《I DON'T WANT TO BE A FARMER!》


 Prologue *Revised

    Tilling the land, planting a crop, taking care of said crop, harvesting the crop.


    From spring to spring.


    Seven Days a Week.


    Too many fucking hours of a day.


    ....


    "I HAD ENOUGH OF THIS"


    Shouting this is familiar line for who knows how many times I looked over a to my family plot of land


    Father, as usual, inspecting the crop condition.


    Brother is nowhere is seen most likely to going out with one of his girlfriend


    And me here standing around looking like a farmer i was.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    I think this is it, it''s time to search for a different occupation before I die from boredom.


    "I WANT TO BE ADVENTURE".


    Hearing a kid voice of similiar age i took a glance.


    I saw kids my age playing around with a wooden sword.


    The village head son is playing adventure with his lackey again.


    "Ha ha".


    I laugh at our difference between him being as carefree as a child should be and me working a job i certainly did not like.


    I can''t stop but wonder how exciting being an adventure be compared to being a farmer.


    Adventure is a dangerous job of fighting with monsters or delving into a dungeon full of unknown risks


    Maybe it was full of risk, but with risk comes the reward that defenitely will make you rich.


    Well of course that is if you are still alive.


    What a chance the village head allowing his only son becoming an adventure?


    Thinking for a while i instantly come with an answer, none is the only answer I can think of.


    Well, If the village head ''only son'' can''t be adventurer, then I will inherit his dream.


    His dream is my dream and my dream is my own. Yeah I think I like the sound of that.


    "I WILL BECOME ADVENTURE", Declaring my inherited dream, I shouted full of vigor.


    Hearing me shouting that, My dad looked at me with tired eyes and sighing.


    "Not again".

 Chapter 1 *Revised

    I still remember my first story.


    I was 9 years old boy just starting to help with my my father farm. I was just another farm boy who got nothing better to do but just wander around the village in my spare time.


    But at that day, it was different.


    This village well not to brag, but I think it was a pretty well off village, maybe because we have a witch doctor, so disease is not a life and death matter anymore well we were afraid of her though so we usually got our consultation and medicine through her granddaughter.


    Maybe it was also because we have the hunter who can even defeat a monster so the village is safe from harm or food shortage as the hunter can hunt it easily even in a dangerous cold winter season.


    With a good healthcare and a guardian the village managed to flourish. They can even send their son and daughter to a city.


    Some farmer son learn the way of blackmith from a city and came home to become the village blacksmith. So from then on the villager can go to the blacksmith if they want something to make and do not need to travel far to the city anymore.


    Anyway, it was a good village, for anyone but me, why? beacuse this village is boring. At least it was for me, i already explore every nook and cranny of the this village safe place the places that i haven''t explored are the deep part of the nearby forest and the witch doctor house that i deemed to dangerous to explore.


    Maybe it was harsh for me to judge, but I was a child and as a child I was as honest as I could be.


    So when a traveling bard, I came to our village, I was the first one running to the venue.


    And it was there that for the first time I heard an adventure story.


    It was about a noble being punished because he was sleeping on a job. this is a story from a different land from ours and the bard even said "I want to try a different thing so i took a story from another land and change it so my honored audience can understand the story better".


    The bard bow to his audience and with a smile he started to tell the story.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    There was once a a son of a noble knight who was being punished becuse he was sleeping on his lesson. He was punished by his father to send a letter to a temple but it was not an ordinary temple.


    To reach that place he needed to scale a mountain infested monster, travel pass a dangerous desert before finally he must going through an impassable river.


    Of course, as a son of noble knight he got an escort that his father place on a different point on his travel.


    The first escort was a rebel leader who was being sentenced to a community service for live because he was rebelling against ... well, let''s just say the highest order.


    The second escort was a former noble knight who was being punished for an inappropriate use of a king of knights artifact, let''s just said he was a perverted knight.


    The third escort was also a former noble knight if the perverted knight being punished because an inappropriate use of artefact than the third one was being punished becuse he outright destroyed the artefact. He always thought his mistake of that day until he is often found daydreaming let''s just call him the musing knight.


    The fourth escort is not an escort but a horse used for transportation because even thought the son of noble knight is not yet a knight, he will be in the future. So for his sake, his father send him a horse to get him get used to it.


    By the way the horse was send because he bit on some noble knight hand.


    Together they journey far and wide passing through the monster infested mountain, almost give up in the dangerous desert and finally they did the impossible by traversing the impassable river and managed to deliver the letter to the temple.


    After finished with their task they were givena pardon for all their crime and they live happily ever after.


    The End.


    I was fascinated as the story progressed, i laugh, i cried and i hope for the story to never reach the ending because if the story came to an end i will be brought down from my land of beautiful fantasy back to the land of painfull reality.


    In this story my favorite character is the rebel leader.


    The rebel leader was born with a special constitution that allowed him to learn a special power and with a guidance from his beloved teacher he managed to learn that special power.


    The power is so special that the highest order hire him, but as a new hire he was given the worse job anyone could get at that place.


    So even thought it was okay at first, day after day the rebel leader rebelious nature finally bursting out of his shell.


    He fought, he stole, and he bring trouble everywhere he went. and at he peak of his life he went back to his old place and started the rebelion.


    He fight and fight and fight some more being a special person he managed to bring a trouble to the highest order, but in the end his force couldn''t contend against his enemy.


    Even thought he alone managed to bring the highest trouble anyone could give. In the end he lost when he truly confront against his enemy leader.


    It was not even a fight. He lost easily.


    Even though he lost, his story was so fascinating that i can''t get it out of my head.


    Can I be like him, that was i thought as the crowd started do disperse untill i was the only one left.

 Chapter 2 *Revised

    I walk and walk and walk.


    I walk and walk and walk some more.


    I walk and walk and walk out from the village road and into the forest.


    I walk and walk and walk in a daze of a dream.


    I walk and walk and started to run.


    I run and run and run pass the wood, pass the river and back to the village once again.


    I run and run and run the smiling visage still plastered on my face as it can not be taken off.


    With a smile on my face I run and run and run some more toward the never ending journey of adventure in my dream.


    In a daze, in a daydream, musing on every step i left the control of my body to the nature and run with only my spirit toward the bright road, toward the rainbow bridge and toward the unknown place no one ever know.


    and before i knew it my body naturally brought me back to a familiar place.


    My home.


    A simple home for a simple family.


    Looking through a window i can see my father tired face as he sat near the hearth.


    His ash coloured hair is full of dust and his green eyes can''t be seen through from his closed eyes as he was sleeping on the chair


    Bang


    I opened the door forcefully to wake my father, sleeping can be done at a later time but what i am about to tell me is something that must be done right now


    "Haah!!"


    Father woke up with a startled face looking left and right before he turned his gaze toward me in all of my glory.


    I step inside my home a face full of smile i stared at my father as he looked back at me with a weary eyes.


    I took the most amazing pose that i could imagine and shouted .


    "FATHER!!!"


    Before my father can reply, i shouted my newfound dream.


    "I WANT TO BE A REBEL LEADER!!!"


    Hearing my passioned declaration my father started to clean his ear with a confused look on his face


    "I am sorry son, what did you just said?"You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    Old age must have gotten my father hearing. Even though i shouted at him with a clear and passion filled voice he still can''t hear me


    But worry not father because i your dutiful son will once again declare my newfound dream.


    "FATHER, I WANT TO BE A REBEL LEADER!!!"


    With a throbbing that i can even heard from a far away father shouted in anger, the familiar voice that i often heard when he scold me.


    "WHAT THE FUCK RAI WHEN I JUST WANT TO REST PEACEFULLY YOU JUST WOKE ME UP!!!"


    "That is right father, sorry for waking you up just now you can go back to sleep right away." I replied innocently as i started to slowly step back.


    "AND WHAT DID YOU SAID JUST NOW!!! YOU WANT TO BECOME A REBEL LEADER? I WANT TO SAY SOMETHING SOOO BADLY BUT I JUST HAVE NO WORD FOR YOU BECAUSE HOW ABSURD NEWFOUND DREAM IS!!"


    "Father, please do not shout at your heartbroken son and if you have no word to speak than staying silent is also a good option."


    Father face started to morph into something really terrifying for me to describe.


    Taking my advice to heart he really didn''t say anything not because he has forgiven me but because he was ready to take an action.


    As expected of my father he really know his stuff, if you can not speak than just take action because an actions speak louder than a word


    Knowing this, I place my hand on my head as a defensive measure


    Too bad father i know your usual move, your fist will not reach the top of my head today.


    But as i waited and waited with closed eyes, his fist never actually reached the top of my head.


    Instead when i opened my eyes what i found was a fist sailing through the air toward my jaw.


    "Fuck!!" a curse escaped my mouth.


    The old man predicted my move, he knew i will be protecting the top of my head so instead of that he changed his target toward my jaw.


    Before i can think of further move his fist found itself landing neatly on his target.


    Propelled by my old man beautiful uppercut i was pushed outside the door and straight toward the outside.


    As i found myself flying unwillingly, I took a look at the beautiful blue sky along with white cloud and thought.


    What the fuck just happen!?


    That is the last thing i thought before all thing turn to dark.


    ...


    When i groggily opened my eyes the first thing i saw was a beautiful woman with a red hair talking with my father.


    "He is fine you don''t have to worry Mr. Edward," the red haired woman said while smiling slightly.


    "How could he be healthy? i just punched him hard right on his jaw!" my father asked worriedly.


    "Than that just means he is a strong and healthy boy Mr. Edward. Do not worry, the only thing i saw was a little bruise on his jaw, it will be healed in no time at all!" the red haired woman answer my father reassuringly.


    I shut my eyes before they can realize that i was awake, it''s better to just fake a sleep and pretend to be a patient than facing my father right now.


    Before long the conversation between the red haired woman and Edward coming to an end and the red haired woman left the room shortly.


    Edward stared at his son, still deep asleep, his son green eyes closed and ashen colored hair rested on a bed. His son inherited much of his appearance from him rather than his mother, maybe the only thing his son inherited from his mother was her wild and chaotic nature.


    Thinking of her made Edward grit his teeth. He close his eyes and exhale a tired sigh, looking at his son for one last time, he left the room and closed the door.


    ...


    I open my eyes after i think everyone left the room, i saw a wooden ceiling.


    The only reason i could see it was thanks to the light of a moon that shine much brightly than usual today.


    Fuck, I mess up today. Shouldn''t have said i want to be a rebel leader. Even though i admire him greatly, it doesn''t mean that i actually want to be him. What i actually wanted to say to my father was that i want to go on adventure.


    In a daze, akin to a drunken state, I actually told him the first thing that came to my mind.


    And what a disaster that turned out to be.


    "Haaaah" I frustratingly exhale.


    Thinking any further than this will only get me nowhere, so it is better to just go to sleep than thinking of what if situation that will only make me drown in a swamp of regret. So, once again i close my eyes and succumbed to sleep.

 Chapter 3 *Revised

    Cock-a-doodle-doo


    Waking up to my family damned rooster, I stared at the wooden ceiling in my room once again.


    The bruised part on my jaw is now gone, as expected of the witch granddaughter. The ointment that she smeared is really effective even though it was cheap.


    I was wondering if it was true that you could make such effective medicine with a cheap ingredient or if it was just a witchcraft.


    Well, calling her expertise a witchcraft is pretty insulting if you ask me, in the first place as far as i know there is no such things as a witch. It was just an old folk tales that no one really believed.


    The only reason we called an old woman a witch is just because she has a black cat, make such an effective medicine with a strange utensil and sometimes we heard a strange scream coming from her home.


    But the witch didn''t matter right now.


    The one who actually matter is my father, What should i say to him when i meet him? Should i just pretend yesterday incident never happen or should i, once again confront him with my honest feeling, Like the one that happen yesterday.


    "Heh" a chuckle escaped my lips


    If i am brave enough to do that then, i can''t see myself living past 18, such a bravery usually cost a lot and doesn''t pay for much.


    But, ...... do I truly want to let that go, do i want to let the chance to go on adventure? Over such a trivial thing such as talking to my father?


    No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No!


    I don''t want that! I want to go on adventure and living on exciting experience! Exploring an unknown territory, slaying a dangerous creature and challenging an impossible odds those thing is a far, far better choice than dying of old age as an ordinary farmer in an ordinary village.


    And if the price is my live than, I will happily pay for it.


    So, What did i am afraid of! Talking to my father is a such a trivial task, it make me want to laugh at myself for being scared of it.


    What the worst thing that can happen?! Getting hit once again? Being scolded? Grounded? I deal with that almost every other day.


    Did that stop me from doing what I want?


    Of course it didn''t!


    No matter what happens, I always rush forward without getting afraid of the consequence.


    Because fuck consequence! I do what I want to do and no one can stop me!


    Not even my own father.


    So why?


    Why do I still can''t get up from my bed!


    ...


    Getting out of bed right know is harder than swimming against a waterfall. But driven by the calling of adventure i push myself forward. So, With a bated breath i get up from my bed and go toward the door in my room.


    Grabbing the door handle, I pushed it forward to open the door.


    Taking a step out of my room, I walk toward our living room, there is a chance of meeting father in there, the chance is slim because at this time of the day he normally already left for the field.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    When I finally arrive at the living room a miracle happened, I found my father sitting on the chair.


    I unconscious touch my jaw


    Even though the bruised part is gone and the pain already subside when I remember what happen yesterday i can feel some piercing pain coming from it once again.


    Gathering up all the courage that i could muster, I walk toward my father in order to confront him.


    The first step toward adventure is the hardest step, so by facing him this also means in a roundabout way also facing the adventure i wish for.


    thud.


    Taking my first heavy step i walk toward my father.


    thud, thud.


    With each step my leg feel lighter and lighter.


    thud, thud, thud, thud, thud.


    I can feel the chain of fear binding my leg getting broken one by one.


    thud, thud, thud.


    And before i knew it i finally stand in front of my father.


    With his head resting on his face he looked unusually serious. His serious face is something that i rarely see. Because the one i often see are the tired face or the angry one


    The serious face is usually reserved for the important talk.


    Like the day when my mother left us.


    Stunned i can only look at him speechlessly.


    "Rai!"


    Father spoke before i could, he uttered my name in a deep and heavy voice.


    "Sit down!"


    Before my mind could process what my father said, My body moved first following his command.


    Father looked at me with his serious face and giving me a goosebumps. I think this situation is more terrifying what happened yesterday.


    "Do you know why i am sitting here waiting for you, Instead of going to work in the field" Father asked me with his deep voice.


    "Because of what happen yesterday?" I answered feeling uncertain.


    "No, Even though what happened yesterday have something to do with this talk, it is not the actual reason."


    "Did you still feeling angry because I want to become a rebel leader?"


    "No, I did not, I know you well enough to know that you did not actually want to become a rebel leader."


    "Really?"


    "Yes, you are not a stupid person, The stupid one is your brother not you, so even though you are a rebellious kid, you do not actually want to become a rebel leader"


    "He he he" I laughed at my father praise.


    "Haaah" Father sighed tiredly.


    "Wait a minute if it was not because what happen yesterday then what is the actual reason you haven''t left for the field father?"


    Father didn''t speak for a while. His silent state speaks more of the situation than any other word could.


    He turned his head to the side, staring at the window before he finally speak.


    "Do you know why i strongly ask of you to help me in the field, Knowing that you will not inherit it" Father asked me with a tired voice.


    "Because my brother is a stupid, lazy and often ditch his job to play with a girl." i Instantly answered


    Father smiled wearily "Well .... that''s a part of it, but no that''s not the actual reason"


    "Then, Can you tell me the actual reason father?" I asked curiously.


    Father turned his head once again and come face to face with me.


    "It''s because of you"


    Feeling insulted i ask my father "Huh? What is wrong with me?"


    When my father heard me say this he has a face that wanted to say something but manage to hold it at the last possible moment.


    "Haah" Father sighed once again with an even more tired voice.


    Father massage his throbbing head and said.


    "You are an adventurous kid."


    I blushed at my father praise.


    "I blame my wife for that, Why did he always take you on a forest even though i said it was dangerous, heck the forest is even dangerous for an adult, So why did she took you to that place."


    "That is the question that I never dare to ask to my wife."


    Father make a fist for a moment before he reluctant relaxed his hand "But what is done is done and you are already become like this so, it is no use crying over a spilled milk, what is more important is the present."


    I continue to listen to my father lecture.


    "So even though, I knew you won''t actually inherit my field and not going to stay in this village when you become an adult, I forcefully order you to help me helping in the field, Do you want to know why, I did that."


    I nodded my head.


    Father smiled and for the first time i knew it was coming from his heart.


    "That is because you are my son"


    Stunned, I can only continue to stare at my father without giving him a response


    "More than anything, I want give you the second most precious treasure that i can give so, when you go on a journey and feeling lonely you can think of it and know that i always love you"


    Father continue to talk "I don''t have a precious artifact to give you strength, no precious technique that can save your live, and no amount of money i can give you will amount much."


    Father smile sadly "because I am just a simple farmer."


    "I am not a wizard, knight or even a merchant, i am just a farmer in ordinary village and as a farmer the only thing i can give you is a knowledge about farming."


    "I ask of you to help me farming not because i am giving you a punishment for doing something bad."


    "I ask of you to help me with farming because i want to to give you my second most precious treasure."


    My father extend his hand and i flinch in reflex.


    But the fist i expected to receive on my head never come, Instead what i received is a loving stroke as he softly caress my head.


    "My second most treasure treasure I have is my farming knowledge but, my most precious treasure I have is something that I can''t give you because you already own it."


    With his most heartfelt smile my father told me


    "Because you, my son, are the most precious treasure of all."

 Chapter 4 *Revised

    My throat is hot and my eyes are getting blurry.


    Drip, drip, drip.


    Touching my face i can feel something wet and i realize that i am crying right now. The wet thing that i was touching are tears.


    I rub my eyes to clear the tears that coming out of my eyes.


    But it was useless.


    It still coming out, The tears still flowing from from my eyes no matter how hard I try to stop it.


    Hicks, hicks


    I started sobbing.


    My eyes is getting red and I don''t know if it was because i am crying or because i rub my eyes too hard.


    Hicks, hicks, hicks, Waaaahhh!!!


    A sobbing turned into wailing as i cry my heart out.


    I can''t, I can''t think of anything right now. I just wanted to let out this foreign feeling that keep that burns my heart as i let out a wail.


    Thud, thud.


    My father is in front of me before i knew it. Even though i can''t see him clearly i knew he was also crying. This is the second time i see him crying, the first time was when mother run away from home and left our family.


    That night, I could see him crying, a cry without a sound and when I saw him that night crying, I swore to myself.


    To never let him cry once again.


    Because It hurts! .... it hurts! so much looking at him like that. He should be angry at me, He should just scold me but never should he cry like that ever again. How can my strong and stern father let out his tears, that is something that should be forbidden to do.


    Everything is fine except him letting out his tears.


    Because seeing him like that is hurts me more than anything that I could imagine!


    Ohhh, how can i forgot my oath! How could i forget it!


    I blame those villagers and their mind blowing information, When i heard their conversation my mind felt like it was blown away, together with an oath that i made that night.


    Curse them! I hate!, hate!, hate!, hate! I hate all of you!


    While i curse those villagers in my mind I suddenly feel something warm enveloping me.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    It was dark, but warm. I can''t see anything in front of me but i know that my tears stain my father clothes.


    I raise my head upward. I saw my father with a clear line of tears on his face and my face turned pale.


    I beg my father "Stop that father, please! please stop crying!"


    "It''s okay Rai, it''s okay. let it all out, let all your feeling out. That''s what a children supposed to do, a children should cry when they are sad, laugh when they are happy and yell when they are angry."


    Hicks, hicks.


    I hugged him tighter.


    "Maybe it is my fault" Father looked up


    "I never actually consider your feeling, I never question why you did what you do" He looked at me with a sad eyes


    "But i think finally understand, I finally understand it"


    Father caress my head


    "You just want my attention, aren''t you?" father smiled


    Stop it father, I am not that good of a child my intention is not that pure don''t actually want your attention, what i want i an exciting adventure, so please! father please stop crying! please just scold me like you usually do!


    "Maybe, It was because Ellena left to early that you don''t get enough attention and love that a parents supposed to give you as a child."


    Father sighed.


