The sun rises and a new morning starts. I woke up early and do my daily routine it took quite a while since I increased the amount of training in these past few weeks. I’m already preparing to head out unto the forest when a man arrived at the orphanage carrying a big wooden box.

“After all those days I really thought he already forgot about his promise”. I muttered to myself as I watch the man approach me.

“Hey kid it took some time but my hard work paid off, let’s head t the back yard for now I don’t want to cause some commotion here.

We arrived at the back yard and he put the wooden box down. Since most of the other kids are still cleaning no one came to bother us. Well they and even me don’t want to face the Gori.. *ehem* the old lady head on for a minimum of an hour long sermon.

He opened the box and took out the sword first. It was a long black sword with red outlines. The blade of the sword is somewhat grey and the fuller is also black.

After that the daggers, I’m quite amazed with the work he put on the daggers. You can’t tell the difference between the two, it’s like two brand new coins placed beside each other.

“So it took me more time than I expected. The red outlines came out as during the heating process which I really don’t know why. Same with the black colour of the wood I really thought I failed but when red lines came out I convinced me to let it be. Then those grayish colors came out exactly where I want the sharp part of the sword and the daggers are. I did all the carvings but I dint expect this to happen *sigh*”

I look at the finish product and for me it looks quite evil. I mean all black and some red lines which remind me of the colour of blood.

“Why did it take too much time and does it have to be black? Why not give it other color?”

“Kid do you think I dint tried to paint it? I used different methods just to change its colour but nothing worked. All the paint just wash off if water is applied or wipe it with cloth *sigh*. Like I said before it’s only the third time I saw this kind of wood but those two before this did not became black. Normally after the heating process it will remain its brown yellowish colour. As for the time well *grins* I overdid myself and increase the heat to the extent I can’t increase the heat anymore.”

“Ok I don’t really understand anything you said but all that matters are the finished product” I said

“Quite cruel choice of words but I guess that’s a child for yah”

He then returned the sword and daggers inside the box, sealed it with some rope and lift it up.

“I guess it’s time to hand this over to Ms. Clarisse because of our promise, shall we?”

We head towards the head’s office, knock on the door and asked to enter. Ms. Clarisse was sitting at her working table holding a pen and writing on something.

“So what brought you here early in the morning?”

“I’m here because of our agreement in the past few weeks. Here are the practice swords, sealed in this box” he lowered the box and showed it to her.

“I see, Hmm just put it above that cabinet and were all done you may leave after that”

“When will I be able to use it?” I ask

“Hmm not until your considered you’re an adult that’s going to be until your fifteen” she said

“Ten more years huh” scratching my head while looking down

“Don’t worry kid, ten years will pass by before you even know it, just be patient. Remember a true warrior do not act rash and always keep his head cool and keep his promise” the wood worker said while he pat my head.

We left the room and the wood worker left.

“Time to go to the pervert then”

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With all those commotion I head out to the forest and go to our meeting place. I saw the tree that the old man slashed in half (or did he?).

“Huh? What’s with those weird patch works?”

What I saw is the huge old tree covered in wooden patches nailed to keep the gap closed and ropes tied around it. I approached the tree and I heard a familiar voice.

“Oh so you came huh, I was worried you turned your tails and back out when you saw me split the tree in half”

“I DID NOT HAVE TAILS” I shouted at him “Some things came up and it made me stay longer than expected”

“HAHAHAHAHA, it’s only a figure of speech besides humans don’t have tails only beast men and some demons do”

“LIAR demons only exist in story books to scare children I’m not a child anymore that’s why I don’t believe they exist”

“That you are wrong, in my travels I encountered different race and I almost lost my life with some encounters. But here I am alive and kick’n”

“yeah yeah I bet those encounters are when you tried to sneak inside the women’s bath”

“WHA! HOWDID YOU KNOW? Well most of it are like that but I did encounter some formidable enemies”

*clearing his throat*

“Let’s just stop this talk and start with your training. But first what weapon do you like to master?”

“What do you mean” with a very curious look on my face

“HA I bet you only know about swords that are used as weapons. But let me tell you this kid, even if you do not possess any weapon in your hand you can still kill a huge bear with just your fist.”

He is right on that one, I only knew about swords since you can always see the knights carrying one. But wait the wood worker created a twin dagger too. Since I will soon have those, I might as well train for it.

Killing a bear with bare hands seems to be quite interesting too; I’ll do that as well.

With that I’ve decided to train with the sword first then the daggers and lastly the thing he called unarmed combat.

The sword training started with memorising different sword stances. Since I swing my wooden practice sword every day for several weeks now, I skipped that part promising that I will continue to do it every morning.

The dagger training starts with running, and dodging stones which are thrown in random towards me. He said I also need those for unarmed combat. But geez it sure hurts a lot if you got hit even once.

Since the unarmed combat is almost similar with dagger training the training will be done after I can perfectly dodge the stones.

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YEAR 302 A.W.

Time passed and it’s been a year since the training with the pervert began. The training got more and more intense as the days passed as if he wants to kill me. Like swimming in the river with bags of heavy stones, I almost drowned several times. Climbing up and down the cliff using a single arm and changing the arm used every ten rounds.

