with magic. He learned again that it was a toll that he couldn''t afford. After those hours, Sai had used up more energy than he could replace quickly. Sai felt empty, drained by the time he has moved the last tree and removed the last pile of mud. Sai was thoroughly exhausted. When they began foraging, it had been morning. When Sai had finished it was already almost dark, one of the two moons even hung at its highest point in the sky, the other was barely past the treeline.


    Sai merely laid down under the stars, his father who had just sat back and watched a majority of the day while eating those berries that he enjoyed so much also joined him. ¡°Dad, what do you call this place?¡± Sai asked


    ¡°I would call it a river, maybe a forest,¡± a similar answer for Sai¡¯s not so simple question.


    ¡°That wasn''t my meaning. All of this land is ours. This rice will bring water to a great kingdom some day with you as its king. It needs a name, choose wisely, it will be on a map someday.¡± Sai didn''t act excited, but rather he acted as if it were already a fact.


    ¡°I think you are getting ahead of yourself, but I''ll play along. Let''s call it ¡®Silent River¡¯ after its creator.¡± Lavits laughed as if he were joking.


    Silent pulled out a small piece of wood he carved from a tree earlier and proceeded to carve a small line into it followed by a tree and a house. Above the line he wrote ¡®Silent River¡¯ and under the house he carved ¡®Black Castle¡¯. ¡°I don''t think that it would be considered a castle, at most it is a small hut,¡± Lavits said, reading over Sai¡¯s shoulder.


    ¡°That is because you haven''t seen what I have planned for it. I have big plans for our family in the future.¡± Lavits could only shake his head and assume it was Sai¡¯s childhood imagination.


    The two, father and son laid out on the grass by the river together for some time enjoying their company before finally turning back to go home. ¡°What do you plan to do tomorrow son? Continue working on this? Add to the house to make it that castle? Lavits questioned.


    ¡°I will continue living a leisurely life. I will add to our river, I will train by body and magic, I will start farming the land. If I want to hunt, I will hunt. If I want to work, I will work. This period in our lives is to become strong enough to remove those two Chiefs from power, it will be one of us two who reaches basic level two soon and then we will free our tribe from their oppression.¡± Sai answered his father. Both of them continued to walk back to their new home in silence. Silent proud of his accomplishments today and Lavits proud of the good son he had barely begun raising.

 Chapter 16: Settling In

    Chapter 16


    Settling In


    The next day, Sai had begun to plant his garden with his earth magic he tilled the ground in thirty step rows. Where there was a tree, he moved it. He made several long rows and with his plants he began to plant them in rows according to their type. Between each row he planned wildflowers to attract pollinators.


    It must be said that Sai didn''t plant any seeds in this garden, rather he planned entire berry bushes and vines while making spears of stone for them to wrap around. For vegetables, he replaced them into the dirt the same way that he removed them. Sai had theorized that his family would need nearly one thousand bushels of greens over the year since his new bodies appetite already exceeded the appetite. With his body growing as quickly as it is and with his he would require lots of food in the coming months


    Since Sai couldn''t maintain a farm throughout the winter however, he needed to become stronger. If he were to reach the basic level, his earth magic could produce a strong and clear stone that would be able to work as the frame for a greenhouse. Currently though, he is only able to make rock, rock would not be a good material for what he needed though.


    Until Sai reached the basic level however, he would have to make due with extreme over planting so that his family would have food in the winter. When Sai had finished planting it was already dark. He was covered in mud and grime, so he walked to the river and bathed then came home.


    ¡°Hi honey,¡± Lilith called when she heard the door shut. She was cooking some dinner inside.


    ¡°Oh, hi mom,¡±Sai said. It could be heard in his voice how tired he was. ¡°What''s for dinner tonight?¡±


    ¡°Rabbit stew,¡± Lilith said, Sai knew that she wasn''t talkative while she cooked. Sai instead say down at a table he created a few days earlier. It could be said that thanks to Sai¡¯s exceptional ability with elemental magic his parents and grandmother didn''t have much to worry about these past few days. His mother cooked and trained in her fire magic as well as learning to train in the spear from Sai¡¯s father. His father had devoted his time entirely to training himself, his mother and him, and hunting. It could be said that Lavits was the most affected by this escape.


    After a handful of minutes, Sai had gotten so sleepy that he started to doze off at the table. A crash exploded throughout their small house jolting him awake. His mother had fallen over, the stew was making sloshing around on the floor.


    Sai noticed that his head was foggy. He couldn''t think straight, his eyes burned even. He looked around and realized exactly what happened even though his mind was still sluggish. Sai immediately opened the door and even dissolved some of the roof of his new home.


    Lavits came running in at that time as well. ¡°What happened?¡± He yelled his voice was panicked and his eyes showed the same fear that Sai had felt that day he died.


    ¡°Mom was cooking inside and there were no windows or stove vents,¡± Sai explained. Lavits understood immediately. There was a saying in the tribe, if you use fire in a cave you will be poisoned. Sai had even heard this from his mother when she was teaching him fire magic. Of course it wasn''t a fact, but it did good enough to avoid people from getting carbon dioxide poisoning. After explaining, Sai used wind magic to push clean air into the house.


    Sai decided that he would continue working on their house tomorrow so that they would eventually have a true home and so that they would also never have this issue again.


    Though dinner was ruined, Lilith woke up late that night with a bad headache. Sai only knew enough healing magic to restore organs in one''s torso, flesh and bone. For a brain injury such as too much carbon dioxide, Sai was useless.


    Lavits however knew that you had to give that person a constant supply of clean air and just wait. During their waiting period Sai began to make a chimney in the house as well as a window. Though he couldn''t make glass, Sai could make a big hole in a wall and use a flat piece of stone as a solid window, you only had to lift up the stone and put a stick under it in order for it to stay opened.


    I wish I could use metal magic. If I could do this, our how would be great, I could make hinges and other things that would make life much easier, Sai thought. Maybe because he had thought that, or because of fate, or because of a whim of the god of Orzaworld, time had stopped.


    ¡°Ah, it had been a while Sai,¡± a Cheshire man said while Sai was transported into a field that resembled someone¡¯s heaven, but not Sai¡¯s. It instead reassembled a nightmare for Sai. ¡°You don''t need to speak, I am here to teach you something that you need.¡±


    ¡°What could that be,¡± Sai was hostile as ever, afraid that his parents would die with no real reason.


    ¡°Boy, you know I have reasons for everything. Now watch.¡± Sai watched as a silhouette began to move in a way that Sai had seen, chant in a way Sai already knew.


    ¡°This is earth magic. What are you showing me?¡± Sai asked.


    ¡°This is magic boy,¡± the wraith named Orza said without Sai realizing it was real words rather than in his head. ¡°All magic is the same, you need to just absorb it. For example¡­¡± the being continued, then Sai felt a rush of iron strike his body. The being then said, ¡°This is the only gift from me you have ever needed. The talent is your own, the understanding is your own. The expounding on the dao is my gift. With this single lesson, you will be a final product of world Orza.¡± The being disappeared before Sai could even say a word. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    Sai had been given a great gift from Orza this time. He didn''t know what to do with this gift, and he was also certain that he couldn''t just pull steel out of the earth like he did earth magic. Orza did no explaining, he merely did earth magic and told Sai it was steel magic. Sai didn''t know how to use it at all, he only knew how to absorb it.


    After the second near death experience in just a few months, Sai had decided that there needed to be some way of helping his family. Some way of mahjong them completely safe. But alas, until his family had as much power as possible there was no way of making sure they were safe.


    Sai went to bed that night absorbing steel energy and sleeping rather fitfully. Sai knew that there was nothing that he could do about it. That next morning he built a second room for his home. This room was much smaller than the first, so with his strength, making this room would only take a single day.


    ¡°Silent!¡± A high pitched call came from outside. It was Silent¡¯s mother. Her call wasn''t desperate, as a matter of fact, it seemed more jubilant than anything.


    ¡°Yes, I''m on my way,¡± Silent called out, heading towards the door. As he reached the door he saw his mother laboring away at the weeds that sprouted overnight in his garden.


    ¡°Can you figure out a way to fix this?¡± Lilith asked. Sai knew that she was training hard as well. If she was any bit weaker than the big chief come time for their battle then she would be able to be used against Lavits. In order to not become a burden later, she had to train hard now. As the saying goes in the tribe, ¡®sharpen a knife before you use it or it will fail when you need it most¡¯, this saying embodied Lilith¡¯s mindset, but today, in order to help her son, she had spent the last two hours not training. She cut into the time that she should have been using sharpening her skills.


    ¡°I am thinking of a good way to do so, but I have yet to come up with something,¡± Sai said. He knew this was not the answer his mother had wanted, but it was the only one available. Sai had thought of using wind magic to make it hard for weeds to grow, but his wind would only reach a point of controlling direction well when he reached basic realm until he reached a high enough realm that he could control multiple wind currents in multiple directions and have the strength behind then and the dexterity with them to cut around other smaller and weaker plants, it wouldn''t work.


    Sai had also thought of burning them, but in the small area he tried that they grew back many times stronger. Sai had remembered that ancient warriors would burn all of the land of other oriole so they could use it after they conquered their opponent but they couldn''t use it. In just a single day or two, Sai who had powerful attainment with earth magic could feel stronger weeds already growing back.


    Sai had also thought of using rocks around each plant to cut off weeds before they started. This made them stronger too, and faster growing since even the roots were close to the sun. Sai was out of ideas and he didn''t know how to make plastic or how to make mesh screens that people in his other life would have used.


    Instead, Sai had just moved all of the weeds away using earth magic. He delved into the ground and cut off roots from growing, even seeds that he had never seen before we''re cut off from the group. All the while, Lilith watched.


    She saw how powerful that Sai was. She felt extremely proud and she knew that she made a good decision to teach him his first magic. She watched as weeds uprooted themselves and like a meal off of a picnic table, walked off on the back of small brown things. Of course Sai couldn''t create an ant with his magic. In fact he could only create a ball or something semi-round. He couldn''t even create a cube at the moment.


    When the assortment of seeds, roots, and weeds reached a certain distance, Lilith had used a technique that burned until something no longer existed. It must be said that there are hundreds if not thousands of each dao of each element. For example, the dao of earth has nearly three thousand daos. While Sai had learned how to use fire from his mother, he had not learned how to use the dao of consuming flame, he has only learned the dao of combustion. The dao of combustion is a strong dao, and it has many uses with Sai¡¯s imagination, but if there is a bad set of circumstances, it would simply be a small fire in the end rather than a strong explosion like he used against the mountain lion.


    Sai was most powerful in earth because he had grasped a very powerful dao, moving earth, this makes him able to move things on the earth as well as move and compact earth to make it become harder. Sai like his father had also stepped foot into the dao of the gale, so anything his father was able to do with wind, he could do to a lesser extent.


    Sai also had the ability to use thunder magic, but what he didn''t know was that like wind, thunder was under a different subset of elements that the Little Chief had told him about. Lastly, Sai had yet to use his steel powers, so he did not know what the dao would be called that he had been set upon by Orza.


    In a sense, Sai had started on his adventure of mastering five different daos. In a pessimistic sense however, Sai was only barely scratching the surface since he had only begun upon learning the five daos he has set his sights on, but there were over one hundred thousand daos in total.


    In short, Sai relied on his mother to be able to remove the weeds thoroughly while Sai moved them aside. Sai and his mother did this for another hour, moving and removing the weeds in their quickly growing garden. Sai had noticed that the vegetation in Orzaworld grew extremely quickly.


    Sai had taken note of this because most vegetation grew at least twenty percent faster than the vegetation on earth, in some cases it was nearly fifty percent faster. Sai it is likely because of the two moons, Sai thought. I''m fact, Sai was correct. With two moons, there was more water and it was a little brighter. This meant that plants could grow stronger and faster.


    Sai had spent more of his day with his mother, his mother refused to spar with his however because she was afraid of guttering her baby. Instead, they came up with ideas for furniture. Sai first began by making his grandmother¡¯s chair more durable. Then Sai had an idea.


    ¡°Would you like to go out hunting with me?¡±


    ¡°You know I hate hunting. You kill it and clean it and I will cook it. That''s the deal son.¡± Sai¡¯s mother Lilith replied.


    ¡°No, not hunting for animals, hunting for feathers.¡± Sai explained. He knew that it would be a long shot to find enough feathers to fill up a cushion for grandma, but Sai relished in the idea of spending time worth his mother.


    ¡°What are you on to?¡±Sai¡¯s mother asked. She had never heard of needing to hunt for feathers. Such a thing was unnecessary in the tribe, so his mother was very confused.


    ¡°Trust me, it will be worth it.¡± Sai answered, trying to goad his mother into going out with him.


    ¡°What do I need,¡± Lilith have her consent, her exasperated tone showed that she felt coerced.


    ¡°Bring your spear just in case, it should be relatively safe, but we may run into something dangerous.¡± Sai was visibly excited. While feathers would be softer than the dirt chair he made, it would take a lot of time and work. Sai had actually hoped that he would find cotton or wheat while he was out. With those things, he could make a bed or make bread and pasta. Their lifestyle of not having carb based foods was one which Sai was not fond of.


    When Lilith returned with her spear in her hand Sai grabbed his bag and they left for the woods.

 Chapter 17: Forging

    Chapter 17


    Forging


    The two, mother and son headed into the woods. They kept an eye out for feathers, small and large. After several hours however, they couldn''t find even enough to fill up a thin cushion. They searched all across the forest floor in the hopes of finding feathers. In the end, they had covered nearly five square kilometers.


    Sai had begun to give up. He had wondered what rich city families would use on this world for clothing and bedding. Sai had imagined that they used silk for everything. Sai had given up. They both headed back to the house. The entire trip, neither needed to fight anything. The three and a half year old child did not deter any beasts, but the grown woman with a large spear had. It had grown dark when they reached the house.


    Sai was determined that he would find both cotton and wheat for his home when he finished moving the river and working on the house. Although they had collected a small amount of feathers, Sai hadn''t collected even enough for a pillow that he could use.


    When the two walked in, Lavits was already at the table. Lilith began to cook immediately and Sai began to meditate across from his father.


    ¡°Sai, what is the gray colored specks?¡± Lavits asked noticing a difference in Sai¡¯s energy absorbance.


    Lilith turned around as well. ¡°It had always been gold , light blue, dark blue and red, where did the silver come from?¡±


    Sai had never before mentioned his past life nor Orza to his family. They merely thought him to be a genius rather than educated. ¡°That is the element of steel.¡± Sai was concise, he knew that his father would want to know where he learned it, but he was stuck. He wouldn''t lie to his father, but he couldn''t tell him about his past. How would his family trust him if they had just found out after nearly two and a half years of talking that he had lived an entirely different life before?


    ¡°Where did you learn that?¡± A surprised voice from the side, Sai¡¯s mother.


    ¡°I am also curious.¡± The deep voice of his father echoed his mother''s curiosity. His brow was crumpled. Sai felt as if he were in Scotland yard again being asked who he bought mushrooms from.


    ¡°I picked it up. As long as you become exposed to an element you can use it. Magic is all the same.¡± Sai had answered the exact same way that Orza had explained to him.