    "With Ellen gone I turn all my focus toward the farm and neglected both of you"


    "Asher is a lacking in intellect but he made it up with his well spoken action and handsome face. Asher is a blessed person, he inherit all the good looks from his mother and thanks to that people flock to him.


    Father chuckled


    "Especially girls."


    Father caress my head once again "so, even the little bit of sadness left in him was blown away thanks to the girls around him, he really likes them girls"


    "Heh" Father chuckled once again


    My face blushed red from embarrassment.


    "Stop that father! your joke are not funny!" I told him


    Father finally separated himself from me


    "Ha ha ha, maybe, but at least you finally stopped crying"


    Stunned i touched my face and realize that the tears finally stopped flowing from my eyes and all that was left was a red eyes along with a red face.


    Father continue to speak.


    While Asher was fine, you on the other hand was not. You were your mother favorite after all, so when she left you, you were hit the hardest.


    I don''t know what to feel when i saw you that day.


    Should i feel relieved because she didn''t brought you or should i actually feel sad because she didn''t brought you along with her.


    "I feel those two feeling mixed up in my heart and because of that I didn''t do anything to you"


    Father clench his hand "because i didn''t know what to do ..."


    Father relaxed his hand and for a while both of us keep our silent


    "........"


    "........"


    "I am such a failure of a father" Father was the first one to break the silent


    I shouted with anger "Stop that father you are not a failure, i am the failure you are the best dad in the world!"


    "Ha ha ha, thanks son, that really make me feel better!"


    Father suddenly squat down to my eyes level. He touch my head and said


    "Rai, I know you will be bored working in the field, but please bear with it for while."


    Father stand up and lifted his hand, He moved his sleeve until I can see his whole arm. He smiled and show off the muscle on his arm.


    "Do you know where i got this muscle?" Father asked me.


    I stay silent as i let my father answer his own question.


    "It was thanks to the field work that I have done everyday!" Father said proudly


    Father looked at me with a serious eyes "Treat this as a training for the sake of your journey and when you go on journey later and meet you mother ..."


    Father showed me a grin "Give her! the strongest punch! that you can give!"


    Father face suddenly seem to be getting younger and said something like a kid planning his biggest prank.


    "And said this to your mother, Father gives his regards!"


    "HAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHA"


    I can''t help as a laughter escaped from both father and my mouth, so I showed him my biggest grin and answer.


    "Okay father, I promise! i will give her the strongest! and the hardest punch! that will knock some sense into her muddled head!"


    With both of us still laughing we bump our fist to seal the promise.

 Chapter 5 *Revised

    When I was 6 years old my hobby was to search for a stone, from a round shaped stone, triangle shaped stone and weird shaped stone I collected all of them.


    Of course, as a collector I didn''t just took anything willy-nilly I have a pretty strict criteria after all, I only collect the one that have wonderful color, like yellow, white or a red one.


    But, the one I like the most is definitely that one.


    In one of my stroll to the forest, I found it, it was stuck together with other stones in the river, if it was not because of my keen eyes then, I wouldn''t be able to find it.


    I dive into the river to get it and with sense of accomplishment lifted the stone as I observe it carefully.


    It perfectly matched with the size of my palm, round and flat in shape with a distinct sky blue color, I just can''t help myself from falling in love.


    I named it Azure matching its color and majesty that it radiates.


    The first week after I found Azure felt like a fleeting dream, I always brought it everywhere with me and I even talked with Azure, praising it for it looks. So, it was not a strange thing for me to be shocked when I woke up only to find Azure was gone.


    My face turned pale when I didn''t find Azure in a place I usually place it. I rummaged throughout my collection of stones only to feel agony as I didn''t find it.


    In desperation I asked for the help of an expert in finding missing things to help me find Azure.


    I called out to my mom.


    "MOM!!!!"


    "He he he, what''s wrong Rai, did you miss me already!"


    "Stop joking around mom! come help me find Azure!"


    "Cheh you are no fun Rai, where did my loving son go? since you found that stupid stone, you hardly ever play with me!"


    "It''s not important mom! just help me find my missing Azure"


    "Fine, fine, I will find your stupid stone, but I did this only because you are my lovely son! If other people ask me, they won''t even find me moving a finger for them" Mother puffed her chest.


    "Okay, okay, mom, I am your lovely son, now find Azure already."


    Mother think for a moment before she finally said "Alright, but first close your eyes."


    I close my eyes halfway as I want to take a peek of what mother about to do.The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    "No peeking!"


    I close it my eyes all the way when she said that.


    Satisfied, mother then instruct me again "You can open your eyes now"


    I opened it only to be feeling disappointed.


    She didn''t have it, The only thing she showed me was her open palm with nothing in it.


    "You can''t find it mom?" I asked


    Mother chuckled and said "look carefully".


    I blinked once only to find Azure is on her right hand.


    I looked at her in confusion. She looked me back and with a grin she said.


    "Amazing isn''t it! One moment it was not there and another moment it was there, Do you want to know what happened?"


    I shake my head up and down clearly eager to know what the hell just happened.


    "This trick is a called a magic and I am a Wizard!"


    In awe I looked at her, was my mother a wizard? How come I didn''t know until now? Did this means I am a son of a wizard, will I become a wizard in the future too."


    That was what I thought before mother said something strange


    "Hu hu hu, look at you believing everything I just said, How foolish of you my son, I didn''t remember teaching you to be such a foolish person"


    I looked her questionably why did mother suddenly speaking funny, She never actually taught me a single decent thing, she usually just play around with me in the forest leaving every basic and proper education to dad.


    "Ehem"


    Seeing me looking at her like a strange person she coughed lightly


    "Anyway, you are usually sharper than this, So did you know why you didn''t notice the trick?"


    "Why?" I asked curiously


    "Because love make you blind! your love for that stupid stone made you unable to see it"


    "Really?! Is that true!"


    "No, I am just messing with you, here take your stupid stone"


    She place Azure in my hand as she make an infuriating comment.


    "Huh?"


    Looking at me feeling puzzled she said "Well, you looked like you were having fun with that stone, You even dare to forgot me! your mother, so I stole the stupid stone and hide it in my pocket." She confess her crime to me.


    Feeling anger and embarrassment I stared at my mom in silent.


    "So, Did love really make people blind" I asked mom trying to suppress my anger.


    "Of course not! how can love make people blind, if it was true then your father is the blindest person in the world" She smiled foolishly


    Father! look! look at the person you were married to, I even started to doubt your eyes father, are you blind or are you not?


    Suddenly I remember one of my father teaching when in doubt then just ask, so that is what I will do


    "So love really didn''t make you blind?"


    Mother answer "No, of course not you silly"


    Mother grinned and continue speaking


    "It only make you dumb!"


    "Huh?"


    "I mean, you actually believe me when I said that I am a wizard! only an idiot would believe a little trick like that as an actual magic, E he he, thank you for loving me Rai!" She hugged me


    Mother separate herself from me and walking toward the door. She came as she like and leave behind a lot of trouble when she left, that''s the aspect that I used to like from her, but now that I become a recipient from that aspect of her a like suddenly turn into hatred.


    Unable to suppress my anger I hurl Azure to my mom.


    Anticipating this she duck and grab Azure midflight.


    "A ha ha, thanks for the gift Rai, I will make sure to treasure it"


    After saying that she run toward the outside and successfully escape from home.


    I chase her and that was the beginning of our game of tag.


    The game ended with mom as a winner, I am too exhausted to continue chasing her and coming back home in tears. I told my mother inappropriate behavior to my father, but father said to give up, because mother is a lost cause.


    So in tears I go to bed and thinking of my revenge. No matter how many years it will take, I will have my revenge mom and when I do, I will claim back my Azure.


    But the revenge I was planning never come to fruition ... Because mother left a year later after that day.

 Chapter 6 *Revision

    ¡°A dream huh¡±


    Waking up early than usual I thought at a dream that I just had.


    Thinking of mother made me want to grit my teeth, How dare she ran away before I got my revenge! She even brought along Azure.


    ¡°Fuck¡± I can¡¯t help but mutter a curse thanks to my mother, thinking of her appearance, her golden hair, blue eyes, and beautiful made her looks like some kind of princess in a fairy tale story.


    Yes, she is as beautiful as a princess ¡­ as long as she can shut her mouth for a second.


    I wonder why did father marry mother? The contrast between father responsible personality and mother willful personality doesn¡¯t seem like a great match.


    It must be because the she was his childhood friend, that¡¯s the only reason I can think of.


    Stretching my stiff body, I got up from bed and walk toward the kitchen, Since mother left the cooking duty is done by both me and father in rotation since brother rarely come back home these days.


    Lighting up the fire and pouring the water into the pot I start to cut up the potatoes and carrots not to forget some meat that father got from Ms. Nana the veteran hunter of our village. I pour all of it into the boiling pot. As I stir the pot my mind start to think idly.


    It has been a year since my father hoodwink me into doing his binding.


    Don¡¯t think I didn¡¯t realize it father! I knew you just want some help in farm since brother never helped you with farming work, I can¡¯t help to shake my head thinking of my brother.


    My brother Asher, nicknamed ¡°Ash¡±, It¡¯s funny when you think of it, I was the one with ashen coloured hair but he was the one who got the nickname ash even though he had none of the characteristic.


    I mean he totally inherited mother looks, He was basically mother but with a different gender ¡­ and personality too I guess.


    Where mother can be described as wild and chaotic, Asher can be described as a ¡­ woman magnet, he was such a diligent person, Helping all the woman around the village in helping solve their trouble be it from a girl around six years old to a woman already past their fifty, all of them came to him when they have even a slightest bit of troubleUnauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    It was no wonder why he became the most favourite person for a woman in this village.


    If only he just gave a little bit of attention to our family, I am sure that father will not have to worry about the future of our farm, but given who the Asher mother is I don¡¯t think he will change at all. Borrowing my father word, I think he is a lost cause case.


    Well ¡­ not that I can comment much about him since I was also a lost cause.


    I thought of my father and thinking ¡­ be strong father even though your wife ran away and two of your sons is hopeless, you are the only hope of our household so do not break under this your hopeless situation father!


    Now that I think of it, Father is the only sane person in this family doesn¡¯t that means he is kind of ¡­  an odd person?


    ¡­ thinking any further than this will only make me question father sanity even more, so I focused my attention back to cooking, I sprinkle the secret ingredient to the pot and stir it again, The secret ingredient written as ¡°Love¡± read as ¡°Pepper¡±.


    Because love is expensive after all and that¡¯s why it was delicious, the only reason why we have it is because my brother managed to secure it from who knows where.


    Calling my father for a breakfast I sit on a chair and started to eat my food


    As I concentrate with my food father starts to speak


    ¡°Did you use pepper?¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t hmm me answer properly¡± father use a stern tone as he continue to eat


    ¡°I use pepper father, there are you happy!¡± I dismissively answer him as I continue to eat my breakfast, food better enjoyed hot after all


    ¡°Haah, where did you get the pepper?¡± Father ask a question his hand still scooping his stew.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know father, you better ask brother where he got it¡±, even I want to know where the hell did he managed to secure a pepper, it was such an expensive thing after all.


    Ahh, the art of blaming others, the wonderful art of giving the burden to someone else, what a wonderful art that is, just saying it was his/her fault and not me can make you feel better even thought it didn¡¯t actually change anything and you still have to deal with the consequence of your own doing, at least your mind will be guilt free and that what matter the most.


    Giving up questioning me father continue to eat his breakfast, Father really can¡¯t be honest with himself if it was delicious then he should just enjoy it and don¡¯t ask me such a complicated things first thing in the morning.


    After finishing our breakfast we walk toward the field, The field in the village is just combination of all the field in the village, our ancestor decided to have one big field instead of a separate one so we can have easier time irrigating the field.


    Some people might have a problem with that decision, But thankfully since my father taken over the duty of managing the farm as a whole the dissenting voice is all but gone, father can even handle mother much less a bunch of ordinary farmer.


    Nobody actually dare to question father considering confronting him also means confronting all the woman who love my brother, so they just give up and just follow my father lead.


    Because he was busy managing all of it that was why he asked me for a help with farming our part of the field and that was why I am stuck in this situation.

 Chapter 7 *Revised

    Chapter 7


    But that changes today.


    Finding myself standing in front of the door of our village hunter I start to knock on the door.


    Knock knock.


    Knocking the door once again I am waiting in patience ¡­ not.


    Knock knock knock.


    How can I wait in when this is the day that I have been waiting for.


    Knock knock knock knock knock knock knock.


    Today is the day my father and the selected people in this village going to a city to sell our crops, Including Mrs. Nana the mother of the person I am about to meet


    Knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock.


    With this precious free time that I have been gifted, I will change my situation by learning how to hunt.


    Alright, alright be patience for a bit will you, stop knocking on my door!


    After a while that felt like a long time the door finally opened revealing the person that I want to meet.


    He was Cain the son Mrs. Nana whose job is also a hunter, I want to learn hunting from him.


    Why did I not just learn it from Ms Nana the veteran hunter?


    Because he is in love and people in love is dumb enough to fall for a trick, Even if it was from a ten years old kid.


    ¡°Teach me how to hunt!¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡±


    ¡°Teach me how to hunt!¡±


    ¡°Wait, wait!¡±


    ¡°Teach me how to hunt!¡±


    ¡°Why did you want to learn hunting I thought you are a farmer Rai?¡±


    ¡°I want meat, I want to eat meat.¡±


    Eating meat is good for a muscle after all, a farming work won¡¯t give me muscle I need for my adventure, I need more meat.


    With a long sigh Cain walked deeper into his house and before long come with a skewered meat that giving out a delicious smell.


    ¡°Here take this and don¡¯t bother me again!¡±This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    With that Cain close the door with a bang leaving me with a food on my hand.


    Maybe I was hasty, asking for what I want before offering what I can help him with is not a good move.


    Eating a piece of meat skewer and swallowing it with a gulp I shouted.


    ¡°VIRGIN FOR LIVE!¡±


    I turn and ready to run away.


    But before I could take my leave someone already grabbed my shoulder.


    ¡°What the hell is that?¡±


    "What''s wrong, Uncle Cain?" I asked in confusion.


    "What''s wrong with your head, you came with a sudden request and left with an abrupt curse!" Cain shouted in reply.


    "But ... isn''t that true. If you don''t marry before twenty then you will be a virgin for life. That''s what the other uncles and aunties in the village said."


    "Those damn villagers, teaching a kid unnecessary things, what did they know about me!"


    "Well, you are 19 years old and haven''t married ... so maybe that''s why?"


    Cain suddenly slapped me.


    "Shut up! kids shouldn''t ask adults and I am not an uncle. I am not old enough to be called uncle.


    "Well, you looked old enough for me to call you an uncle.¡±


    Once again, Cain slapped me.


    "Shut up!¡±


    With despair in his voice, Cain began his tirade.


    "In the first place, who wants to be a virgin? It''s not me for sure. I also want to get married quickly and have a beautiful wife and good child where we spend the rest of our life living happily in our home ¡­"


    Looking at the hopeless adult tirade, I started to chew my meat skewer.


    ¡®Hmm taste like a rabbit.¡¯


    It took ten more minutes before Cain finally got out of breath and stopped talking. Rai skewer was already on the ground, thrown after it finished its task.


    "Hah ... Haaah Haah"


    "So are you done speaking?" I asked.


    Cain looked resentfully with his bloodshot eyes toward Rain, the little brat that started it all. He really wanted to struggle this little shit neck so badly, but he was too tired to be doing anything, so he just nodded his head.


    "Mother used to say, love makes you blind. I think it was used to describe people like you."


    "Huh?"


    "I mean all the people in the village know that you love Lucy, the granddaughter of the witch."


    "H-How do they know?"


    ¡°I don¡¯t know? Maybe because they have eyes.¡±


    I tilted my head as I stared mockingly at Cain.


    Red from anger, Cain looked like he was about to punch me.


    But before he could punch me, I give him an unexpected piece of news.


    "Those uncles and aunties also know that Lucy also likes you."


    Forgetting his anger and everything else, Cain suddenly found himself speechless.


    Cain and Rai stared at each other for a while before Cain finally processed what Rai said.


    "W-W-W-W-W-W-W-WHAT IS T-T-THAT TRUE, DID L-L-LUCY LIKE ME???"


    ¡°That is what I just said¡±


    Grinning ear from ear, Cain felt like he could forgive everything this little brat did. No, not little brat but his brother.


    Cain patted Rai shoulder again and again. "Did you say you want to learn wanted to hunt. It''s easy from tomorrow we can begin."


    "Are you sure?! Thanks Uncle Cain"


    "Didn''t I say, stop calling me uncle, call me brother and from now on you are my brother"


    "Okay, Brother Cain as your brother I will help you get the love that you deserve."


    "Really! That''s great, thank you Rai."


    Cain hugged me full of emotion.


    Rai smiled, full of satisfaction because he finally got what he wanted.


    "No, thank you Brother"


    ....


    Finished with my mission, I left Cain''s home.


    On my way home, I started thinking about what I will learn from Cain and whether the lovestruck hunter will really achieve his love.


    After all, virgins are famous for being a coward. Well, let''s just hope Cain get what is the best for him.


    I doubt that thought.


    Because who is brave enough to court the witch''s granddaughter.


    Maybe Cain isn''t blind from love.


    Maybe his instinct made him to unconscious ignore Lucy advance.


    Is that why even though Lucy gave him a clear signal, He ignored them.


    Doesn''t that mean that I actually pushing him toward his death?


    .....


    Well, as long as Cain is happy, isn''t that good enough!


    Let''s just stop thinking about this. Maybe Cain is just blind from love and I am not about to push someone toward his death


    Yeah, that sounds good.


    Happy thought! happy thought!

 Chapter 8 *Revised

    Once more I find myself standing in front of Cain home.


    I swung the door and entered without any reservation.


    A messy place and alcohol smell is what I found when I entered. Looking around, I found Cain sprawling on the floor.


    I give him a kick to wake him up. How dare he sleep when I came all the way here to listen to his teaching?


    Cain woke up with a startled face.


    ¡°Huh? Where am I?¡±


    ¡°You are in my house now.¡±


    "Really? I thought this was my house.¡±


    Good, at least he is still not drunk enough to forget his own home.


    I looked at his condition.


    A messy hair and tired eyes are a sign that he was lacking in sleep; I guess he was a little too overexcited that he can¡¯t catch a sleep.


    ¡°Cain, brother, tell me, what do you think we will be doing today?¡±


    "Huh, of course I will confess my love for Lucy, and we will get married right away, and ehe he he..." Cain''s hand started wiggling, and his face morphed into a perverted one.


    Before he showed an even more pathetic form of himself, I will stop him.


    How can you wake up a person from his fantasy?


    The easiest one is by giving that person a beating.


    I kick him hard on his leg.


    "Aaargh"


    I grab his shirt, and while he is still confused, I slap him.


    Slap


    "Wake..."


    Slap


    ...Up"


    Slap


    and a third slap to make sure he was really awake


    Even with a pain in my palm, I can''t stop myself from smiling.


    I finally got my revenge.


    Wait, that''s not it!


    While Cain was still in a stunned state, I spoke


    "Brother, did you finally wake up?


    "Huh?"


    I lifted my hand, ready to slap him again, but before I could do that, Cain quickly distanced himself from me.


    "Wait, wait, why did you slap me?"


    "Well, you are dreaming just now."


    "Huh, what do you mean by that?"


    "I mean, look at you. You look as awful as you can be. Will you really confess your love while looking like that?"


    "I-I-I..."


    Cain''s eyes looking left and right as he started to think of an excuse, which of course he did not have


    "I know I said love is blind, but really, brother, have some mercy. Lucy''s love will wither if you stay like this."


    Cain, shoulders slumped and looking deflated, started to speak.


    "Aaah, I am really hopeless. I almost ruined the most important moment of my life."


    I puffed my chest and smacked Cain back.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.


    "Do not worry, brother. That''s why I am here to help you with Love Live."


    "R-Really, thank you; you are a lifesaver," Cain said while looking at me with teary eyes.


    ....


    After fixing his look and resting for a while, Cain regained a little bit of energy.


    He is staring at Rai, who began asking him a question.


    "First, let me ask you, what do you think you are lacking?"


    Cain confidently answered


    "Definitely a handsome face!"


    Rai grabbed his face and sighed.


