During a child’s upbringing in the orphanage there are three stages of training. The body refining stage, the energy locating stage, and the specialization stage.

During a child’s upbringing in the orphanage there are three stages of training. The body refining stage, the energy locating stage, and the specialization stage.

Aias and the other children of his year were currently on the body refining stage which is to train the body so their muscles can withstand the power of the different special energies. In the orphanage they also train regular bodily techniques to help the children get a feel for combat.

Then at the age of 8 the children will start learning about different energies in the world and how to use them. The reason why they start at the age of eight is because before then their soul isn’t fully formed. It takes around eight years from when you’re born for your soul to be ready to exert the special wild energies that exist in this plain. If a child whose soul isn’t ready for the energy tries to train in energy refining then they may if unlucky become a cripple, or worse.

The reason it’s called the locating stage is because during your life your soul will naturally take in the different energies, then you have to do is be able to sense the energy in your soul and make use of it.

Last is to choose a specialisation for which energy you want to learn how to use. This stage starts when the person is ready for it and when a teacher has accepted them as their student. During this stage you usually won’t just choose an energy type to use but also what combat style you will be fully training in.

For example the senior with the bow before was specialising in ki energy and trained in the bow.

Ki is an energy innate to the body and often easier to learn than other energy forms. Ki’s basic abilities are very simple, ki can strengthen the body or objects that have been in touch with the person. More advanced ki abilities can be manipulated outside of the body. When entering the high levels of ki control you will be able to materialize ki, making weapons. These weapons are made from pure ki with unlimited combat possibilities as they can become anything and be renewed when broken, dulled, or chipped.

Aias had always been dreaming of using a ki weapon as then he could fight in any way without having to prepare different weapons beforehand.

Just as there is ki there are other energies one being mana, mana is an energy that unlike ki isn’t innate to the body and is more flexible outside of the body, the weakness with it is that it can’t enhance the body or objects. Instead it can use special spells for defence and attack which can carry with them extreme destruction at the higher levels of mastery. Mana unlike ki can’t materialize itself into weapons. However using spells the mana can form weapons from different materials.

There are many other energies in the world like nature, cursed, chi, and heavenly energy. All which have special characteristics that make them a good choice for a practitioner to decide on training.

However choosing an energy to train isn’t entirely up to the person it also depends on how talented you are at sensing the power. If it takes too much concentration for you to sense the energy you will not be able to fight opponents of your own level in strength.

There are also levels to each type of energy. The levels don’t particularly mean to show how much stronger one is compared to the other but more of how high the output of energy the person can muster.

Each energy type have different level systems so one on the first level may be equal in power output to another in the third level as the energy is stronger but not as flexible or as destructive.

Humans are a species that have many troubles with the higher levels of training as the energy isn’t innate to them, therefor ki has for a long time been prioritised in learning as it is the only known energy which humans have been able to get to its pinnacle in mastery without any help from another source. However due to ki’s limitations in versatility and explosive power it isn’t very useful on a larger scale, however can help individual warriors.

……..

Aias who was still inspired by the duel was suddenly struck by a thought. He was going to the city in three days. This was a fairly big deal as he had never gotten to leave the orphanage before.

The orphanage is about a hundred kilometers from the small city of Canastota and leaving the orphanage is only allowed with the permission of a caretaker. And they are not allowed to enter the city without some special reason.

This was not like some kind of prison rules but to make sure nothing happened to the children. Once they turned 13 though they would be allowed to venture to the city whenever they pleased.

Before the next lesson started Aias thought it would be a good idea to gather some money for while he was in town.

Aias decided he would go out into the wilderness and check for medicinal plants and fungi that he could sell to his seniors and caretakers.

The wilderness is what is referred to a forest, plains, or other location where wild beasts have their habitat. It can be very dangerous for regular people. This also includes Aias as he hasn’t begun training in special energies. Even the tiny swallow the senior had caught could easily kill Aias using its fast speed and powerful innate energy.

However Aias knew it could take some time before he would next have the opportunity to be able to enter town. And he really wanted to buy something new and exciting.

Aias went to the front gate of the orphanage and asked to be allowed to enter the wilderness. Though the caretaker he asked knew he may be killed during this exploration he still allowed Aias to go. This wasn’t because he didn’t care, he to was a caretaker and loving person, but he knew the children needed to experience the dangers of the world as early as possible or else they may be killed from arrogance or pride.

The guard did however decide to help Aias by giving him a dagger made from blood-steel, a steel that has been bathed in magical blood and turned reddish black from the iron in the blood.

This knife would certainly be useful if he met an enemy without a hardening techniques or an exoskeleton.

……..