That time I realized “I’m not allowed to do the knight’s training because I still have a body of a child but why am I doing things more dangerous than that?”

Another year passed and right now I can feel the changes in my body. I can already lift 2 full sacks of wheat on each hand which made me happy but remembering those torture days made me want to scream it all out.

After a tiring day the per… I mean Master talked to me. I thought another hellish physical training menu is prepared for me.

“I think it’s time to teach you the method to use your own aura”

“Aura?” I asked

“Yes it’s a method I learned from my younger years. During one of my travels on an isolated mountain I found an old hermit that taught me how to use it.”

“Is it important?” I asked

“Yes, Very important. The hermit calls this aura ‘Ki’ which is dormant in every living thing. It’s a very powerful energy and depending on how you use it can heal or kill a living thing. The nature of this ‘Ki’ differs in every person. Some have a very strong ‘Ki’ the moment of their birth but some are weak but in training, ‘Ki’ capacity can be increased. There are also special affinity of ‘Ki’ like Fire, Water, Wind, Earth and Lightning”

“Can I have all those affinity?”

“Well most people have a single affinity like me, my element is Wind. But there are several cases where one person possesses two affinities, but it’s extremely rare. So the answer is no”

“How will I know what is my element?”

“That kid will be determined by meditation and depending on your element; your training will be adjusted”

“So when do we start?”

“Right now if you stop asking questions”

The training starts by making me aware of the ‘Ki’ inside my body, then slowly manipulating it around my body. It took me a whole week to familiarize with it.

Then he made me do some strange stuff and said it’s to determine what my affinity is. And the end result?

I’m happy having high affinity in all elements but he said it might become too dangerous and might result to my death if I dint manage to balance each element within my body. So I train and increase my ‘Ki’ along with the harmony and balance of each element.

After another year and mastering my ‘Ki’ affinities it’s time to use those to create different techniques. My master is an adept in Wind manipulation so I learned how to use my Wind affinity from him and self-study the rest based on how my Wind affinity behaves. I find it more comfortable infusing affinities in my wooden practice sword but the limit of energy I can inject on it is too small that if I put too much cracks will form on it.

I also learned that I can store elemental affinity into objects so my master bought different materials to know how much power I can store in them. In the end we came up to a conclusion that the more precious the material is and the higher the purity it has the better and stronger energy can be stored.

I can also put a trigger to release the energy stored in an object. All I have to do to trigger it is to inject some ‘Ki’ and depending on the material the outcome effects differ.

The training goes on and became flexible depending on new situation or cases my development goes.

Year 306 A.W.

Right now I’m already ten years old and proud to say that I’m the strongest ten year old in this city or maybe in the world.

This point in time my master admits that he does not have anything to teach me and has long surpassed him in terms of mastery and strength and ‘Ki’ capacity.

“I have nothing to teach you kid and as for what you must do next. Continue your training and don’t slack off. Someday you will come to a point where your current strength was not enough to overcome a turning point in your life. So train and when that time comes be sure you’re ready.”

He then took something out from his pocket and gave it to me.

“I will give you this ring as a symbol that you became my apprentice and finally graduated. Since we can’t share some drink for celebration, come with me ill treat you to some nice food”

The ring is quite big for me to wear so I tied a string on it and put it on like a necklace. He gave me a cloak to wear and we head towards the tavern.

People stared when we walked in and I find it quite irritating.

“Can I blow them up I can’t stand their stares” I said to master

“*sigh* you can’t just harm or kill anyone just because they annoy you, remember don’t let your power control your emotions. Yes you are strong but I doesn’t mean you should use it on a whim, don’t use your power to control others and consume you in the end”

“But”

“Remember those thieves are strong but they use their strength to take advantage of the weak. Tell me do you want to end up like them?”

“I don’t” I said looking at him, realizing on how ugly it will be if I rely on my power too much

“Good now let’s eat it will be your graduation feast even if there are only the two of us.”

We sat on the table and master ordered some food. It was good and I enjoyed it very much.

After the meal we go on our separate ways and now all I have to do is train more and wait for five more years to become a knight. But this time something bothers me.

“Do I still need to enter the knight hood? I mean I’ve achieved what I want and the reason why I want to enter the training hall as an apprentice knight.”

While walking back to the orphanage I’m fighting my own decisions, and then the scene on the market convinced me to join the knight hood. If you want something you need money, if you want to eat you need money, if you want to survive in this world you need money. Being strong won’t give you food to eat and survive.

“I can become a mercenary but the income is not as good as becoming a knight. If you don’t have a good reputation you won’t get hired as a mercenary. But in terms of freedom being a mercenary is better and I want to travel the world like master did”

So to my conclusion, I will earn my reputation as a knight then when the time comes I will quit and become a mercenary.

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Hi HalfSpicy here

so there i tried to put an image/picture/illustration of the weapon

yeah i know i don't have a talent in terms of creative design hehehe

this chapter might seem a little bit rushed but i don't want to spend an entire volume discussing about his training so yeah there you have it

any kind of comment is welcome and just to remind you i do this out of hobby buuuuuuuuuuuuuuut expect this story to expand until the end

so please join me and my SH*T story until the end thanks