    "Wrong answer, try again!"


    "Ehhhh!"


    Cain answered again, this time with less confidence.


    "Maybe ... money?"


    "Better, but ¡­ it¡¯s still a wrong answer."


    Before Cain can think for another Rai answer his own question


    "What you are lacking is confidence!"


    "What!"


    "Yes, it''s definitely confidence; while your look is not the most handsome, it''s good enough. I give it 7 out of 10.


    Cain touched his face.


    He had a good feature with brown hair and eyes, a good physique thanks to his hunter job.


    Thinking about it now, he might actually be a good catch for women. His eyes suddenly filled with the light of hope as he thought


    ¡®Yes, I am quite handsome!¡¯


    Just like knowing what he was thinking Rai continues to speak.


    "Yes, you are quite handsome, and one of the good catches in this village. The reason why women didn¡¯t flock around you is because my brother already caught most of their attention."


    Rai continued his lecture.


    "And money, while maybe you are not the richest person in this village, Lucy definitely is, so you don¡¯t have to worry about that. As long as you can bring food to the table, which you can surely do, it will be fine.


    ¡°You are a hunter after all.¡±


    Rai suddenly clapped his hand


    "And that brings us full circle and back to your weakness, which is also the weakness of all virgins."


    "Hey, that''s really rude." Cain felt offended as he responded with an irritated voice.


    "Shut up and listen to me, or you will be a virgin for life. Is that what you want?"


    That quickly made Cain silent as he stared meekly at Rai.


    "The best way to gain confidence is by having an experience, so that is what we will be doing from now on."


    Cain cocked his head to the side as a question mark appeared inside his mind.


    "Experience, you mean some dating experience.¡±


    ¡°Can you ask her out?¡± I asked


    ¡°No way, that¡¯s impossible.¡± Cain replied while waving his hand faster than I could see.


    ¡°Right, that was what I meant it is impossible for a virgin without much experience like you to ask a beautiful lady like Lucy to go out.¡±


    A smile slowly formed on Rai''s mouth as he spoke.


    "Don''t worry, it''s not dating I was talking about, but the more advanced version of that¡­ Yeah, it''s a more advanced task than a mere dating experience.


    Cain''s arms were prickling with goosebumps, and a shiver ran through his body as he listened to Rai''s chilling voice.


    Rai said as he started to laugh eerily


    "It''s a child-rearing experience!"


    "Child-rearing experience?!" Cain shouted.


    "That''s a right child-rearing experience," I responded while nodding my head.


    "I am not even married yet, and you want me to raise a child, and... what about the mother?"


    I clicked my tongue.


    "Of course there will be no mother. How insensitive of you, Papa."


    "Huh??? What do you mean?"


    "Don''t you remember? Mother left after you gambled away all of the money in our household."


    "Huh??"


    "Now, there''s only two of us left in this house, Papa. I know it must be hard, but let''s do our best to weather this storm, Papa," I said while hugging him and giving him the best sad eyes that I could give.


    "Wait, wait, wait for a fucking moment!!!"


    "What''s wrong? Papa, did you finally understand how bad our situation is? Will you finally stop gambling? Will you finally come back to your past self as the best hunter of this village?"


    Cain grabbed my shoulder and shook it again and again.


    "Wait, I said, wait a fucking moment. What do you mean by gambling, and did d Mother leave? I haven''t even married yet, and do not call me papa. I definitely do not remember giving birth to a son like you."


    With a sneer, I answered his question.


    "Oooh papa, did you finally lose your mind? Of course it was not you who gave birth to me."


    "Mother, the one who gave birth to me, after all, how can a man give birth? You are so silly, Papa."


    I said while smiling innocently.


    "OOOOOOOAAAARRGHHHHHH"


    Finally losing his mind, Cain headbutted me in the face.


    The impact made both of them cry in agony while holding their heads.


    "Ouch, that hurt. Why did you headbutt me?" Rai said in a pained voice.


    Holding his head with both hands, Cain responded


    "Thank God, you finally stopped calling me Papa."


    "What kind of father headbutted his own son?"


    "The one who actually had you as a son, of course."


    "Ouch, that actually hurt more than the headbutt!"


    "Hahaha, finally I got one win from you. Anyway, what were you actually doing just now?"


    Standing up, Rai patted his clothes and answered with a beaming smile.


    "That was a situation I created to let you experience how dreadful a child-rearing, or should we say child-raising, situation is."


    "Huh??"


    "How was that? Isn''t that scary? It''s definitely scary from the way you reacted."


    Speechless, Cain looked at Rai and just nodded dumbly.


    Rai grinned and said, "Imagine if you can actually complete this trial of child-raising experience; everything else will become a breeze for you."


    Cain imagined the situation where he became a perfect gentleman for Lucy and grinned.


    "So, did you want to continue, Papa? Or did you want to be called something else, Dad? Father? Pops?"


    Cain looked at Rai and thought


    ¡®Even though this method sounds ridiculous, it may actually be ridiculous enough to succeed.¡¯


    So, with an eye full of fire, Cain said


    "Just call me father."


    "Okay, I will call you father from now on."


    ¡°So, what will we do from now on?¡±


    ¡°First, as a father, you must fulfil your promise to your wonderful son.¡±


    ¡°What promise?¡±


    ¡°Haah, as I thought, you forgot it. How awful of you, father!¡±


    ¡°Hey, what did I forget?¡±


    ¡°You promise to take me to your workplace.¡±


    ¡°My workplace! You mean the forest?¡±


    ¡°Yes, now let us go with haste, a place where you will teach your son an important art passed down from our ancestor.¡±


    With a grin on my face, I said


    ¡°Let us go for a hunt!¡±

 Chapter 9 *Revised

    I looked at Cain and, with an annoyed expression, said


    ¡°My brother, as a handsome person, had all the girls he helped in the past help him soothe his troubled heart.¡±


    "So, with a workaholic father and a mostly useless brother out of the picture, that left just me alone to deal with my own sadness.¡±


    I continue my story while walking


    ¡°With no one to look after me, I started to wander alone, hiding in unnoticed places and dark corners of the village, and¡­ I noticed something.¡±


    "What is it?¡± Cain asked curiously.


    I wave my hand to him, indicating for Cain to get closer and when he is in front of me, I said in a whisper.


    "I could hear it!"


    "Hear what exactly?"


    "I can hear everything in this village, from a mundane conversation between family to a secret that should not have been leaked.¡±


    ¡°I could hear it all.¡± Rai said with a huge smile


    Speechless, Cain can only look at Rai dumbfoundedly. He took a moment to think before finally realising what Rai just told him.


    "You mean you know Lucy likes me because you were eavesdropping!"


    "Well, yes!¡±


    While looking offended, Rai said


    ¡°But calling it eavesdropping sounds a bit harsh, let''s just call it ... surprise hearing¡±


    ¡°Why?¡± Cain said curiously.


    ¡°Because what I overheard sure surprised me!"


    Half curious, half shocked, Cain asked.


    "What did you overhear?".


    Rai grinned, and with outstretched hand, he said, "Our village head did not have only one son... he actually had a lot of secret children, and when I said a lot, I meant it.


    ¡°A lot? Like two or three?¡±


    ¡°Try a third.¡±


    ¡°A third, a third of what?¡±


    ¡°A third of this Village!¡±


    ¡°WHAT!!¡±


    ¡°Yes, that was exactly what I meant. Wasn¡¯t it surprising? Who would have thought that old fart actually managed to sire a third of this village''s children? And then it suddenly hit me.¡±The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°Did you hit your head?¡±


    ¡°No, I did not hit my head; I mean I got an enlightenment.¡±


    ¡°What kind of enlightenment did you get from that messed-up information?¡±


    ¡°Heh heh, did you want to know, or did you totally want to know?¡±


    ¡°Never mind I ever asked.¡±


    Dismissing his dismissal, I continue to speak.


    ¡°When I heard it, the first thing that I thought was, ¡®Our village sure is one big family¡¯.¡±


    ¡°Uh-huh.¡±


    ¡°Doesn¡¯t it mean I might actually be one of them?¡±


    ¡°Did you mean your mother cheated on your father?¡±


    ¡°I mean, I knew it was basically impossible considering how my mother usually acts.¡±


    Cain, remembering Ellen''s past act, nodded his head and muttered, ¡°Well ¡­ that¡¯s true.¡±


    ¡°But maybe, just maybe, we might actually have a common ancestor, and everyone might have some kind of relation down the family line, and that got me thinking!¡±


    ¡°What else did you want to say?¡±


    I close my eyes and say, ¡°As a family, there should be no secret between us.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think I like where this is going!¡±


    ¡°As the dutiful son that I am, it is my duty to uncover all the secrets of our family, and that is why I continue to eavesdrop on those villagers until now.¡±


    ¡°Aha ha ha ha.¡±


    Elated that I have finally revealed the secret that I have been hiding, I laugh my hearts out.


    Cain looked at the little kid in front of him and found himself pitying Rai''s father, Edward. Not only did his wife left him even his son became a twisted kid.


    He started to doubt whether this child-rearing experience was actually worth it; did he actually have to deal with this kid?


    This trial sounds more and more difficult than what he asked for¡­


    Before Cain can tell Rain his intention to give up, he suddenly remembered Lucy.


    Her smile that shines like a sun and the beautiful red hair that made everything else pale in comparison made him thought


    ¡®If I can¡¯t even handle this twisted child, am I even worthy to have the love of the most beautiful woman in the world?¡¯


    So, with a renewed determination. Cain continued trekking the familiar forest path with a heavy step, followed by Rai, who is still laughing at his back.


    ...


    It doesn''t take long after my conversation with Cain before we arrive in the deeper part of the wood.


    The unfamiliar scenery giving a rise to my adventurous spirit, I looked left and right, trying to memorise the route that got me to this place.


    "Rai!¡±


    I looked back only to see Cain with a different aura than before; if at the beginning he had a more leisurely atmosphere, now he had a serious look on his face, his sharp eyes kind of reminding me of my father.


    Cain, with a low voice, said, "Now that we have entered the deep part of the forest, it means that the danger increased and you must listen to all my instructions from now on.¡±


    I nod to show my agreement.


    "Good! Let us begin your training¡±


    Cain raised his finger and asked a question.


    ¡°First let me ask you what is the most important thing in hunting!"


    "Hmmm, ... I don¡¯t know, maybe how to hide your presence?" I hesitantly answered.


    ¡°That is not a bad answer, but not the one I was looking for. The correct answer I meant is tracking. Hunter who can''t even find his prey isn¡¯t worthy to be called a hunter.¡±


    Standing ramrod straight, Cain continued his lecture with a stern look.


    ¡°Look around you and tell me, what ¡­ do you see?¡±


    ¡°I observed the tree, the fallen branch, and the shrub around the forest trying to see what Cain wanted me to discover.¡±


    Tracking is the important point of being a hunter. From what Cain told me, that means he wanted me to find a clue to where the prey might be hiding.


    So, I observed with more concentration and finally found what I was looking for hidden behind a layer of shrub.


    "Rabbit footprint!"


    Cain smiled and gave a compliment. "Good, you have what it takes to be a hunter finding an animal track on your first try.¡±


    He started to point to different parts of the forest that I didn''t notice.


    ¡°Not only a footprint, the trampled grass, a claw mark, or the smell of animal urine can also tell you the location of prey or some animal that you must avoid, so train your senses until it becomes second nature for you to find all the things you need to find your prey.¡±


    Trying to remember all the things Cain told me, I finally started my lesson as an apprentice hunter.

 Chapter 10

    Two people are holding their breath as they watch a deer munching on some grass. One of the people, a man, is watching intently as he aims his bow at the deer.


    While the other man, or a boy to be exact, is actually not seeing the deer but at the man beside him, he only occasionally takes a look at the deer to make sure it is not running away yet.


    The man is Cain and the boy is Rai. It is already the second month since the day Cain took Rai as his student. While Cain sees Rai as a problematic student/son, he really can¡¯t refute that he has some talent in hunting.


    Rai takes all the knowledge that he was taught and easily applies what he learnt in real life.


    Cain drew his bow and was ready to shoot ... but Rai suddenly shouted loudly.


    ¡°WAAH!¡±


    Taking it as a signal, Cain shot his arrow without much change in his expression. The deer, who heard Rai shout, startled and ready to flee, but before it could take another step, it was hit in the chest.


    The deer fell down and died shortly after.


    Cain walked over and approached the deer, ready to dismantle it before it got bad.


    ¡°Boring¡±


    Hearing Rai, Cain looks over and stares intently at him. Even though Rai takes his teaching really well, he was a troublemaker who makes Cain have a lot of headaches.


    ¡°Please stop doing that!¡±


    Rai replied without feeling guilty. ¡°Father, isn¡¯t this what you asked for when you took me as your son?¡±


    Cain covered his face with his hand, trying to hide the regret that he felt even though he knew it would be a trouble. Cain did not think it was this much trouble.


    A list of problematic actions includes things like


    Taking him by surprise when he shot his arrow, either by shouting or by trying to tickle him


    Or luring a wild boar to him while laughing along the way, making him run for his life


    And more importantly, he used the knowledge that he gained as a hunter to play hide and seek with him.


    Rai became harder and harder to find, making him not know if it was for the worse or for the better.


    Worse because Cain was afraid that Rai would get even more daring and eventually take more than he could chew, effectively getting him into a life-threatening situation.


    Better because hiding your presence is one of the important skills as a hunter.


    ¡°Haah, but¡­ can you at least tone it down for a bit? You know this is still a dangerous place after all.¡± Cain said while he cut the deer and watched the blood flow out of its corpse.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    I refuted his complaint, ¡°Because this is dangerous, it is the better ... The thrill while hiding from dangerous animals like bears or wild boars really sends a tingling down my spine¡­¡±


    ¡°What will I say to Mr. Edward if you really get hurt¡­¡±


    ¡°Then just ask Lucy out, and we can stop doing this pretend family.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t ask the impossible!¡± Cain said while he started to extract the deer organs.


    ¡°That is why we are still doing this. I can¡¯t believe how cowardly you are¡­ even though you bravely killed that wild boar using only a dagger.¡±


    ¡°That is because that is an emergency. The main weapon of a hunter is a bow, not a dagger. We used it only when we had no other choice.¡±


    ¡°Then what about when you are dismantling animal ¡­ didn¡¯t you use a knife?¡±


    ¡°That did not count; I meant when we are hunting, not dismantling.¡±


    ¡°Okay, so what will we be doing next? You already taught me how to track and find my way in the forest, ... When will you allow us to actually start hunting for real?


    ¡°Can you hit the practice target that I made?¡±


    I said proudly. ¡°Yes, I can.¡±


    ¡°Did you hit the center of the target?¡±


    ¡°... Did that actually matter? I hit the target?¡±


    ¡°Every arrow counts.¡±


    ¡°If you can¡¯t hit the center, 8 out of 10, then you are not allowed to use a bow for hunting purposes.¡±


    ¡°Tch ¡­ what a cheapskate¡±


    ¡°Arrow is not grown on a tree, you know!¡±


    ¡°But an arrow is made from wood that came from a tree!¡±


    ¡°You know what I meant. It still needs to be made by a craftsman.¡±


    ¡°Then how about the arrow I used for training?¡±


    ¡°Those are different They used a blunt point, so it is safe to use, longer-lasting than a usual arrow and ...


    ¡°Yeah, yeah, giving a kid a weapon is a recipe for disaster and blah blah blah¡­ So, if I can¡¯t start killing part of the hunting, then what will I do?¡±


    ¡°You already have a good hearing and keen eyes, so let¡¯s train your sense of smell next.¡±


    ¡°Heh heh, I knew that years avoiding those villagers judging eyes and overhearing their conversation was not a waste of my time.¡±


    ¡°Who knew doing a bad thing is actually a good thing for you?¡±


    Proud of my past accomplishment getting praised, I puff my chest with pride. ¡°So, a sense of smell, huh? Is it that important? I think I was already good enough.


    ¡°That kind of thinking is dangerous.¡± Cain warned me with a serious face.


    I tilted my head. ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°Sense of smell is important, as there is an animal that can walk behind you silently without you knowing it any better. I don¡¯t want you to die without me knowing, so let¡¯s train your sense of smell.¡±


    ¡°Is that how you manage to find me even when I perfectly cover my tracks?


    ¡°Do you think those amateurs like you can fool someone like me who has been a hunter for years?¡±


    ¡°Well, who knows? Maybe I am that much of a genius.¡±


    Cain laughing with pride, ¡°Hahaha, true, but if you want to trick me, you still need to train for at least 10 years more.¡±


    I whine in response, ¡°That is too long.¡±


    ¡°Because that is how long I have been a hunter.¡±


    ¡°So, you became a hunter when you were 9 years old.¡±


    ¡°Yes, now that I think of it, that is the first time I met Lucy.¡±


    ¡°What did you do at that time?¡±


    ¡°My mother introduced me to Granny Amala so that I can help her with gathering all the ingredients she needs for her medicine.¡±


    ¡°Medicine? You mean the witch potion!¡±


    ¡°Hey, no matter how much it looks like a witch potion, you better not start calling that ¡­ I don¡¯t want people to think of Lucy as a granddaughter of some evil witch.¡±


    I looked at Cain as he smiled and started reminiscing about his first meeting with Lucy.


    ¡°Fine, I will not call it like that again in the future.¡±


    ¡®At least not in front of you.¡¯


    Cain packed the meat he dismantled from the deer and said, ¡°Let us go back and start to prepare for your next training.¡±


    ¡°Are you sure?¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡±


    ¡°If you give me that lesson, won¡¯t you have a harder time finding me in the future?¡±


    ¡°Maybe, but it is a better option than you dying¡­ and¡±


    ¡°And what?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t underestimate me, my son; no matter how well you hide, I can still find you.¡±


    Cain said while giving me his best hunter smile, ¡°I am a hunter, and what I did the best is finding my prey.¡±


    I clap my hands while praising him, ¡°Wow, that was cool, Father, so when will you ask Lucy for a date?¡±


    Cain moved his hide to the side. ¡°Hmm, we have wonderful weather today.¡±


    ¡°Humph, virgins.¡±


    Cain smacked me on the head. ¡°Stop saying what I knew already.¡±

 Chapter 11

    Farmers usually have one day of rest every ten days, but thanks to the bribe that I gave to my neighbor, I managed to add the count by two, which made me a happy little farmer with three rest days.


    That made my dad question why our neighbor farmer was helping with our farm work.


    So, I just said the truth that I paid him with a meat that I got from Cain.


    That got me the usual scolding from Dad.


    Angry and apologetic, my father made his way to Cain House and met with Mrs. Nana.


    Thankfully, Mrs. Nana is a woman with a big heart; she forgave me easily.


    Not only did she forgive me She said what I have done to her son is a good thing because it gave him a sense of responsibility and made him mature more, so she asked me to continue doing what I have done.


    With permission from Mrs. Nana, I was saved from further scolding from Dad, and more importantly, I can continue hunting without hiding anymore.


    Cain Home, in the backyard


    I focused my eyes on the target with steady aim and breathing technique that Cain taught me. I relaxed my shoulder and released the arrow that I held.


    The arrow flew and managed to hit the center of the target.


    The arrow falls down with a thud after completing its task.


    Looking over at the arrow that fell down, I raise my fist in celebration.


    ¡°Yoosha¡±


    Clap clap clap


    Moving my head to a side, I stared at the person who just came


    Cain came without a hint of guilt, which made me feel a bit irritated.


    He left me here in the afternoon and left after saying he needed to prepare something for the training.


    Giving him an annoyed look, I said, ¡°Look who finally came here. Do you know how long I have to wait for you?¡±


    ¡°Come on, it¡¯s not that long, is it?¡± He replied without feeling any guilt.


    ¡°Look at the time! The sun is almost setting already!¡±


    ¡°Have some patience, buddy; at least I got the thing.¡±


    ¡°Hmm, can you say the same if I am Lucy? Just so you know, women dislike a man who makes them wait.¡±


    ¡°Do not bring up Lucy; this thing needs time to be made.¡±If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    As Cain spoke, he took out a porcelain bottle.


    I got closer to him and looked over


    It was filled with blood-colored water.


    I look at the suspicious water and back at Cain.


