In the deep night, about 3 hours from daylight, sounds of grunting, hissing and exertion could be heard from somewhere in the village of Jua, also titled the village basking in the sun. This village was a medium sized settlement in the Kingdom of Toro located near the Black Dragon Mountains at the nation’s eastern border. The architecture of the village mainly consisted of huts made out of white marsh clay or black obsidian clay and thatched with purple reeds from the Eastern Befuddling River that ran through the mountains, also titled the Demonic River or Amanani River for its purplish red glow during the night.

Outside the huts, the village was lined with traditional Sudani pathways of black and white triangles interwoven together to form a circular pattern that covered the entire village. From a bird’s eye view, it was clear that these patterns had another purpose apart from decorating the roads and compounds. The huts themselves varied in size and were arranged in several homesteads each having one large central hut and 8 to 12 smaller huts surrounding it.

Sana’s house was located in the south western part of the village in a homestead with 6 huts making it smaller than the average. Sana was awake listening to the sounds with a conflicted expression. She tried to get out of bed but pain afflicted her entire body. It turned she had really overexerted herself by carrying the full pail of water earlier. For several years now, she had been assailed by an illness that affected her bones and nerves reducing her to a spark of her former self.

Listening to her son training, she felt depressed unlike other parents who would be happy at their children’s hard work. She knew that despite his willful and flighty nature, Mwana felt responsible for taking care of their family after his father’s death and her illness which put her out of work. Her son was rushing to grow up to fill his parents’ shoes.

There was only moonlight to accompany Mwana for his training behind their hut. This is how he always did it; he would dedicate 2 hours every night to train his martial arts. The sound of the wind and leaves cutting through the air accompanied his grunts.

In the cold of night, he stood shirtless below a giant tree executing his boxing technique, Thousand Leaves in Ones Palm. This technique was exactly as its name and involved punching out fast enough to catch a thousand leaves falling from a tree.

Under the moonlight, dozens of fist shadows raced in the night, combined with his excellent footwork from another elementary technique, 100 Steps in 1 Instant. Mwana’s figure was barely visible as he shifted between the leaves. When he came to a stop, he was already drenched in sweat. He sat down to calm his breathing before opening his palms.

“76 leaves, I’m still too far away, I have to cross the hundred leaf threshold to have completed the first level.” There was a hint of disappointment in his voice when he thought about this.

“My footwork can barely reach the 10th step; I’m only at the 8th step.” Although taking 8 steps in an instant was fast, it only made him 8 times faster than an ordinary person who wasn’t even a warrior. Mwana felt as if this wasn’t an achievement worth being proud of. After all as a young junior warrior, he possessed some mastery over natural energy that ordinary people did not.

“Not only that, I’m still only at the Skin Hardening realm of Body Forging.” However, this did not keep him down for long as he remembered his Bloodline Awakening. “My training will get much faster after tonight. I should be able to start Bone Strengthening soon.”

In the Zika world, warriors could forge their bodies using the natural energy of the world as well as natural treasures like herbs and most importantly, crystals. This allowed for the birth of great heroes throughout history that could decide the fate of the world with their physical might alone.

Warriors forged their mortal bodies into weapons suited for combat through 10 levels that targeted different aspects of the human body. These were: Entry Level, Muscle Quenching, Skin Hardening, Bone Forging, Tendon Strengthening, Blood Boiling, Organ Quenching, Perception Domain, Spirit Sense Awakening and the 10th Apex Level.

The first level was the entry to the warrior’s path and involved sensing and absorbing natural energy. The natural energy of the world encompassed everything as there were endless theories on what it truly was such as, the breath of the world, the energy from the vibration of matter particles, the breath of the gods, and many others.

The only agreed upon explanation was regarding its composition. Natural energy could be described as porridge with different types of energies mixed together: stellar energy, heat, light energy, elemental energy, cosmic energy, biological energy, astral energy, lunar energy, solar energy, nodular energy, spiritual energy and many other types of energies all mixed together existing in harmony.

The subsequent 6 levels of forging the mortal body involved using this energy to quench and strengthen ones muscles; harden the skin; forge the bones to be superior to steel; strengthen ones tendons to be strong, fast and flexible so as to handle their new strength; nourish bone marrow and blood; and finally quench internal organs in a protective energy film hence enhancing ones internal defense.

After recounting his experiences through the entry level, muscle quenching and now skin hardening, Mwana decided to continue his training with a goal in mind.

“I have to reach 100 leaves in my boxing technique and cross the 10 steps boundary today in my footwork.”

He intended to take advantage of his special state from newly awakening his bloodline and push himself till he made an improvement.

“I must become an intermediate warrior as soon as possible, for Pendo, for Mom, for Dad, for myself!”

By continuously pumping himself up to get rid of the fatigue, Mwana only came to himself at the sight of the sunrise. His body was running with sweat as if a river but on his face was a trace of joy. Although he didn’t cross the 100 leaf threshold, he could grab 95 leaves in a single bound! A single step was like taking 11 steps! He had succeeded in crossing the 10 steps threshold! Most importantly, he knew that once his body rested and recovered, his performance would be even better, maybe he would be able to cross the 100 leaves marks at that time.