AN: Hello, your lazy author here :D present you chapter 12, enjoy!!

PR by Zenla, the royal proffreader

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In Argot, there are a few dwarves, and one of them is a master woodcrafter called Bathul. My mother and I went to see him and ordered a staff for me. The staff is an uncommon weapon in most of Zanitras, so there is no one here to teach me. So I told my mother I would learn on my own until I can find someone, and since I insisted, she agreed. That's why we are here.

At the beginning I wanted a staff as tall as me, but since I was going to grow more, I requested one a head taller than me. When Bathul heard the reason why I want a staff, he burst out laughing. He told us that he could teach me the basics just fine.

He learned them himself to be able to make better staves for the true users. But after that I'll be on my own. Since he knows for whom and why, he will decide the mesurements of the staff. He said he would teach me 2 or 3 times a week since it will just be the basic and I will be busy elsewhere.

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Zelfron? He happily accepted to teach me how to fight. But since I will be very busy, for now he told me the basic physical exercises I will have to do, and a few times each week he will teach me moves and stances. He looks really happy to have a student. I should have been wary of that smile.

What I'm learning with Zelfron looks like a mix between kick boxing and wrestling, and it has a lot of lethal moves. And his training is grueling. After all, Iazecqath is the most dangerous continent, and the barbarians fight a lot among themselves. The combat training for their young is the harshest of all races.

About the barbarians, the basic race is goblin. Green skinned, never above 150cm or so. All barbarians start as goblins. When they reach maturity, they evolve. They turn into either orcs, trolls, or ogres. Orcs tend to be melee specialists and trolls tend to be rogues because their bodies are more suited for this.

Ogres are differents. They are a rare subrace, stronger than the others, and can fight in any positions. They also have decent magic aptitude. They mostly end up as clan leaders or clan champions. Their description made me think of a certain reincarnated glutton goblin.

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While being with Old Johrgard, he also told me a little about the thoreims. They are the humans who live in the harsh and cold lands of the north. They are warriors and sailors, living mostly from hunting and fishing, and a little bit of animal breeding, the soil isn't really suited for farming. But sometimes they raid southern lands for food and precious materials.

Because the northern lands are harsh and dangerous, all people are very active and practicals. There isn't much time for games. Children must quickly learn how to fish, hunt and fight. They must quickly learn carpentry, blacksmithing, leather working, sailing and other useful skills.

There are as many women warriors as men warriors, but there are very few women sailors. When someone is interested in another, they don't waste time with subtilities, no time to fool around, be quick about and be accepted or rejected. Parties are only for special occasions.

Thoreims become rowdy with drinks, there are always brawls during those times, but it's just another way of socialising for them. And it takes a lot to make a thoreim dead drunk. On that field, their only rivals are the dwarves. Thoreims and dwarves tend to get along well.

They live in big clans, there are around 100 of them. There are often fights between clans, but there aren't really wars among them. However, when one clan is attacked by a foreign power, the neighboring clans never hesitate to provide help if the attacked clan requests for it. Also, aside from the Elder Gods, the Thoreim mostly worship Ungaardt, their patron god.

Well, since the thoreims are no-nonsense people, Old Johrgard's teaching is very strict and thorough. He is almost literally drilling the knowledge in my head and engraving it in my body. There are times I regret my choice... Just a litlle bit...

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About patron gods, aside from the humans who have a one for each subraces, all other races only have one patron god. Ungaardt for the thoreims, Kaizer, patron god of the caecias, Akima, patron goddess of the yukhans and Genessa, patron goddess of of the kuendes.

For the others that I know off: Ildilyntra, goddess of hunt and forests, patron goddess of the elves. Thorendorg, god of mountains and strengh, patron god of the dwarves. Lucianos, god of hunt and agriculture, patron god of the lycans. Ustengart, god of war and plunder, patron god of the barbarians.

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Once every month, my mother takes me on a little hunting trip. At first, we would go with both Erik and Arren, the 4 of us would leave for 2 or 3 days. I would at first just watch them and learn how to set a camp. Later, I would learn how to track a prey.

Arren would act like an assistant instructor, he would direct me and either Erik or my mother would correct us if he made a mistake. When he did the fist of his father would meet the top of his head.

Afterward I would act on my own and they would watch me from slightly afar.

Now, I go with either my mom or Erik, and those are 1 day trips. One time, Erik and I went to hunt, along with Kerrina. I was surprised. Even more so when I saw how skilled she was. That girl is a natural hunter. I was wondering if it was the predator instinct of the wolf in her.

They never told me that Kerrina knew how to hunt. When I asked her about this, she just smiled, she didn't answer. I shot Erik a questionning look, but he just turned his head away. I didn't miss the glint of amusement in his eyes. Seriously, it feels like a flag, but I don't really mind. For now...

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It's the end of the autumn of my seventh year in this world. Today was really a hard day. I suffered from the heat of the furnace almost all day and I just got out of a grueling training session with Zelfron. I'm done with all my work for today and I'm dead tired. I feel really hot, I hope I'm not getting ill.

I took a well needed bath, but the cold water doesn't seem to cool the heat I'm feeling in my whole body. I'm starting to get a headache. I don't have the strengh to finish my meal. I told my parents that I was feeling weird and tired and went straight to sleep. I had the weirdest night of my life.

My night was full of dreams which didn't make sense at all. It was a kaleidoscop of colors, shapes and feelings. I would wake up for a bit to fall back into slumber shortly after. The dreams got worse as there were now sounds and smells mixed in it.

The next day, when I woke up, I was in perfect shape, full of energy. I didn't get what happened the previous night, but I'm glad it was temporary. I hope it's gone for good though...

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AN: Hope you enjoyed.