    ¡°Is that blood?¡±


    ¡°Nope, it isn¡¯t.¡±


    ¡°How about you drink that first, then we can start talking?¡±


    Cain smiled. ¡°This is not for me; this is for you. Just so you know, it was not easy to procure the flower needed to make this potion.¡±


    With a suspicious look, I asked again. ¡°So, what exactly is that?¡±


    ¡°This is a potion, and it can temporarily improve your sense of hearing and smell.¡±


    ¡°Those effects sound amazing, but I thought we were only training my sense of smell?¡±


    ¡°Well ¡­ I also want to do that, but the potion that only enchants sense of smell is rarer than I thought, and it was also harder to make, so please just make do with this.¡±


    ¡°So, what is the potion name?¡±


    ¡°This is called the bloody Lupine Potion made from a flower with the same name.¡±


    ¡°That did not sound good.¡±


    ¡°Of course, it isn¡¯t that flower is bloody poisonous!¡±


    ¡°Did you just say poisonous?¡±


    ¡°Yep, I did.¡±


    ¡°Prove it!¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡±


    ¡°Drink the potion; if you are fine, then it was not poisonous!¡±


    ¡°Fuck, did you want to kill me? I said, This is for you, not me.


    ¡°Tch, that did not work, huh?¡±


    ¡°What did you say?¡±


    ¡°Nothing¡±


    ¡°So, I just need to drink that right. Give it to me!¡±


    ¡°You sure are a brave little kid. I just said the flower is poisonous, but you still want to drink it.¡±


    I looked at him with a mocking smile. ¡°Only a stupid person will tell that he wants to poison the victim right in their face, so are you an idiot?¡±


    Cain angrily replied, ¡°I am not.¡±


    I shrug my shoulder. ¡°That is why I am not afraid of that potion.¡±


    With a defeated smile, Cain said, ¡°It is as you suspected bloody lupine by itself is poisonous, but thanks to Lucy''s magical works, the poisonous flower turned into a magical potion.¡±


    The jerk just admitted that he used me as an excuse to talk to the girl he liked.


    ¡°Is that why it took you so long to get back?¡±


    ¡°Yes, isn¡¯t she amazing? This is also what I drank when I started my training as a hunter. Thanks to this, I got an amazing sense of smell and hearing.¡±


    ¡°How about the taste?¡±


    ¡°The taste did not matter!¡±


    ¡°Got it! Then it must be terrible."


    I easily concluded from his reaction


    Cain moved his head to the side and started to whistle.


    I snatch the potion from his hand. ¡°Just give me that.¡±


    Cain moved to the side to avoid me.


    ¡°Let us wait until the night falls.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s better to train in the night; with a lack of visibility, you can concentrate your other senses better.¡±


    An hour later the night finally arrived.


    ¡°Uweeegh¡±


    I drank the bloody lupine potion and found it tastes like a rotten egg.


    ¡°Aha ha, nothing better than to see people who suffer the same fate.¡±


    ¡°Fuck! I think my tongue just died!¡±


    I looked at him accusingly.


    He shamelessly said, ¡°Just as the old people said, the worse the medicine tasted, the more effective it will be.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, yeah, I drank it; now what?¡±


    Before I can say another word, a change appeared as the world around me started to be more clear.


    To be exact, as Cain said, my hearing and sense of smell improved drastically.


    ¡°The potion is already working, huh? That was faster than I expected.¡±


    I started to concentrate on those two aspects.


    My sense of smell expanded. I never knew the world could have a lot of different smells. Is this what the world that Cain sees? If that is true, then it was no wonder that he could find me everywhere I went.


    My ¡®scent¡¯ is different from the rest of the forest and its inhabitants.


    As I finish with the sense of smell, I start to concentrate on my sense of hearing.


    I hear the noise of birds and insects singing, I hear the wolf howling, and I hear many more noises that I did not recognize.


    I close my ears with my hand as the noise starts to overwhelm me.


    But it did not work.


    I look over at Cain as he smiled and said, ¡°Heightened sense is not always a good thing, as it can hurt you as much as it can help you.¡±


    ¡°Block all the unnecessary sound and focus on your sense of smell.¡±


    He said as he lazily leaned on the nearby tree.

 Chapter 12

    Cain is sitting lazily as he looked up, totally ignoring me, who is struggling over here.


    He really had no intention to give me any advice.


    Without help from him, the only one I can rely on is myself.


    The realization did not give me any peace of mind, but at least it is one step forward than doing nothing at all.


    Let¡¯s think for a bit.


    My problem right now is that I can¡¯t cope with my enhanced sense of hearing.


    Who has the same problem as me?


    Beasts, like wolves, have better hearing than ordinary humans, so let''s use the wolf as a reference to solve my problem.


    How can they cope with their sense


    ¡°¡­¡±


    The answer is they don¡¯t.


    They were born like that.


    Different from me, who used a potion to imitate their sense.


    Cain said he wants to train my sense of smell, not hearing, so why should I deal with this problem that came out of nowhere?


    Calm down; complaining won¡¯t help with anything.


    Let¡¯s think about the wolf more, as that is the only reference I got.


    I can¡¯t be like Wolf because of our different bodies, but I can try to think like one.


    Wolf is a beast, so what do they think?


    Eat, shit, and procreate.


    Short, simple, and easy to understand


    Unlike humans who think too much


    A human like me


    ¡°Ah.¡±


    That is my problem.


    I think too much.


    Trying to categorize every noise I heard into something that I knew was an easy way to burden my mind.


    Especially now that my senses had been enhanced


    I close my eyes and relax my mind.


    Don¡¯t think


    Let every noise that came from your right ear flow through and out of your left ear.


    Just like when I heard my father lecture.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    With that, every noise that I heard became a background noise.


    I let out a sigh. ¡°Haah.¡±


    Now that I have dealt with one problem, let¡¯s move to the real problem at hand.


    Training with my sense of smell


    Different from my sense of hearing that I have trained for so long, I don¡¯t know what to do with my improved sense of smell.


    Even if it was improved, my smelling is a lot weaker than my hearing, so it did not overwhelm me or anything.


    Once again, I looked at Cain.


    Now he was sleeping against the tree.


    As unreliable as ever


    For now, what do I want to do with my improved sense of smell?


    Of course it¡¯s smelling time! That is what I am going to do.


    Taking a deep breath, I try to smell every aroma from this area.


    The scent of a tree, sharp, sweet, and refreshing


    The scent of flowers, from light to strong, the fragrance is sweet yet subtle with a little bit of variance in each flower.


    The scent of herb, a bitter aroma that stings my nose


    How about my scent?


    I start to smell my body.


    It was a combination of earthy smell, salt, and a bit of pepper.


    Is this how Cain always finds me!


    Because I was reeking of the smell of spices!


    I open my eyes and look at Cain; closing my eyes, I try to perceive his scent.


    All I got from him is he smells like a tree because he was sleeping against it.


    Basically, he was scentless¡­


    How can he do that!


    Taking a little rock nearby, I threw it at Cain.


    He easily avoided it despite closing his eyes and looking like he was asleep.


    ¡°Already done? That was fast!¡±


    He said as he opened his eyes and looked at me.


    ¡°Are you sure you were not a dog in your past life?¡±


    ¡°If I am a dog, then you are the dog father.¡±


    I retorted while glaring at him.


    He smiled and made a joke. ¡°I am fine being a dog as long as I can get close to Lucy.¡±


    ¡°Spoken like a true loyal dog,¡± I mock him.


    ¡°That sounds like a compliment to me.¡± He takes my taunt as praise.


    Refusing to give up, I continue my taunt.


    ¡°The only missing thing is the potion to make you a dog. How about you ask Lucy to make it?¡±


    Cain, looking uncomfortable, said, ¡°How can I bother her with a trivial thing?¡±


    ¡®He really is hopelessly in love with Lucy.¡¯


    Better end this topic. ¡°What¡¯s next?¡± I said this because I am afraid of what he will do if I take things too far.


    He got up and patted his pants. ¡°Go home¡­¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s it for the training?¡±


    Cain stared at me with puzzled eyes before realizing something. ¡°Oh, that is not what I meant.¡±


    He pointed toward the direction of my home. ¡°Going home is your test; do it while closing your eyes; use your nose as a guide to make it home.¡±


    I got up and stretched my body.


    ¡°Sounds easy enough.¡±


    ¡°Heh heh, that was also what I said the last time when Mother trained me.¡±


    I asked curiously, ¡°What about it?¡±


    ¡°If I said it, the element of surprise will be gone, and it won¡¯t be fun anymore.¡±


    ¡°Surprise? Sounds good enough for me. I started to close my eyes and use my nose in place of my eyes to ¡®see.¡¯


    To get home I just need to remember the unique scent from my home.


    What is the most unique smell from my home?


    It is the pepper, of course.


    This training will be easy enough to complete.


    Using the scent of pepper that is still lingering in my body, I am walking toward my home.


    One step, two steps, and three steps...


    I stumbled and fell down on the eleven steps; walking with my eyes closed is kind of making me dizzy.


    Is this the surprise Cain was talking about?


    If he thinks this is enough to count as a surprise, then I am disappointed in him.


    Surprise is something that moves your heart like crazy, like meeting a bear while strolling in the village.


    That was what I would call a surprise.


    Still closing my eyes, I did not immediately raise myself.


    Instead, I sit up and start to think of this test.


    At first, I thought this test was about finding my way home using my sense of smell, but it seems I was wrong.


    This training also tested my sense of balance and direction.


    While sense of smell can give me a vague sense of my surroundings, it still feels different from normally using my eyes.


    With no eyesight, I can¡¯t tell if I am going left or right, easily making me lose my way, and it also makes me walk like a drunk person, making this test harder than I thought it would be.


    Even though this is not the surprise that I wanted, I think this test is fun enough!


    I smile and get up, ready to start things again.


    I raised my hand and shouted, ¡°Let¡¯s go home!¡±

 Chapter 13

    After what felt like forever, I finally arrived in front of my ¡®house.¡¯


    Or what I thought it would be


    Opening my eyes, what greeted me was a house with great lighting. I walked quietly to the window and looked over


    I saw a family of three sitting around a table, a man in his thirties with an acceptable look currently talking merrily with a beautiful woman with long flaxen hair; their son was talking as he lifted his fork to deliver steak that smelled heavenly.


    Yup. This is really not my house, but the village head''s house. As expected of the second richest person in the village, he ate a pepper steak that misled me into his place.


    Sniffing around for a moment, I also smell what I thought to be a wine


    It was not from their dining table because I didn¡¯t see a bottle of wine over there; the smell is coming from what I believe is the basement area.


    The village head is the only brewer in this village; his family has made wine since the founding of this village, at least if the idle gossip of the neighborhood aunties was true. He was also a person who liked to share his wealth.


    Mainly by donating his wine at the village festival and giving pocket money to children at every new year that also served as a cover for him giving his illegitimate child a gift from what I suspected.


    The current village head is from the fifth generation, and in his time the brewery expanded thanks to him and my father''s efforts. That is why he can share his wealth without much burden on his mind.


    Why and how did my father help him?


    The only entertainment in this village is food, sex, and alcohol, and some festival that may or may not happen, so when my father started coordinating with the farmer as their head, the first thing they did was ask him to grow more grapes, which my father did, and the village head brewery was expanded as a result.


    My father and he were best friends since then, or at least the village head saw him like that, as he often came to meet him regularly as he brought along a gift, which my father often refused.


    Ending my idle thoughts, I close my eyes. I leave the village head house and continue my journey home.


    I really need to train with my sense of balance if I want to survive this test. The bruise and scrape I got are not much, but they will surely accumulate as I stumble and fall down again and again.


    I need a teacher!


    Who? Cain? Nope, not him. This is the test he gave me in the first place, and if I ask him for training, he will just say, ¡°Did you give up already?¡± while giving me a condescending look.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    Is there anyone with a great sense of balance in this village?


    ¡°Meow¡±


    The answer suddenly came to me. Cats are the animals who have the greatest sense of balance. If a human can''t do it, then ask an animal.


    I just need to follow and observe how a cat walks and follow their example.


    Smiling from the great revelation that delivered itself to me, I continue my way home, and after another round of painful bruises, I finally stand in front of my ¡®home.¡¯


    Or I hope so!


    How many houses in this village can cook with a pepper? If they have it, then they better pray that I won¡¯t steal it from them.


    I thought as I opened my eyes and relieved as I finally got the right house.


    Standing in my view was a house that is not bigger than the other house around the area, with, oh, not so great lighting.


    Different from the village head house that used a magic lamp as a source of light, our house only used an oil lamp as our lighting. I still remember when the village head, Uncle Mark, offered to give us some of his magic lamp.


    My father refused him and said, ¡°What use is a magic lamp for a mere farmer? We wake up at dawn and rest at sundown; we don¡¯t need such extravagant things in our house.¡±


    My father was a modest man with simple wants; as long as he could feed his family, he was happy. At least that''s what he said to me; I remember it only because he told me repeatedly in his lecture.


    I opened the door to my house and turned around. Cain was standing in front of me.


    ¡°I finished the test. Will we continue this training for the next couple of months?¡± I said while not feeling surprised at his presence.


    Even though I didn¡¯t know where he was looking, I just knew he was always following me behind.


    He was surprisingly a caring man; the only reason that I dared to play in the forest part where beasts roamed was because I knew he would be there to protect me.


    Cain nodded his head. ¡°Yes, but we will only do this once a week, and we will do it at a different place each time, so prepare yourself for that!¡± He waved his hand and suddenly disappeared from my view.


    I sometimes question myself if he was a hunter or an assassin.


    But when I thought about it, hunters and assassins are not that much different; they are both making a living out of killing.


    What differentiates them is that hunters kill beasts while assassins kill people.


    I entered my home before a sudden realization struck me.


    ¡®Do I have to drink that rotten egg-flavored potion again?¡¯


    ¡°¡­¡±


    Better not to think too much of it; right now I am hungry, and food is the top priority, as I want to wash the rotten egg taste from my tongue.


    What will I make today? Will I stew meat better, or will I make some rabbit skewer or maybe some grilled fish?


    I can¡¯t wait to try them all.


    When I made my way to our dining table, which also serves as a living room, I looked at the dinner that had already been served.


    It seems I was too late getting home as my father had finished cooking even though this was my turn.


    It was some basic gruel served with some cheese.


    Even though it was a decent meal, I still feel unsatisfied.


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± father asking me as he saw me frowning


    ¡°Nothing,¡± I replied, my shoulder sinking as I felt terribly exhausted.


    My father didn¡¯t ask me why I am covered in wounds, as this is not the first time that this has happened. I was a child that liked to roam the outskirts of the forest, so I was often scraped by some plant with thorns.


    I sat down and started to eat with my dad, and after that, I finished with my meal. I got up and made my way to my room, feeling frustrated.


    Wanting a delicious meal is a normal thing to hope for after a hard day of training; the result of getting home late is really coming back to bite me.


    Swearing to myself that I will finish the next one faster, I go to my bed and close my eyes.

 Chapter 14

    I woke at dawn still feeling hurt from yesterday''s training. Today is a workday, and even though I was still hurt, it was not a reason to not work.


    As they say, He who does not work, neither shall he eat, so I got up quickly and went to the well to wash my face.


    ¡°Haahhmm.¡±


    A yawn escaped my mouth as I still felt sleepy; drawing the water from the well, I washed my face.


    ¡°Brrrr¡±


    The cold water washes away my sleepiness as I draw another bucket of water for cooking purposes.


    Carrying the bucket, I went to the kitchen and started to prepare the breakfast.


    I start a fire and place a pot over it, pouring the water from the bucket into the pot.


    Taking the vegetable and the meat out of food storage, I place it on the kitchen table and cut it into bite-size pieces.


    When the water is boiling, I pour in all the ingredients and some spices and wait for it to cook.


    I threw some wood to keep the fire lit and went outside for a bit.


    This is what I like about making soup: just pour all the food in and wait for it to cook by itself.


    Bow and training arrow in hand with the makeshift target made from unused scarecrow that I painted red in the head, I draw the bow and shoot the arrow straight through the head of the scarecrow.


    ¡°Right on target, today will be a good day,¡± I said as I went and retrieved the arrow.


    Today, shooting training is done. I went back to the kitchen, I stirred the pot, and I scooped some of it.


    ¡°Not bad.¡± Nodding to myself for another good job, I scoop the soup and place it in the bowl before serving it on the dining table along with some hard black bread.


    Meat and vegetable stew with some hard bread is our meal for the morning.


    Together with Dad, we ate our meal and began our day''s work. My father had already gone to command the farmer, so I went to feed our chickens and cow.


    Pouring their meal into the respective place, I watch them eat to their heart''s content.


    After done with feeding the animal, it is time for the plant to also eat.


    Scooping out the animal feces with a spade, I started to prepare for the fertilizer.


    Our fertilizer is a secret recipe from my grandfather, or at least it used to be a secret.


    Since my father became the head of the farmer, it was now a well-known fertilizer for all the farmers because my father gave up the secret.


    ¡°There will be no gain hiding a secret that is beneficial for our crop; let¡¯s share all of it so that we can combine it to make a better future for our descendants.¡±


    That was his move to unite the farmer, the male farmer, who, cowering under the intense gaze of the brother admirer that mostly consists of women, just nodded along in agreement.


    That day the farmer united as one with my father as the farm head.


    After spreading the fertilizer, I start to check the condition of our crop; this is the part that I didn¡¯t like about farming, as it took a long time to complete.


    The most vexing of all is that I need to do it almost every day!Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    When the afternoon comes, I stop my inspection and start taking a rest.


    But instead of sitting and doing nothing, I begin to search for my new teacher.


    I started searching in the village resident area where the cat mostly roams about.


    Not that one; that one is also not good; that one looks fierce but not good enough.


    ¡°Ahh.¡±


    That one is perfect.


    My new teacher is a cat with brown and white fur.


    I pick him because he was the most active one from the lot; observing him will be my new task this week.


    ¡­


    A week passed, and the result of my observation is that cats ... sleep a lot.


    How envious... I mean how vexing, not that they can sleep all day, but because they have all day for their own, unlike me, who have to work.


    ... Anyway, back to the topic.


    Cats can walk on a small fence and keep their balance easily as breathing; they have great jumping ability that I most likely won¡¯t be able to replicate, and they are really flexible.


    That is the result of my week of observation of a cat''s behavior; it sounds useless, but that is normal; after all, you get what you paid for.


    But I think I get the idea already about what I need for my balance training.


    That concludes my observation, I thought while looking at the rotten egg-flavored potion once again.


    ¡°Do I have to drink this again?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± Cain said mercilessly as he stuffed the cursed potion down my mouth.


    Glup glup glup


    ¡°Uweghhh¡±


    The flavor still has the same repulsive taste as ever. Glaring resentfully at Cain, I drink a water that I brought with me to clean the aftertaste of the potion.


    ¡°Come on, let¡¯s get going.¡± Cain signaled me with his head as he started to walk away.


    ¡°Where will we be going?¡± I asked while following him from behind.


    ¡°The forest outskirt¡±


    ¡°Hmm, isn¡¯t that too much of a leap?¡± I complain to him, ¡°Last week we only went from your home to mine. How come we go from there to the forest outskirt?


    ¡°The harsher the terrain, the faster you learn, is what my mother liked to say. Cain looked at the sky as he started reminiscing; from the look of his face, it¡¯s not a particularly fond memory.


    ¡°You like the outskirt anyway, right? I often saw you playing there with your mother.


    ¡°Yeah, in the past that is right, but now it is different. I have explored everything over there to explore, and now that is just a regular old forest to me.¡±


    ¡°Isn¡¯t it better for you?¡± Cain asked as he looked at me puzzled.


    I stared at him silently for a while before finally replying, ¡°So, what will we be doing over there?¡±


    Cain took something from his pocket and brought it into my view. ¡°You will be searching for this.¡± What he showed me was a ball that looked like it was made from scraps of meat.


    ¡°Is that your lunch?¡±


    ¡°Ha ha ha, very funny, Rai.¡±


    ¡°Then what is it?¡±


    ¡°This is meat scarp from the wild boar that I killed at that time.¡±


    Oh, he still remembers that time I pulled a prank on him; he should be the adult one here and forget what happened in the past.


    ¡°Do you still carry a grudge, Cain? Don¡¯t be such a child.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t have a grudge; this is just part of training.¡± He said as a sinister smile escaped his lips.