    ¡°Really!¡± Lavits jumped up. His eyes were several times brighter. Sai had never lied to them before. So his father believed him immediately. Sai¡¯s mother even seemed very startled at this news. ¡°You must never tell anyone this. Even schools don''t know this to be true. If you are able to use any magic then you will undoubtedly have a great future. The head of the school I went to could only use water, wind, and light. He was rich beyond our wildest dreams.¡± Lavits explained, he looked very stern. He was aware of the rigorousness of entering a school, in fact, he couldn''t actually enter, he was an outer disciple, he had only even heard of the powers that the school head had. He had actually not even heard of the school head¡¯s name, he had only heard a rumor of his strength.


    ¡°Really? It isn''t like this for everyone?¡± Sai asked innocently. He had truly thought that his father had merely focused specifically on wind magic and his mother on fire magic.


    ¡°No, of course not,¡± Lavits said. ¡°Most people only have an affinity with one, maybe two elements. We were extremely surprised before that you had an affinity with three.¡±If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    ¡°I can use five now including steel,¡± Sai corrected.


    ¡°Five! When we finally get settled in here I''m going to take you to my old school straight away. With your talent toy will become a core disciple and we will be able to save our tribe. Did you hear that Lilith, our son can use any element and he has already started learning five of them!¡± Lavits was bouncing in his seat. Lilith had completely forgotten about the food and instead just stared at her son wide eyed.


    ¡°I didn''t know that I was that special.¡± Sai said honestly. This must be why Orza chose me. He must know that I could use any element. He must also be able to use any element. Sai thought, I don''t know what he needs from me, but I know why me. Sai still worried about who could hear his inner monologue, so he continued to protect his mind.


    After the shock and awe had finished, Sai began to test out his skill with his steel magic. He knew that t there was steel in the earth, so he first tried it with his shield. He laid one half on the ground feeding more earth into it then extracting steel out into the same shape as before.


    It soon became clear that forging with magic was not Sai¡¯s specialty. As a matter of fact, Sai had never forged anything before, he had only read about it a single time even.


    Sai had closed his eyes and begun to put all of his strength into it. He hasn''t seen as the sky turned bright, nor had he noticed when it darkened again. ¡°What is he doing?¡± Lilith asked her husband.


    ¡°It looks like he is strengthening his shield,¡± Lavits answered her nonchalantly. He seemed to not put any thought into it as he ate. He knew that his son was fat more advanced than even many adults, his son always had a good reason for doing something, so he didn''t worry about it.


    By the second day, Sai¡¯s forehead was drenched in sweat, his tiny body looked emaciated. His face was gaunt and his arms were shaking. Sai opened his eyes and they were both bloodshot. Sai looked around and noticed that his parents had also just gotten up.


    ¡°What''s for breakfast?¡± Sai asked not realizing the amount of time that had passed.


    ¡°Get to the table and I''ll fix you something, you must be starved.¡±


    ¡°I am, but I finished half of my shield. The other half will have to wait till tomorrow. I feel like I lost a lot of sleep.¡± Sai seemed genuinely happy about his shield, but his face only showed a lack of food, water, and rest. Sai was mostly happy because he could feel the steel in the earth now, while he wasn''t an expert in forging, he was able to finish a half of a shield.


    Sai had left the stone exterior on his shield. He was going to use the extra weight to help boost his martial cultivation. The heavier his shield, the more strength it would take to move it, the more he would have to grow to accommodate for it.


    During the majority of the last couple days, Sai had barely gotten anywhere with turning his shield to steel. However, during that time he had noticed a subtle difference between steel and stone. He had realized that he could move iron like he moved stone then he created a small combustion reaction under the ground. Sai knew that steel was essentially forged iron with carbon in it, but he did not know how to put it in. Then, with magic, he had smelted steel. After that, Sai was set. He could move and mold it with a thought. Sai had realized that anything man made, he could manipulate to a degree with his affinity with steel. He just had to make it first.


    ¡°Waiting a bit is probably best. You were in some kind of trance for more than two days.¡± Lavits said, he was worried about his son. The two were just handed plates made of stone filled with meat and vegetables and the berries Lavits liked so much.


    ¡°Thanks mom,¡± Sai was truly hungry, he quickly ate his meal then went to bed. Sai proceeded to sleep for nearly twelve hours. When he woke up, it was night again. Sai had immediately begun to work on the other half of his shield. The second half required much less energy and time. It took only half a day. With his entire shield, Sai used practically all of the iron near his home, there was barely enough left to make even a spoon.


    Sai was very excited. He had succeeded in forging a steel shield. He finally felt that his shield was proper, like it was a weapon that one could be proud of.

 Chapter 18: Turning Four

    Chapter 18


    Turning four


    Sai spent the next day working on moving the river closer to his house. He completed nearly sixty steps that day. He continued along this course of action until he was confident that he had moved the river over exactly one kilometer. This had taken nearly three months with Sai not working every day on it.


    Sai had also begun really working on his house. After he had finished with the river, he had alai finished making a spare bedroom. He had only given the reason of ¡°just in case¡± to his parents when they had asked about it. Sai had also reached the eighth level of the elementary realm at this time, on par with his expectations. He had expected to reach the ninth level in about six more months. The biggest change Sai had was his strength had more than doubled. He was almost at the sixth elementary level of martial cultivation. He had joked many times that he would be the strongest person his parents had ever seen.


    Over four months had passed living in their new home. Sai was very proud of it. He had recently begun to solidify the earth that formed it into rock as well as use animal pelts as carpet. His parents weren''t happy about it at first, but Sai had tired then together with leather strips and the deed was already done. He had killed no small number of beasts large and small to make this carpet, he had wanted to keep their feet warm.


    At one point, Sai had even went as far as using a few trees that were shaped and had many similar properties as bamboo for a bed. He had first swallowed it into the earth then shredded it with magic, finally, he wove it together into a seamless bed that was much more comfortable than a rock bed that his parents had already used for many years.


    Sai had even found a way to make glass, so his home now had light, but it wouldn''t be exposed or open. He had first used river sand then he crushed it and ground it even more finely. Finally, Sai with the help of his mother had created an extremely hot fire and turned the fine sand into glass. Sai then dumped it into a pill of water on the side of the river.


    This project had only taken a few hours, however Silent went a bit overboard and made almost one thousand windows. Even while creating windows for his home and using the other windows to create a greenhouse, he had many hundred extra. Sai continued to play around with these. He told his parents that he is trying to insulate them, but they had never heard the word insulation, no any derivative of the word.


    Sai knew that his parents had many questions for him, and similarly, they knew that Sai wouldn''t answer any of them. They had a semi-spoken agreement that neither would speak of why Silent knows all of these things.


    At the end of these few months though, Sai had finally turned four. He was still barely half the age that people normally would start learning magic or cultivating in general. In this sense, Sai was already several years ahead of most people who were his physical age and about the same level as many people of his previous life¡¯s age.


    Even though Sai was so powerful already he had felt that he was still progressing slowly. Sai knew the concept of putting in hard work, but he also knew the concept of trials making a man or breaking a man. So, Sai had felt that after seven months on the run, it was time for him to go on his first adventure.


    At the end of the day, Sai and his parents were eating dinner. Sai decided to bring it up, ¡°Dad, mom, how would you feel about me going on an adventure?¡±Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    ¡°Isn''t it a bit early for that?¡± Lilith asked, her eyes liked worriedly toward her husband.


    ¡°Before you go out on an adventure, you need to know many things. The first and most important is that you are not the strongest thing out there. There are monsters out there, magical creatures, the likes of which rule this world through might if you meet anything stronger than you, you will die and be left workout a body to even bury.


    ¡°Next is that your body is weird. Most magical cultivators bodies are only a single level weaker than their magical cultivation. Yours however is four levels weaker. This is probably because of your age, but either way, you will be at a disadvantage since your body is weak and small. You will be more vulnerable to larger or stronger enemies. That shield of yours might not protect you.


    ¡°The third thing, your adventure can only be the distance you can travel in fifteen days. This means that you must be back here every thirty days. While I would love to go with you, it would only hinder your growth and stagnate mine. But I expect to see you back here every thirty days or we will have to go out and look for you. This would be a really bad thing since your grandmother really does need someone to take care of her.¡±


    Sai was very excited the entire time his father spoke until his father had threatened to abandon his grandmother to find him. Sai was determined at that time to make absolutely sure that his grandmother was taken care of. ¡°I understand, I will absolutely be back within thirty days.¡± Sai made sure to remember everything his father told him.


    ¡°You''re just going to let him leave?¡± Lilith was truly angry. She had felt as if her husband was serving their child up on a silver platter.


    ¡°Yes. If he was any other child, he would ask the same thing and proceed to play in the yard. Our son can move rivers, he can do things that we never thought were possible. Our house is warm even in the cold season because of his ingenuity. Most adults don''t have this kind of ability. Our son will become great Lilith, we just need to let him go out to do so.¡± At the end of his father''s speech even Sai was teary eyed, Lilith had broken down completely at the final sentence and allowed for Sai and his father to comfort her.


    In the midst of their comforting Sai had heard an odd groaning sound. He turned his head and looked to the side. He had seen his grandmother there before, but this time, she had actually stood up and began to limp towards the three. Her legs creaked incessantly. Her voice was just a series of groans. Her atrophied muscles liked like they would give out at any second.


    After ten extremely small steps Sai had recovered from the shock of his bedridden grandmother crossing the room. Sai ran over to her quickly and opened his mind up for her to speak to him.


    ¡°What are you doing? You''re going to get hurt,¡± Sai warned. His grandmother made a series of gagging sounds, she looked as if she was a bird preparing to feed it''s hatchlings.


    ¡°I..¡± Sai¡¯s grandmother began ¡°Ha-ha-hav. I. Have. A. G-gi-gift.¡± She stuttered and choked on every word. Sai was extremely worried despite his grandmother¡¯s intentions being happy ones. She touched Sai directly on the center of his forehead with the tip of her finger.


    As she did this, the frail old lady that Sai spends most of his days talking to while working began to dissolve. Her feet dissipated as of they were blown away. It looked as if a painting of his grandmother was slowly being erased, centimeter by centimeter. ¡°I am...Wi-with Y-y-you.¡± Sai¡¯s grandmother said when she began to have her legs completely dissolve.


    Tears welled up in Sai¡¯s eyes. He had spoken to his grandmother about many things, in fact, she had known about his past life even. He really didn''t want to lose the only person he could speak to. However, Sai didn''t know what to say until his grandmother¡¯s entire body was nearly gone and Sai could see something odd happening.


    A bright glow began to emit from his grandmother¡¯s head. It was very bright, it nearly blinded Sai, like looking into an eclipse. When her body had finally completely disappeared, this light was all that was left.


    The light swiftly drove toward Sai. It could move much faster than he could react. It clashed with the skin and bone on his forehead it rattled his brain. Sai opened his mouth to scream and the light found its entrance. It shoved its way through his open mouth and then it merged into his head.


    ¡°Sleep child, I, your grandmother have given you a precious birthday gift.¡± The voice echoed in Sai¡¯s mind and he fell over, completely asleep on the floor.

 Chapter 19: Thats a Good Question

    Chapter 19


    That''s a Good Question


    Sai had woken up after just a few short hours later feeling far different. His head felt odd. ¡°You''re awake,¡± a familiar voice in his head returned.


    ¡°Grandma? What happened?¡± Sai asked. The magic his grandmother used was one which Sai was not familiar with, it didn''t reflect any of the elements he knew about and didn''t make sense with any of the elements he only heard of.


    ¡°This is something you will learn much about in this world, I would be considered a novice in this. This thing you feel is called spirit power. It is gained in two ways. The first is at birth. You can be born with it, this way is generally stronger because of the amount of time you have to become familiar with it. The second way is by absorbing the souls of others. This is generally worse because you need a magical item to do this and most people with spirit power are able to detect such an item and flee before you get to them.


    ¡°You, my child, you a are lucky though. The power I gave you was not taken by force, so you have all of my years of experience added to your ingenuity. This is also a benefit since you are only four. Many people who gain this power do so when they are already decades old. They don''t get the experience of the soul usually either since they are forcefully yanking a soul from its body. This makes the memory of the soul stay behind with the body. Only when the person willingly gives their soul to another would they receive that soul¡¯s memories.¡± Sai¡¯s grandmother explained from the depths of his mind.


    Sai had just woken up, so he needed her to explain what had happened two more times before he was satisfied that he wasn''t going crazy. Sai had indeed gained a very precious gift. It was nearly eighty more years of experience. Sai¡¯s grandmother had practical experience, while Sai himself had multitudes of theoretical experience.


    Sai got up slowly. Having space in his head occupied by someone else was a very unique feeling. Sai was determined to use this to his benefit though.


    ¡°He''s up, Lavits, he''s up!¡± Lilith exclaimed loudly, despite Lavits being in the room. Lavits did not get excited, he sat still until Sai was completely awake. A few minutes passed by when Sai had finally looked around his father sternly stated at him.


    ¡°Son, what happened to my mother?¡±


    ¡°She is still here,¡± Sai answered his father while pointing at his head.


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°She is now in my mind, grandma can live again through me,¡± Sai was trying to comfort his father, he knew personally how much it hurt to lose a parent, he would never let his father feel that pain to watch his mother, Sai¡¯s grandmother, die. Instead he made sure that his father knew about his mother¡¯s continuation in Sai¡¯s mind.


    ¡°So, my mom, your grandma is a part of you now?¡±


    ¡°Yes. She merged her spirit with me and now resides in my mind.¡± Sai explained as thoroughly as he could despite barely understanding himself.


    ¡°That''s great,¡± Lavits exclaimed. ¡°She had always wanted to see the world, now you can show her, Son get strong, really strong and see the world.¡±


    ¡°I will dad,¡± Sai was excited. He began to make plans to go out in five days, but he now wished he could push it forward to right then. ¡°I''m going to get ready!¡± Sai ran towards the room he had built for himself and began to grab his weapons.


    Sai grabbed a second set of clothes and a spare bag. He made a backpack with two pockets out of hide. One was for clothing and his knives. The other was for his weapons. He decided that if he really wanted to bring something back with him, he could use earth magic.


    Sai was prepared to leave by that night, but instead, he was speaking with his grandmother. While his parents went out for the rest of the day to spar. ¡°Grandma Black can you explain how to use spirit power to me?¡±


    ¡°I would say the best way to explain spirit power would be it''s name. What do you think it means?¡±The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    ¡°Spirit I guess would be your will,¡± Sai guessed. He had rules out the spirit you have when you are cheering on a sport team and he also ruled out the Swinton that could also be called ¡®ghost power¡¯.


    ¡°Kind of. Your spirit would best be described as consciousness in the sense of this power.¡± Grandma Black explained.


    ¡°That made it even worse. How does consciousness have power? What would that power even be able to do besides invade privacy?¡± Sai questioned.


    ¡°Invade privacy?¡± What do you think I do, listen specifically for random secrets? Do you believe I care about who slept with who or who borrowed money from who?¡± Grandma Black questioned, she was irritated at Sai for this poor generalization. ¡°Imagine being capable of searching for anyone who is out to harm you before they can do it. Being able to protect people who need protecting and being able to punish people who deserve punishment. This spirit power gives you the ability to govern a nation.¡±


    ¡°That seems extremely invasive though,¡± Sai said. ¡°On my old planet, we had a philosopher who claimed that you should have inalienable rights, what right do I have to alienate other people?¡±


    ¡°If you would rather not use it against others, that is your prerogative, but this planet has no rules like that, so no matter what, you are not only allowed to do such a thing, but even many times required to.¡± Grandma Black was very adamant about using spirit power for one''s own benefit, Sai could not bring himself to violate his old laws though without cause. He would be no better than a spy.


