That day the Flamus house celebrated amongst themselves. Though at first the mother Angelina screeched seeing a strange tall handsome boy instead of her cute cubby son, she sson settled down after realizing it was due to breaking through the 1st stage of the body tempering. Hearing this news his father Blake returned home as fast as his legs could carry him and leaving a mess of work behind.

As night came, Nik was hungrily devouring all the food he could find so as to regain his chubbiness once again. Though his parents were snickering behind his back, he still didn’t stop eating the beef and other foods he could find. As he was devouring everything in his sight, his father spoke in a serious tone.

"Son…" his father spoke. Nik turned towards his father with a piece of meat hanging from his mouth. With his eyes twitching Blake continued

"You have made me proud. Today your father can raise his head high and brag about you in front of his friends. However you should be careful."

"Mmm, why is that? Haven’t I taken care of all the bullies that might disturb me? Besides I'm stronger than anyone of my age in the village you know." Nik innocently replied.

Sighing his father said" Guess you are still an idiot after all. Listen little brat, as soon as you start training in the stages of the body tempering you will be made to take odd jobs by the village. This is also for your own benefit as you will be able to learn new things around the village. If you are lucky you might find something precious in the forest as well. But due to this reason you should be careful as well. You might meet dangerous beasts and you or some of your friends might get hurt. Do you understand?"

"Yes, your son understands father." Nik said and just as his father nodded his head Nik added "Mom, can I get some rice and curry. I still feel hungry."

With a stomach full of frustration Blake sighed, shook his head and started eating as well.

A week later everyone in Nik's class were made to assemble. Including Nik there were a total of 23 children in the group. Their teacher stood in front of then along with 3 elders in the front which included Nik's father Blake.

Blake cleared his throat which stopped the chattering of the children. He then spoke

"All of you have now started the journey of cultivation. In this road many of you will face hardships that might dissuade you. But you should never give up hope and continue pushing forward. All of you should know about the situation of our clan. It has been a long while since we have been able to have a cultivator who can break through the body tempering stage. All of us of the new generation have not been able to break through this chain. If we didn’t have the protection of the ancestor and the hidden elders we might have been destroyed by the other clans. However we cannot always keep on depending upon them. So, I hope there will be some among you who can breakthrough from this calamity and help uphold our clan. Our clan has given us happiness, security and most of all has given us an identity which differentiates us from the others. The least we can do is cherish and protect it's name from being tarnished."

Sighing emotionally, Blake continued "Ok, now since you have started cultivating, you are to start doing certain jobs that have been separated for you. For now, all of you are to proceed to the Black mountain forest and collect some medicinal herbs from there."

The Black mountain was called Black because it was specifically known for having some Black lotuses. Along with that before the Soaring clan took over, man of the cultivator used to go there to take some of the herbs. However, due to this mountain containing many precious herbs, the people started getting greedy and started killing other fellow cultivators for stealing their herbs. Since the darkness inside the people's heart came out in this mountain, it was called Black mountain.

Nik along with his generation were guided by 4 of their seniors to the Black mountain. Officially the elders had not followed them since the mountain was under the control of the Soaring Clan, so there was very less danger other than some of the demonic beasts. As Nik and the others entered the Black mountain, the seniors told them to find the medicinal herbs.

"The herb you are searching for is Green Lotus. It is found in higher altitudes and glows with a green radiance. You will know it's green Lotus once you see it. The higher the number of lotuses you provide the more resources will be provided to you for cultivating. Put the lotus in the bag given to you. Now, ALL OF YOU MOVE."

Saying this, the seniors started walking away. Seeing the elders walk away Lionel panicked and said "Esteemed elder brothers, aren’t you here to protect us from the dangers in this mountain. I heard that there are demonic beasts of peak body tempering stage here…. OYE, are you even listening to me?"

Seeing the seniors still walking Lionel turned green in color. Seeing this, Nik sighed and started walking away. As he walked away he felt number of footsteps following him. He turned to look who were following him and was startled to see it was Lionel, Piggy and the other 3 lackeys following him.

"Boss, wait for us, will you? You are moving to fast." Piggy said. Startled Nik said "Boss?". He didn’t know when he became the boss.

" How about we go together. We know this place well and seeing a large group will keep the beasts away as well. What say you Boss." Lionel enticingly added. Nik pondered a bit. Seeing Nik hesitate Lionel decided to strike when the iron was hot.

"Of every 10 green lotuses we find you keep 5 and we will take 1 for each of us. Is that okay boss?"

Thinking that he was getting a lot of profit, Nik decided to take them along.

3 hours later, they had climbed really high and had also deviated from the path they were meant to follow. Along with that they had found 55 Green Lotus, among which Nik had taken 25 and the rest had taken 6 each which they had put in a bag they carried. Due to walking so much they were all sweaty and tired. As they walked No2 suddenly heard the sound of water falling. Excitedly he told the same to the others. Nik and the others when heard this ran full speed ahead as they really wanted to drink some water as well as swim a little. Bu they were stunned as they saw the sight in front of them. They saw a forest of Green lotus around a huge waterfall which was producing a sound like a dragon roaring.

Seeing such a sight, Lionel fell on his knees along with tear and snot on his face and shouted" WE'RE RICH!!"

Note: Thanks for reading this. Comments would be helpful as well as appreciated.