    He brought the meatball closer to my nose and told me to remember it and told me to go look for it in the forest outskirt as he would hide it there.


    He walked toward the forest outskirt and quickly disappeared from my view.


    ¡°Well, I better get going then.¡± I continue walking toward the forest.


    ¡­


    In the familiar forest I started to close my eyes as I sniffled around


    Yup, can¡¯t find it; this will be difficult as I must find the meatball in a random place in the forest. Thankfully, I have all day to find it; Cain didn¡¯t say anything about how much time I need after all.


    But I will find it before today''s lunch; at least I swear that to myself as I swing my hand left and right like a blind person.


    My hand hit a tree again and again and again, and wounds started to accumulate as I walked deeper and deeper.


    Or is it?


    I have no idea, as I am not using my eyes.


    My nose and hearing were sharp thanks to the potion, but it is another matter to use them as substitutes for my eyes; the nose is fine, but I am still unaccustomed to super hearing.


    I can only continue to ignore the ringing of my ear as I continue walking, but hey, if it was that easy, then this won¡¯t be called a training!


    I thought that to give myself some motivation to continue this harsh test


    Sniff, sniff, sniff


    A lot of time passed before I finally found the smell of the meatball. Walking around, I hit another tree.


    I walk and walk before stumbling over a tree root. Or is that a rock? Who knows, as I am still closing my eyes.


    I walk and walk before hitting another tree.


    Feeling the pain, I started groping the tree that I just hit because the smell of meatball is coming from the tree.


    Finding a hole in the tree, I grab the thing inside it and finally find my objective.


    ¡°Ha ha, I found it!¡±


    ¡°Bah ha ha ha¡±


    I turn around and open my eyes to see Cain laughing behind me.


    ¡°Is this what you did after your son finished with his test?¡± I said angrily.


    ¡°Sorry, sorry, ¡®my son,¡¯ congratulations on finding that meatball; as a reward, you can eat that.¡± He jokingly said that while still laughing


    I throw the meatball at him. ¡°Eat it yourself!¡±


    He avoided it with ease. ¡°Well, that¡¯s enough for now. See you next week!¡± He turned around and disappeared as quickly as he appeared.


    Determined to learn to finish this training, I sit down leaning against the tree to rest my weary body.

 Chapter 15

    I was standing in front of the wooden fence that circles the entire village; to be exact, this is the part of the fence that was near my home.


    The fence was made to be sturdy to keep the wild beast out of our farm; it''s wide enough for one of my legs to step in comfortably.


    This is the first idea of my new training.


    I will walk on the wooden fence as my balance training.


    Doing it while opening my eyes as a test, I start walking on it; the result is I cleared it easily.


    Okay, the test is done now for the real thing. Coming back to the starting place, I close my eyes and take one step forward.


    One step, two steps, three... and I fall down.


    Even though the fence is not that tall, losing your footing can really make you surprised like no other.


    Smiling as I get up, I start to climb the fence once again.


    ¡°Hmm.¡± I gather my strength and take one step forward.


    Walking on a fence, while not a crime, is definitely not something that you usually do. That is why I am doing it when the sun is almost down, as the villagers are already in their homes at this time.


    I walk with my arms spread wide to the side, like a bird ready to fly in the sky.


    ¡°Hmm hmm hmm-hmm-ack¡­¡±


    Falling once again I return to the starting point and start walking once again.


    ¡­


    After falling off the fence once again, I realized it is nighttime already, time for me to return back home; I pat my body to remove the dirt out of my clothes.


    Closing my eyes, I sharpen my senses and put my leg forward, one at a time, toward my home.


    Getting up in the morning, I got up from my bed and began the second idea that I got from watching a cat.


    I sit and spread my leg, trying to touch the end of my foot with my hand. I stretch it as far as my body allows it.


    Cats are flexible creatures; there must be a reason for that, right? Maybe it was needed to balance itself out.


    My second idea is born from that kind of thinking, and now I add stretching to my schedule to make myself as flexible as a cat.


    Thankfully, this is my rest day, so that means I can continue doing this without worrying about farming work.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Stretching is kind of easier than I thought it would be, I think?


    Is this normal?


    Hmm...


    Better not think too much about that. If I am flexible, then isn¡¯t that good enough?


    That was what I thought as I made my way to my backyard where my shooting target was located.


    My shooting is getting better and better; I can get some headshots from the scarecrow 4 out of 10 shots, and today as well, I will continue getting better and better...


    Washing my face after shooting training, I went to get the food for our livestock.


    Today is my rest day, but it didn¡¯t let me skip feeding the animal.


    Watching them while feeding, I get closer to the cow and touch its udder before starting to milk the cow.


    Drinking the fresh cow milk is the only good thing I know of about being a farmer!


    Between my training and my farming work, I continue to pass my days


    ... But the content of my training is still the same as ever.


    Thankfully, my balance training bore fruit because instead of walking like a drunken blind person, now I can walk like a normal person while closing my eyes.


    With that I can finish most of the training, but that is also the time when Cain made the training harder.


    He tied a piece of meat in front of a dog and made the dog run after it.


    While the dog is running after it, Cain told me to get the dog with my eyes closed.


    He also hid more than twenty pieces of meatball all over the forest and asked me to find all of them, with my eyes closed, of course.


    But the worst part of all, he told me to search for a yarn that he casually tossed into a river.


    Diving while searching for it was a nightmare, especially since I still needed to close my eyes while looking for it.


    I failed multiple times before succeeding.


    The reason was because I have finally adapted to my super hearing; combined with my improved sense of smell, I managed to barely recover the yarn that I failed multiple times to get.


    It was amazing how much a human can do if they put their mind into something.


    When I finally finished that test, Cain finally said that I was done with training my sense of smell, and I can stop drinking that cursed potion.


    Oh, how glad I am that I can finally stop drinking that cursed thing. They said that you can become used to anything if you do it long enough.


    But it seems I still have not tasted that cursed thing long enough, as I still can¡¯t get used to the rotten egg-like flavor ¡­


    But now it¡¯s over; I can raise my hand in celebration, and at the same time as I completed my sense training, I also completed my archery training and proved to Cain that I am a capable archer.


    Now I can shoot my target without missing anything... as long as it was not moving.


    The moving target still eluded me sometimes, as I still missed my target if they sensed my killing intent.


    Small animals like rabbits have an amazing survival instinct to warn them of incoming predators.


    Cain told me to erase my presence by blending myself with the forest ...


    What did I think when I heard that?


    Easier said than done; how can a human become one with the forest? That sounds like a lot of bullshit.


    So instead of doing what I was taught blindly, I made my own method of hunting.


    I close my eyes and start to ¡®see¡¯ my surroundings.


    I ¡®see¡¯ not with eyes but with my nose and ear.


    Hearing the sound of the wind made me aware of my general surroundings.


    Sniffing the smell allowed me to locate my target even with my eyes closed.


    I released my arrow and shot at my target, and it struck my intended target and killed it.


    I know even without looking.


    The reason I can kill the rabbit is because I hide my killing intent by closing my eyes; intent comes mostly from the eyes after all.


    So by hiding my eyes, I also hide my intention.


    With this I am now a proper hunter.


    I can totally make this my job now, as I don¡¯t need Cain''s charity to bribe my neighbor.


    I can now use my own prey to bribe more of my neighbor.


    ¡°Ha ha ha ha ha ha.¡± I can¡¯t help but laugh excitedly.


    I shouted, ¡°Goodbye, Farmer Life!¡±


    ¡®It¡¯s Now Hunter Time to Shine!¡¯


    I thought as I returned to the village with my newly gained prey

 Chapter 16

    That was Cain''s thought as he watched Rai shoot a rabbit with his eyes closed.


    This is getting out of hand; he only wanted to hone Rai''s sense of smell and not make him into some blind-obsessed freak!


    His plan was getting derailed when Rai managed to complete what was supposed to be a three-year task in just three months.


    That was not what he wanted to see; he only trained him like that to break his spirit. He did not want Rai to be a hunter.


    Because he knew if Rai continued doing what he wanted, then he would die young.


    Getting him to drink that accursed potion is one of his ways to discourage Rai from continuing his hunter training.


    Even he, the supposed hunter, only drank that potion because his mother forced it down his throat multiple times.


    As the honing sense training continues, Rai only becomes weirder and weirder.


    The two weeks of training are going just fine; he had some funny thing to watch as Rai stumbled and fell like a drunken person.


    Cain then thought


    ¡®Is this what his mother felt when he watched him train?¡¯


    ... But as time passed, he watched as Rai turned from a drunken person to a skilled personnel.


    How can he shoot like that?! Shooting with your eyes closed is usually just a recipe for disaster.


    How can he actually manage to kill that rabbit!


    From the way Cain saw it, Rai did not hesitate and shot it with confidence.


    That was not a lucky shot. His hunter instinct told him that.


    An eleven-year-old boy was not supposed to master that kind of shooting technique.


    Is this because he gave him some ridiculous training that he managed to do that?


    If that is true, how can I not do that... or can I?


    Cain slaps his own cheek when he thinks of that; imitating someone because it looks cool is not his way of life.


    ¡°Let¡¯s just go home for now.¡± Cain said to himself as he felt tired all of a sudden.


    Now that Rai is a hunter, he needs to harden his resolve to confess to Lucy, or he will be stuck with Rai in the foreseeable future.


    Thinking like that gave Cain a shiver down his spine; Rai is a mischievous child who likes to make dangerous pranks, and now he will become more and more difficult to handle.


    ¡°This is going to be one exhausting year¡­¡± Cain said as a sigh escaped his mouth from imagining all of the possible things that might happen in the future.


    Right now all he wants to do is just sit back at home and rest without thinking of anything.


    Years passed quickly when you are not a farmer.


    Which, I am not!This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    I am now twelve years old, and in three years more, I will become an adult.


    Speaking of an adult, Cain, my ¡®father,¡¯ had finally gotten married.


    He married his sweetheart, Lucy. I think he had enough of me because his annoyance won out against his cowardice.


    Is it because I added some scentless laxative to his drink or because I pretended to be dying while covered in a lot of blood?


    I think it was the letter because when he found out, he did not get mad at me and just stared at me in silence.


    Looking at a dying person can really mess with your mind; even Cain was fooled despite having such a sharp sense.


    Well¡­ maybe that is my fault because to make it more convincing, I stab myself in the gut to make it look convincing.


    Now that I think of it, it was not a pretend dying but an actual dying experience. If he did not take me as fast as possible to meet Lucy, then I might become fertilizer for the next year''s planting season.


    ¡®But everything I do is for your sake, so please forgive me.¡¯ I said my silent apology to Cain.


    It was thanks to my hard work that he is married to Lucy after all, so he should pay me handsomely.


    Which I guess he did; he taught me all I need to know about being a hunter after all.


    From the silent step that he liked to use, how to find a nature treasure, giving me knowledge about magical beasts and concocting some medicine


    I think the last one was taught to him by Lucy.


    Anyway, they got married, and the village came together to celebrate this pair of late-coming married couples.


    The thought of all villagers as they saw the married couple is only one


    ¡®Took you so long.¡¯ They stared coldly at Cain.


    Cain, who received their cold stare, did not have any negative reaction at all.


    He was just happy that he finally married his love and did not have to care for Rai anymore.


    Rai watched him with a smile as he fulfilled his promise to him.


    As for Cain''s mother, she was happy that her son was getting married and she did not have to worry about having no grandchildren anymore.


    She was so happy that she hunted enough for the village to have their fill of meat, from low-tier ordinary beasts to middle-tier magical beasts; she hunts them all.


    I can even see what I thought to be a high-tier magical beast from the food on the table.


    As expected of a master-tier former adventurer, I was flabbergasted when I saw how she hunts; she was really amazing.


    When Cain told me his mother was a master tier, I was in disbelief, because the highest power level I heard of was a high tier, and he told me there is a level above that.


    But now I believe in him, as the table full of food made from magical beasts for the celebration is good proof for me.


    There is a legend that there is a monster named Red Cap somewhere in the forest from a long time ago. That is why father told me to not wander in the forest.


    I think the red cap was hunted by Cain''s mother, as I actually never saw a monster like that in the forest.


    I want to be stronger just like her, but how?


    Hmmmmm... Aha! I think I know!


    I will use a blindfold all the time to further improve my sense; maybe with that I can be one step closer to her strength.


    Hunter is well known for their sharp sense after all.


    With a blindfold that I got from the tailor covering my eyes, I continue to hunt magical beasts and monsters alike.


    A year later


    ¡°Dad, it¡¯s time for me to go.¡± I said resolutely to my dad.


    ¡°You just came back from the forest; why did you want to go again?¡± My father replied.


    With a sun ready to go down, we talked while preparing our food.


    ¡°Not that kind of going; I meant I want to leave the house and become an adventure!¡±


    My father stared at me for a while before he went inside his room. He came back before long with a coin purse in hand, and from the sounds of his heavy step, I know that it was filled to the brim.


    He handed me his coin purse and said


    ¡°For your adventure fund, I have saved it for you.¡±


    I received it with a smile and hugged my dad. ¡°Thank you, Dad, this is really what I need.¡±


    He hugged me back and said, ¡°Be safe, my son.¡± his grip turned tighter like he was afraid of letting me go


    I pat his back to reassure him, ¡°It¡¯s okay, Dad; there was a reason why I didn¡¯t run away from home a long time ago.¡±


    I let go of the hands that were hugging him and step back a bit. ¡°I am stronger now, Dad,¡± showing him my hard-trained body with a pose.


    He let out a chuckle. ¡°That¡¯s true; it was rare to see a farmer''s son become a hunter as fast as you.¡±


    Grinning I thought something funny ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Dad, I will definitely fulfill our promise.¡±


    ¡°What promise?¡± He asked me, full of confusion.


    ¡°You know, the one that said I am going to give Mother a full-powered blow.¡±


    Stunned, my father stared at me for a while before smiling weakly. ¡°Forget about that promise; I was just joking around.¡±


    ¡°Can¡¯t do. A promise between men is not something that can be taken back!¡± I smiled teasingly.


    Father smacked his forehead. ¡°Me and My big mouth!¡±


    I turned back and went to my room, happy that I got a win out of my dad; now I just need to prepare everything for the start of my adventure tomorrow morning.

 Chapter 17

    Morning, in the Rai living room


    I place all the coins that my father gave me yesterday on a table as quietly as possible.


    An adventurer should earn every coin by their own merit. That is why I won''t take my father''s money.


    I only received the coin pouch yesterday to stop any further arguing with my father.


    I can imagine how he would force me to take the money away.


    So, I took the pouch and left behind the money¡­ let¡¯s just say for the sentiment of it


    My old one is already worn out; the coin pouch that my father gave me, on the other hand, is brand new.


    I check my equipment for the last time.


    There is nothing wrong with being too careful on your first adventure.


    A leather armor, my weapons, which are bows and daggers, potions for emergency use, and food supply


    All of them were bought with my hard-earned money from my hunting activity. After checking all of them, I carefully pack all the supplies and equip my weapon and get ready to go.


    Ughhh, I can¡¯t wait ¡­ I want to go as soon as possible.


    Taking my first step, I left my home and the village before the sun could show itself.


    Bye bye, Felstrand Village I won''t be missing you for a loooong time!


    I am heading toward the southeast.


    It was the nearest town to my village, also known as Berdert Town. It was also a place where my father went when he sold our surplus harvest and other things that had been entrusted to him by the other villagers.


    It took two days by using a carriage.


    But five days if you are going by foot.


    How do I know?


    Because I walk all the way there, why?


    For experience, of course!This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.


    My thoughts about it


    ¡­ Well, it was really boring. Next time I will use a carriage like everyone else.


    Arriving in the town, I join the line of people that want to enter the town.


    I paid the toll of three copper coins and entered the town.


    I ignored the weird look that the gatekeeper was surely giving me and searched for the carriage service.


    This town doesn''t have a dungeon, which means no adventure guild. My plan was to go toward the next town or the next one until I found the nearest adventure guild and registered over there.


    I passed three more towns before I found the nearest adventure guild after two weeks of travel.


    Standing in front of the adventure guild, Rai entered without any reservation.


    Noticing the newly arrived person, all the attention focused on him.


    A bow indicates that the newly arrived person is an archer. A bow is also cheap if you compare it with a sword, as it was made of cheap wood instead of the more expensive iron. So it was one of the favorite weapons for the newbie.


    What a strange thought it was that this newly arrived person wore an eye cover.


    Sure, they had heard of a blind swordsman but a blind archer.


    Never heard of it!


    With keen interest they watched him going to the receptionist. The blind archer got to the receptionist without bumping into a single thing, so the adventure interest shot up once more.


    ¡°Hey, I want to register as an adventure; how can I do that?¡± Rai asked the guild staff with a smile on his face.


    His question met with another question. "Excuse me, sir, but, um... are you... blind?¡± The guild staff asked in a careful voice.


    ¡°Hmm, oh, this.¡± Rai touched his blindfold. ¡°This is just an accessory; isn¡¯t it cool!¡±


    The receptionist at the Adventurers'' Guild stunned for a moment along with all the adventurers in the hall.


    ''What the hell!''


    ¡°You mean ... you are not blind.¡±


    Rai lifted the blindfold and showed her his green eyes. ¡°Heh he he, nope, I am not blind; my eyes are still as good as new, and I can see that you are a lovely lady with beautiful blond hair and charming purple eyes."


    ¡°Humph! What a stupid kid!¡±


    The voice did not come from the guild staff but from the boy beside Rai. He had striking red hair and looked around Rai''s age.


    Rai continued to chat with the receptionist while ignoring the boy that clearly looked annoyed and wanted to mess with him.


    Angry that he was ignored, the boy wanted to grab Rai''s shoulder, but before he could ...


    A hand suddenly appeared and grabbed him first.


    Stunned, the boy could only stare at the hand grabbing him and back the owner of the hand.


    The owner of the hand is Rai, and he was staring at the boy while looking annoyed.


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡±


    ¡°Hm, ah, um, ... nothing.¡± The boy could only mutter a short response.


    Rai let go of the hand and continued chatting with the guild receptionist, and before long Rai left with his head down, clearly looking disappointed.


    ¡­


    Man, what a letdown!


    I thought I could be an adventure as soon as I entered the guild, but it seems it was not that easy after all.


    I need to pass the test before I can become an adventurer.


    It was an exam that tested your basic adventure knowledge.


    To be honest, I don¡¯t know much about basic adventure knowledge.


    What do I know about it?


    Monster and ... other stuff ... a dungeon and ... I guess that it!


    Thankfully, the receptionist gave me a handbook for free. As I thought, complimenting women is a sure way to get their favor quickly.


    I am sure everything will be fine.


    The test will begin tomorrow, so let¡¯s find an inn and start my studying time.

 Chapter 18

    Now, the lady receptionist said the most suitable inn for a newcomer like me is the Honey Bear Inn.


    It was located on the west side of this town, which was called Narban Town.


    ¡°Hey, you!¡±


    I lifted my blindfold and took out the handbook manual that the receptionist let me borrow.


    Weaving my way through the crowd, I started to read it as I walked.


    ¡°You, stop ignoring me!¡±


    It was never too early to start studying; I only got one day before the test, after all.


    ¡°You! You! YOU!¡±


    The handbook contained knowledge about monsters, plants, and some common sense of adventure if what the lady receptionist said was correct.


    Dodging the hand that was about to grab me, I continued walking west.


    ¡°Stop ignoring me!¡±


    The plant section is easy, as what Cain taught me already covers most of them.


    Jumping to avoid the kick toward my leg, I continue reading.


    ¡°Wait!¡±


    The same is also true with the monster section, even though not as much as the plant section. I already know about a third of what this book has.


    It seems this book only has some low-tier level of knowledge, which was natural as it was a book of introduction to adventure jobs.


    "I said wait!"


    Grabbing the fist that came flying toward me from my back, I trip the assailant''s leg.


    With no leg to stand on, I easily slam the assailant toward some secluded alley.


    Letting go of my assailant''s hand, I watch him as he falls face first.


    ¡°Fuck!¡±


    I sit on his body and close the book.


    ¡°So, what do you want?¡± I asked the assailant that had been bothering me for a while ago.


    He was the red-haired boy that interrupted my chat with the lady receptionist.


