Proofread by: Daylius and Vikingstad

“Off you go my friend”, the gate opened and Barin urged Shiv to enter through the gate.

Shiv bid farewell to his new found friends, he was happy to be treated as a normal person. Back in his world people always treated him as if he was a god. Such a treatment had always made him mad. But now, he was just some random person, anonymous, he wanted to cherish these moments. So he slowly walked in, enjoying the view around him.

The village was beautiful, truly marvelous. All the buildings had been decorated with great works of art.

‘Village of the dragon riders eh. No wonder the village has sculptures of dragon all around. Must be nice to live here.’

Shiv then moved forward in the search of his destination, the tall red building. On his way looking for it, he found a fountain with a dragon sculpture in the middle. the sculpture of the dragon was so mesmerizing that Shiv almost forgot his mission. He was brought back from his thoughts by a now familiar sound.

‘Now what’, Shiv was now slightly agitated. But the agitation was short lived. The box in front of him was enough to make him jump out of joy.

“Trrrng”

You have discovered a masterpiece: the fountain of elixir

Sculpted by the legendary sculpture Penkorth to honor the True God, Oberon!!!! The sculpture is made high grade ivory and is regarded as one of the wonders of the world. The water flowing is believed to have mystical powers!

For enjoying the marvels of a world wonder:

+20 to all stats for 3 hours

+5 to STR, STA, AGI, LUCK

+100 fame

‘Sweet Jesus! This village is a treasure trove! Guhuhuhu the God truly favors me! Thank you Oberon, you are the best!’

Shiv then continued to search for his location, the effects received made him forget about the ‘mystical powers of the water’.

“What is that creature? “

“He is so fair, not like us.”

“A monster?”

“It’s a human, a human in our village!”

Shiv could hear the whispers of the villagers. He did not mind them for he knew that it was a natural reaction after all. When he had first met the guards he too was cautious and surprised. So he let them be and kept looking. It did not take him much time to find the building he was looking for.

The red building was a couple of blocks from the fountain. A really tall building which had a really bright red color. And like all the other buildings in the village this too had dragon art all over.

‘Is this really a village? With this many tall and huge buildings shouldn’t it be a city?’ even though Shiv had his doubts he could not ask anyone. He knew the villagers were scared of him.

He looked at them and they stiffened, visibly afraid of the unknown creature looking at them. He noticed that the villagers did not have any tattoos. ‘so the common people have none eh.’ he made a mental note.

He was now in front of the building! The door was huge and had something written on it. Shiv tried to read it but failed miserably. ‘what language is this?’ the letters were of an unknown language so he could not read it, he then tried knocking on the door.

‘Knock Knock’

Suddenly the huge door opened, like it was moving on its own. Shiv panicked, but gathered his courage and walked in. he was now in a small room. In front of him were a table and a chair. There was person in the chair, with his hands supporting his chin. The man was glaring at Shiv. Shiv could feel the intensity of the glare. He felt like he was being stripped naked.

“You, what have you come here for, human?” the man asked, his voice was so commanding Shiv had cold sweats trickling all over him.

Shiv moved forward, slowly. He did not want to do anything reckless. He then extended his right hand which was holding the parchment that Barin had given.

Suddenly his hand was grabbed. The action was so fast Shiv could not even see the person getting up from the chair, let alone see the man’s hand. Shiv was now afraid, one wrong move and death would accompany him. Shiv knew that perfectly. He kept silent, letting the man do what he wanted for now.

The strange man then started examining his hand for a while and without saying a word walked back to his chair. The next think the man did shocked Shiv. The man who had grabbed his hand and glared at him with killing intent was now smiling.

“You pass boy. We will start your training shortly.”

‘Eh!! Training? What just happened?’ Shiv was confused, he again extended the parchment.

“You no longer need that, i reckon it was given by Barin, right? Keep it. Now shall we begin? Introduce yourself, boy”. The man was still smiling. He seemed like a different man.

‘I have a bad feeling about this guy. I want to go home!’, even though this was what he was thinking, Shiv still replied in fear for his life.