    Sai decided that he would only use this ability if danger was imminent. ¡°How do you plan to protect your family if you don''t use all of your ability? Damn those rules of yours.¡±


    ¡°Sometimes Grandma, RIGHTS,¡± Sai corrected, ¡°rights are more important than safety. As another philosopher claimed in my time, those who sacrifice liberties for safety deserve neither.¡± Sai intentionally misquoted Benjamin Franklin.


    ¡°I''m in your head and I know that isn''t what that quote meant. The fact is, if you do not use this power, your family can be in danger from potential enemies, and you will be wasting my gift.¡± Sai found it very hard to argue with his grandmother¡¯s logic.


    ¡°If you assume that every person is going to harm you then you can never make friends, only potential enemies. If one doesn''t consent then you shouldn''t invade their privacy.¡± Sai wanted more than anything to explain why it was wrong to do this, to use this power.


    ¡°Hmm, I just heard something, a whisper. This tacit consent, it means that if someone is on your property or invitees you into their home knowing that you can use this power, you can use it because they are consenting.¡± Grandma Black was extremely astute and far smarter than Sai have her credit for.


    ¡°You make a good point, Grandma Black.¡± I will let people know that I can use this power then.¡± Sai curled hours lips up.


    ¡°Damn you boy, fine, don''t use it, use it. It''s your life that you are gambling.¡± Grandma black went silent afterward, Sai knew that she was angry but he didn''t care. The first thing he would do when he became powerful enough is establish a social contact that would protect the innocent and weak. The issue though was in order to establish this, he needed to have absolute power over the people, then give it to the people. Sai never had any desire for power, but he was determined to make this place more like his home.


    Suddenly everything stopped, Sai felt odd. He knew that he was pulled to Orza¡¯s garden again. ¡°Boy! You will do no such thing in my world. If you become a king, I will not allow it, if you become a god I will fight you because of it. Orzaworld will remain as it is. Do not make me regret leaving you dead.¡±


    ¡°Why are you so opposed to this?¡±


    ¡°This world is meant for creating heroes and villains that are powerful and prong them under my control. If you get rid of that then this world will have no use and I will destroy it and start again on a different world.¡±


    Sai had never thought of this, so he did not fight it nor argue. He wouldn''t get anywhere if he did. It seemed that he would have to follow the rule of fight to survive, kill to eat, become strong to live easily. ¡°Good boy, listen to your elder, use this new power of yours, you will need it.¡± Orza said while conveniently pushing Sai back to his home.


    He did as he was told and began to use the power of his spirit. He spread it out as far as he could, he could reach nearly one hundred steps past his house with his spirit. ¡°Was that the one who killed your last family?¡± Grandma Black asked tentatively.


    ¡°Yes. He is a god and he rules over this world and apparently he can even affect Earth.¡±


    ¡°He must be very powerful. He can move someone from one point on this planet to a point that doesn''t seem to be a part of this planet in a blink. You should avoid offending him.¡± Grandma Black had lost all of her anger towards her stubborn grandson, and instead revealed fear towards the betting that haunted his nightmares.


    ¡°Huh,¡± Sai felt a weird pressure at the end of his spirit range.


    ¡°That is just your mother,¡± Grandma Black assured. Sai could hear her thoughts and could feel a specific aura that his mother gave off, an aura of kindling fire, kind and warm.


    Suddenly Sai felt a second pressure enter the range. This pressure was not a pressure that Sai would assume his father would give off. The thoughts weren''t thoughts Sai would think his father would have. ¡°Grandma Black, who is that?¡±


    Sai¡¯s grandmother slowly answered, feeling the aura for herself. ¡°That is a good question.¡±

 Chapter 20: Issues that Sai Caused

    Chapter 20


    Issues that Sai caused


    ¡°Get back here bitch,¡± a scruffy voice yelled. Sai opened up the door for his mother then immediately barred it with rock hard earth.


    ¡°Are you OK?¡± Sai asked, looking over his mother. She didn''t seem hurt, but Sai wasn''t a doctor, despite being able to use minor healing magic.


    ¡°I''m fine,¡± Lilith said, her voice was ragged, she took long heaves of air in after speaking those two words. ¡°Your father is still out there.¡± Lilith was worried. Her husband has been her companion since she was very young.


    ¡°What do they want?¡± Sai asked feeling three more pressures enter his field.


    ¡°I don''t know, they started fighting with your father and he told me to run. Gods I hope he is okay.¡± Desperation boiled out of her like an overfilled kettle.


    ¡°Everything is going to be alright mom, I''ll see what they want and fix it.¡± Sai confidently said this, but he was afraid too. He scanned the minds of each person who was on his property.


    ¡°Come out here bitch,¡± the leader of this band of four yelled. When Sai heard his thoughts he could see lewd intentions. Sai decided that no matter what the outcome, this man didn''t deserve to be let off easy. ¡°When we get in this place we are going to pass you around before killing you!¡± This rallied the other three into banging add hard as they could on the wall of the house.


    ¡°What do you four men want?¡± Sai asked through one of the closed doors. He moved all of his weapons from his room into the room he was currently in with earth magic.


    ¡°Her voice sounds very young, maybe that man she was with hasn''t deflowered her yet.¡± The man blatantly ignored Sai and even called him a girl. Sai was not a person who couldn''t bend though, so he repeated his question.


    ¡°What. Do. You. Four. Men. Want.¡± Sai enunciated every word as clearly as possible.


    ¡°Boss, I think that the voice here might be a child''s.¡± One of the men said, still ignoring the question.


    ¡°That''s too bad, the kids mom will have to watch us rip him into shreds before giving us her body then.¡± The boss of the four was crude and laughed at the end as if it was the funniest thing he had ever heard.


    ¡°Old man, I''m losing my patience. What do you want on my property!¡± Sai practically screamed it this time, he was barely for years old, so it sounded like a temper tantrum rather than a threat.


    ¡°Ooh, boss, I think the little baby is angry,¡± The second goon mocked.


    ¡°Maybe I need to teach this child some manners.¡± The boss said and began to attack the door as well.


    Sai wasn''t worried because he wrapped earth magic around the door to make it nearly impossible for anyone below the basic realm to bust through. Sai sensed for their strengths, all three were in the elementary realm, level seven. It seemed that they didn''t use magic though, Sai couldn''t see their body full of elemental energy.


    This was good and bad for Sai, on one hand, Sai was in the eighth level of the elementary realm with his magic cultivation. On the other though, he was only in the fifth level of the elementary realm in martial cultivation. This also meant that he couldn''t use his shields optimally since he couldn''t just redirect the blows of all for of them.


    In this instance, Sai had to be fast, cunning, and have the ultimate defenses. Sai worried that he couldn''t do it. The first thing Sai did wasn''t a sneak attack, but to mock and anger them. An angry opponent was an unfocused opponent.


    ¡°You must be tough thinking you can give a lesson to me, maybe when I get as ancient as you I''ll start picking on children,¡± Sai didn''t laugh, but Lilith did. This varied the men to be angrier.


    ¡°How about you come out here and we will see if you are even worth offending me.¡± This boss was rather poor at comebacks.


    ¡°Why not just wait for my dad to come back, maybe we could eat your entrails for dinner.¡± Sai felt gross even saying that, but he knew that they would be mad, so he pushed his limits.


    ¡°You hear that, the little baby needs to hide behind his daddy. I wonder if he still sucks on his tit too.¡± It was plain that the four men were no experts at this. It almost seemed like this would be their first fight as well.


    Sai used his spirit power and entered their minds, ¡°I don''t need to rely on anyone to kill you four.¡± While he said that, he swallowed himself into the wall then under the ground, Sai had no better technique than this.


    Sai positioned himself directly under one of the four goons. Just as Sai prepared to strike, the goons grouped a bit closer together to strike as one. Sai thought of something then. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    Instead of striking one, he made some of the steel in his house follow him into the space under the goons. Sai flung the strips of steel upward quickly wrapping around the feet. Sai emerged from the ground quickly after binding the four men to the ground.


    Sai stood behind them, only allowing them to see him if they turn in an awkward manner. ¡°Now, you four owe me an explanation.¡± Sai tried his hardest to sound imposing, but his tiny voice couldn''t do so.


    ¡°Ha, hahaha. We don''t owe shit to you.¡± The leader of the four spoke loudly. He gave Sai no choice but to treat him like a child.


    ¡°This is your last chance. What are you Fucking idiots doing at My door, chasing My family?¡±


    ¡°You can''t do anything to us, when our leader finishes off your father he will kill you too.¡± This was no light threat, Sai had been worried about his father this entire time. Sai had thought that with his strength, his father could fight most anyone that happened to wander into their clearing.


    ¡°He won''t come back here if I leave your corpses strewn in a different direction. Maybe he will never find your killer. Maybe, just maybe after I kill you four I will begin looking for your home town and burn your families alive.¡± Sai hadn''t given out a light threat either.


    ¡°Try what you will, we will never talk.¡± The leader of the four spoke, determined to die by the hands of a child.


    ¡°Have it your way, you would never have been allowed to leave anyway. The other three though, they have a chance.¡± After Sai finished speaking, he walked toward the leader of the goon squad. He lifted up his shield which was now made of metal and covered in stone. He proceeded to scrape it down the man''s back, a deep cut shown but hadn''t started bleeding yet.


    ¡°Ahhh, I''ll kill you, I''ll find your bones into dust!¡± The man screamed, Sai began to lift his shield again and cut across his upper back, severing his trapezoid muscle.


    It must be said, until you reach the basic level, your skin was merely just skin, no matter how many levels over Sai this man was, he would still be able to be tortured by Sai.


    ¡°You son of a bitch, when my leader gets here, he will break your bones.¡± It could be seen that this man was in considerable agony.


    ¡°Ah, I''m sure he will. Sai walked to the front of the four, they could finally see how small and young he was. They had expected a child, maybe an eight year old, but not a toddler.


    ¡°You three, the first of you that answers what you are doing trespassing on my property will not endure the same cuts as your boss here.¡± As Sai said that though, he could see one of the three goons muttering under his breath and the boss had shrugged slightly.


    ¡°Oh, healing magic won''t save you here.¡± Sai whipped his arm around quickly, letting go of his rope dart at the right time, the dart however missed as the man leaned to the side. Sai used a small explosion on the tip of it to fling it back toward the man, he had not been expecting that and the rope dart flung itself deep into the man''s middle back, puncturing a kidney. The man howled in agony as he began to mutter a healing spell again.


    During all of this, the other two had been prying at their restraints. Sai had them tightly locked. None of them were going anywhere despite trying. The boss, after being healed however just watched. He could see that Sai was only cultivating at about the fifth level of the elementary realm. He could term that Sai was very untrained as well.


    ¡°You can''t expect to beat us. How about letting your mom out, she has a chance with her steel magic at least,¡± The boss goaded.


    ¡°She doesn''t practice steel magic, I do,¡± this also received a laugh from the crowd. They couldn''t believe a child could use magic at all, let alone steel magic, one of the hardest to learn. They knew that only a small number of people could train in that element, let alone succeed in it.


    ¡°Maybe, if I demonstrate my power you four will tell me why you are here.¡± Sai was still hopeful to find out the cause of this. He then lifted his shield covered arms up and proceeded to swallow two of the goons into the earth. They went very far down until Sai no longer could sense their presence. The pressure of the earth at that depth would not allow them to survive for long, even without accounting for the lack of oxygen.


    ¡°How about you tell me now?¡± Sai was fed up with their waiting game and had even killed two of them. He didn''t feel regret however, he didn''t really feel anything, those two threatened him and his family, therefore they deserved to die.


    ¡°Not a word. Don''t say a word,¡± the leader of the goons had stared daggers into the man that was in front of him who watched as his two friends were swallowed by the earth without a trace.


    Sai walked back to the leader, cut him again with his shield in the exact same spots. ¡°Ahhh, damn you.¡±


    ¡°I need to know what you four, well, now two, are doing here.¡± Sai may not have been able to feel the two with his spirit, but he could feel them struggling in the earth, but they had both stopped their struggle so Sai silently crushed them.


    ¡°I''ll talk, I''ll tell you.¡± the goon a few steps away said resignedly.


    ¡°Looks like one of you might get to go home,¡± Sai didn''t kill the leader yet, he wanted to make sure that the man who was telling even knew what they were doing here. The best way for that was to use his spirit power to read the boss¡¯s mind while the lackey spoke.


    ¡°We are here because we needed to investigate what happened to our water. One moment the river is fine, the next, it dried up. We needed to find out what happened and fix it.¡± The man was completely honest, Sai confirmed it with the boss.


    ¡°Go back to your village, you will have water back soon.¡± Sai intended to wrap the river back to where it originally went, but saw no harm in creating a lake near his home instead. Sai hasn''t realized that he had caused an entire village to suffer. ¡°As for you,¡± Sai said to the boss, ¡°you threatened my mother and my family. I will make you die painfully and make sure that any other trespassers know what happens when you offend the Black family.¡±


    Sai pounced at the man. Even though the man couldn''t move his feet, the rest of his body could move. He had easily blocked Sai and the him to the ground.


    ¡°You don''t have the ability¡± The boss said. Sai then used the steel traps on his feet to sever the man''s achilles tendon. Sai used the steel from his two deceased cohorts to bind his body down. Despite not being able to use his arms or legs, the man could still fight.


    The man was stuck, he couldn''t move at all. Sai raised his shield up and connected the two sides. Upon bringing it down, he split the man in half. His lungs and heart fell out of one side while his stomach, liver, and intestines fell out of the other. The man gaped for air three times before his eyes glazed over, the same way Sai¡¯s mothers were just before he died in his first life.

 Chapter 21: A Flood comes

    Chapter 21


    A flood comes


    Sai had made the final man watch as he killed the man''s boss. Only then did he release the man''s shackles. Sai felt the man''s fear toward him. ¡°Maybe if they had answered me, they could have survived and we would have found a simpler way to solve this issue,¡± Sai thought to Grandma Black.


    ¡°If they want to blame anyone, they can only blame themselves for having evil intentions.¡± Grandma Black said, trying to make Sai feel better.


    ¡°I had thought I would use this man as a warning, but his body is making me sick. The road I''m on will be strewn with bodies though. Does it get any easier?¡± Sai was genuinely disturbed by the look of surprise and horror on the man''s lifeless face.it had looked similar to the fave his father had made in his past life.


    ¡°Those who are evil deserve death,child, you are merely making the world right again. If that man had his way, he would have taken your mother to bed and killed her. You prevented a horror from happening.¡± Grandma Black knew just the right words to make Sai feel better. ¡°Instead of worrying about a man who has already passed though, you need to find your father.¡±


    Sai had completely forgotten about his father possibly being in danger. He contacted his mother immediately, ¡°Where was dad when you had last seen him? He could be in danger.¡± A map had popped into his mother¡¯s mind and Sai knew where to go.