    I thought he was just calling another person, but it seems I was wrong because he went mad and started attacking me.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    ¡°Fuck you!¡± The red-haired boy, who clearly did not understand what I was saying, continued saying that one line fit all words.


    ¡°Fuck you,¡± I said in reply. If someone did not understand you, then you were not speaking his language, so the best way to do it is to copy what he was saying.


    The assailant finally understood me as his face got red; whether it was from anger or embarrassment, I did not know nor did I care.


    ¡°How dare you humiliate me, the Mad Wolf of Narban?¡± The assailant, who called himself sick, shouted in anger.


    ¡°Wow, I am sorry.¡± I got up and looked him in the face. ¡°I did not know you were a sick person.¡±


    But this is strange; if he was a crazy person, then he won¡¯t be calling himself as such.


    Everyone knows that every crazy person thinks themselves sane.


    Like Doney from my village, he was as crazy as he looked, always walking around naked and shouting in the middle of the night, but he never called himself ¡®mad.¡¯


    "Huh, what do you mean sick? I am as healthy as I can be."


    I looked at him quizzically. "But didn''t you say that you were bitten by a mad wolf?" Is the meaning of mad different from what I know, or is it just some town folk slang for something?


    "I am not bitten by some mad wolf, you fucker. I meant I am strong like a mad wolf!"


    "Ohhh, that''s what you mean! I thought you got some new kind of disease."


    ¡°Fuck you!¡± The red-haired boy started to attack me again.


    Left punch, right punch, right punch, left, a kick, and finally a straight punch


    I dodge them all. It was hard to maneuver in a narrow space, but that''s what makes it exciting.


    I continue to observe the red-haired boy; he was pretty easy to read, as he only gave me some straightforward attack.


    Well, let¡¯s just end this so that I can continue searching for the inn and get some rest.


    I attack his body just above his stomach. My fist easily connected, and I got some disturbing news.


    ¡°Ouch.¡±


    Wow, that is something else. I feel like I was punching a hard rock.


    ¡°Ha ha, how do you like that?¡± The red-haired boy laughed even though he did not land even a single punch or a kick on me.


    ¡°Say that after you get some real hit, buddy!¡±


    If his body is no good, then let¡¯s just hit his face.


    I dodge his attacks once more; when I see an opening, I connect my fist to his face.


    Bam


    ¡°Arrgh¡±


    Even thought it still hurts my fist at least he also felt the pain which is good in my book


    Dodging once more, I hear the sound of his fist clearly with my ear.


    While it was straightforward without any embellishment, his fist feels heavy, and if it can connect, then even I won¡¯t escape unscathed.


    But you know what!


    That means that I just need to dodge them all!


    Our fight consists of him attacking me furiously and me dodging him by a hair''s breadth while occasionally giving him a taste of my fist.


    I smile and start to enjoy this fight, and looking at him, it seems he also felt the same.


    His angry face replaced with an excited grin


    ¡°Hah ha, take this, Mad Wolf Claw!¡± He shouted some fancy move that doesn''t look fancy at all. It was basically just him swinging his fist even harder than his usual punch.


    While dodging his Mad Wolf Fang, I moved my body to the side while my fist swung upward, targeting his chin.


    Did we start some fancy-sounding move? Then I also have some


    Take this move that I inherited from my father.


    ¡°Heaven Uppercut¡±


    My fist connected beautifully with his chin as he body lifted for a moment.


    I can see his eyes started to turn white, indicating my win in this battle.


    But before I can celebrate my win, he suddenly grabs my shoulder while still in the air.


    ¡°What! How!¡±


    His dazed eyes, while on the verge of defeat, still held a glimmer of hope.


    Before I can remove myself from his clench, he swings his head quickly.


    BANG


    Our heads collided and made a loud noise.


    My consciousness turned blurry, but before it was gone, I saw the red-haired boy smile victoriously while he fell toward the ground.

 Chapter 19

    ¡­


    I guess that¡¯s what you get for underestimating someone.


    Rubbing the place that got bonked, I stare at the sun in the sky.


    It was not moving an inch, which indicates the time I blanked out is just a short time.


    Checking all of my stuff, I found them not missing or broken, which is good. Thankfully I chose some deserted alley as a place to face that madman.


    ¡°Hey, madman, still alive!¡± Rai said to the red-haired boy.


    ¡°It¡¯s MAD WOLF!¡± He woke up suddenly, like a magic spell. It seems that nickname is kind of a soft spot for him.


    He started to massage his chin and looked at Rai.


    ¡°Hey, you!¡±


    ¡°Hmm?¡±


    ¡°I am Arsedol, but you can call me Ars like the name of the giant-killing hero!¡±


    ¡°Huh, Ars doll? What kind of doll is that?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not Ars Doll!¡± Ars shouted furiously, ¡°It¡¯s Arsedol with an e in the middle.¡±


    ¡°Hah ha ha! Okay then, Mad Doll.¡±


    ¡°Ars! CALL ME ARS THE MAD WOLF!"


    ¡°What do you call MARS THE MAD DOLL?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re just messing with me, aren¡¯t you?¡± Ars''s temple throbbed from anger and frustration. His eyes brimming with hatred as Rai messes with him


    ¡°Took you long enough.¡±


    Ars inhaled deeply and said, ¡°I already introduced myself; now it¡¯s your turn.¡± Ars pointed his finger at Rai.


    ¡°Me,¡± Rai pointed at himself, trying to look confused.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    ¡°Yes, you! It¡¯s weird calling you as you all the time.¡±


    ¡°Hmm, I moved my head from side to side and started thinking.¡±


    "It''s Noyb."


    "Huh? What kind of name is that?


    "Do you want to know?" Rai said with a grin on his face


    "Of course, get to the point, you stupid head!"


    "It''s none of your business!"


    Rai shifts his head a little to avoid the fist that comes suddenly. ¡°Ha ha ha, miss me again!¡± The punch generated wind pressure that wildly moved Rai''s hair.


    ¡°You did not learn your lesson after I defeated you earlier.¡±


    ¡°What lesson? You just got lucky earlier; if I had gotten serious, then you wouldn¡¯t be breathing a second later.¡±


    Ars unsheathed the sword on his waist and said, ¡°It¡¯s on! If I can¡¯t have you in my party, then you can die.


    ¡°Hah ha ha, try it if you can!¡± Rai grabs his dagger and gets ready for the second round.


    ¡°Stop it, you fools!¡±


    A huge man stepped into our location as he shouted loudly.


    ¡°Dad!¡± Ars clearly looked startled while Rai just looked at the huge man uninterestedly.


    Oh, looks like the time is up, Rai thought. Rai returned his dagger to the original position and got ready to flee.


    I don¡¯t like that our fight ended in a draw, but let¡¯s just settle it another time.


    Rai clearly lost his interest in the fight. Turning around, he got ready to search the inn that was recommended to him by the lady receptionist.


    ¡°Wait!¡± The huge man shouted.


    There are three people here in this place. Rai, the huge man, and the madman


    Of course the huge man won¡¯t call for his son, as his son is still frozen in place, and it seems improbable that he said that to himself, which indicates one thing.


    ¡°What?¡± Rai took a glance at him; he was a huge man with a bald head, huge muscles, and a red beard.


    From the meat stench that came off him, I think he was ... a butcher? With that kind of body, he won''t be a hunter, as running clearly wasn''t his forte.


    ¡°I apologize for my stupid son''s behavior.¡± He bowed, and with his huge hand, grabbed his son''s head and slammed it into the ground.


    Bang


    What a strength! Rai can see some foam on the madman''s mouth. It seems that madman is now unconscious.


    Rai smirked instantly and said, "Apology accepted; now bye!¡± He did not want to deal with the huge man as he reminded him of his dad.


    ¡°Wait!¡± The huge man shouts once again.


    ¡°What?¡± Rai clearly looked annoyed as his attempt to flee had been interrupted again.


    "Apologizing with words alone is not enough; come to our place; I will serve you some high-quality meat to pay for what my son has done." The huge man said with sincerity in his eyes.


    ¡°Huh? I don¡¯t think it was necessary.


    ¡°I insist!¡± The clear look in the huge man''s eyes bothered Rai a lot; he felt that if he refused, then the huge man would follow him until he agreed.


    Rai looked at the sun still hanging high in the sky and back at him.


    "... Fine." Rai is the first one to give up. "If it was just for a short time... then I accept your invitation.¡±


    ¡°You won¡¯t regret it.¡± His smile, which reminded Rai of a bear he saw at the forest


    The huge man carried his unconscious son like a sack of potatoes and said, ¡°My home is on the east side of town.¡± He started walking, and Rai soon followed him to his home.

 Chapter 20

    Rai followed the huge man quietly when suddenly the huge man asked Rai


    ¡°Hey kid, what¡¯s your name? Surely it¡¯s none of your business, right?


    ¡°Hah ha ha, funny you asked because I also have something to ask before I give you my name.¡±


    ¡°Hmm, do you want to know my name? My name is Arthem.


    ¡°Nope, that¡¯s not what I wanted to ask.¡±


    ¡°Then what is it?¡±


    ¡°Back then, why didn¡¯t you just grab your son and leave?¡±


    Arthem looked confused. ¡°Isn¡¯t that what I am doing right now?¡±


    ¡°No, you arrived earlier than that. Why don''t you take your son when both of us are still unconscious? Instead, you wait until we wake up before interfering.¡±


    Rai swiped his nose with his thumb.


    ¡°Hmm, is it that obvious?¡±


    ¡°Considering the stench of meat coming out from your body, I say it is obvious. I have some confidence in my nose, you see."


    Rai looked at Arthem and asked


    ¡°Are you a butcher?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s already a second question you asked.¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t say I only have one question.¡±


    ¡°Fair enough.¡± Arthem nodded.


    He looked at the sky and started answering. ¡°For the first one, you already know the answer.¡±


    ¡°Oh, you mean you want to apologize to me?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right, and it isn''t rude if I just grab my son and leave like that without saying anything.¡±If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    I shrugged my shoulder and said, ¡°Okay, then what about my second question?¡±


    Even though I think it will be better if he actually just leaves me alone, let''s accept the answer as it is.


    ¡°About that ¡­ I am not a butcher."


    ¡°Really?¡± Rai looked at him surprised.


    ¡°I know it¡¯s hard to believe, but I am an inn owner.¡±


    Rai looked at Arthem carefully and said, ¡°Yeah, pretty hard to believe; who would be daring enough to stay at your inn?¡±


    ¡°Ha ha, you will be surprised.¡± Arthem puffed his chest and looked quite proud.


    Hmm? Maybe one of his customers informed our whereabouts; that''s why he knew where to look for us.


    ¡°Okay, that sounds good. I will stay at your place.¡±


    Arthem stopped and stared at Rai. ¡°That¡¯s quite a change of heart. What makes you say so?¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s just say I want to look at the inn managed by a man that looks like a bear.¡±


    ¡°Hah ha ha, then thank you for your patronage.¡±


    Rai stopped in his tracks and said, ¡°My name is Reinhard.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s a good name.¡±


    ¡°I know my mother gave that name to me."


    When I think of my mother, I remember my frustration, which makes my mood take a nosedive.


    ¡°Looking at you, I said that is a pretty good name; where did you come from anyway?¡±


    ¡°I only said that I will give you a name, not where I come from.¡± Rai said while looking quite annoyed.


    ¡°Okay, my bad.¡± Arthem realized that he said something he shouldn''t have and apologized quickly.


    ¡°As long as you understand that everything is fine.¡± Rai forgave him and continued walking silently.


    They walked without speaking to each other until they reached the inn owned by Arthem.


    Rai looked at the sign that said, ''Meat Lover Inn and Eatery.''


    Well, that explains where the smell comes from; it looks like this guy also opened a restaurant aside from his inn business. He probably cooks in the back, and his wife manages the front.


    Makes sense, I guess.


    I entered the door and the smell of the meat assaulted my nose.


    ¡°Dear, you finally came!¡± A woman greeted Arthem when he came; he entered his inn.


    ¡°I am home, honey.¡± Arthem smiled widely as he looked at the woman greeting him.


    She was quite tall for a woman with almond eyes and long green hair. It seems that this woman is a wife of Arthem.


    I took a glance at Arthem and back at his wife; after that, I looked back and forth ... for quite a while.


    Is this what they called a beauty and the beast? Sounds about right for their description of this couple.


    ¡°Hey, did you kidnap her or something?¡± Rai elbowed Arthem as he asked Arthem a question.


    Instead of him, his customer was the one who answered Rai''s question.


    ¡°I know, right! How can the lovely Beatrice fall for some barbarian like Arthem? It¡¯s one of the seven mysteries of Narban.


    ¡°Enough of you guys; just eat and leave quickly.¡± Arthem shouted loudly. His beaming voice echoed throughout the venue.


    ¡°Is that what you said to your customer?¡±


    ¡°This is my inn. I do what I want to.¡±


    The woman rubbed her face and said, ¡°Dear, that¡¯s enough!¡±


    His wife urging him forward toward the kitchen, which Arthem complied with helplessly.

 Chapter 21

    I open the door leading to my room; after negotiating for a bit, Arthem and I manage to reach a deal.


    I exchange his promise of a feast for a free stay in his inn for a week. My room consisted of a bed, a table with a chair, and a window¡ªpretty basic for an inn.


    ¡­ But who am I to comment? This is my first time in an inn, so I have no reference; maybe this is a high-class inn, and I just didn¡¯t know any better.


    I place all my belongings to the side and take a seat on the bed.


    Hmm,, pretty comfortable,, if I may say. What kind of bedding did he use for this? It¡¯s definitelyy no hay, maybe some feather from some magical beast or something?


    Whatever! Let¡¯s just continue the handbook..


    I opened the book and started reading.


    The rank of adventure is divided into 10


    Level 1 to level 10


    Level one is a novice who starts their training in the organization of their choosing.


    The novice in adventure guild start from the adventure academy where they train and learn, it was also a place where they provided you which your first awakening potion


    What is the awakening potion?


    It was a potion to awaken your mana potential.


    the general one usually is power potion, speed potion or durability potion


    But even the general one is only provided by an organization or a large country.


    The most generous organization is an adventure guild.


    It was also an organizationthathadthe most freedom¡­¡­ you compare it with another organization


    Hmm, the one that Cain gave me is not mentioned in the general potion mentioned in the book.


    Is it a rare one? Maybe, but I don¡¯t know much about it to reach some sort of conclusion, so let¡¯s forget it for now.


    The lady receptionist said that I only need to pass the writing test, but it was obviously the test to enter the school. If I had known I neededed to enter some sort of school to become an adventurer, then my past self would have been been running away from home long agoYou could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    But what happened in the past can¡¯t be changed, so let¡¯s just do what I can for now.


    ¡°Bastard!¡±


    I heard someone shouting from downstairs; was a sound akin to a person holding an unreasonable grudge toward an innocent person..


    Which is me, of course, because the person holding an unreasonable grudge is Ars the madman.


    Did he think I was the one knocking him out the second time?


    Or did he know that his dad was the one who did it and just want to blame me because he can''t do anything to his dad??


    From the looks of it, he was a person who was often beaten silly. Why did I know that??


    Because I was such a person too, and that¡¯s why I know to stay away from such a person.


    One of me is enough in the story of my life; two people will make it more chaotic. I know that I often say I like the unpredictablenessof life,, but too much of it in a short time will make dictable into predictable..


    The same as eating


    If you eat your favorite food every day from morning to night, it will become bland before you know it.


    Better get out now before it is too late..


    I open the window and jump out of the building, I take a look at the name of this building, the last time I only took a glance and only know it was an inn that also a restaurant, but not its name


    Taking a good look for the inn that will become my living place for a while,, I finally know its name..


    The slumbering Bear


    Perfect fit for the owner


    I turn around and make my way around the crowd..


    It¡¯s time for me to do some exploring; this town will be my base for the foreseeable future after all.


    ¡­


    The crowd in the market district is as busy as ever..


    Coins change from one person to the other, information flowing throughmouth even though they did not intendd to..


    I walk while following the smell of food; my hungry stomach demandss it satisfied by some delicious meal..


    I already changed the promised feast into a free stay for a week, so that means my coin pouch is still at a safe level for me to indulge in food.


    Giving the money to the stall person, I eat while walking.


    Giving my food a bite, I taste it and feel the difference between a village and a city.


    For one the food in the city have more spices than a village and it was defenitly more delecious


    Finishing my food at record speed, I throw away the skewer.


    I plan to see the adventure school later, but before that I want to do some sightseeing for a bit.


    ¡°Did you hear? The Fire Wonder Clan defeated the monster lord and got its artifact.


    ¡°Really, another one? They are are really an upcoming clan for sure!¡±


    This is what I like about wandering around: I can get information for free without doing much of anything.


    Just plain old me and my trusted ear to do the job


    So to get an artifact I need to defeat some monster that guarded it; sounds like a challenge for me.


    After another two hours of sightseeing, or more precisely eavesdropping, I walk toward the adventure school.


    It was located near the adventure guild.


    What I saw was the largest building I had seen in my entire life.


    The front gate alone is at least half the height of the city wall.


    This city wall, which is at least 30 meters tall, was built to keep monsters and magical beasts away from the residents.


    But different from the town wall built to keep the monster away, the adventure school was built to welcome the future monster slayer, or mostly known as adventure.


    This school will be myschool in the near future..


    Not bad¡­not bad at all; I wonder what I will get by entering this school..


    I already consumed an awakening potion and already have the skill of a hunter.


    Will this school give me something I lack, or will I just enter for formality''s sake?


    I close my eyes and walk away as I think of my future in the academy of adventure.

 Chapter 22

    Waking up in the morning to the unfamiliar ceiling, I rose up and yawned.


    Yesterday after I came back to this inn, Ars came and challenged me to a fight, which I quickly accepted.


    The result


    I beat him.


    One kick to the crotch, and he was down.


    Some may say I am a cruel person.


    But I was tired and wanted to sleep, so I just kicked him where it hurts and was done with the fight.


    ¡­¡­


    A good night''s sleep refreshes me, and I am ready to start my day.


    I walk downstairs and order food from Ars''s mom and quickly finish the breakfast.


    It was food made from a magical beast called a lesser boar.


    Don¡¯t let the lesser word fool you.


    It was still a magical beast, and as a magical beast, it was a proper mid-tier level.


    It was also a boar that I often hunted alongside Cain.


    Anyway, a cooking made by amateurs and professionals is really different.


    They are more professional and have more complex flavor than amateurs and can bring forth the best of the raw ingredients.


    In other words, it was delicious and worth every coin I spent.


    I really need to get some job if I want to stay long in this inn.


    While staying at the inn cost me nothing¡­. At least for this week.


    The food is still expensive; if I eat every day like this, then my coin pouch won¡¯t last a week.


    So without postponing any longer, I go to the adventure guild.


    Opening the door to the outside, I was quickly greeted by a boy with red hair.


    He was hitting himself with an iron rod.


    Clearly he was crazy, and it was better for me to get away before he realized I was here.


    But before I can take another step, he turns his head.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Whether it was because of coincidence or because of some wild instinct


    I don¡¯t know.


    What I know was he noticed me and quickly ran toward me.


    I gave up running away and waited for him to come to me.


    He tried to hit me with an iron pole that he held.


    I quickly move out of the iron pole''s way and evade his hit.


    ¡°What was that for?¡± I question Ars.


    ¡°That was for hitting me in the nuts.¡± Ars with red eyes replied with anger.


    ¡°A loss is a loss; real men don¡¯t give an excuse.¡± I tried to defend myself by saying something that I don¡¯t particularly believe.


    That worked as Ars shut his mouth with a clear sense of frustration and walked away in shame.


    While he was walking away, I quickly made myself scarce and ran away from the inn.


    My destination ¡­ The adventure guild


    Ars still did not realize that Rai had run away and started talking.


    ¡°Hey, I still don¡¯t know your name.¡±


    ¡­


    ¡°We will meet more often in the future because you want to be adventure, right?¡±


    ¡­


    ¡°I am an adventure, a graduate to be exact; I have already passed my novice stage,¡± Ars said with some pride in his voice.


    ¡°Do you know what that means? It means I am your senior, and you should respect me, so tell me your name already.¡± Ars turns his head and finds no one there.


    With a red face and rising anger, he shouted.


    ¡°BASTARD¡±


    Ditching Ars at the inn I continue my way toward the adventure guild.


