“Bam!”

“Take this! Hahaha.”

Two kids were throwing empty cans at another kid in an alley. The kid who was getting targeted was lying on the ground in the fetal position with his arms around his head in order to protect himself. He wasn’t trying to fight back because he knew they would eventually be bored and leave him alone if he didn’t show any emotions. It just happened like that. After a few more throws, the kids got bored and left.

His weak body, which was covered in wounds, looked as if he hadn’t eaten in weeks. Even the ragged clothes he’d been wearing for years were becoming baggy. He had nowhere to go, no one to go to. Even in the middle of hot summer, he felt chills all over his body. He was shuddering on the ground.

‘Just because I had pointy ears. I just wanted to have some friends, but they called me a freak and excluded me because of my ears.’

He wanted to cut his ears and throw them away, wanted to cry, but there were no more tears left, he tried to scream, but his voice didn’t come out. He closed his eyes and never wanted to open them again.

‘I’ll just wait here to die.’

He continued to lie motionless, but something inside of him was burning. Something that he couldn’t explain was refusing his thoughts. He stood up and covered his pointy ears and messy golden hair with clothing that he used as a bed without even realizing it. Suddenly he found himself in the middle of a lively bazaar. But even the joyful laughter of such a large crowd was not enough to suppress the rumbling sound of his stomach. He set eye on the closest bread stall to him, approached slowly, and as soon as he was sure the owner wasn’t looking, he grabbed a loaf of bread and started running back into the alley where he’d come. After arriving at his destination, he was breathing heavily, and he took a look at the bread. Almost, for the first time, he was going to smile but flinched with the footsteps coming behind him. Even before he could turn back, he found himself on the ground with an impact.

‘How naive I am, for a second, I thought the things would work for me.’

He closed his eyes and prepared for a beating. It didn’t matter anymore since he couldn’t feel anything. But what he wasn’t aware of was that the clothes were no longer covering his face. Unlike what he was expecting, he felt a pair of hands lift him off the ground. When he opened his eyes to look, he saw the stall owner’s dirty grin.

“Jackpot.”

The man maniacally started to laugh. The kid didn’t understand what was going on at first, but after being sold to a slave merchant, he understood why the man was laughing like that. The vibrations of the cart passing over the bumpy road and the constant weeping and whining of people like him who had been sold into slavery did not allow him to lose consciousness. For him, nothing was surprising anymore.

‘They will at least feed me, right?’

Despite being six years old, he had been through more than most adults. His family abandoned him, then he started living on the streets, turned into an outcast, and was called a freak. He ate from the garbage and dressed in clothes from the garbage. He was verbally and physically abused every day and fell victim to a slave trader.

“Haha.”

He laughed.

“HAHAHAHA!”

He laughed like a madman who lost his sanity. Even some of the people around him stopped crying and looked at him. Then a loud sound interrupted his crazy laugh session.

The cart started to shake and suddenly turned over like it hit a wall. People inside of it scattered around. There were only painful screaming sounds now, but it didn’t take long for the surroundings to fall into complete silence. The kid didn’t have enough strength in him to stand up. Then, he heard a footstep approaching. With the last strength left in him, he turned himself to see who it was. There was a kid just like him, but his physique was much more built, and he looked big. The built boy stretched out his hand towards him and smiled.

“Hello, my name is Liam. Let’s be friends.”

These were the words he yearned to hear. After hearing that, it was as if a huge load had been lifted from him. The built boy began to look like a prince charming in the elf kid’s eyes. He couldn’t answer, but he tried to smile while his consciousness slowly faded away.

* * *

“Resurrecting the Namean Dynasty?!”

Elius was surprised. He wasn’t expecting to hear something like that.

“Bu-but, how can I? I can’t rule people, and I’m not strong enough, I don’t know politics, I don’t even know what dynasty means!”

Elius was listing some crazy stuff, and his head was about to burst from overthinking.

“Hahaha”

Julius laughed after seeing the little kid struggling.

“Relax, kiddo, I didn’t say you are going to do it right away.”

Elius stopped talking and raised his head to give Julius a puppy eyes look.

“These things take time. Say Elius, what do you plan on doing after becoming an adult?”

“I want to become an adventurer, but my dad said that I had to graduate from an academy for that. He was against it at first, but later, he said that if I graduated from the Blernian Academy, I could become an adventurer.”

There were only two ways to become an adventurer. You either had to graduate from an academy or pass the adventurers guild’s test. When you became an adventurer, instead of being counted as a citizen of your birthplace, you were counted as a member of the adventurers guild.

That was giving you the freedom to travel between kingdoms and continents without any issues. The big continent in the middle had countless kingdoms in it. But, the adventurers guild had some strong policies. They were the third party that didn’t have any connections with any empire and kingdom. No one knew the guy behind the curtains, which was pretty shady, but they never caused any problems to anyone.

It was forbidden to use an adventurer’s guild member as a spy and abuse the traveling freedom between kingdoms. If a king ever uses a member for political reasons and gets caught, the consequences would be brutal. Decades ago, one of the kingdoms ignored it and tried to send an adventurer as a spy to the kingdom they were at war with, and after three days, that kingdom was wiped out and destroyed. Everyone knew it was the adventurer guild’s influence, but there was no evidence. A guild member could choose a side as a mercenary in war scenarios, but people primarily were siding with the kingdom they were born in if they don’t hold a grudge against them, of course.

“Hmm, adventurer, I see, it is an excellent choice. It allows you to meet so many different people.”

Elius was nodding excitedly. His enthusiasm was coming from his father’s stories. After hearing how Wilbert fought with monsters, discovered many places, and met different people, he naturally wanted to become one. Then a piece of paper in front of Julius appeared. Elius was taken aback by the sudden appearance of it.