“I am Shiv, a traveler. I was sent by Barin to tra…”, before Shiv could complete, he was interrupted.

“Shiv, from now on you shall be trained by me personally, be honoured for I am Thorwin, battle guide and the grand master of this institution, Academy of warfare .”

‘Wait wait wait! Battle guide? Academy of warfare? Is this not a simple training hall? ’

Shiv was confused. In the real world he had been gathering as much information as he could. in all the forums and websites he had visited there was nothing mentioned about this so called ‘Academy of warfare’? Training hall was what all forums had talked about. He wanted to ask but then decided against it. He did not want to anger his new master.

“The academy has three branches. Each branch focuses on 3 entirely different aspects of warfare. I will be teaching you fighting techniques, that is the physical part of warfare. You will be taught about magic and strategies of warfare by two other experts. You shall address me as master from now on. Any questions?”

“Yes master” Shiv was hesitant.

“Shoot”

“Master I only have 7 days for my training. The Naiads….” he trailed off.

“Do not worry, 6 days is enough. We are going to pound into your head everything you know with all our might. Look forward to it, Oberon’s child” replied Thorwin with a gentle smile. But there was nothing gentle about it. Even though the face had a smile, the eyes were as cold as ice. It was as if the eyes were saying ‘I am going to torture you to my heart’s content’.

Gulp! Shiv felt a chill run down his spine. ‘Curse you Oberon, curse you’. Shiv who had been wholeheartedly praising the dragon god was now cursing the same being. Little did he know that this was only the beginning? After all this was the

Draklake, the village of hope or despair.

Shiv was now in so much despair, he had once again forgotten something important. Just like the mystical water, he forgot about the name Thorwin had called him, ’Oberon’s child’. But soon he will come to know the power that name carried and the troubles that it would bring.

Shiv looked at his new master who was now walking through a narrow corridor. ‘Sigh’, He could not help but leave a sigh.

He followed Thorwin accepting his cursed faith. ‘Now I understand why everything here gave huge bonuses.’

---***---

The duo had been walking for some time now. Shiv wanted to ask where he was being taken, but he then decided against it. He followed his new master like an obedient puppy.

Shiv looked around the corridor. It was too narrow. It was spacious enough to allow two persons to walk side by side. The corridor was badly lit. He could hardly see the master. The only thing he understood was the path they were walking was slanting downwards, indicating that they were now below ground surface.

They then reached a junction. The path now separated into 2. There was a path to the right as well as the left. Thorwin then turned to his right and walked.

“Do not take the left path, you are not ready yet.” Shiv heard Thorwin’s order.

“Yes master” was all Shiv managed to speak.

They walked for a short while and then again stopped. This time it was a door. The door was the same size as the door he had seen before and had also something scribbled on it.

Thorwin opened the door and gestured Shiv to get in.

Shiv walked in. Inside was a very spacious hall. On the left was an armory with all the weapons that existed in the world. To the right were dummies of different size. At the center there was a plain space and a bed.

“Here you will be trained. Your body and mind will be disciplined. Only then can you truly be powerful. You shall be trained by me for 2 days. For these 2 days you will listen to everything I say.”

“Yes sir.”

“Good. This is what you will be doing. Starting from now you will swing the wooden sword for 4 continuous hours then hit the dummies bare handedly for another 3 hours then hit the dummies for 3 hours with the sword. You will be given 2 hour rest for eating and sleeping. You will have to repeat this for the next two days. Simple, is it not.”

Shiv’s jaws dropped. This was slavery. ‘simple my ass’ was what he wanted to say, but he replied with a nod.

“Great. I will be sending you food to eat so do not worry about that and train to your heart’s content. If you complete this training you will be given a weapon of your choice. If you complete it, that is”. Thorwin gave the same cold smile that he gave earlier and then slowly walked out of the room and closed the door.

Shiv once again looked around the room which was going to be his home for 2 days, then picked up the sword and started his training.

---***---

(pls give me your valuable feed back so that i can improve my faults. thank you)

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