|| 5 ½ Years After Zed Left Scrifo with Hank ||

It was autumn time and trees were losing leaves everywhere. The leaves fell from the trees as the light breeze took them for the first and final ride they would take of the sky. A final moment of elation before their death.

Hank was standing in the cottage looking at the autumn leaves falling as his thoughts wandered. He looked towards the huge rock outside his cottage where a little boy with dark red hairs was sitting with his arms around his knees and a twig in his mouth.

Hank looked at Scrifo, his eyes sad as he felt his heart ache. He felt that Scrifo was like autumn too. Slowly his smiles were getting short while his heart was getting colder. Hank knew that in due time there might come a day when Scrifo might not smile anymore other than when he was with him.

He remembered when Scrifo was a year younger, he would go around running toward the village everyday no matter the season, to find the kids his age and play with them. But as time passed, he seemed to have stopped running around like a kid should do. He seemed to have realised that the other kids don’t like him or maybe he had started to feel the coldness with which the people of the village treat him.

Hank saw all these happening right in front of his eyes but how people would act was not something that he could control nor something he wished to be able to control.

‘Maybe it would just make him stronger on the road of cultivation…’

Hank sighed doubting his own thoughts.

“Worried about Scrifo again?” Elder Dwight asked.

“I don’t know what would become of him. All these experiences of isolation might make him stronger or weaker as a person, based on how he looks at them.” Hank replied

“Maybe, talk to him about the days when you were younger and ran away from the village. Maybe by listening to the stories of your travels and brotherhood, he will at least believe at some level believe that there are people in the world who would do the same for him.”

Elder Dwight suggested.

“I might just do that. Maybe, listening about the world we live in will spark his interest and take his mind off of everything.”

Hank nodded as he spoke.

“Then, we might as well leave. I done with eating anyways.”

Elder Dwight spoke as he stood up from the table taking his empty dishes to the kitchen.

Outside the cottage, Scrifo was sitting on the huge rock as the light breeze ruffled his dark red hairs and a couple of leaves found their way between them. He mindlessly used his bandaged left arm to slowly pick the leaves out of his hairs.

Scrifo’s head was blank, without any thoughts as he continued gazing at the little birds and animals, flying and running around on the ground as they chirped and chattered at each other besides the huge rock.

He let go of his legs and laid down on his back. Closing his eyes while chewing the twig in his mouth, he felt the chill from the cold boulder slowly entering his body, making him want to sleep.

Hank and Elder Dwight came out of the house after some time. Elder Dwight walked towards their carriage while Hank walked towards the huge rock on which Scrifo was laying down.

As Hank reached Scrifo, he moved his hand and pointed it towards the heavens and curled it up.

*BAM!!!*

The fist hit Scrifo right on the top of his head, waking him up from his sleep.

“Owwwww! Oww! Yo-! You nasty old man! Why did you hit me?!”

Scrifo shouted as he spat the broken piece of twig from his mouth. He quickly sat on the huge rock with his arms covering his head as he kept clicking his tongue in pain.

“Oh! You’re awake! Good! Good! Get up, it’s time to go.”

Hank said with a smile on his face.

“Can’t you be normal for a day, old man?! You could have just called me and I would have woken up! Can't you show some compassion?”

Scrifo complained as he jumped off the huge rock and looked at Hank.

“Now! Now! Don’t be a baby. Let’s get going.”

Hank said as he started walked towards the carriage and sat beside Elder Dwight, taking the reins of the carriage in his hands. Still pouting, Scrifo jumped on the carriage too and sat beside the many equipment that they were going to sell at the nearby city.

The carriage started moving slowly and the group started on their journey.

Time passed slowly with Hank and Elder Dwight talking to each other about some things that needed to be discussed before they reached the city. Scrifo was sitting quietly looking at the passing scenery when Hank called his name.

“What is it, old man?” Scrifo asked

“I’m thinking about starting your training as a cultivator.” Hank replied as he looked at Scrifo.

“Become a cultivator? I don’t like to fight, so why would I want to be a poopoo fighter like you, old man?” Scrifo retorted.

Hank for a second was at a loss of words as he looked at Scrifo, when he heard him call the most revered group of people in the world, ‘Poopoo Fighters’. Even Elder Dwight, who was used to this weird duo of father and son, choked when he listened Scrifo’s unique vocabulary.

“I know you don’t like fighting shithead, but the world we live in is not a peaceful one and definitely not one where you can live without fighting.

You are already old enough to understand that so listen to me carefully as I tell you about cultivators and our world.”

Hank broke out of his stupor and patted Scrifo on his head saying.

Scrifo didn’t reply but sat straight as he listened.

“Cultivators are the most revered group of people in the world. They train in mystical arts and fighting techniques with the aim of gaining world shaking power, influence and long life. Their goal is to understand the way of the heavens, break through the shackles of the world and one day gain immortality.

The world we live in has an enormous influence of cultivators in everything, whether it be from normal living supplies to mythical items, from a normal soldier to an emperor, everything and everyone is influenced by them. Their power and influence, in any and all organizations is so great that most, if not all the top leaders of the world are cultivators. Even normal worker and soldiers cultivate if only to a certain level.