    I arrived shortly after and took the test.


    They give me a number.


    My number is 17; looking left and right, I see other people mostly my age or younger.


    It seems I was one of the old ones in this test.


    Then I better ace the test to at least recover some pride that I have left.


    They told us to go to the adventure academy where the test will be held.


    Thankfully I knew where it was; anyway, it was not too far from the adventure guild.


    After a 3-minute walk, I arrived at Adventure Academy.


    Following the other participant, I walked toward the largest hall where the other participant was gathering.


    It took one whole hour until all the rest of the participants arrived.


    If I knew it would take this long, then I would not have arrived too early.


    We take a seat according to our given number.


    The test with the announcement from the guild staff


    The test is easy, as I already studied most of the content from Cain and supplemented it with the book the lady receptionist gave me.


    I am pretty sure I got a high score.


    The only thing I need to do is wait for the result to come out.


    While waiting, I observe all the people waiting in the outside hall.


    I took my time when I wrote my answer.


    This resulted in me being one of the last participants to finish the test.


    With at least 50 other participants taking the test, I wonder when they will finish the evaluation.


    Before I can think of any idle thoughts, the stuff comes out, and I call some of the participants.


    I was one of them.


    Without further delay, I followed the staff.


    The staff guided us into a room and asked us questions.


    ¡°What skill did you awaken from drinking the awakening potion?¡±


    Is the reason they give the weird first question for this?


    No wonder it was just a yes or no question.


    You see, the first question is, did you consume an awakening potion?


    I thought it was some kind of bonus question and did not think too much before answering it.


    There are 5 people here, three boys and one girl and all of them are in my age group


    From the question the staff gave, it seems that all of the people here have already consumed the awakening potion.


    So I will wait for them to answer before giving mine.


    Because honestly, I have no idea what to say.


    Looking at the other people, they also have some questioning looks as they stare at the staff.


    Thankfully the staff understood our difficulty and handed us a paper showing a list of skills that came with an explanation.


    Taking a cursory glance, I notice what fits me the most from this list of skills.


    It was a skill called beast sense.

 Chapter 23

    After we told the staff about our what supposed to be our skill


    The staff told us to wait as he called someone and told them to call for our examiner


    As the name suggest those people was suppose to verify about our skill to make sure we did not lie about them


    The examiner came not long after is what I wanted to say but the staff said our examiner is still being called from somewhere else so instead the staff will be doing some basic physical test first


    The staff brought us to a large field where they will conduct the basic physical test


    In this large field they tested our basic physical abilities like running, heavy lifting and other stuff to measure our physical aspect


    The boys finished it without breaking a sweat but the only girls in the group have a hard time


    Well of course it was because it was not her specialities


    She was the only wizard among us if you belief what she said about her abilities


    She have skill elemental control : Wind


    It was a rare skill for a novice as to get that you must consume rare awakening potion related to an element, high affinities to said element and something about mind related thing that was to hard to explain


    In other words she was the most special among us


    It was no wonder that I was surprised when they did not give her prevential treatment


    But after all it was not for me to mind all that stuff, For me being adventure is the most important stuff


    So after finishing all the basic physical abilities it was finally time for our individual test to prove whether we have the skill we said we told


    And thankfully our true examiner finally came


    There are three men and two woman


    One woman came first and dragged the only girls in this group to somewhere else


    The sight of mature woman dragging a young one remind me of cat and their kitten


    With one of us gone that leave four of us boys in this field where we will begin our exam to prove if we have the skill we said


    Face to face with the laidback old man who is my examiner I begin to observe him as he yawnYou might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    ¡°Let¡¯s begin¡± He said lazily, his entire gesture scram that he absolutely loath to be here, but the circumstance forced him to be here


    Before I knew it he throw a fist toward my face without any warning


    It was fast, if any Ars is the one standing here than he will defenitly eat this fist straight to his face or something


    But it was me we are talking about, I already knew this was coming from the moment it was launched


    Evading it at the last second, I tried to sweep his leg to let him fall


    He lifted his leg which made my attack miss its target and he was doing it right as my kick about to be connected


    It seems he knew I was doing earlier is on purpose and show me that he at least capable of knowing that


    His close combat technique is refined as it was sharp and precise, if he use a weapon than it will be even deadlier with no comparison


    But for some reason it was slow probably on purpose because this is an examination and not some fighting to the death challenge


    Because of that I can still keep a close eyes on other participant


    Two of the participant fight looks more like a brawl to me as they just exchange punch after punch with their examiner


    While the other one looks like me where he tried his best to evade all the attack of his examiner


    ¡°Heh¡± chuckle escape my lips when he tripped and falling face first


    A sharp piercing sound came suddenly, it was from the attack that came toward my torso


    This attack is different from before as it was faster and giving off a more powerful feeling


    I step backward as soon as I can and concentrate on my examiner


    It looks like, I got into his skin when I chuckle whether it was because He realise that I was looking on the other participant while fighting him or whether he was just offended by my chuckle is anyone guess


    The only thing I know is that thing about to get serious


    Evading all his attack that came to my non vital area it took all of my effort just to stay unharmed


    I was an hunter not martial artist, my specialties is attacking from afar while keeping my distance from my prey


    The only reason I can keep evading him is because my sense is telling me when and where his attack will come


    That give more more time to evade than a normal person but it won¡¯t stay unharmed for long if he keep getting faster and faster


    Taking this as a signal for a counter attack I tried to parry his attack instead of evading it to get a read of how powerfull his attack


    The result is ¡­ If I take even one clean hit than I will be done for the day


    Shit! When I parry his attack it feels heavy and kind of remind me of when a boar manage to graze me in my moment of carelessness


    Rather than let this fight continue for long it¡¯s better for me to give it my all in one single moment of glory


    Once again I evade his attack that continue to become even faster and fiercer


    When I tried to get some away to catch my breath he covered the distance almost instantly


    I cover my eyes with the blindfold and kick some sandstorm toward him


    From the sound of it he didn¡¯t stop and continue running toward me


    Darkness came to me when my blindfold cover my eyes giving me a sense of calmness and peacefulness


    When a barrage of attack raining upon me, I evade all of it like I was dancing on the edge of a cliff


    My smile betrays what everyone expect I was feeling right know


    I can ¡®see¡¯ the pattern of attack even clearer than when my eyes open


    This is it, this is my time of counter attack


    I gave him my full powered blow when I see the chance, It took him by surprise as it connected to his body


    One hit, two hit ¡­ all the way to the fourth


    It all it took for my fist to feel broken


    Fuck!


    Hitting him feels like hitting a hard rock, how can you defeat someone with defense like that without a weapon


    My stamina getting low which allow my examiner finally landed a clean blow


    I need to get even stronger is what I thought as I lost my consciousness

 Chapter 24

    In the middle of the training field, a man stared at the boy sprawling in front of him.


    He was the Rai examiner; his name was Cale, and it was his turn right now to carry out the examination.


    It was just part of the adventure regulation for the senior adventure to be called to do some examination.


    Right now it was his turn, so whether he likes it or not, he must do his job properly, or else he gets a warning from the adventure guild.


    This job of examining the adventure skill was to see whether the rookie has enough mastery of the skill he or she possesses.


    Awakening potion Whether it was strength type, defense type, or other types, it came in various forms.


    The skill listed by the adventure guild was just something made to generalize the skill that came from consuming awakening potion.


    The boy in front of him said he has a skill beast sense; that means he has consumed a sense-type awakening potion.


    What the specific potion the boy consumed is is not his problem.


    But if he must say something, then ¡­ he has high mastery over his skill.


    Especially when he closed his eyes, he suddenly became even harder to touch and even managed to land a hit on him even though he was an elite-level adventurer.


    You must know he is a level 4 elite adventurer, and this rookie managed to land a hit on him with his clumsy close-combat technique.


    When he looked at the way he moved, he instantly knew that he was not used to dealing with close combat battles, and from the little info he managed to get, this boy''s job is actually a hunter.


    Which explains the best sense skill that he had.


    Awakening potion is a hard thing to get outside of large organizations or countries because awakening potion was made by an alchemist.


    To become an alchemist, take a certain skill and knowledge and, most importantly, a lot of material and money.


    Because you need to experiment a lot to get the potion right, and an experiment needs money and a subject of experiment.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.


    Which can only be secured by large organizations or countries.


    But sometimes an alchemist stayed in some rural village, mostly because it was full of free, unsuspecting experimental subjects.


    That is why there is occasionally some villager that is lucky or unlucky enough to get some of the successful cases of awakening potion.


    That is why the first question on the list of question that was given to the rookie adventure


    It was to know whether some of them consume the awakening potion and gain the skill.


    This boy with high mastery of his skill is one such case, and whether he will become an asset for the adventure guild or nobody is still up in the air.


    But to do that, he still needs to survive long enough to reach that future.


    But it was for the administrator side of the guild to mull over and not him.


    He has done his job, so he just needs to say his opinion and be done with it.


    He took off to another place as he touched the place he was hit; it was a place where his old scar resided.


    The boy probably sensed it was the most appropriate place to land such a hit if he wanted to inflict a wound on him.


    To be, he was too weak and failed to get what he wanted.


    If he consumes a strength-type potion, then he will be a menace to everyone that fights him.


    In that future, let¡¯s just hope it won¡¯t be him that becomes the victim.


    ¡­


    Waking up to an unfamiliar ceiling, I sit up and look at my surroundings.


    It was overall a white room that had several beds; on the leftmost one, there was one girl sleeping on it.


    ¡°You are awake; that¡¯s quite fast!¡±


    A woman came into my view wearing a white robe that smells like medicine.


    From the looks of it, I fainted after being beaten by that guy.


    Can¡¯t be helped. I guess I am still too weak to fight a senior adventurer; the fact that I managed to get some hits out of him is something to be proud of¡­


    Who am I kidding? I am really frustrated. All that training, and all I achieve is a measly hit that deals more damage to me than my enemy.


    I clench my fist as well as my teeth for a while.


    Taking a deep breath to calm my emotion. I sighed and said to the white-robed woman.


    ¡°Where am I?¡±


    ¡°Calm down. This is the adventure academy infirmary where the adventure students rest and recuperate if they get hurt or sick.¡±


    ¡°Is that so?¡± I said while getting up from bed and getting ready to leave this place.


    I think I have done enough resting; right now I need more training.


    ¡°Before you go, take this.¡± The white-robed woman threw me something.


    I catch it with my left hand without looking back and make my way outside.


    While walking, I look over at the thing that woman gave me.


    It was a card made of material unknown to me.


    At the upper left corner, there is a ten-digit number.


    It also got my picture on it; how did they make it look so lifelike? It is something to be amazed at.


    Beside my picture there is my name.


    A specialization that said combat


    and what looks to be ¡­ my level ¡­ It looks to be a level 2 (graduate).


    Hmm, level two, all of my hard work translates to measly level two.


    I sigh and get the reality of the situation; nothing will change if I just mope about, so let¡¯s start doing some training since this place is Adventure Academy, where the adventure trains and becomes stronger.


    Is what I wanted to say, but where exactly am I?


    Walking through a big corridor only made me realize more and more about how big this place is.


    Hmm, well, you know, if you want an answer, ask right, so I went to the place with the most presence of people on it.

 Chapter 25

    After a short walk, I arrived at the place with the most presence on it.


    It turned out to be a cafeteria. No wonder there are a lot of people here.


    I touch my empty stomach that craves to eat something delicious.


    Following the crowd of students, I join the queue to get my lunch.


    Even though there is someone new here, which is me, no one takes a second glance.


    Is it because there are so many people here that it was hard to remember them all?


    Or maybe because there is always a crowd of people who join the adventure guild, which made them get used to the new face.


    Either way, I just want to fill my stomach before doing some hard training.


    I listened to the people chatting as I waited in the queue; I tried to gather as much useful information as I could before I planned my next step.


    It really is a good decision on my part to go in here.


    After a while I finally arrived in front of the cafeteria counter.


    I look at the menu and raise an eyebrow in surprise.


    From the looks of it, they did not accept a coin currency here.


    In the place of money, they use a point, which I did not have.


    Before I took a step back from the queue, I tried to look for something that did not require the use of points.


    Luckily there is one menu that did not require a point; heck, it did not even need anything; in other words, it was free.


    It was a hard black bread, a meal that I usually eat at the farm.


    With no other choice, I picked that as my choice, which the cafeteria staff quickly gave out.


    I walk toward the corner of the cafeteria and notice that I was not the only broke student here, as I see some students also have the same meal as me.


    That lifts up my spirit a little, as they say, misery loves company.


    I place my meal, 6 pieces of hard black bread that I shamelessly order. Hey, if it was free, then I would take as much as my stomach can take.


    Being prideful can only be done if you are rich; if you are poor, then better be shameless, I say.


    Ignoring all the pitying gazes and snickers, I continue to eat my fill.


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    ¡°Look, another poor one is coming for a free meal.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re right, it¡¯s really making me question if they think this place is just for the free food.¡±


    ¡°This is an adventure academy, not a beggar palace; they should just quit before they embarrass us any further!¡±


    Three boys came near me and gave disparaging words.


    The one in the middle, with a handsome face, looks like the leader; he brought with him a plate full of expensive-looking meals.


    The one at his left with a fat boy with a mountain of food on his plate


    While the one on the right side of the leader looks like an intellectual guy brought a plate of the most normal-looking meal out of the bunch.


    Even though I did not care for one bit of what they said (which is not true), the way they look at me really bothers me.


    So, while they pass me by and continue with degrading words, I raise up and use one of the breads to smack the leader right in the head.


    The sound the hard bread makes as it makes contact with the fool''s head is really satisfying.


    Because I already started the fight, it¡¯s better if I just finish it while at it.


    Before the leader can turn and fight back, I use my plate as a blunt weapon to bash his head, effectively knocking him out of the fight.


    Before he can fall and ruin his expensive-looking meal, I saved it as my reward for defeating him.


    The two of his friends are looking at him dumbfoundedly.


    Oh yeah, they also mock me alright, so it''s best to give them a lesson.


    I give the intellectual looking guy an uppercut which also give him the same ending as the hadsome looking guy


    The fat boy finally reacts after two of his friends are already out of the picture.


    While still holding his mountain of meal on his plate, he tried to ram me with his body.


    I easily evade him by jumping to the side.


    As his big body passed me by, I turned and swung my blunt weapon toward him.


    It struck him right at the back of his head.


    I thought it was enough to take him down just like his leader.


    But it seems I was wrong because he did not go down.


    He only looked at me angrily as he tried to ram me one more time.


    I evaded him one more time but did not try to strike him at his head again.


    This time I go low and strike his leg.


    As they say, the bigger they are, the harder they fall.


    It was effective as he slid down forward after I took his leg out of the picture.


    I still don¡¯t think it can take him down that easily, so I sit on his body and struggle with him.


    While he was struggling and writhing, I continued to take the breath out of him until he passed out.


    When he finally went down, I let him go and go back to my seat.


    Looking at the expensive-looking meal, I smile and eat it while savoring every bite.


    After finishing with the meal, I left the cafeteria to go toward the quest hall.


    The quest hall is where all the requests are displayed, and if I was not wrong, it was also a place where you could get the points.


    It was a reasonable guess, right? If you finish the quest, you should be given suitable compensation.


    This place doesn¡¯t use money but coins, so ¡­ They must be giving out the points as the compensation instead of money.


    After asking for the direction from the staff, I arrived at the quest hall.


    Looking at the board filled with quests, I started to see them one by one.


    The hardest request on the board belongs to a level 3 (apprentice) quest.


    It said to bring down a rampaging beast horde in the eastern route.


    They need at least 10 people, with one of them being level 3 (apprentice).


    It was a good quest, but too bad I was only one person and haven¡¯t socialized much.


    Heck, forget about socializing. I was making trouble on the first day here.


    Hope the staff just takes it as an everyday brawl and gives some warning before forgetting it all.


    I take a look once again and take the most suitable quest from the boar.


    Level 2 (graduate) quest


    Hunt down lesser boar and bring back the corpse in good condition.


    Reward 25 points


    I was a hunter, so there is definitely nothing more suitable than this quest for me.


    With a lighthearted feeling, I went to the guild staff to take my first ever quest.

 Chapter 26

    After getting the quest, now is the time for me to stretch my hunting muscle for a bit.


    The only problem was that I did not know the hunting place.


    The quest only mentioned that they wanted a whole corpse and nothing else.


    In my excitement I forgot to ask the staff where I can hunt the lesser boar.


    Hmm, do I go back and ask the staff?


    Nope, that will be too embarrassing.


    So where will I go to ask about the whereabouts of the lesser boar?


    Ahh ¡­ I just remembered, there is someone I can ask who definitely knows the answer to my question.


    Without wasting my time any longer, I walked away and went toward that place.


    The smell of delicious meat greets me as I go inside the Sleeping Bear Inn.


    It was the time of the day where the patron filled the inside of the inn that also served as a restaurant.


    If I haven¡¯t eaten yet, then I would probably go along and eat in here.


    The chatter of the patron kind of sparked my curiosity as they talked about their adventure.


    It seems most of the patrons are active adventurers.


    But I reined in my curiosity and went toward the kitchen area.


    When I open the door, I see Arthem move back and forth, leaving behind a lot of afterimages.


    It was hard to believe that he could move that fast with his build.


    He looked really busy cooking, so with a heavy heart, I backed out and searched for another person to ask.


    Looking left and right I saw Arthem''s wife also busy taking the patron order.


    A sigh escaped my lips as I reluctantly went out.


    ¡°Hey, did you hear? There¡¯s a sighting of a horde of lesser boars leaving the Verdant Wood.


    ¡°Huh, if that is true, then they might join in the beast horde rampage.¡±


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    ¡°Maybe this is the time of the year after all.¡±


    ¡°I pity our junior that must handle those pests.¡±


    ¡°Hah, it sure reminds me of those days when it was us that had to deal with them.¡±


    ¡°Ha ha, that¡¯s true.¡±


    I stooped and backed off from the door, taking the empty table near me. I closely listen as I hear the adventure churning information related to my prey.


    They said the lesser boar left the verdant wood, but where is the verdant wood?


    But when they said the horde of lesser boars might join in the beast horde rampage, it became clear to me.


    The verdant wood is in the eastern route or at least near those places.


    After achieving what I have come here to get, I finally exit from the sleeping bear.


    The creaking of the door became the last thing I heard from the sleeping bear.


    ¡­


    I took the carriage service to go to the verdant wood, or that was supposed to be the plan anyway; the reality, though, was different.


    Thanks to the beast horde rampage, all the carriage service toward the Eastern route is suspended until further notice.


    That sure ruined my plan, but then it came to me.


    I wanted to go to the verdant wood to hunt lesser boar because it was the only place I knew they lived.


    If not, then surely they at least know where to hunt lesser boar near this place.


    But isn¡¯t the carriage service employee supposed to know a lot of places thanks to their job?


    If not, then surely they at least know where to hunt lesser boar near this place.


    That¡¯s why I asked them, and sure enough, they know the perfect place.


    ¡°Hmm, you want to hunt lesser boar? Then just go to the Scarlet Forest. Just exit from the western gate and go straight; you will find it half an hour from here.¡±


    The guy that answers my question is a tall guy with an amiable smile.


    ¡°Thanks,¡± I said as I slid a copper coin into his desk.


    He wordlessly took it and said toward me, ¡°My name is Fin. If you want any information, then just go straight for me.¡±


    ¡°Sure,¡± I answer him happily.


    Information about hunting places obtained an exit from the place and went to gather necessary tools for my quest


    At the front door I realize something: Where should I go to get it?


    Without much thinking I instantly know the answer to my own question


    Fin!


    He did say to ask him if I want any information, right?


    Isn¡¯t it better if I ask him the place I can get the thing I want right now?


    I turn back and asked him while his memories still fresh


    ¡°Huh, you want to know a place to buy something to transport a large beast?¡±


    ¡°Sounds about right¡±


    ¡°Then you are just in luck, because our place, Silver Rando, rents a cheap cart perfect for transporting large beasts.¡±


    ¡°Really, how much is it?


    ¡°Just five copper coins, and it¡¯s yours for the rent, but if you damage it, then you must pay two silver coins.¡±


    ¡°Hmm, sounds about right.¡± I gave him five copper coins from my coin pouch and rented the cart.