    Sai sprinted towards the woods to find his dad. Sai ran toward the point on the map that his mother had in her mind. When Sai reached that point, he could only see that there was a battle of some kind. Small craters had appeared all over the place, one tree was even uprooted. Sai had decided to follow the destruction. After nearly a kilometer, Sai could hear clashes in the distance.


    Sai looked into the distance, he saw his father swinging his spear around in a very unpredictable way. Lavits had used both the butt, shaft and head of the spear to attack and defend. Despite this, he was still at a disadvantage.


    The man Lavits was fighting had a very large sword but was actually a lower level than Lavits. This man was at the very peak of the elementary realm, but could somehow fought at a higher level than he actually was.


    This man swung around his great sword with a speed that Sai could barely see. Despite the weight of the weapon, it was deflected by Lavits. Lavits then whipped his body around as if it were a spring and stabbed at the man with the other side of his spear. The man left his sword where it was and danced to the other side of it. He had used his great sword as a barricade.


    Lavits ricocheted off the sword and attacked where the man was again. This was the first time Sai had truly seen his father fight. Sai couldn''t tell how many spear strikes his father sent out, but he could tell that his father had always held back when sparring against him.


    Lavits looked like a whirlwind, Sai could feel his wind power helping make him faster. He still couldn''t get past that man''s defenses though. Where Lavits stepped wind pushed outward like a gale. Where his body moved so did the wind. Lavits moved like a breeze and struck like a hurricane. Admiration welled up in Sai¡¯s heart.


    This man, the chief of the goon squad, he didn''t have any magic in him. He focused solely on his martial cultivation. This allowed him to fight at a higher level. The only reason he had an advantage was because if weapon choice. Where that man swung his sword everything was decimated. It was a thick bolt of Thunder sweeping the battlefield.


    Sai saw determination in both of their eyes. He could see that this was a fight to the death. Neither were truly in the wrong either, one was protecting his family while the other was trying to save his tribe.


    Sai couldn''t let the fight continue though. He couldn''t leave a tribe without a leader, and he wouldn''t lose another person he cared about. Sai reached out with his mind until he reached both his father and the opposing chief. ¡°End this fight. We will return water to your village if you never trespass again.¡±


    Lavits had clearly heard everything and begun to only defend. That man was more crazed than ever though. He saw that Lavits only defended, so he abandoned all defensive techniques. ¡°Didn''t you hear? We will return your water.¡± Lavits said to the man.


    The man struck again before saying, ¡°we can get our water back and I woo become more powerful if I kill you. It seems like my people will be fine either way.¡±


    Sai knew that this guy was in a murderous mindset. He didn''t care for his people and he would do anything to win. ¡°Dad, you''re going to have top kill him,¡± Sai sent to his father. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    Sai knew that he couldn''t actively participate in this battle though or Lavits wouldn''t have any face left. Instead, Sai used his magic. Sai moved the earth to make the man''s footing less stable. When the man struck, he could slip, he could even trip.


    Sai constantly changed the battleground to make his father''s fight easier. After a series of complex strikes, Lavits felt more confident. The chief that Lavits fought with was losing ground.


    The man''s footwork became more and more sloppy, he swung his greatsword and Lavits flicked it aside. He quickly stepped back, but he wasn''t prepared for the to be a small ledge behind him that disappeared when he couldn''t turn back.


    The man toppled backwards and used his sword as a shield. Lavits began top stab at any visible body part. ¡°Ahhhhh. Fine, I concede.¡±


    ¡°It''s too late for that,¡± Lavits said while continuing to stab any exposed area he could.


    ¡°Dad, I think he gets the point.¡± Sai said out loud while using magic down the man''s legs. He allowed the earth to climb up the man''s body and push his hands, and sword out of the way. Sai proceeded to harden his earth magic to the point where anyone in the elementary realm would have trouble breaking it.


    Sai walked up to directly over the man, ¡°You were determined to kill my father. Do you know why I asked him to spare you?¡±


    ¡°Because you''re a cowardly child,¡± the petty looking chief spit.


    ¡°No, I killed three of your people already, one was lucky enough to be let go. You will get an option to live as well. Are you willing to hear it?¡± Sai knew that this man would be hard to convince that he would die if he chose to die, so Silent began to constrict the earth trapping him as if he would squeeze the life out of him.


    ¡°What could you want, boy,¡± the man spat at the end, but silent used wind magic to push it aside. Normally, Silent would have pushed it into his face, but he actually wished to get something out of this man.


    ¡°I want you to train me in combat. For this, your tribe and you will survive.¡± Silent would have loved to go adventuring, but he couldn''t pass up learning to fight from a man who could hold his own and even suppress Sai¡¯s own father.


    ¡°What?¡± Lavits was even surprised. ¡°What is wrong with my training?¡±


    ¡°You never fight that hard with me. He doesn''t care about my safety, so he will fight that hard with me.¡± Sai also wanted to gain an ally that might be able to help fight against the Little Chief, but that was still questionable.


    ¡°Ha, hahaha. You want me to train you? You are a toddler.¡± The man stated the obvious thinking that Sai was crazy.


    ¡°I am already at the fifth level of the elementary realm. You have the ability to fight above your realm, I need that ability and I need to learn good techniques in order to become powerful.¡± Sai was honest and intense, he wanted the man to know that he was ambitious as well as hard working.


    ¡°You''re still a child.no one under the age of seven is allowed to cultivate at all. My entire family would be killed if someone found out and told the wrong people.¡± Sai was unaware of this he merely thought that it was something that his tribe did rather than a law that the people that ruled this country set in place.


    ¡°You''re being serious?¡± Even Lavits was unaware of the law.


    ¡°Of course. I''m completely honest. As a matter of fact, if the people that collect our taxes come by here and see that your son can use magic, all of your family will be killed by him.¡± Sai scanned his mind and found that there was only some truth to what he was saying. The people that rule don''t kill them immediately, they actually take the whole family away, but they aren''t seen again.


    ¡°Well, the proposal still stands, train me or die.¡± Silent was very adamant. The way he sees it, it will just look like he developed quickly, so, Sai naturally didn''t care.


    ¡°I''ll be killed if I do.¡±


    ¡°Only if you tell. Besides, you''ll be killed if you don''t,¡± Sai felt that he had done well to convince the man.


    ¡°Damn you boy. Fine, but if I''m asked I will give you up in a heartbeat.¡± This man was trying his hardest to protect himself.


    ¡°If someone comes here we will name you first,¡± Lavits cut in, he hated being threatened more than Sai.


    ¡°I will likely only need you''re training for a few months.¡± Sai knew that time was not measured on a lunar cycle, but he described a thirty day period as such despite that.


    ¡°What''s a month?¡± Both Lavits and the man who would train Sai looked confused.


    ¡°Thirty days. I will only need your training for a couple sets of thirty day periods.¡±


    ¡°Fine, let me out and uphold your son''s promise.¡± The man had genuinely thought that Lavits was the one who had such powerful earth magic.


    ¡°I''ll let you out,¡± Sai said as the earth eroded away. Sai then said a healing spell for the man''s various stab wounds on his arms and legs.


    ¡°You? But you are just a child.¡± The man was in disbelief at Sai¡¯s ability.


    ¡°My name is Silent Black.¡± Sai stuck out his hand for the man to shake it.


    ¡°I''m Albert.¡± The man said while staring at Silent¡¯s hand. After an uncomfortable amount of time, Sai brought the man and his father with him to the point where the river stopped.


    Sai used earth magic once more to wrap the river around his house. It would take several days to finish, but Sai was determined to do so.


    ¡°You can really move a river.¡± Albert was in shock.


    ¡°One day, I will control every element and be a master of arms.¡± Sai was confident. The man didn''t know that Sai could already control five elements, only a small percentage of them, but still five. Sai moved more of the river that day than every other day prior.


    After five days, Sai had brought the river back around as if all he created were a bend in the river. Now the water could pass close to his home and return to its original bed so as to give water to Albert¡¯s people. When it finally hit the original river bed and Sai released the water from his dam, a flood of water rushed by them, returning to its original direction. Sai had finally fixed the problem he created, and had gained an ally for his battle with the two Chiefs.

 Chapter 22: Intense Training

    Chapter 22


    Intense training


    Sai gave Albert another five days to return to train him. In that time, Sai was going to train himself in a way that he was certain would raise his strength up to the sixth level of the elementary realm.


    Sai first had to create more steel, not only to repair what he had taken from his house, but to also create an extremely heavy yolk, not for an oxen, but for himself. What Sai casted about learning from Albert was technique, but he could raise his strength by himself.


    The next thing Sai did was built a pool of mud near his house. This pill would take one hundred steps to cross it from the outside, but without magic, Sai would need close to one thousand steps to cross. This pool of mud could cover all the way up to Sai¡¯s chest, at the right angle, his arms wouldn''t be under the mud.


    Sai grabbed his steel yolk that writhed many times more than his shield, stepped into the mud and allowed himself to sink into its depths. Sai merely stood there in the mud holding the weight on his back. He couldn''t even walk.


    Sai knew that this would be hard, almost torture even, but he had still expected to be able to move Sai pushed himself to lift up a single foot, after a moment of imbalance, he could set the foot back down. He had only moves a small portion of what he had thought he could. As a matter of fact, he had only moved the distance of a fingernail.


    Sai took a second grueling step. His body already burned, but he would not give up after just one tiny step. Sai was determined that when Albert finally arrived, he would be in the sixth level of the elementary realm.


    ¡°Sai, I understand why you are doing this, but why be so hard on yourself, your strength will grow no matter what with your age,¡± Grandma Black spoke.


    ¡°I have to be stronger. No matter what.¡± Sai was determined, he pushed himself to take a third step. His entire body burned intensely. He knew that he couldn''t finish the entire thing, but he would get to ten steps before he took a break.


    Sai pushed himself again to take a fourth step, then a fifth. He used healing magic on his body as he went, hoping to alleviate the tears in his muscles, but, he could only heal external wounds quickly, healing internal wounds would take time.


    When Sai finally reached the seventh step he was nearly ready to pass out. ¡°Sai, you''re going to hurt yourself.¡± Grandma Black was warning him, she truly cared about his wellbeing.


    ¡°Just three more steps,¡± Silent grunted through clenched teeth as he took another step. ¡°Just two more,¡± Sai was motivating himself. ¡°just a single step more!¡± Sai didn''t know where he got the energy from, but he was determined to finish.


    ¡°I''m done!¡± Sai exclaimed, raising himself out of the mud pit. He set down his yolk and laid down. He looked back and realized that he had only moved a fraction of the size of the step he had expected to move.


    Sai laid there for nearly half an hour before having his yolk and starting again. After traveling eight steps, he had wanted a second break, but was determined to take two more. Sai finished his tenth step and tried to take an eleventh after which he fell over exhausted. Luckily the sludge was so thick he didn''t sink.


    When Sai woke up he ate then returned to his pit. After his long rest and refuel, Sai could walk ten more steps, but they were far larger than before. After another short break, Sai went back to it. He continued like this, restarting at the beginning every time for the rest of the day.


    By the end of the second day, Silent could trudge through nearly half of it with just two hundred steps. It was at this time that Sai felt a surge in power. He broke through to the sixth level of the elementary realm.


    Sai was elated, he could move through the mud as easily as he could move on the ground, the weight of the yolk seemed to be substantially lighter, but he still had to take extra steps to finish his pit.


    Sai spent the next hour devising a way to make it harder. ¡°Boy, are you a masochist? You got what you wanted, you should pace yourself.¡± Grandma Black was concerned.


    ¡°There are people on this planet that are above the basic realm, even above the advanced realm I''m sure, why should I pace myself if they are out there and could possibly be hostile.¡± Sai knew that his training would be grueling, but his grandmother was correct, he could take some time to really design a tough course that would allow him to reach the seventh level of the elementary realm more quickly.


    Sai decided that he would make a massive obstacle course. He used mud as a pit instead of water, and he even made platforms out of solid earth. He made a set of weights out of steel that wrapped around his shoulders and could even snap together on the sides, it looked like armor, but it only covered areas that he didn''t feel like would hinder his flexibility.


    In the end, Silent had an obstacle course that would impress the USFK. Sai had spent the rest of his five day leeway period that he had given Albert.


    The morning of the fifth day, so could sense a familiar presence enter his property. ¡°Ah, you are punctual. Come in, have breakfast and we will spar for the rest of the day, of course taking short breaks in between.¡± Sai sent all of this through his spirit directly into the mind of Albert.


    Albert had never even heard of spirit power let alone experienced it first hand. ¡°All you need to do is think what you need to say to me. I will avoid listening in on your thoughts unless you call for me in your mind,¡± Sai had no intention to alienate a potential ally, but he maintained a constant awareness over his home, the only time he didn''t do so personally was when asleep, in which case, his grandmother did so in his stead. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    After Albert recovered from his shock he continued the seventy or so steps till he got to Sai¡¯s house. The door clicked then opened. It had to be said that Sai spent quite a bit of time designing a locking doorknob, he wished that he could see one from his past life so he could learn how to make a good one.


    The door swung open to reveal the first room Sai made, it was obviously enhanced. The walls were much thinner, Sai put a layer of stone, then made fiberglass with the same combination of magic he used to make windows. The distance was that he had to agitate and aerate the glass while stretching it. The house was a constant temperature even through the cold times.


    Sai had even mastered making a functioning flue for a fireplace that prevented the weather from entering, but they could have a fire in the house for cooking or pleasure.


    Albert was in awe of the technology that Sai had in the house. ¡°Did you do all of this?¡± Albert asked through thought but he did not get an answer back. ¡°Silent?¡± Albert questioned in his mind.


    ¡°Yes?¡± Sai asked out loud, letting him know which direction the kitchen was in.


    ¡°Did you do all of this?¡± Albert asked again, out loud this time woke walking through the door to a dining room. Albert was in shock again, there were fruits and berries that were out of season, there were vegetables that looked enhanced by magic. There was even meat in large quantities as if the Black family had an entire herd of animals that would never cease providing for their family.


    ¡°Oh, yeah. It took quite some time, but I did do all of this with a bit of help from my family. It took nearly five months to make this home sustainable for year round living.¡± Sai was truly grateful that he learned magic to such a degree. Even at the elementary realm, he could already master much of the technology that earth had in the nineteenth century.


    Sai also didn''t know how poor the conditions were in other tribes or small villages that didn''t have the ability to use magic. Thus he didn''t know that Albert had to spend nearly two years building small huts for himself and his people. His people also struggled in the winter and were in constant fear of a larger village coming in to destroy or pillage them.


    ¡°Only five months!¡± Albert was hit with shock after shock in the past several minutes. Albert explained the situation in his tribe with Sai while they ate breakfast.


    Lilith and Lavits were already outside training. Sai had built a very progressive course that was hard enough to help strengthen even his father near the end of the course. After eating their full, Sai showed Albert around and explained everything in his home before taking him outside and showing him the greenhouses, then finally his massive obstacle course.


    Sai mentioned how it had taken him only three days to build, so he felt that he was close to the ninth level of the elementary realm with magic, in truth his body was about eighty nine percent filled with overflow magic, so he was merely days away from being in the ninth level.