All these cultivators follow a main system of cultivation that uses the spiritual energy that exists in the world. Spiritual energy is the reason for life itself and this system of cultivation has existed in the world for who knows how long. Furthermore, because this unified system exists and is known and followed by everyone, cultivators can be categorized based on their cultivation levels.

Cultivation levels have been decided based on the power and insights of the cultivators and are used as a rough measure to categorise them. This though can sometimes be faulty as some people might have more power but can be slightly weak on insights or vice versa making people confused on what the person’s cultivation level actually is. But in a generalized scenario this cultivation levels can be a great way of knowing the power and insights of a cultivator.

The Cultivation Levels are as follows and all the levels are further divided into 9 sub levels: -

1) Body Tempering

2) Core Formation

3) Spiritual Seed Creation

4) Origin Core

5) Origin Tree

There are cultivation levels that exist above these, as the saying goes in the cultivation world; If you think you are good, there’s always somebody else who’s better, but there is no point in telling you about them now.

All these cultivation levels have their own reason of existence in the system. Know that there is ginormous qualitative change between each level and the power and insights of cultivators don’t increase linearly between each level, but I won’t go into the details of them for now.”

Hank slowly explained roughly about cultivators.

“I know that you don’t like to fight, but the way our world has evolved, fighting and personal fighting power of an individual is extremely important factor in whether the person would be able to survive and prosper in the world or not.

So, cultivation is something you have to practice. How to use the power that you gain from it is something that is up to you and the situation that you are in.”

Hank said looking towards Scrifo.

Scrifo just nodded toward him, showing that he had been listening. For Scrifo, if it was Hank that was giving him advice than he would follow that advice without a second thought.

“The world we live in is too vast to measure so moving forward let me tell you about the empire we live in.

The Empire we live in is known as Ethadaan Empire and it consists of multiple Kingdoms, Clans, Sects and Organizations. There are even territories of extremely powerful and reclusive cultivators that exist within the Empire though they are not under the Empire’s control.

Ethadaan Empire is extremely vast and is one the Hegemon of the little region we live lin.

The Kingdom we currently reside in is known as Kingdom of Plazex.

During my travels, I’ve been to almost all the places in the Empire and also places outside the Empire. Met countless humans and also those that are not humans. The world we live in is a mysterious place and you will find something unexpected on every other turn that you take but that is also why so many people set out to travel the world at an extremely young age.

But travelling alone can sometimes get exhausting so having your friends, someone whom you would call your brothers and sisters by your side, will make these journeys much more exciting. I was in luck to have many such brothers and sisters. We went through many bloody battles, life and death situations and times filled with pure bliss and laughter together.

Just knowing that if you take one step forward, there would be ten other that will follow without any hesitation or fear is something to give your life for.”

Hank said as he seemed to have travelled to the days of his past.

Scrifo could not understand the friendship and brotherhood that Hank was talking about as he had never experienced something like this.

“But what is a friend, old man?” Scrifo asked in confusion.

When Elder Dwight who had been sitting quietly listening to their conversation heard Scrifo’s question could not help but feel sad for Scrifo who for no reason but some idiotic beliefs, had been subjected to being abandoned and isolated by everyone around him but Hank and Him.

When he thought about it, even he had not done a lot for Scrifo so in reality only Hank was the support of this little child.

When Hank heard Scrifo’s question he could not help but show a wry smile on his face.

“Friendship… It is something I can tell you all about but you still won’t understand. You will know the real meaning of friendship when these people that you will call friends and brothers will come in your life. You will definitely encounter these people and when you do, your world will take a turn for the better.”

Hank spoke as he looked at Scrifo.

Scrifo just nodded and fell into his own world and so did Hank. No one knew what this father son duo was thinking, but time slowly passed as the carriage moved forward towards the destination in complete silence.

After some time, Hank came out of his thoughts and looked at Scrifo again.

“You seem to be feeling fine today. Do you want to start your training right now?”

Hank asked Scrifo.

“Sure.” Scrifo replied mindlessly as he broke out of his confused thoughts.

Hearing him say yes, a mischievous smile tugged on Hank’s lips as he stopped the carriage and asked Scrifo to come down. He then started rummaging through the many equipment they had in the back for something. Soon, Hank picked out an armor that would fit Scrifo and put it on him.

When Hank let go of the armor, Scrifo’s Knee buckled under its weight. Hank before Scrifo could say anything, jumped on the carriage besides Elder Dwight and took hold of the reins, making the carriage start to move again.

“Okay your training starts now! You will be walking to the city before dusk with that armor on you. If you don’t reach the city by dusk, there will be no food for you!”

Hank said as he laughed happily and made the carriage move a bit faster so that Scrifo can’t catch up.

“Oi! Oi! Old man! Stop! I don’t want to train yet!”

“Oi! Old man! This armor is too heavy!”

“Old man! You idiot! you want to kill me or what?!”

“Show some compassion your bastard! There is no way that I’ll reach the city with this armor on me, much less before dusk!”

“Old man! You cruel bastard! if I don’t get my food today, I’m going to bite you to death!”

Scrifo yelled curses after curses from behind as he saw Hank speeding up the carriage.