    With this, my preparation is finished, and the only thing I need to do is hunt the lesser boar.


    Fin took me to the back of the shop and showed me the cart I was about to rent.


    It was at least five meters long and two meters wide, a cart made mostly of wooden material.


    It got four wheels made of rubber to support its weight.


    I tap the wooden cart to test its toughness.


    After a little more inspection, I felt it was good enough for the job and paid the cost to Fin.


    I took my newly rented cart to go to the western gate.


    I already took the equipment I left at the Sleeping Bear when I went there.


    The only thing I need to do is go to the western gate and start my journey to the scarlet forest.

 Chapter 27

    I walked through the road as I went about my merry way to the scarlet forest.


    I choose the road with the least amount of people while still wide enough for my cart to go through.


    When I saw a way that had stairs, I turned around and chose another way, and like that, I finally arrived at the western gate.


    Finding my way through the city is kind of fun, like a mini form of adventure where I must find my way out of a labyrinth but with no particular danger.


    I pass through the gate and make my way out of the city.


    The guard didn¡¯t stop me like when I first arrived here, but they''re probably going to question me after I finish the quest and go back here.


    Well, it was not a problem anymore, though, since I already got an identification in the form of the adventure guild card.


    The card will make my job easier, as I will go in and out often in the future.


    The breeze feels kind of invigorating, the merchant brings their goods, and some people that look from the same line of jobs as me occasionally enter my sight.


    But different from the lonesome me, they came in a group of four to five people.


    Is it weird for me to be alone, or is it weird for them to be many?


    That is a question better not answered.


    After a half an hour journey, the view of the surroundings from the crowd of travelers with a sparse tree to a forest full of red color


    Most of the things inside the forest have a tinge of scarlet color, which piques my curiosity.


    I wonder where they got it from.


    A little inspection also uncovers some unique things about the tree.


    The trees inside the scarlet forest have some properties of metal.


    It was tougher than the usual tree, and when I cut it with a danger, it hardly left a mark.


    The leaves, though, have the same properties as the usual leaves, except for the scarlet color.


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    I push through my wooden cart as I enter deeper into the forest to search for my prey.


    I hear the sudden noise from inside the bushes near me.


    I draw my bow and shoot the thing that suddenly appears.


    It was a rabbit with a horn; the horn had the color of red at the tip, which kind of reminded me of the blood color.


    Is the horn color because it just impaled some poor guy, or is it because it has that color from the day it was born?


    Either way, it was dead and soon will become my dinner.


    Looking closely at the corpse of the rabbit in front of me, I suddenly remember the handbook content about this rabbit.


    With an innocent look that can lower your vigilance, it was a creature that will make a lot of young girls charmed by its appearance.


    It was called a horned rabbit, a former low-tier creature with an infamous title, ¡°The Novice Killer,¡± because of how many it killed. They just raised this creature''s level to mid-tier and also gave a special warning about this creature.


    Well, it was a classic. Don¡¯t judge the book by its cover, I guess.


    Before it could go bad, I started to dismantle the rabbit corpse.


    I stab it and run my dagger across its body to let the blood flow off it to start the bleeding process.


    When it was over, I extracted its internal organ and also its horn.


    The tip of its horn looks sharp enough to be used as a piercing weapon, so it was a plus.


    After extracting, I cut its limb and head and skinned it to remove its skin.


    Finally done, I throw the rabbit meat and horn inside my rented wooden cart.


    Yeah, I think that was too much hassle. The next time I kill another beast, I am just going to be bleeding it and take whatever catches my eye before throwing it inside my cart.


    After all, that is the reason I rented it in the first place.


    Walking off, I continue to search for the lesser boar.


    ¡­


    After three whole hours of hunting in the scarlet forest, I managed to hunt four lesser boars, twelve horned rabbits, and some kind of oversized cat. I think its name is forest jaguar, but with a red as its color, so I think I will call it the red jaguar.


    That oversized cat thinks it can kill me by surprise, but too bad; I know exactly where it''s hiding.


    The rest was history.


    I think it was time for me to go; the cart is already full and can¡¯t contain any more prey.


    With a cart full of dead beasts, I started my journey back into the city.


    Hmm, hmm, hm. I hummed as I traveled the now-familiar road. The distance between the city and me became closer and closer.


    The crowd of travelers started to appear once again.


    But now they stop for a moment and take a look at the mountain of prey I brought down.


    What! Never see a cart full of beasts. Then feast your eyes on my accomplishment.


    Full of pride I continue to travel before a crowd of thugs stopping me on my track.


    They are four burly men that look menacing, but looking closely, you can see their trembling legs and darting eyes as they try to make sense of what they are seeing.


    Did they want to steal my prey? If it was, then can I kill them? Is killing people forbidden by the adventure guild?


    If I go back, I need to start asking questions about the rules of the adventure guild.


    ¡°He-hey, you give us your spoils, and we might spare your lives,¡± the bravest ones of the bunch started to shout in a threatening voice.


    Too bad his friend takes that as a sign to escape and leave him alone.


    He looked back in disbelief at his fleeing friend and turned his attention back to me.


    ¡°Do-don¡¯t think this is over yet.¡± He shouted as he followed his friend and ran away.


    What the heck just happened? I looked at them, full of confusion.

 Chapter 28

    I watched the thugs as their figures became smaller and smaller until finally they entered the city and left my sight.


    If they want to mess with me, then they should have done it properly and brought more people.


    Now that I think of it, I kind of miss a chance to rob them.


    I mean, they want to steal my things, right? So it was my right to rob them back.


    Joking aside I think they were sent by people who have some resentment against me.


    Who is it, I wonder?


    Let¡¯s think of a moment. The one I have conflict with is ¡­ Arthem Son, Ars. But that idiot won¡¯t do something like send someone on his behalf.


    He was the type to confront his enemies by himself; if it was not him, then who?


    I shake my head and try to remember, but it is futile as I can¡¯t seem to remember.


    I shrug my shoulder. If I can¡¯t remember, then it most definitely is not an important matter. I grab my wooden cart and continue pushing it toward the city.


    When I arrived in front of the western gate, I saw a guard approaching me and asking a question.


    ¡°Wow, did you hunt this by yourself? Impressive.¡± He looked at my mountain of prey in admiration.


    ¡°Stop gawking and let him pass.¡± His partner reminds his friend by knocking his head down.


    ¡°Augh, you don¡¯t have to be violent, you know; I am just admiring this young man¡¯s achievement!¡±


    The other guard ignored his friend''s complaint and started asking me a question.


    ¡°Are you new around here?¡± He looked at me with a serious face.


    ¡°Yep, I come here to have an adventure!¡± I answer him cheerfully.


    I rummaged through my things and showed him my adventure guild card as proof that I have joined an adventure guild.


    ¡°Hmm, young level 2 adventure, how admirable. But did you really hunt all of this yourself? Where is your friend?¡± He eyed darted as he was looking around, trying to see my missing companion.


    ¡°I came, hunted, and brought down all of this beast alone. You won¡¯t see a missing friend because I have none.


    He looks at me dubiously and says, ¡°Really?¡±


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    I nod in confirmation.


    ¡°Kid, I know it was unbecoming of me as a stranger, but anyway, I will still do it. He looked at me and said, ¡°Search for a friend; being alone will only make your already dangerous adventure even more dangerous.¡±


    His eyes grow distant as he speaks, ¡°I remember it as it was yesterday. A talented kid died because of arrogance. He said he alone was enough to solve anything that came his way.¡±


    As the older guard spoke, a long and exhausting story made me grow bored. His story doesn¡¯t seem to end soon.


    I stare at the younger guard. He only gave me a sheepish smile. It seems this is a routine for him.


    If I do not solve my current problem, then I will be stuck here for who knows how long. Looking at the older guard, I tap his shoulder to bring him back to earth.


    Surprised by the sudden touch, the older guard looks at me.


    ¡°Thank you for the advice; I sure will remember it. Bye!¡± I said in rapid succession


    Before he can react, I push my wooden cart and run away before he can speak another word.


    ¡°Wait! I am not finished yet.¡±


    Ignoring his shout, I ran away with all my strength as I thought.


    I better steer clear of that guy.


    ¡­


    Navigating the road is easy as I already know the route to Adventure Academy, and before long I arrived at my destination.


    I asked the staff, Where will I put all of my prey? He guided me and brought me toward the Butcher Place.


    Before long I was in the butcher place. I place all of my prey except the first horned rabbit I hunted, the one I planned to eat for dinner, in front of the butcher.


    The butcher is an old man in his forties with a big build and brown hair.


    ¡°First time seeing you here; are you new?¡± He inspected the lesser boar and horned rabbit that I hunted.


    The lesser boar is in pristine condition thanks to the clean kill and how I handle the corpse.


    The horned rabbit, on the other hand, is different. Half of the corpse didn¡¯t have its most valuable part, the horn. I took half of it because I wanted to use the horn as some kind of throwing weapon, or maybe I can use it as a piercing weapon.


    I only take as many as I can carry, though, because I know my own limit. Carrying more will only slow me down.


    The butcher finished with the inspection and said, ¡°The boar is in good condition, but for the rabbit I will only give you half the price for the one missing the horn. As for the jaguar ¡­ Are you sure you want to sell it?¡±


    I gave him a confused look and said, ¡°Is there something wrong with the jaguar? I know it was red, but surely it was not something noteworthy.¡±


    The butcher sighed and gave me an exasperated look. ¡°This is why a rookie really needs to learn a thing or two about a monster.¡±


    He pointed at the jaguar. ¡°The jaguar skin is tough but light; it also has fire resistance attributes, making it a good material for leather armor.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± I answered him in a light tone not because I did not believe him but because I did not really care.


    It was just a beast that died all the same to me anyway, and this jaguar did not give me a particularly hard time.


    Its skin was tough, too bad for the jaguar because when I prey, I mostly aim for the eyes, so having tough skin is hardly a problem for me.


    I looked at the jaguar and said to the butcher, ¡°That means it''s expensive, right?¡±


    ¡°It sure is!¡± He replies almost instantly.


    I nod and say to the butcher, ¡°Then I will sell it; how much is it?¡±


    The butcher thought for a moment and said, ¡°It usually costs two hundred points, but for you I will give it two hundred and fifty.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡± I tilt my head in confusion.


    ¡°Because you look promising, take it as my way of giving help to someone with talent like you; maybe you will remember my aid and help me later.¡±


    He smiled and tried to smack my back. ¡°My name is Bastian!¡±


    I step forward and easily evade his slap. ¡°Do I need to give you a name too?¡±


    Bastian looked disappointed because his slap met with an empty air and said, ¡°Of course, isn¡¯t it a normal thing to do?¡±


    After a moment of contemplation, I said, ¡°Then call me Rai.¡±

 Chapter 29

    After completing the trade, Bastian gave Rai proof of the completed quest. Rai received it and said


    ¡°So, the boar request¡­ Is it a frequent request?¡± Rai asked with a note of curiosity; he wanted to know because it was a perfect quest for him. Not only can he sketch his body, but if it does not get rusty, he can even get a reward for that.


    Bastian looked at Rai; his eyes looked questioning as he wondered why this boy asked such an obvious question.


    ¡°Of course it is; the lesser boar is a main source of meat because you can find it in every forest you visit. If we did not hunt it regularly, their number would explode, making them leave their original place and start ravaging the farmer''s field.¡±


    Rai nods in understanding. He finally knew why back then Cain always hunted lesser boar like almost every week, even though he did not look like he was particularly fond of boar meat. It was to control the lesser boar population.


    While Rai was lost in thought, Bastian turned around and prepared to start his work, but before that, he wanted to finish the transaction with Rai first.


    ¡°Boy, give me your Adventure card.¡± Bastian asked Rai to give him his adventure card.


    Once again, Rai stared at Bastian in confusion, wondering why he wanted his card. Did he want to see his full name? That doesn''t seem to be his goal, though.


    Rai shrugged, not wanting to question much about it, and started to rummage through his belongings. Rai fetched his adventure card and gave it to Bastian.


    Bastian receives the card and takes out his own adventure card. Rai curiously stared at Bastian. He wanted to know what he will do with his adventure card.


    Bastain placed his adventure card against Rai¡¯s, and both cards started to shine a little before dimming out shortly.


    Satisfied Bastian nodded and said, ¡°Here you go, boy. I gave you 520 points: 250 from the red jaguar, 120 from the lesser boar, 90 from the horned rabbit, and 60 from the horned rabbit without the horn.


    Rai looked at his adventure card. It doesn¡¯t change, and he definitely did not see where his points went. He wondered why the card shone for no apparent reason.


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    Rai observes his card carefully; if the front didn¡¯t change, then it must be the front. Rai flipped his card, and sure enough, it showed him his points.


    His total points are 1,020. He raised his head and looked at Bastian, wondering if he was just giving him almost double of what he said he gave.


    ¡°Hey, old man. Did you become senile enough to give me double the amount?¡± Rai said, looking quite confused.


    ¡°Huh, first. I am not old enough to be senile, Bastian twitched his mouth. His temple throbbed. He really wanted to beat this guy silly for calling him a senile.


    ¡°Then what is this then?¡± Rai showed him the back of his card, his points still written as 1,020 points.


    Bastian looked at it and said, ¡°What¡¯s wrong with it? I don¡¯t see anything weird. You had 500 points; add 520. I gave you the amounts, which are 1,020, which is what is shown on your card.


    ¡°Huh?¡±


    ¡°Do you know how to count?¡± Bastian said as he mocked Rai in repayment for his earlier insult.


    Rai ignored Bastian. His head was trying to process all of the information he gained. If what he said is true, then it means he had five hundred points before. But where did he obtain it? Rai thinks and thinks, but no matter what he speculates, it only remains as a speculation in the end.


    What really mattered was that he had bonus points and should be happy with it rather than questioning everything.


    Rai pocketed his card. He said goodbye to Bastian and left. He wanted to go to the library because of what Bastian said. He really lacks too much knowledge about adventuring. The handbook that he borrowed is not enough, as it only covered the basics. Speaking of the handbook, it is still placed neatly on his desk at the inn. Rai forgot to return it and only just remembered it.


    Well, it can¡¯t be helped, I guess. I apologize in my mind to the girl who borrowed the book from me. I promise if I have the time, I will return it. Finishing making a promise in his mind, Rai tried to remember which way to the library.


    It was easy to navigate if there was a sign telling you where to go. Adventure Academy knows this as well, which is why they placed the sign all around the place on the upper part of the building. The only reason I did not notice is because I was still new; at least it was what I would tell if people asked me why I was in the opposite direction of the place I wanted to go.


    This is a different challenge than what I used to face in the forest. The green surroundings of the forest make you have a hard time telling which direction you are heading. But as a person taught by a seasoned hunter, I knew where to look when I wandered around the forest. I also have a good sense thanks to the potion Cain force-fed me.


    But it was different here; it was true I was new here, making me feel unfamiliar with the place. The sign that I just saw is only giving me a little help, as it just showed the place near here. I did not see the sign for the library.


    Thankfully, I met with the academy staff. He guided me to the library. I observe the route, trying to remember the route leading to the library. It was a dizzying journey as the kind academy staff guided me on the long corridor that looked almost the same. I was wondering if there was a student like me who got lost. It was probably a lot.


    After a long, harrowing journey, the academy staff came to a stop. He pointed at a room; I looked at it and realized I finally arrived at the library.

 Chapter 30

    I enter the library as soon as my guide walks away and continues doing his job.


    Opening the door, I was greeted by the smell of books, reminding me of the scent of wood.


    Row upon row of bookshelves as far as the eyes could see is not what I am seeing.


    Instead, it was just a small room filled with scattered things here and there. There is a bookshelf, but it was such a paltry amount.


    Well, it was ¡­ compared to what I imagine. It was my fault for expecting a lot of books from an organization like this.


    To be honest, it was a room with a great amount of books, but it did not meet my expectations given how large the adventure academy is.


    Sitting near the pile of books is a girl with blue hair. She was reading without a care in the world.


    Is she the librarian here? I hone my sense, trying to search for a trace of people.


    After a minute of wasting my time, I was met with disappointment. There are no people aside from me and the girl.


    ¡°Haah¡± I sigh.


    What do I do now?


    I think and continue looking around.


    ¡°Is there something wrong, boy?¡± A sound of a woman came from behind me.


    !!!


    I jump forward from fright and turn around.


    I saw a woman in her thirties with a glass and book in hand.


    Where did she come from?


    ¡°Did that surprise you, boy?¡± She asked me with a smile on her face.


    ¡°It¡¯s rare to see a visitor here, you know; that¡¯s why every time anyone came, I surprised them with a little prank,¡± she said in a lighthearted tone.


    Even though she looks amiable, I feel like I can¡¯t let my guard down.


    There is something indescribable feeling when I look at her, like looking at a beast clad in a fog.


    I take a careful step toward the back one by one, trying to widen our distance.


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong, boy?¡± she said as she tilted her head a little, looking quite confused.


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    Before I knew it, my back hit the bookshelf.


    My sweet, heavy breath started to trickle down from my forehead.


    Looking at her, I am still feeling an indescribable pressure. I look at my surroundings as I try to make an escape route.


    !!!


    I just realized something: my surroundings changed. Their scattered book, and the blue-haired girl is gone.


    The room that was looking small was enlarged before I realized.


    My heart beat fast, reminding me of the first dying experience.


    ¡°Haah.¡± I took a deep breath. I took a look at the woman in front of me, a hand formed into a fist as I clenched it as hard as I could.


    A fist flies, not toward the woman but toward my face.


    ¡°Baam¡± The fist struck true as it collided with my face.


    I did not scream in anguish, nor did I feel any pain.


    It confirmed my deduction that I was in some kind of illusion; it reminded me of when I ate a blue poisonous mushroom and entered some kind of dreaming state.


    At that time no one came to help me because I was in my own room when I ate the mushroom.


    Even though I knew it was poisonous, I was curious about the dreaming state that Cain told me, so I ate the mushroom in secret, knowing Cain would prevent me from eating.


    In conclusion, that mushroom made me experience a nightmare like no other; I don¡¯t even want to talk about it.


    Thankfully, I successfully escape from the nightmare.


    That¡¯s why I know how to escape from dream state or whatever this illusion was.


    To escape it, you must realize that you are, in fact, trapped in your own mind. To realize it, you must know that common sense didn¡¯t apply here.


    Like when you get hit, you will feel pain; common sense like that didn¡¯t apply when you entered a dreaming state or illusion.


    That¡¯s why I hit myself to confirm I was in fact trapped in an illusion.


    After knowing it, the next step is to shock myself awake; it was impossible to do that from physical damage, as you can¡¯t feel pain over here.


    The only way out is to mess with your own mind. That was what I did to escape from the blue mushroom nightmare.


    Thankfully, the woman in front of me is still smiling and unlikely to interrupt my attempt at escaping this illusion, because if she wanted it to be easier to kill me than just messing with my mind,


    It was probably some kind of test.


    ¡­ Oh yeah, we are in the academy. I almost forgot about that.


    In school they give you a lot of tests, right? This one is probably one of them.


    Let¡¯s just finish this test first.


    I stare at nothing and start to remember all the unpleasant memories and trauma I experience.


    I see eyes all over the place. The surrounding started to distort.


    I see myself dying for stupid things. The place started to sink.


    I see blue light coming from a blue stone. The world of illusion finally ends as it is broken into pieces.


    I was standing in front of the true librarian. She was looking like a child with a big hat. But the feeling I got from her is no different from looking at her in the illusion.


    The beast is clad in a fog.


    This probably isn¡¯t her true appearance either. My sense didn¡¯t feel anything weird from her, but I know she was just ¡­ hmm, I don¡¯t know how to explain it; let¡¯s just say she was strong and leave it at that.


    She is just silently reading the book without much change in her expression.


    I turn my head and stare at the library. This time this place is looking like what I imagine, with row upon row of bookshelves and some students reading with full concentration.


    I walked ahead, but suddenly


    Three Rules of Library


    ¡°No Talking¡±


    ¡°No Borrowing Book¡±


    ¡°Do not enter forbidden section.¡±


    A string of words appears in my mind to form a word. It was kind of disturbing. But after everything that I just witnessed, I don¡¯t feel much surprise with just this much.


    I just shrugged my shoulder and continued walking toward my destination.