    Sai was more than happy to brag about his accomplishments, but he also knew that he needed something from Albert. So at the end of the tour, Sai told Albert, ¡°If you wish to, at the end of my training toy can move your village close by and I will compensate you by helping your village to have these things too, but they must work to farm and herd so that my family can still thrive as well. You will obviously still rule, think of it as renting land from my family.¡±


    ¡°You would help build houses and everything?¡± Albert was shocked once more by Sai¡¯s generosity.


    ¡°I will build seven houses for your tribe that can fit all of them into it, then teach them how to use earth magic as well so they can continue building houses after I start adventuring.¡± Sai felt as if this was a good enough trade.


    ¡°You would do all that? I feel this is too much to ask.¡± Albert was secretly excited because he knew Sai was an honest person but couldn''t help feeling that he was getting a better deal than he deserved. Since Sai already have him his life.


    Sai had felt that if you give more than you receive however you will earn favors. ¡°No, it is fine. Maybe I can reach the ninth level of the elementary realm, currently I have nothing to work on,so doing this will ensure I get stronger and it will help in the long run because people will always fight to protect their homes. This is also why I will teach your people to be able to build their house, they will fight harder if my family is attacked. On that same note, my family had enemies that are at your level and my father''s level respectively, but they use both magic and combat, so they are stronger than their level as well.¡± Sai was being honest as to the reason that he would do so much, hoping to gain more of Albert¡¯s trust.


    ¡°I see. I will talk over the situation with my people, as a matter of fact, in ten days I would like to go back for a short time, maybe three or four days, there is something important that must be done, I will talk to my people then.¡± When Sai intruded on Albert¡¯s thoughts, they were the same as he said, whether it was out of fear or good will, Sai didn''t know nor did he care to know.


    It was still early when Sai and Albert had finished the tour. Sai then brought Albert to an area that had no obstacles, he had already set his shield and rope dart down there and willed then to be buried. When they emerged Sai put them on and he faced Albert.


    ¡°No fatal blows, but my healing magic can deal with most anything else,¡± Sai set the conditions. Sai wanted to learn, not die.


    ¡°I will first test your abilities, then will give you pointers we will continue like so until we are evenly matched.¡± In truth, Albert had never trained anyone before, he was merely eighteen years old so his experience was lacking, he did learn some powerful techniques and footwork that allowed him to fight at a stronger level than he was.


    ¡°Go!¡± Both Sai and Albert said before rising at each other. Albert swung a sword the size of himself around which collided with Sai¡¯s shield, even at an angle the shield did not do much. Sai was bashed several steps away.


    ¡°Albert! Lower your strength, I am trying to train, not die.¡± Sai was nearly pleading after healing his fractured arm.


    ¡°I told you to show me what you''ve got, is it only this?¡± Albert mocked while Bringing his sword overhead to strike again.


    ¡°Sai, I think this boy was trained like this, he had to become strong or die. He is training you the only way he knows how.¡± Grandma black chimed in quickly while Sai brought his shield up again to take his blow at an angle again. This time, when Sai felt the sword first hit he bashed his shield sideways as hard as he could.


    Albert swing the large sword around over his head and around his back leaving his entire body open. Sai went to strike at the same time, but Albert turned around entirely and blocked the sharp shield. Using the momentum of spinning, Albert continued to wrap his sword around his body, so when Sai struck again he merely had to face Sai and he could block him again.


    Sai was rather inexperienced, so he couldn''t see any flaws in the man''s swordsmanship. Sai knew he had a lot to learn. Just at that time, Albert brought his sword around to strike Sai in the ribs. Sai at that moment learned the flaw with his shields. He could not deflect every attack, sometimes he would have to take them full force. At these times, Sai would need magic. Sai put both sides of his shield together at opposing angles making his shields look like a pair of open scissors.


    Since Sai was determined to use just martial cultivation, he took the blow head on. He was knocked away as if he were a bug being swatted. Sai used magic to heal his broken bones, got up and saw Albert caring toward him again. Sai once again was swatted away.


    Every time Sai went to the ground Albert allowed him time to get up, then he would strike again. This lasted several hours with short breaks and even lunch. It took up most of the two¡¯s day. Sai would learn sin how to deal with unrelenting attacks.

 Chapter 23: Bearwolves

    Chapter 23


    Bearwolves


    Silent and Albert were nearing their ninth day of sparring Sai had gotten significantly better. Woke these battles weren''t life and death, they did take a lot or of Sai. Thus Sai alai grew explosively. He could feel himself nearing the edge of the sixth level, almost the seventh level of the elementary realm. Sai felt like a veritable superman.


    It was at the end of the ninth day that Albert brought up needing to go back to his village for a few days. ¡°I''ll go with you, we don''t have to train. I have always wanted to adventure, this could be a prerequisite in a way¡± Sai said, he had not brought up the trip prior because he knew that Albert had his prelude on his mind already.


    ¡°I don''t see why that would be an issue, we just follow the river.¡± Albert had grown rather close to Sai and he had even grown a bit during their training. He had yet to reach the basic realm, but he was so close he felt he could touch it. Something about growing and training together always brings two men together or makes them rivals. This case was the former.


    Albert knew that as soon as Sai could beat him though that their friendship would be based on these times, so naturally the two treated each other very well.


    That tenth day, Albert and Silent started their day the two left the house early after eating and preparing some food for lunch. The journey according to Albert should take all day and most of a night. They would not stop the whole time, so Sai prepared enough food for several meals since they didn''t have time to stop.


    ¡°You ready?¡± Albert asked, he was impatient.


    ¡°Yep, let''s go.¡± Sai knew that Albert was very talkative, but for the first hour he didn''t say much and they didn''t even run into any carnivorous animals. It was quite enjoyable.


    Suddenly Albert said, ¡°Silent, I am truly fearful for your offer to move my tribe over in a few months, I just hope that it isn''t too late.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean by that?¡± Sai asked.


    ¡°My tribe has a man that comes through every one hundred days and collects taxes, he is set to be there in a few days, but lately he has been coming earlier and earlier. If he came while I was working with you he could easily kill all of my people.¡± Albert explained.


    ¡°So why would that person need you specifically? If he is there to extort food or money couldn''t he take it from anyone?¡± The entire situation confused Sai.


    ¡°This pertain also has to insure my wellbeing.¡± Albert said. Sai had taken am approach of only using his spirit power when necessary, so he didn''t see that Albert was imagining a tyrannical man who looked very similar to himself.


    Despite not looking into his mind, Sai had assumed it was a family member who had more power than Albert or had a higher standing in the family than Albert. This also led Sai to believe that Albert¡¯s lineage wasn''t as simple as just a chief of a small tribe.


    ¡°I see, how do you feel about this person?¡± Sai asked, he refused to allow a person enter his property if they weren''t invited.


    ¡°If you are asking if I would prefer them dead, I would not. I do not feel that he should be extorting me though, I left that life and he reminds me exactly that every time he comes by.¡± Albert had finally opened up to Sai. But this predicament was one in which Sai could not solve for Albert. He would however ban the man from entering his land if Albert¡¯s people moved there.


    ¡°I think I understand the situation. If your people do move to my land they will be protected from him, you will only have to see him if you want to.¡± Sai had promised Albert a great many things.


    ¡°I can''t expect that of you, he is even more powerful than your father and myself, he has already reached basic realm level three. On that same note though, if we did move closer to your land, he night not be happy. He might take it out on you.¡± Albert was completely honest, this is why he didn''t find much issue with Sai¡¯s old chiefs, he had a bigger problem.


    ¡°We''ll see what the situation is like, then I well help out in any way I can.¡± Sai replied, he really wanted Albert to be on good terms with him. Albert send like the kind of person Sai would have been friends with in his past life and with his current age as well as his previous age added together, Sai and him would be about the same.


    It neared lunchtime, Sai took out some food from his pack and handed it to Albert, a thank you was exchanged and they continued up the river. Albert and Sai spoke quite a bit, Albert knew more of current situations, his family was definitely not simple. Sai knew of how things worked, he was a computer programmer and refurbisher in his previous life, as well as a student just two steps away from graduating. He may not have been an expert at anything in particular, but he was capable of a great many things that he happened to become much better at with the help of magic.


    Sai did not explain how he knew these things, but he explained many of the things he knew such as how to make fiberglass and glass in general. He also explained how to smelt steel. Over the course of nearly half of the trip all they did was talk and walk. It wasn''t until nightfall that they noticed something interesting. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    In the river, there was a lighter area that appeared meat the center of the river. It must be said that this was one of the widest parts of the river, it was very deep as well. Neither Sai nor Albert would be able to reach the bottom before running out of breath.


    This spot that looked as if it were glowing took up a large portion of the water. ¡°Silent,¡± Albert thought, getting the young boy¡¯s attention.


    ¡°I''m not sure what it is either, could it be a monster?¡± Silent thought back.


    ¡°Whatever it is, it would do well to be at least it''s body length away from the river. Let''s slowly walk away from it and hope it hasn''t paid attention to us,¡± Albert was not only cautious, but even more so than Sai.


    As they began to walk away from the river the two heard a roar. The began to sprint, but they realized that the roar want from the direction of the river, it was from the direction of the woods near the edge.


    The beast that jumped out of the woods was one Sai had never seen. Sai couldn''t sense it''s combat power, so he assumed it was at least as strong as his father.


    Sai could clearly see that the beast looked similar to a dog, but it was the size of a tiger. It also did not bark like a dog, but it''s roar was that of a bear. It had leaped directly toward Sai, it''s eagle like talons outstretched and it''s maw was drooling.


    Before Sai had a chance to react Albert had already swung his heavy sword into the mouth of the monster. It was ripped in two from mouth to mid throat. The beast was screaming in pain when Sai reached out his mind to feel for everything around him. Sai feared the best in the water the most, but he felt the presence of nearly twenty of those large dogs surrounding himself and Albert.


    Sai immediately used earth magic to create a tower underneath himself and Albert. Silent had made this tower add tall as he could, it was nearly fifty meters tall and had no edges. The downside to this tower was that Sai was so far from the ground that he couldn''t move it like he did his grandmother.


    The large dogs all came out of hiding,liked at their fallen comrade then began to see if they could reach the top of the tower. Sai used wind magic in order to push the beasts back, but some of them could still jump forty five meters in the air.


    ¡°Albert looked at Silent, ¡°Those bearwolves are monsters aren''t they?¡±


    ¡°Bearwolves? It''s a fitting name, but these monsters aren''t even the ones I''m worried about. You can kill them, that one in the water though, it hasn''t showed itself and can still reach us just based on the size of its reflection.¡± Sai said.


    ¡°Then we kill the bearwolves and head further into the woods.¡±


    ¡°Sounds like a good plan,¡± Sai lowered their tower to be just over the hight of the strongest bearwolf¡¯s jump. Sai would throw his rope dart out at the other monsters and using his magic to explode out earth and steel shrapnel upon contact or when Sai could actually break skin.


    It must be said that the ones Sai could hurt with just his rope dart were particularly weak, they were merely at his level and he could only draw blood at most. This is because monsters had very high defense and attack, but they couldn''t use magic or technology generally. Only a few humanoid ones could use technology, but none could use magic, that was purely a human and magic beast trait. Since there were very few magic beasts, it was a generalization that only humans could use all three, magic, combat, and technology.


    Sai could only severely injure those in the elementary realm, this was only because Sai fused combat and magic though. Albert however knew that the monsters weak points were their mouths. They were the strongest attack area on the beasts, but the weakest in defense. Albert had assumed all of his attacks at the mouth of the strongest beast in the hopes to recreate his first kill.


    Silent knew that this battle would be one of attrition if it continued, and the beasts would likely win. Silent decided he would use the one magic power he had yet to use against anyone or anything. Sai grabbed his throwing knives, he only had four, but he could make more. The wind started blowing directly toward the beasts. A flash appeared in Silent¡¯s eyes and like a bolt of thunder, Sai threw one knife directly into the eye of the largest bearwolf. A crack appeared in the monster''s skull and it no longer jumped.


    ¡°What the hell was that?¡± Albert yelled.


    ¡°The power of thunder.¡± Sai answered. Although he learned his thunder magic through the Little Chief failing to kill him, Sai did not learn the same dao that the chief had. Instead, of thunder shocks like the Little Chief, but his dao was similar to a single bolt, but Sai knew that without pushing it into a certain direction it would merely dissipate with a loud noise.


    Sai threw his other three knives at the next three strongest monsters. Each of the knives struck the beasts and ended their lives. Though Sai was out of knives, none of the other monsters could survive Albert¡¯s strike. Sai lowered his tower once more and Albert killed monster after monster until all twenty were dead.


    Corpses were strewn across the small area near the riverbed. Albert looked to Sai, ¡°We need to collect these beasts and burn them or turn them into diner, if we leave them then other monsters will come and get more powerful from their meat.¡±


    ¡°Would we get stronger from their meat?¡± Sai asked, he had heard of such a thing in his past life, but wasn''t sure if it would work that way in this world.


    ¡°Only if you''re a monster. Monsters get the benefit of strength by killing and eating their own kind, this allows them to grow, people have to put in hard work though, eating monsters just fills our bellies and eating people makes us sick and puts a price on our head.¡± Albert explained, ¡°There are some things that you can purchase to help raise your combat power or magic power, you can even get items that imitate the strength of a high combat power, but you cannot get it from hunting.¡±


    ¡°I guess that makes sense, Orzaworld can''t have people that are too powerful,¡± Sai said, thinking that Orza was the one who dictated these rules.


    ¡°Orzaworld?¡± Albert looked confused as he and Sai piled up the bodies of the monsters.


    ¡°That is the name of this planet,¡± Sai was unaware how uneducated in science that people are in Orzaworld. He was creation that some people in cities would know what a planet was, but Albert did not. A planet is a large body of earth that revolves around a star.¡±


    ¡°If you say so,¡± Albert was skeptical but had no knowledge to debate against Sai¡¯s claim.


    ¡°It is true. When I become powerful I will show you.¡± Sai was unsure how he world show Albert, but he was sure that his road to power would be long. Not because it would take a long time to advance, but because he was determined to be powerful enough to never let anyone hurt his family or his new friend.

 Chapter 24: The Thing In the River

    Chapter 24


    The thing in the river


    Sai made a small forge that he could use to burn the bodies of the bearwolves. No matter how much he tried, he couldn''t burn their fur however, Sai did not start on the dao of heat, just of combustion, he only knew how to make things burn in a combustion reaction, and the reaction was only so hot.


    Since the pelts couldn''t be burned, Sai spent some time cutting them into a set of armor. He sat atop a chair made of earth and cut and sewed nearly fifteen sets of armor while the two moved through the edge of the woods, just far enough away from the river to not worry about whatever was following them. It was near the end of the night when Sai finished, they were supposed to be at Albert¡¯s village, but the bearwolves had sidetracked then for quite some time and still had an hour or two left to travel.


    It was near dawn when the two had heard the giant reflection in the river begin to sing, it did not sound like the sing of a whale like Sai would have expected, it was much higher pitched, like a woman''s.


    Sai had imagined that this voice was the same add the voice that sang the song at the end of the movie about the boat crashing into the iceberg. The song was alluring and Albert turned to face it, a pleasant smile on his lips a look of calm spread across his face. Albert changed direction and immediately headed toward the sound.


    ¡°Grandma, is that a siren?¡± Sai asked.


