Chapter 1 - Norica

It was the town called Norica. A small ordinary town within the Kingdom of Tranos.

The sun was about to rise in Norica, most people were still sleeping in their beds. At this moment, Kiron woke up. He was ready for another day of training. It was highly unusual for someone at his age to wake up this early in order to train. Kiron was already six years old, most people start training at that age. Some, more diligently than others.

Kiron would always wake up early in order to train, his goal was to become a rank 2 Profound Practitioner within one month. There are some realms that you can reach by training, the fundamental stage is the Profound Practitioner Realm, where you strengthen your body. There are 10 ranks in the Profound Practitioner Realm. When you reach the peak of rank 10, you will be able to enter the Spiritual Realm. When you enter the Spiritual Realm you will be able to draw out spiritual power from your spiritual self.

Although there was no one in town who had reached the Spiritual Realm, Kiron was still aiming to one day enter the Spiritual Realm. The closest one in town to reach the Spiritual Realm was Amoh, Kiron’s teacher.

In the blink of an eye, an hour passed by.

“Mother must be awake now”.

Kiron was covered in sweat, he had been running around in the mountain for the last hour. Now it was time to run back home.

Just as Kiron opened the door he could hear a gentle voice sounding out to him, “Kiron, you’re back home? The bath is ready!”

It was the voice of his mother, Charlotte.

Kiron entered the bath and saw his mother, “Breakfast will be ready once you get out of the bath”. Charlotte was already used to Kiron waking up early in order to train, so she would always prepare a warm bath for when he came back home. At first, Kiron didn’t like the idea of taking a bath every time he comes home from training, since he starts training again with Amoh and the other boys his age later on, but he got used to it as the days passed by.

As Kiron was sitting in the bath, he couldn’t help thinking back to the time when his father was still around. His father was a kind man, he would always wear a smile, no matter what happened. One day, he suddenly vanished, and no one knows where he went.

His father was the strongest man in the village, but how strong? No one knows that. There were rumors saying he was at the peak of Profound Practitioner Realm, and was about to have a breakthrough into the Spiritual Realm, some said he already was at the Spiritual Realm. But they were all rumors, no one knew for sure just how strong he was.

Kiron got out of the bath, he put on his clothes and started walking towards the dining room. He sat down on the chair to eat breakfast, casually talking with his mother. As he finished eating he thanked his mother for the meal, then he left the house. Unlike most kids his age, he always looked forward to training.

The kids his age started training only a week ago, Kiron was the only one who had become a rank 1 Profound Practitioner. Reaching the first rank of the Profound Practitioner Realm in less than one week could only be described with one word, genius. But still, being a genius doesn’t let you compare to the large clans or sects. They have profound medicines that allows them to strengthen their bodies faster. That’s not something a small town such as Norica possesses.

When Kiron arrived at the beach where they were supposed to train, he found that only Amoh was there. It wasn’t that he was early, it was just that everyone else were late. Finding a six year old kid who enjoys Amoh’s strict training schedule, that’s a rare thing. Most kids would rather just train slowly. Even if they didn’t enjoy training, they still felt like they had to be somewhat strong in this world. This is a world where strength is everything, the strong will prevail and the weak will be stepped on. Even if they were young, they could still understand this.

“Give it some time, it’s always like this in the beginning. Others will start showing up once they mature a bit.” Amoh said with a gentle voice. Kiron didn’t really care too much about what others were doing, he mainly cared about himself. How others want to train, that’s up to them. “What are we going to do today? I want to enter the second rank of the Profound Practitioner Realm as fast as possible!”

Amoh frowned at this sentence, “Enter the second rank of the Profound Practitioner Realm when only six years old? That’s impossible, we don’t have any profound medicines here”

It was true, reaching the first rank of the Profound Practitioner Realm when six years old after just training for 1 week? Without any profound medicines, that is something that can only be done by geniuses. Of course, for those with access to profound medicines, this can only be considered below average. Reaching the first rank of the Profound Practitioner Realm is only the first step. In the Profound Practitioner Realm there are some ranks that are harder to step into than others.