“This is the contract that states you have to bring Namean Dynasty back to its glory days, check the details, and sign it with your blood if you want my power.”

Julius said with a smile. Without wasting any time, Elius checked the contents of the contract. Wilbert was surprisingly quiet for a while, especially after hearing about Julius’ request. He was lost in his thoughts while watching the distance scenery. That was the same request that his father made to him years ago. Wilbert’s father dedicated his life to restoring the dynasty but failed due to his caught illness. His last words were ‘Carry on my will, son.’ Wilbert knew how important was that for his father, so he chose to become an adventurer.

‘When did I give up on everything? Is it because of the incident six years ago?’

The pain in Wilbert’s eyes deepened like he was carrying a burden, and it was becoming heavier and heavier. After seeing Julius’ enthusiasm and effect on his son, he began to remember his sole purpose for the last six years.

‘And I even dragged Elius with me, poor kid. What kind of father I am?’

He started to massage his temples like he had a massive headache.

‘I’m sorry, Elius, I’ll pass onto my father’s will to you, and when it happens, I’ll be standing beside you. I won’t run anymore.’

He turned his head to look at his son.

“So, if I want this power, first, I have to make a lot of friends that I can put my trust on. Second, I should never discriminate between people, always help the ones in need if they are not bad people. Third, I must resurrect the Namean with the people from all kinds of races and all sorts of people from all over the world. You’ll be watching me on my journey.”

“Correct.”

Julius was nodding. Wilbert got up with a smile on his face.

“What if I fail?”

Elius raised his head and asked Julius. There was no such part in the paper. Before Julius could say something, his father intervened.

“If you fail, we’ll think about it then.”

Julius smiled and nodded.

“Exactly.”

Wilbert put his hand on Elius’ head.

“Come on, kiddo, what are you still thinking about? Sign it already. I’m curious about the technique he’ll teach you.”

“Fine, I’ll do it!”

After hearing that, a little knife appeared in Julius’s hand.

“Here, take this and drip a drop of your blood.”

Elius did as he was told. After blood meets with the paper, a green circle appeared around Elius’ wrist and disappeared in a second. Then the paper burned instantly.

“This means the contract was successful. Now the good part, prepare yourself. It could hurt a little.”

Elius nodded with the utmost determination. Julius put his hand right in the middle of Elius’ chest. It was a relaxing sensation at first, but then it felt like the sun was inside of his chest. He started to get sweaty, but he managed to endure the pain. He was breathing heavily, but something was strange. His body became light for the first time. He felt like he could jump over the clouds and run around the world without getting tired. Then his eyes widened.

“MY MANA CORE IS NOT EMPTY?!”

He screamed in shock, which made Wilbert curious too.

“Hehe, this is something I learned from far, far away. It is not quite identical to the mana. You’ll figure out what kind of energy it is the more you use it, you can circulate it through your body and even some artifact, but you cant leak it outside. It only makes you physically strong. The more you refine it, the stronger you become.”

“So I can do some close combat now!”

He exclaimed in joy.

“Yes, and now, the better part.”

Julius pointed towards the chest.

“One by one, like you did with paper. Drip your blood, and they will bond to you.”

Elius immediately ran to the chest. First, he chose the bandages. After a few drips, they began to float and started to wrap around Elius’ arms before he could react. A few seconds later, his arms were covered by the bandages almost until his elbows, but surprisingly, Elius didn’t even feel them. Like they weren’t there, he was curious but decided to think about it later. Second, he chose the books. After dripping the blood, some letters started to appear on the cover. The name of the first book was ‘The Greatness of Julius.’ After seeing that, both Elius and Wilbert turned towards Julius. He was scratching the back of his head.

“What? I was young and had to name my grimoire.”

Elius’ eyes shone.

“Is this your grimoire?!”

He shouted and opened the book, but it was empty.

“Well, yeah, it is, now only you can open them, and if you want to learn something from my grimoire, you have to pour your mana into it. This way, new knowledge will appear in it, or it won’t, depending on your power level.”

Elius was a bit disappointed, but Julius’ system made sense. Even if he saw some high-level spell, he probably couldn’t cast it. He turned his attention to the second book, and there was only one word on it, ‘Bojutsu.’

He turned the pages to give a quick look. It was something new to him, and it was new even for Wilbert. There were countless descriptions, many drawn pictures, and lists of techniques. The thought of learning something new was making him excited, and lastly, he turned his attention to the hilt thing. After dripping the blood, nothing happened.

“Pick it up and try to pour the new energy I gave you.”

Julius said before Elius asked. He concentrated and poured his energy. The hilt slowly extended from both sides and eventually turned into a staff. It looked just like the drawings he had just looked at.

“This thing is called bo staff, and you’d be surprised if you knew what kind of things you could do with it. Master this with the help of that book.”

Julius smiled.

“And lastly, I told you that I’d be watching. So don’t even think for a second that I’m not there.”

Julius turned his head towards Wilbert and softly nodded. Then before anyone could say anything, the black figure disappeared, leaving behind the floating white sphere. Elius felt sad, but he knew that Julius wasn’t there permanently, but the white sphere continued to float and suddenly flew through Elius and sucked into his forehead.

“Eh, what is that?!”

Elius touched his forehead, but there was nothing. Julius left them all alone in the open grassy field. Elius felt a chill out of nowhere. He felt that something terrible was coming. When he turned around to look, his father’s creepy smile greeted him.

“So, he said that you could be physically strong, right?”

His smile became worse.

“Prepare yourself, kid. Things are about to get intense.”