    ¡°What? No, of course not. It is definitely powerful, but I don''t think it will harm you. It is probably a cursed woman or something similar.¡± Grandma Black was adamant that sirens weren''t a thing.


    ¡°Could a cursed woman transfer her curse to someone?¡± Sai asked. He couldn''t stop Albert at all.


    ¡°Of course not. How could it be a curse if it is transferred or lifted so easily.¡± Grandma Black had a point, Sai still worried though. Even after using his spirit power, the only thing Sai could do was listen to Albert think about the song.


    Sai and Albert neared the river and saw that the thing that was glowing was no longer in the water, rather it was standing on it. Albert was not in a right state of mind, so Sai caked out to the bright glowing light. ¡°What are you? What are you doing to my friend?¡± Sai knew that anything that was strong enough to defy physics appeared it certainly could understand human language.


    Sai waited silently for an answer from whatever was singing. Finally one came, ¡°I am the light of the river, and I am doing nothing to your friend.¡±


    ¡°Why is he in a trance from your music if you aren''t doing anything to him?¡± Sai asked, this light of the river thing was already creepy, Sai had only ever seen one other monster, and those were dogs.


    ¡°He is drawn to me because he has never been with a woman, why aren''t you drawn to me? How can someone as young as you have been with a woman?¡± The light asked Sai.


    Sai thought back to a party he had been at before his death. He couldn''t remember the night at all, he had taken lsd for the first time and was in his own world. He guessed that he had done it then because one girl at that party wanted to spend time with him quite a bit more often than before, Sai just didn''t want to hurt her feelings and say he didn''t remember what they had done together. He had just turned sixteen that week, she was almost seventeen and he hadn''t realized she wanted a relationship until she asked him about that night. He didn''t remember anything and she left his house crying. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    Sai was reminiscing when the light said ¡°So it was like that. Few get lucky enough to have a second chance. Fewer even remember their first chance.¡± Sai knew the light was talking about his reincarnation. Sai panicked because that meant that the light could use spirit power at a higher level than himself.


    ¡°Do not worry boy, I am not going to harm you either. Especially since you are the one who has given me strength,¡± the light said.


    ¡°How did I give you strength?¡± Sai was curious.


    ¡°you made the river longer, this directly raises my power and has allowed me to take form in a physical shape.¡± The light said then slowly walked toward Sai and Albert. What was odd was that the singing never stopped, even when the voice spoke, as if it was an effect of the light rather than a direct action the light made.


    ¡°You are interesting boy, you unwittingly helped me therefore I helped you.¡± The light said, Sai wasn''t sure how the light had helped him, but he was fairly certain that it would be a gift that Sai would enjoy. The light stood directly in front of Silent, the light faded extremely when it left the river. It could be seen as a ghost now, still bright, but not blinding.


    ¡°This is your gift,¡± Just add the light said that, it knelt down to Sai¡¯s hight, then kissed his forehead. A flash appeared behind Sai¡¯s eyes and he could see that the light had indeed given him a gift. It had made everything that lives on his land fertile, healthy. Sai could tell that this was a permanent change as well. He could tell that the light of the river could help life flourish.


    The light then stood up and backtracked to the river, gaining brightness once more, the beautiful ghost becoming a star on the river. ¡°Your family will do well to live their as long as they never harm me.¡±


    ¡°Why would we harm you, this relationship is beneficial to both of us, even if it was accidental.¡± Sai answered the light, he was bewildered as to why someone would harm it after they both benefited from the relationship.


    The light sank back into the river and swiftly traveled up it, back towards Sai¡¯s house. It was about then that Albert woke up from his daze, he was almost knee deep into the water when he could finally control himself.


    ¡°What just happened?¡± Albert asked, still quite dazed.


    ¡°We just meet the light of the river. It is good that we met, because if not then my land would not have been gifted with fertility. It looks as if my land is going to become a very powerful kingdom in the future.¡± Sai was very happy over this situation, he felt that he now did not need to query about food in the future, especially with his greenhouses.


    ¡°Aren''t your aspirations a bit too large? You are only four, I''m surprised you can do what you can already, but running a nation, and wrestling power from the current people in power. This would take decades. Not to mention a massive war, it would be better if you set your aspirations lower.¡± Albert had clearly thought about this more than Sai, he knew the work involved with a hostile takeover.


    ¡°If I become strong enough then that won''t be the case. If my family gets attacked because they grow too large and threaten the powers that be then I will feel worse. My family rising to power is inevitable if I wish to keep them safe.¡± This was the only logic Silent needed to want to rule a small area.


    ¡°Whatever you say kid. I just think that you have eyes but cannot see. Let''s go, we are already late. Let''s hope my people haven''t suffered yet.¡± Albert was visibly anxious. ¡°My brother will not hesitate to murder just to assert his dominance.¡±


    Sai and Albert left that place quickly, they were less than an hour away from his tribe and it was already dawn. Sai created a small landing with magic that he used to keep up with Albert who could run faster than anyone else Sai had met.


    ¡°Silent, why were you not affected by that light of the river like I was? Shouldn''t you have been more affected since you are weaker physically?¡± Albert was curious, he also felt bad because he was older and stronger yet could not hold off the light¡¯s song, but Sai could.


    ¡°It isn''t your fault, the light said that you would have been fine had you not been a virgin,¡± Sai reiterated what the light of the river claimed.


    ¡°That doesn''t explain why you weren''t affected by it,¡± Albert said.


    ¡°That is a conversation for a different time, just forget what happened for now, we should be close and that conversation is a very long one.¡± Sai was avoiding the question, not because he didn''t want to answer, but because he wasn''t sure how Albert, his only friend so far in four years would feel about it.

 Chapter 25: A Brother Most Foul

    Chapter 25


    A Brother Most Foul


    The two entered the eyesight of the village, Sai hopped atop Albert¡¯s back. Sai didn''t want anyone to see his magic or his might. It must be said that unless you are at the advanced level or higher, unless you see someone use their strength, you will not be able to tell.


    After a short run, Albert and Silent entered the limits of the small village, Sai noted that there were nearly twenty small huts including one larger hut that Sai assumed Albert lived in. The two headed up to to the largest house which was similar in size to Sai¡¯s.


    ¡°Albert, why does your village not have walls?¡± Sai asked Albert, taking note that anyone or anything could enter however they wish.


    ¡°We used to, but my brother forced my people to tear them down saying that they were built to keep him out and threatening to kill all the people inside if the walls weren''t removed by the time he returned. It took us almost a year to put up those walls, but they were torn down in just seventy days.¡± Albert was in a situation where his brother could control him too easily and the methods his brother used were monstrous. Albert continued, ¡°The walls were taken down nearly two hundred days ago and we have already lost two children.¡±


    ¡°That will change when you all move over to my land. Extortion will not be tolerated.¡± Sai knew this promise would be hard to fulfill but made it anyway.


    The two walked into Albert¡¯s house and Albert turned to Sai, ¡°When dealing brother, until we can all pack up and move, you should be known by all of our people as a lone child that I took pity on and brought home. You don''t have parents, they died and I came to your rescue. Don''t deter from this plan or my brother will kill you.¡±


    ¡°I''ll do as you say,¡± Sai replied. In this world, strength was most important, so he currently had no right to be arrogant or make decisions that would alter other people''s lives. So, Sai did what he was told.


    After being told this the two went toward the end of the rim where a single chair stood facing the door. The room was decorated with nothing else. The walls were bare, there was no rug on the bare floor, only hardened mud. Sai could feel the amount of effort spent tamping the earth under his feet, it was meant to make someone''s feet sore after a prolonged period of standing.


    Sai then noticed that the chair at the end of the room was much softer, the person that was in it looked as if they could comfortably sit there all day. In some cases Albert might when he meets with his brother. Sai took note of this before he continued with Albert towards the chair.


    Albert say down and looked toward Sai, ¡°You can do what you would like in the house, but I have to remain here until my brother shows up.¡±


    ¡°That is an odd condition for your brother to set. Why would he require that?¡± Sai asked.


    ¡°My brother is hopeful that I will abandon my post here during a visit so he can tell me that the death of my village is my fault. He feels that if they were to die because of me that it would make me stronger,¡± Albert¡¯s statement genuinely scared Sai.


    ¡°What kind of person believes that death could make one stronger? Death of those close to you only hurts you. I would know.¡± Sai said


    ¡°Whatever my brother''s reason, I have to live with it until I''m stronger than he is,¡± Albert said resignedly. So didn''t respond because he also knew that might was right in this world.


    ¡°Now we wait?¡± Sai asked Albert, the condition Albert was in currently had Sai worried. Albert had to wait patiently for his brother to arrive for up to five days. This amount of idle waiting was not good for Albert¡¯s strength. Sai did not know much about cultivation other than what he has practiced, but he knew that if you let yourself go for several days and do not cultivate that you will become weaker. This entire plan of Albert¡¯s brother¡¯s seemed to be meant to control Albert¡¯s cultivation. Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    ¡°Albert, how old is your brother?¡± Sai asked.


    ¡°Probably your father''s age, why?¡±


    ¡°I have a feeling that he is doing this to make you weaker but the only motivation I could think of was you being more talented than he is. How would your parents decide who is their heir?¡± Sai asked, hoping this would tell him what Albert¡¯s brother was planning.


    ¡°The eldest son, so, not the brother you will meet soon, but the brother that you likely won''t meet is the one who inherits my parent¡¯s title,¡± Albert explained the situation, so unless his middle brother planned on killing both Albert and his eldest it was not fratricide.


    Sai then opened his mind and intruded into Albert¡¯s, ¡°Do you have a secret person here, someone stronger than your brother protecting you?¡±


    ¡°Do not ask these things,¡± Albert said sternly, this confirmed Sai¡¯s suspicion. That secret person did not care for the tribe, only for Albert. Albert¡¯s brother knew about that person and refused to attack until he was sure he could kill that person too. Lastly, Albert¡¯s brother also wanted to kill his elder brother and take the place of leadership of their family.


    ¡°I see how it is,¡± Sai answered respectfully, ¡°does your brother have spirit power?¡±


    ¡°No, why?¡± Albert answered.


    ¡°I will keep watch for your brother while you train. This way you won''t grow weaker while he is on his way over here,¡± Sai said.


    ¡°How does that work? Reaching into someone else''s mind I mean.¡± Albert asked, he was hesitant to leave the seat even though Sai did not feel any new presences in the tribe.


    ¡°I''m not sure either, my grandmother have me this power as a gift, now she lives through me and I have her strength as well. Some people, such as my grandmother ate born with it, but my grandma said that if you absorb the consciousness of other people with spirit power it will become stronger, but I only know of one other person with spirit power, so when I reach basic level two I will be able to get stronger with my spirit.¡±


    Sai felt his grandmother nod in approval, she had spirit power, but was unable to train much physically or magically, so she didn''t grow powerful enough to learn anything about it at a higher level. ¡°So you don''t know, how large is the range on it? Albert asked Sai.


    ¡°Oh, I can cover your village with my spirit power,¡± Sai answered. He did not however tell Albert that he could only barely reach that far from his current position.


    ¡°Then I will train, notify me as soon as my brother gets here. There are only fifty-two people living here including myself and you. When you feel my brother here,¡± Albert made sure to let Sai know as much as he could before he granted his sword and went into a different room.


    Sai looked around the house in that time, noting that there were less luxuries in this house than his old clan leader¡¯s and far less nude women. Sai went into every room and saw that there was a single study and three bedrooms, the entire house consisted of only seven rooms including these and a kitchen. The room Albert entered and the room with a chair being the only others.


    After nearly nine hours Sai felt the presence of a new person stride into the village. Sai particularly noticed how leisurely the new person was walking. It was as if the new person ran the tribe. If Sai didn''t know better, he would have assumed the man was the tribe leader.


    ¡°Albert, he is here.¡± Sai said through his mind, Albert and him hadn''t said any other words, Sai merely felt that Albert was angry. Albert rushed out of the training room, sweat was beading around his neck and back, his muscles were swollen and a vein in his head looked like it would burst. Albert the his giant sword into the ground and sat down once more.


    The door swung open workout a knock, ¡°Brother!¡± A deep but happy seeming voice yelled.


    Albert replied in kind, he seemed to be happy, but Silent could feel how little happiness either felt. After exchanging this greeting Albert¡¯s brother merely stood where he was and looked around then spotted Sai standing near the door with a throwing knife in his hand scratching a picture into the floor. Sai was doing his best to act like a child.


    ¡°Who is this?¡± Albert¡¯s brother asked while walking toward Sai.


    ¡°I''m Silent Black. Your little brother saved me!¡± Sai looked excited and honest. It wasn''t hard for him to believe his parents died, so he played his role well.


    ¡°Insolent child, only speak when spoken to,¡± Albert¡¯s brother reprimanded.


    ¡°Gideon, he is only a toddler and his parents just died. Forgive him for speaking out of turn.¡± Albert attempted to help ease the situation.


    ¡°A stray dog that misbehaves deserves a beating.¡± It could be seen that Gideon was malicious and Sai didn''t need spirit power to know he was going to be hit soon.


    ¡°I''m sorry Silent,¡± Albert said through his mind. He knew that in order to protect others, Sai would take this just-less punishment. Just then a large hand swiped past Sai¡¯s face. Sai landed on the ground after being struck. Tears welled up in his eyes and shock was on his face. His brother barely held back at all, Sai would have to play as if he were knocked out from the slap so he didn''t risk being caught cultivating at such a young age.

 Chapter 26: Bad blood

    Chapter 26


    Bad Blood


    We don''t have healers here! You could have killed him,¡± Albert said, he still didn''t get up though, it could be seen that he was afraid.


    ¡°Maybe you shouldn''t go around letting unruly children speak for you then brother, I probably saved you a headache in the future.¡±


    ¡°Oh no middle brother, if he dies, it is a big headache for you,¡± Albert was being purposefully cryptic.


    ¡°What the hell does that mean? You and this boot are testing my patience,¡± Gideon the hot head said.


    ¡°The boy was telling me that his grandma would come for him soon, he told me that she had spirit power and could even fly. If you hurt her grandson, she will likely hurt you just as bad, maybe worse even.¡± Albert smiled while saying this, he knew it was a lie, but his brother couldn''t tell.


    ¡°That can''t be true, you''re making it up,¡± a false bravado appeared in Gideon¡¯s voice.


    ¡°It might be false, but why would the boy lie to me, he even showed me that he too has spirit powers. You had better hope he is still safe or I will make sure that when his grandmother shows up she knees where you live. I won''t take the blame for your rash actions.¡± Albert still hasn''t moved from his seat, but Gideon began to worry.


    ¡°Enough of this younger brother. If an old wench does come for the boy then fate will decide. Until then, get someone to clean up this mess,¡± Gideon said, pointing at the seemingly lifeless body of Silent Black.


    Sai laid limply while being carried out by a servant who Albert called for. Sai spread his consciousness out to still hear the conversation the two were having while he was placed in a side bedroom before cremation.


    ¡°Albert, what are you doing taking in children? You have no right,¡± Gideon returned to his stately manner, his fear of Silent¡¯s grandmother had dissipated with the removal of the child. It seemed like he felt Grandma Black would show up immediately and the only way to remove blame from himself is by the boy''s body being out of sight.