The first difficulty was stepping into the second rank from the first rank. In order to step into the second rank of the Profound Practitioner Realm you will need to strengthen your body enough to be able to absorb the World Qi into your muscles. The second was stepping into the seventh rank from the sixth rank, where you will have to gather a large amount of World Qi inside your body. When you have gathered enough World Qi, your skin and bones will toughen up, becoming harder than rocks.

As for reaching the other ranks, you will just need to strengthen your body and gather enough World Qi in order to advance to the next rank.

But Amoh didn’t stop his sentence there, “Perhaps the Kingdom of Tranos will take you to one of their sub sects, if they do, you will be given some profound medicines. Then, it might not be impossible to enter the second rank of the Profound Practitioner Realm at the age of 6”

These words were like music to Kiron’s ears! His eyes widened up. He had always wanted to enter one of the sects, but entering one of the kingdom’s sub sects was too expensive, so he had naturally given up on that thought. But now, hearing that there’s a chance for him to enter one of the sects, he couldn’t help but smile!

“Don’t get your hopes up just yet, I’ve been training kids like you for 8 years, and I have yet to see one of them enter one of the kingdom’s sects.” Amoh said with a casual face. “But, how do I apply to enter a sect?” Kiron wasn’t going to give up just because the chances were low.

“Each year the Kingdom of Tranos will send someone over to check how you kids are doing, the person in charge of checking your strengths usually comes one month after you start training, he should be here in 3 weeks.” Kiron felt like he had stumbled upon a treasure. He didn’t care that being recruited into one of the kingdom’s sects had a low chance, as long as there is a chance, Kiron would not give up.

Kiron and Amoh chatted for a bit while waiting for the other kids to show up.

All the kids had shown up, it was time to begin training. It was a pretty standard schedule, running and swimming for endurance and lifting small rocks for strength training. There was only 2 hours of training, since Amoh also had to teach the older kids afterwards.

There are 3 groups; the 6-7 year old kids, the 8-11 year old kids and the 12-16 year old kids.

Everyone was done with training, and they were about to head back home. Everyone except for Kiron that is. Kiron enjoyed spending his time in the mountain forests, he enjoyed training there and he enjoyed being there.

Kiron was running towards the big lake in the mountain, he would always take a bath in the lake whenever he felt tired. He was floating in the lake, thinking about what Amoh had said to him earlier. “If I could enter one of the sects, I might be able enter the Spiritual Realm!”

After floating around in the lake for maybe half an hour, he decided it was time to head back home. He was slowly walking down the mountain, thinking about what life would be like in a sect. He was behaving as if he had already been accepted into a sect. While he was nearing the bottom of the mountain he saw a wild boar, the wild boar is one of the weakest beasts out there, at most they could reach the strength of rank 3 Profound Practitioner Realm. But this was a young boar, it most likely hasn’t entered the first rank of the Profound Practitioner Realm yet.

Kiron stood there, staring at the wild boar, so many thoughts were rushing to his head, should he ignore it? Should he fight it? He was standing there motionlessly, he was still somewhat afraid, he had never been in a fight before. If he were to make a mistake, then he would die. This was enough to cause him to freeze. Even if he might be just as strong as the wild boar, he was still just a child.

The wild boar turned its head around, it noticed that Kiron was staring at him. With a grunt it started running towards Kiron.

Kiron broke out of his trance and noticed the wild boar running towards him, as the boar came charging at him, he sidestepped the wild boars attack, then he threw a powerful kick that landed on the boars head. The boar was sent flying 3-4 meters and landed on the sides, it quickly got up and started charging towards Kiron yet again, only this time, Kiron didn’t try to avoid the boars attack, he threw yet another kick towards the boar.

Only this time, Kiron was the one sent flying! He wasn’t knocked down, but the moment he landed he had difficulties regaining his balance. The boar came charging at him yet another time, only this time, Kiron wasn’t going to confront the boar directly. He dodged the boar, and threw yet another kick at the boar, only this time he kicked its leg.

The boar was sent flying yet again, only this time it didn’t get up. The boar was laying on the ground, desperately trying to get up. Kiron looked around for a bit, then he walked towards a rock and picked it up. After picking the rock up he went to where the boar was laying… He knelt down and smashed the rock into the boars head a few times. The boar was no longer alive.