As Aias was traveling to a forest nearby he took in the beautiful scenery of all the terrain he was passing by while jogging at a brisk pace.

On this trip Aias had brought with him a book on different mushrooms, herbs, and berries that are used in medicine or poison. Aias had never had much interest in creating potions or crafting weapons so he had to bring the book with him which took some convincing of the caretaker in charge of the library, in the end he had to sign an agreement that if the book got dirty he would have to pay for a new one, which would cost a hefty sum for a kid like him.

On the other hand Aias didn’t need a book for the monsters that lived in the forest as he had always had a high interest in beasts and enjoyed thinking about how he would go about fighting them. He had read most of the books in the library about monsters that live in this region.

Other than the herbalist book he also brought with him his own set of throwing knifes, the blood-steel dagger, and a Flametongue herb. things he had been given after being number one in so many of the competitions.

The knife set he had gotten in the past where all made from decent quality steel, not as good as blood-steel but still of good enough that they will be able to puncture the strong skin of most of the creatures in the area.

Flametongue is a small herb that when mixed with saliva and is in contact with the air will be set ablaze, the fire it spreads are elemental flames which are far more powerful than the flames of regular wood and even some alcohols.

The Flametongue was another thing he had gotten from winning a test. This time however it wasn’t during a physical test but instead a herbology exam where he only got first place because he had found some special herbs like the Flametongue interesting.

If Aias where to sell these items of he could probably make some money to buy something far better in town however he didn’t want to lose something he could use when he instead could gather things that were useless to himself but of value to others.

…..

Aias arrived at the outskirts of the forest after traveling for roughly four hours.

This forest was one of the six wilderness locations that the student at the orphanage were allowed to travel to in order to train and gather materials. It was named Baigia-chami forest, for the elven words for bug and infestation. The reason for the name was obvious, the forest was filled with bug type wild beasts.

For Aias this could be very bad as he didn’t bring any antidotes for if he was bitten or stung. However he had a plan for how he was going to make sure he wasn’t caught off guard and attacked by the beasts.

Aias started searching for herbs immediately, within two hours he had found what he was looking for. There was a small rootlike plant growing along the ground as if it was a path for ants. Aias followed the plant for ten meters before he found where it had sprouted from. He remembered the spot and decided to continue searching until he had found a few other herbs which this time he had picked and brought with him back to the rootlike plant.

What Aias had in mind was a trap for wild beasts that could possibly lead to him turning up quite a nice profit from this trip.

He started by covering up the long plant that was stretching across the earth. While covering it he made sure not to put any pressure on it as it was going to lure the predators away from him. He then prepared a hiding place in a tree nearby which he sprinkled with the juices he pressed from a fruit he had found on the tree. Lastly he mashed some berries he had picked along the way and stuck it all around the area close to the long root-like plant.

As he sat waiting he double checked to make sure he had found all the right berries and fruits to make this work. This was a plan he had been working on long before he had decided to traveling to the forest. Hopefully it was going to work otherwise in the worst case he would die due to the many beasts that should now be approaching.

Suddenly a huge beatle appeared from behind a tree. The beatle was about 1.3 meters in height and 2 meters in length. It looked tough with an iron like shell around all of its body and a pair of huge pincers coming out from its grotesque head.

Before the beetle could get to the mashed berries suddenly from behind it a large wasp flew down and tried to pierced into the large beatles back however its stinger was rebound by the hard shell of the beatle.

The two wild beasts went into a frantic battle over the mashed berries and only a few moments after starting another three beasts had joined in on the action, all the beast were large and dangerous, ether one had strength that could kill Aias in only a moment if he weren’t hiding in the tree at this moment.

At this moment one of the creatures accidently stepped on where the root-like plant was hidden and suddenly from beneath the earth a heart wrenching cry chrilled.

The loud cry made all around it rendered paralyzed from fear. The beasts cowering in fear from the cry could do nothing as several spikes pierced out cutting straight through all the giant bugs in a ten meter radius.

The large beetle's powerful shell was nothing to the spike piercing into it from underneath the earth.

If it wasn’t for Aias hiding far up in a tree he to would have been pierced through by a large spike.

The ground where the earth was pierced through started to shake and crumble away. From the earth came a huge tree-like beast with dozens of tentacle like branches coming out of its mouth, at the end of each branch was a large tooth piercing into a bug beast.

The tree beast began pulling in one beast and started chewing on it drinking up the blood of the giant bug.

Now Aias could finally begin searching through the area for plants and herbs without to much fear for a close by beast. Aias had hoped he could scavenge some of the leftover carapaces from the tree beast’s feast however now that he saw the large creature he understood that something so dangerous should not be approached by him.