    ¡°I have every right to take care of anyone who lives in my tribe. What right do you have to bring hardship on our family? Do you have no shame to believe his grandmother will stop searching for the killer just because the boot well be cremated?¡± Albert asked.


    ¡°The boy isn''t an issue, the issue is that you feel like taking in strays. Our family has rules against such a thing,¡± Gideon said. Sai noticed right away the error in his logic.


    ¡°Albert, right away say that all of your people would be strays, but you gave them a home and your family agreed to that. What is the difference if you take someone in from outside or a child is born from within. The only person that cares would be him.¡± Albert reiterated what Sai said. It must be said that spirit power speaking is much faster than oral speaking, since with your mind you can fire off words as fast as your brain can handle doing so.


    ¡°We both know the situation. If you want it this way then fine. Get me some food then I''ll rest and we can spar. Brother, you have eyes but do not see your own shortcomings,¡± Gideon said, he was obviously mad but had no way of refuting Albert¡¯s new logic.


    ¡°You know I cannot spar with you. You told me that if I leave this seat while you are here I will be dragged back home for abandoning the people our parents placed under my protection.¡± After hearing this, Sai grew angrier and angrier. Gideon was absolutely wicked, but Sai had no idea of how to deal with him, even in the future, his only option would be to help Albert become powerful so that Albert could deal with his problem in the way he wished.


    ¡°If you are such a coward to avoid even sparring that is your choice. You,¡± Gideon yelled at a servant, ¡°bring me some food! Meat!¡± The servant bent his head and withdrew to the kitchen, leaving the two completely alone.


    ¡°Brother, why are you so unkind to me?¡± Gideon asked Albert as if Albert was going out of his way to be rude. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    ¡°I have done all you''ve asked. I left our home. I have all but given up my birthright, which isn''t even as much as yours. Then you show up to my new home and kill my people. You winner why I''m unkind? Maybe it is you that is unkind.¡± Albert normally would never speak to his brother like this, but his brother wouldn''t kill him, only make his life hard. This gave Albert the confidence to speak to his middle brother like this.


    ¡°You dare? Where do you get this confidence?¡± Accused Gideon.


    ¡°I don''t dare. Take the taxes for father and mother and just leave. I will send a note saying you aren''t welcome here anymore on the amount of killing a major power¡¯s grandchild in my home.¡± Albert was visibly angry, Sai knew that it was a ruse, but it looked real.


    ¡°Remember who you have offended today brother, it would be a shame if it was forgotten, give me the damn money.¡± Gideon was no longer carefree, his eyes stared daggers into Albert¡¯s Sai felt killing intent for the second time in this life by a human.


    ¡°Servant!¡± Albert called, the man who was supposed to make dinner returned quickly at Albert¡¯s call.


    ¡°Yes?¡± The servant answered.


    ¡°I need the taxes for my brother.¡± Albert stated. As he did, the servant reached to his waistline and under his pants he untied a rope and held a coin purse. ¡°Give it brother and we will have dinner after,¡± Albert said, remaining in his chair.


    The servant walled over to Gideon and handed the coin purse to him. Gideon quickly grabbed the servant¡¯s hand and yanked him into an awkward position. ¡°You forced this Albert.¡± Gideon twisted his arm and moved like he was going to break the servant¡¯s neck.


    The servant however stood there stiffly. While Gideon tried to bend and break him. Sai did not enter anyone¡¯s mind but Albert and Gideon, so he also realized that this servant was the reason his brother never attacked Albert directly.


    ¡°Run back to your parents boy, you might be hurt if you keep up this game.¡± The servant said. The shaken Gideon had thought Albert was lying about a random person in his tribe being strong enough to protect them from him. Gideon now found out that it was true.


    Gideon looked like a beaten dog despite not having been hurt at all. He walked out of the house looking more angry than ever. ¡°If you touch one of my people I will remember it when I become stronger than you,¡± Albert called loudly behind his brother.


    When the door finally shut Sai made his way downstairs. The large bruise on his face a testament to how hard he was slapped. ¡°Looks like we have a lot of training to get to Albert,¡± Sai said.


    ¡°First, we need to discuss something with my people, but we have to wait for my brother to be far enough away to not notice. In the morning would be best.¡±


    ¡°That works, I have a plan that will be good for our situation then.¡± Sai claimed happily. He used healing magic on his face when he felt that Gideon was far enough away to not detect a spell. It must be said that most everyone can feel spells in close proximity, this is because they draw on natural energy, if someone else feeds on that same energy then it is possible for them to also feel the spell for as far as they can draw on the energy away. For Sai, it is nearly twenty steps, for someone that is technically nine fold stronger than him, Sai waited until he should have been almost two hundred steps away. The issue is that Sai could only use his spirit power for about seventy five steps and he can only feel vibrations of the earth at just over one hundred steps. This meant that he had to hope Gideon was far away in case energy consumption worked as exponentially as strength.


    What Sai thought of was in fact correct, but only partially, energy consumption area is exponential, but it is merely an area, so Gideon should not be capable of reaching two hundred steps, but actually only about one hundred twenty steps in each direction.


    After healing, Sai immediately used his spirit power to gauge the weight and height of everyone in the tribe and added a bit of mass for personal belongings and food. Sai then formed stones with magic and set out in the opposite direction of his house. He used the stones to make footprints for each of the fifty-one people, not including himself. Sai walked with these stones for several miles, till nightfall. He made a makeshift camp for fifty people, and destroyed it like a beast would. He spread animal blood everywhere. Then Sai then walked back without making any tracks early in the morning.


    When Sai had returned, he found that the entire tribe was packing their belongings. He headed toward Albert¡¯s home. ¡°Albert,¡± Sai called after entering the house.


    ¡°One moment,¡± Sai could see with his spirit power that Albert was deciding whether to keep or leave something. He quit intruding afterward, he merely searched to know where to meet Albert.


    Albert came down, he looked confused, like he had just battled a personal demon and lost. ¡°What is it?¡± Albert asked, he was irritated, but Sai knew it wasn''t directed at him. Sai told him about the diversion and how they should be safe for at least one hundred days more.


    ¡°That was a good plan, I left all of my tribe¡¯s wealth here with a note that said it was taxes. I know that my family will search, but they won''t abandon me if I ever decide to come back.¡±


    ¡°That is probably for the best, even though you and your brother have bad blood, you shouldn''t burn a bridge with your entire family because of it. Let''s go, when we get back we can train especially hard. Maybe you will be stronger than my father soon.¡± Sai was hopeful. He was happy to have met a good friend like Albert. Although Silent didn''t make friends easily, he felt that Albert was an honorable man and that Albert and himself were too similar to not become close.

 Chapter 27: Fulfilling promises

    Chapter 27


    Fulfilling Promises


    After nearly three days of walking, Sai and company had moved from Albert¡¯s tribe to Sai¡¯s property. This trip was toughest for Sai who had to use magic to make the earth have no traces of people moving on it. The issue was keeping the few footprints that were there originally so as to not make Albert¡¯s family suspect the path was modified.


    The entire experience exhausted Sai and he had made promises that he couldn''t put off because of a couple hours of sleep were lost. As soon as he arrived to his house he greeted his parents and told them the situation.


    ¡°If Albert¡¯s family is as strong as you say, they will find our home here, even if it is a year later, they will find us,¡± Lavits said.


    ¡°I thought of this as well. I''m not sure how we will handle it either, I may have to swallow their homes up with them in it for a day just to protect them.¡± Sai claimed. He was truly lost at what to do. He had hoped that Albert¡¯s family would just give up looking when they saw the blood at the campsite that Sai made and assume that he died.


    ¡°No matter what, they will find out and they will come searching.¡± Lavits said, he wished to end the discussion because he knew Sai meant well but he didn''t think through the situation well.


    Sai still kept his promise despite his father¡¯s reluctance. He immediately began working on a house. The scale of this first house was the same size add his own. While making it, he worried to his grandmother, ¡°Was this a bad choice? I know that protecting then is going to be dangerous, but how can I ignore good people?¡±


    ¡°It is not in your nature. Besides, these people will work while your family gets strong. Also, Albert will likely teach you something important, something that your father doesn''t know that will help you to become stronger,¡± Grandma Black assured. Sai didn''t know what she was talking about that Albert could teach besides skill.


    In just a single day Silent built the first house. It was the size of his own and had room enough for seven to fit comfortably. Sai did not decorate not add all the amenities that his own house has, he was currently more worried about getting the people out of the weather.


    Sai spent most of the next six days making houses for Albert¡¯s people, all seven of the houses he made looked the same except Sai marked the front of them with tallies depicting which house was which. Sai had put all of his time and energy into building these houses.


    The houses each had several beds, none of which were as fancy as Sai¡¯s own. None of them even had bedding. But the villagers were happy nonetheless.


    During the building of the first house, each villager watched impatiently. Many would whisper about the might of magic and how powerful a child could be. The people were amazed that Silent could manipulate the earth after a single set of movements.


    After the first house was completed, the novelty had worn off and a different emotion crept in, desire. Sai first noticed about two hours into building the second house. Albert¡¯s people, particularly the younger ones would follow Sai¡¯s motions.


    At first it was children of all ages acting like Sai¡¯s magic began with a dance. They stepped when he stepped, his arm thrusted and theirs followed. He bent and so did they.


    It must be said that when adding elements to attacks one must do this add well, but it is more subtle. When attacks combine with elements it takes more time than directly attacking but it is also more powerful. When one becomes more proficient in magic they can generally call in the dao with less of a buildup period. But, if one is using all of their strength, they must follow the steps or the magic will not file their will.


    Although these steps were ones that Sai made up to make magic do what he wanted, they did not teach the most basic earth magic well. Despite this, Sai had a large group of young men and women copying his motions and trying their hardest to sense the earth beneath their feet.


    Sai always welcomed anyone who wishes to better themselves. By the time Sai reached the sixth house, he had nearly every person copying his motions and he could even feel the earth work differently with him. He could feel in two places around the midst of the group. Sai could feel those two places sluggishly follow his commands, but in those places, they moved slower.


    At that moment, Sai stopped. He turned and walked to those two, they were relatively close to each other. They were also relatively young. Sai was surprised to find that neither were more than two hand widths taller than him. ¡°You, what is your name?¡± Dao asked to one of the two whole waiving for the other to come closer. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°My name is Kayla,¡± one of the young children said, she looked to be about five or six. Her hair was the color of earth energy and her body was the personification of electricity.


    ¡°And you?¡± Sai asked the child he waved over.


    ¡°I''m called Carl.¡± this boy looked to be six, but he was just four like Sai. He was the rock that stands strong against the beating ocean.


    ¡°You two are special. You''ve both grasped the beginning of the dao of earth from my modified movements, while this is good and I will help you develope your strengths, you have to practice further away. If you don''t then building these homes will put more strain on me.¡± Sai was very honest and polite, Sai had high hopes for these two in the future.


    ¡°OK, how far though? We still want to see you,¡± Kayla answered for herself and Carl.


    ¡°Only fifty steps away,¡± Sai replied he would still feel their power, but it wouldn''t affect his own.


    ¡°Fifty! But that is so far!¡± Carl complained.


    ¡°When you get stronger, and you will, you will understand why fifty is necessary,¡± Sai said, he wanted to make sure they knew he would help with their cultivation.


    ¡°Fine,¡± Kayla was much more amiable, she began to walk in the opposite direction of the house, making sure to take the smallest steps possible. When Carl saw her he also took tiny steps. Silent sighed then began to work on the house again.


    After the sixth day Sai finished with the houses, everyone had a bed and a roof. Things began to go along more smoothly. Sai rested for a day, he could feel that his body was nearly ninety-five percent filled with magic, when he reached capacity he would have to compress all of his magic into a tiny ball in his dantian then he would have to restart the process but with tiny balls of magic.


    Sai also felt that he was behind in his martial cultivation because of this. He was only a step or two into the sixth level of the elementary realm in martial cultivation. Sai was being impatient, but he was in fact as strong as some of the strongest people on earth at this point.


    After resting Sai decided up his time between being tutored in combat by Albert, spending time with his parents, and teaching Albert¡¯s people how to use magic. Silent felt that he could spend all morning with Albert, sparring. Three hours each day teaching magic to Albert¡¯s people, possibly more for people who are more advanced. The rest of the day would be spent with his family.


    During his day of rest, Sai found that Albert along with his people were farming the land, planting new pants that came from where they lived and were more rare in this area, one of which resembled wheat. Sai noticed that Albert¡¯s people were attempting to put together a small grindstone for this, but he could make one much easier with magic. Sai copied the design he used for a grindstone from a video game he played before his death, ¡°I¡¯ll make a grindstone for that, I just want to have some of the product,¡± Sai told Albert.


    ¡°That should be fine,¡± Albert responded. Albert did notice that with moving to Sai¡¯s property, his power had waned however, he brought this concern to Sai at this time. ¡°Silent, I need to speak to you about something very serious.¡±


    Sai made it a habit of not intruding on Albert¡¯s mind, so he waited patiently for Albert to tell him the issue. ¡°I have noticed that upon moving here, you seem to hold power over my people.¡± Albert trailed off, not sure how to maintain a relationship with Silent and maintain rule over his people.


    ¡°You shouldn¡¯t worry Albert, all that I am doing for your people is upholding promises and trading, think of us as two separate entities. My family will one day have a kingdom, but you will maintain power over your people and their kin. I have no plan to alienate the one friend I have in this world.¡± Sai assured Albert, ¡°but, I do wish that you would give up your power over your people and place that in the hands of one of them you trust. Not because I don¡¯t feel that you should have it, but because you have more potential than chief of a small tribe. I was hoping that we could adventure and get strong together in the future.¡±


    Albert didn¡¯t know how to respond to this, Sai had proposed something that he had always wanted to do, but had too many responsibilities for. On the other hand, Albert cared for each person in his tribe as if they were family, and he felt obligated to never abandon them. ¡°Silent, I don¡¯t know about this. My people should have me as their leader.¡±


    ¡°Of course, I understand this, that is why I feel that when we both get stronger that you should have a kingdom too. I have no aspirations for political power, but I do aspire to have enough power that my family will never be hurt, that is why we should have kingdoms next to each other, that way we can both keep our people safe, and we won¡¯t step on each others feet.¡± Sai explained.


    ¡°If you say so Silent, but this doesn¡¯t solve the problem right now,¡± Albert said.


    ¡°How does it not, after your people get settled in, we can go adventure, if any of your people are strong enough, they can join us too. Your people will remember you and the person that you put in power would only be temporary until you come back or have a son to take over. Either way, your people will be protected, you will be getting stronger so you will be able to have more people, and you will be able to adventure.¡± Silent was very adamant about this, Silent knew that the strongest team was a large and cohesive one, Albert would be the backbone to this.


    ¡°I really don¡¯t know about this Silent, my people need me.¡± Albert was still hesitant.


    ¡°They will be strong enough when I teach them magic to protect themselves, I could tell that the person protecting you would do well by them, and he is even stronger than my dad and your brother.¡± Sai encouraged Albert to join him as hard as he could.


    ¡°If my people agree to it, I will go, but we can¡¯t go far because I might need to be back at a moment''s notice.¡± Albert reluctantly said.


    ¡°Good, I am needing an adventure, the only thing that helps someone get stronger is trials. That is what I need in order to fully protect my family,¡± Sai was very excited. ¡°Tomorrow, your people will see you beating up on me while we are sparring, and they will know who is boss of them.¡± Sai reassured Albert


    ¡°Maybe, we might raise the bar a bit tomorrow,¡± Albert joked, then left the room. Sai went to bed imagining that he would fight against monsters and dragons in the near future.

 Chapter 28: Interpersonal relations

    On the first day since Sai finished the houses he woke up early, even before dawn. Very few people were up already, even Lavits and Lilith were cuddled together in a room down the hall despite them both being up early every morning to train on Sai¡¯s earthen obstacle course.


    Sai could sense Albert in a house nearby sleeping with his large sword standing firmly in the ground next to his bed. Sai didn''t wake him, Sai quietly went into the kitchen and heated some meat up while he snacked on fruit.


    ¡°Sai, there is someone nearby,¡± Grandma Black¡¯s voice resounded in Sai¡¯s mind.


    ¡°Enter, quietly,¡± Sai sent mentally to the person pacing outside of the front door. ¡°That is weird that I didn''t sense them a moment ago,¡± Sai said to Grandma Black.


    ¡°This person seems upset, they actually just ran here and started pacing just a moment ago,¡± Grandma blank said, she maintained a constant watch over the area, despite Sai¡¯s lack of willingness to do so.


    The person that came in was Carl, the young boy that looked like he could be much older. ¡°Silent, can I please, please train with you, I want to get as strong as Albert one day. ¡°


    ¡°Um, Carl, I''m glad you asked me, but it would be Albert that you need to ask, I have no control over who he tutors.¡± Sai was genuinely happy that Carl wanted to learn, Sai had very high hopes for him in the future.


    ¡°Oh. I was hoping that you had some say. Albert doesn''t want to train me,¡± Carl looked defeated.


    ¡°What I will do for you is I will make a weapon that you want. You can train with alone, when you get strong enough I''m sure Albert will accept you add a disciple after that,¡± Sai assured Carl. ¡°You can also use my course whenever you''d like. I''m hoping that in just a short time you will be strong enough that we can both adventure together with Albert, maybe one or two more peels, but I haven''t decided yet.¡±


    ¡°Wow, you think that good of me?¡± Carl said, then he changed his tone, ¡°What weapon will you make me?¡±


    ¡°I do, you are willing to grow at a young age, like myself. And I will make any that you want, but only a single one. So we need to figure out how strong you are first,¡± Sai told Albert while creating a rod of earth.


    Carl quickly picked it up and moved around with it, Carl seemed to favor holding it at the end like a sword, Sai was going to mention this until Carl did first, ¡°Can it be shorter?¡±


    ¡°Of course,¡± Sai shortened the rod, making sure that it was just as heavy but didn''t affect Carl¡¯s grip.


    ¡°That''s more like it,¡± Carl said as the earth shaped weapon began to look like a club. ¡°This feels weird though.¡±


    ¡°How?¡± Sai asked.


    ¡°I don''t know,¡± Carl¡¯s childish voice came through with a whining tone.


    ¡°OK,¡± Sai was patient then began to change the shape of the club into a mace, then a short sword, then a cleaver. None of them were right for Carl. ¡°I''m running out of ideas here Carl, do you want it balanced more or less?¡±


    ¡°I don''t know,¡± this time call really did whine. Silent sighed and thought to himself that the boy was really young. At this, Sai made the now cleaver into a hammer. ¡°This is a bit better,¡± Carl said finally.


    ¡°Better, I can work with better,¡± Sai said while he modified the hammer in ways that made Carl¡¯s eyes shine. Carl would swing after each modification, Sai could see Carl¡¯s arm weaken slightly each time. With that, Sai lowered the weight of the head of the hammer slightly, the weapon looked the same as a blacksmith hammer, but on a singly side was a spike.


    ¡°This is perfect, when I get strong with magic I''ll make a second hammer just like this one!¡± Carl exclaimed while the sun peaked through the treeline.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    Sai then asked Carl a question that had been bugging him, ¡°Carl, how did you know when to come over?¡±


    ¡°I could tell you were awake,¡± the small child said to Sai.


    ¡°Sai! You must make a decision. Kill him and take his power to boost your own or keep him close, these are the only options. If you leave him be some power will use him out he will turn on you,¡± Grandma Black was very anxious, she knew Sai wouldn''t kill without reason though, but she felt that this was a good enough reason.


    ¡°Carl, don''t ever tell anyone out give away the fact that you can do this again. Someone will try to take this power from you. If you tell anyone they will try to hurt you and your family for it.¡± Sai would never kill a child, not even to make himself stronger.


    ¡°Are you for real?¡± Carl asked, he clearly didn''t understand the gravity of the situation.


    ¡°Have you told anyone else about this?¡± Sai asked, afterward he could see how hard Carl was working to remember.


    ¡°I told my parents, I don''t think anyone else.¡± Sai understood what the young child meant. Sai also understood what Carl didn''t say, there were people that he probably told but can''t remember our is protecting.


    ¡°Okay, keep it between you and your parents. No one else can know,¡± Carl seemed to understand. ¡°Now, go home and train hard, I''m going to train really hard now too.¡± Sai told Carl, Carl then picked up his stone hammer and ran playfully out the door despite the seriousness of the conversation just moments before.


    Silent had finished his breakfast and helped Carl, he began to head outside when he saw through a window another person running towards his house, this time it was light enough to see. It was the same young person that he had singled out with Carl, Kayla.


    Sai merely opened the door while she ran towards it. This made her hesitate until she saw that Silent was standing on the other side of it. ¡°Silent, Silent! Can you please, please, please, make me a weapon too, I saw Carl had one and I want one.¡±


    ¡°Why should I make you a weapon, how do you know that Carl didn''t trade something for one?¡± Sai said jokingly, he had planned on helping these people in any way he could just to make things easier for Albert to leave on an adventure with him.


    ¡°Please?¡± Was all Kayla replied.


    ¡°Fine, what do you want?¡± Sai asked her, knowing he would have no definite answer.


    ¡°I want something strong, so I can be as strong as Carl.¡± Kayla said, Sai was actually surprised and happy to see a rivalry between the two, this meant that they would advance together.


    Sai began the same way that he did with Carl, he manipulated the earth to become a long staff to see how heavy she could lift and still maneuver quickly and effectively. When she lifted it up, she began to twirl it like a baton, she was rather slow with it because of her poor childlike dexterity, but there was definite potential. ¡°I like this,¡± Kayla said, not realizing that Sai had yet to make anything but was only testing her strength.


    ¡°Is this what you want?¡± Sai asked.


    ¡°Maybe a little lighter,¡± Kayla said, Sai noted that it was in fact true in this case that girls develop their speech earlier than boys, he wasn''t playing a guessing game as to what she wanted.


    ¡°let''s try out some other shapes and variants, if you still like this one I''ll change it back,¡± Sai said, what she currently had was a simple pole, but Sai tried a spear, a lance, a halberd, nothing seemed to feel right by her. Sai ended up making her a bo staff, he did not however use earth for it since bo staff¡¯s key strength lies in its flexibility.


    Because of this, Sai went above what he did for Carl, he began to forge a single long piece of steel, slightly thicker around the middle than the edges on either side. Sai spent several hours making this bo staff for Kayla despite only spending a few minutes on Carl¡¯s. Sai was happy to do the work though because ultimately he would benefit if she also were to join his adventure team. Near the end of forging the staff, Sai brought up the prospect of adventuring together in the future. If course, Sai knew that she and Carl were rather young, so adventuring for them would be a long way into the future, probably close to four more years.


    Kayla quickly agreed to becoming part of the team, and shortly after, she too received her weapon from Sai. After Kayla left, it was almost noon. Sai looked up to see that there were many children waiting in a line outside of his house, eagerly expecting a cool weapon for themselves.


    Sai huffed a sigh then loudly spoke to the crowd, ¡°I will make any of you a weapon if you want, but you must reach the same point that Kayla and Carl have, and that is an understanding of magic enough to accompany your weapon¡¯s strengths. I will teach you all some more basic steps and motions tonight after dinner but before dark, until then, I have to train. You souls all do so as well.¡± Sai spike to the masses, in this case about twelve children and a handful of teenagers.


    Although some grumbled, they were not angry, the group dispersed and Sai finally began to head toward where he could sense Albert. ¡°Are you ready to be taught?¡± Albert asked, Sai knew that this sparring session was going to leave him with a very sore body.

 Chapter 29: Master and apprentice alike

    Sai meet Albert by the bend in the river, shields attached to his arms and a rope wrapped around his wrist, only usable when Sai had a moment to shift all of his body to throw it.


    Albert raised his massive sword in front of him. It couldn''t be seen which of the two moved first, but they both reacted quickly. Both seemed to take a defensive stance while still meeting each other in the middle of the battle field.


    Sai was obviously pushed back from the blow, Albert had completely followed through with his defensive downward slash, almost as if he had changed tactics mid swing. Sai could feel that he was stronger than the last time they clashed, instead of being injured each hit despite blocking, he was only bruised. Sai muttered his rudimentary healing spell and attacked again.


    Sai became less concerned with blocking and more concerned with striking, he knew that he would be hurt, even injured in his sparring sessions, but he still blocked against death blows or anything that would not be healed in a moment with one of the weakest healing spells in the world.


    Sai went to strike Albert, this time he held one side of his shield in front of him like he was going to bash, the other was to his side but the bottom was facing Albert, Sai had left himself partially exposed on his dominant side. Sai knew that this was a risky move.


    Albert saw the clear shot and stabbed toward it. Silent moved his arm in the way of the stab, the shield then took the brunt of the force, knocking Silent back in the middle of his pounce. Albert easily had the upper hand, Silent was prone on the ground.


    Silent slowly got up, he muttered another healing spell and went back to attack Albert once again. The two continued their duel until they were tired, the battle lasted a couple of hours. It was very clear that Albert was the most physically powerful of the two, not only in martial strength, but in technique. Sai became determined to beat him at some point in the future. Sai spent the next few hours with his parents, who set aside this time for being together. Whether it was to teach Sai about their family or to just rest.


    Lilith started dinner near the end of their time together. The three ate their fill until a knock came to the door for the third time today. Sai then reached out with his mind, ¡°What is it?¡±


    ¡°Is it time for magic?¡± A voice that Sai didn''t recognize came from the door.


    ¡°It does seem to be that time,¡± Sai said with his mind to the person at the door. Sai stood up from the table and headed to the door.


    ¡°He''s coming!¡± Excited whispers reached Sai¡¯s ears before he opened the doors. Sai pulled the door open and saw the entirety of Albert¡¯s people waiting outside Sai¡¯s front door.


    ¡°Well, we can''t do magic here, let''s go,¡± Sai said as he made his way through the crowd towards an area that was more spacious. When the group arrived at a large clearing, Sai turned to look at the eager faces of children and teenagers, adults of all ages none of whom wanted to ever feel threatened or subjugated again but more importantly, they wanted to feel capable and make their lives just a tiny bit simpler.


    ¡°Spread out everyone, but at least ten steps between you and your neighbors on either side,¡± Sai told them all the group complied then Sai began by showing them the most basic motion, it was a simple punch that looked like it merged with the massiveness of the earth.


    ¡°Feel the strength of the earth,¡± Sai loudly spoke to the group. The group continued to punch, again and again while Sai watched, each and every person. If an outsider were to look in, they would be baffled at the sight of a child mentoring this slew of people. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    ¡°Feel the earth under your feet, if you need to, take off your boots.¡± Sai told the group, pushing them to feel even the slightest hint of the profoundness of an earth based dao. Sai walked between the people of Albert¡¯s village, modifying their first move until he was satisfied.


    Sai headed to the front of the group again took a place where everyone could see him, then he performed the second step in the process of learning earth magic. Sai theist out his second fist, repeating the first step prior. Sai allowed both of his arms to stick straight out.


    The group however seemed to miss this almost completely as a whole. Some struck their fist out at odd angles, some retracted their first fist. Some were completely lost. It felt to Sai like the group had completely ignored what he had shown them.


    Sai repeated the first and second step two more times before everyone finally caught on. Sai them went into the group as before and began to give pointers to those who were struggling.


    The group as a whole began to understand the second move, there were many that were waiting impatiently to learn a third motion, while others had just gotten the second. Sai could feel that everyone was in a powerful stance for the manifestation of earth essence. Sai could only tell that their stance was strong currently, he could not tell if they were able to manifest the essence of a dao of earth until they completed the next step.


    ¡°Watch now for the next move,¡± Sai said to the group. After everyone faced him, Sai started doing the first two moves once more, then followed by bringing both arms in simultaneously where both palms faced each other. Sai did not allow any elemental essence to be summoned however. He wanted the group to find that on their own.


    The group once more began to follow the motions, this time there were only a few messed up movements, people would clap or leave their hands too far apart. Sai corrected all of these but had not noticed the feeling of earth essence being drawn out from the area. He had not seen the telltale earthy golden glow. Sai had felt something was missing.


    Sai watched again and again as Albert¡¯s people failed. Sai ram through the morons in his mind, this lasted almost a quarter of an hour until suddenly Sai felt it, someone else could summon the essence of earth. Sai looked at their entire body and realized he had forgotten one of the most important steps.


    Sai returned to the front, not acknowledging the one person who mastered it without this sudden realization brought about by that same person. ¡°One last thing to show you all tonight. You must stand like a stone pillar while doing this, until you reach a higher level, you will have to be stone.¡± Sai told the group as he stood as straight as possible then performed the three steps, two punches out and converging at the heart.


    The group all stood as straight as possible, then Sai have them all separate help depending on their need. As he passed the young person who he remembered the correct body alignment from, he saw that their stance was perfect, despite having a large hammer attached to his waist. ¡°Carl, you did very well, you have learned all that I can teach directly. Now you must improvise moves that help you to use your particular dao better.¡±


    Carl looked a bit sad when Sai told him this, so Sai added, ¡°You are by far the most adept to earth power, how could I teach a genius like you.¡±


    A smile crept onto the face of the young child. Sai then told him one final thing, ¡°This motion, once mastered will not be needed to draw in the elemental essence of earth, but until then, keep using it because that will be the only way you can get stronger. Also, as soon as you can use earth magic, do so, you need to wear out your reserves.¡± The little boy listened closely and nodded vigorously. He then ran home, caring his hammer that was originally strapped to his side.


    The next person to understand the dao was Kayla, Sai told her the same thing he told Carl and she too ran to that same house as Carl. The rest of the group understood at various times, in all, nine people could draw upon the essence of the earth.


    It was past dark when Silent finally went home. Sai knew that he would have a long day ahead of him tomorrow as well, he likely had nine weapons to make, this alone would take all day if any of them need to be steel. Sai felt very peaceful and happy cultivating in his new village, waiting patiently for himself, Kayla, and Carl to reach an age where they wouldn''t be killed on sight for cultivating.

 Chapter: hope people still check this.

    Someone asked about a week ago that I release a new chapter over here so that everyone can find their way to the new page. In the comment section on every single chapter will be the author''s page and at the bottom of this page you will be able to reach chapter 30 via a link. Thanks for reading for anyone who checks this still.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Also, this has to be at least five hundred characters long, so, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!