'MHM! Look at those abs! Those pecs! These biceps! Dayum I am buff!'. I joked as I tensed my wobbly arms. The baby fat jiggled around like a sack of potatoes.

I liked my body, it was so soft and squishy. Being a baby had its perks after all.

But back to a more serious topic.

Yesterday was my first birthday. I had no idea how my parents knew it, might have been a collective birthday for all newborn kids in the village, or they measured my age with something magical, I seriously had no idea and I doubted they had an accurate calendar.

The brithday was nothing grand. The granny from day one came back and we ate and laughed, my parents and the elderly woman to be exact.

I played with wooden blocks in a corner of the living room. Our house was small, it consisted only of one floor and had five rooms.

One for myself, one for my parents, the living room, a small kitchen and a bathroom. Fire was used to heat the meals and heat the water for our crude bathtub. We had to flush with water buckets. Not the most hygienic method but it did its job.

I eavesdropped on my parents and the old woman, her name was still unknown to me. Only fragments of their conversation reached my ears. The old woman was busy this last year with school work, I could guess she was some kind of teacher, and she would leave again in two days.

From the way my parents spoke to the woman it was obvious that both of them respected her, they wanted her to stay longer and would provide her with all the necessities.

The old woman declined and left our house.

i was surprised, at first I thought she was my grandmother or at least related but that didn't seem to be the case.

But before she left In quickly tried to analyse her with my mana threads. I was frightened.

The moment the threads touched her skin shivers ran down my spine. I couldn't detect any sort of mana from within her but an overbearing feeling of power washed over my body. It felt as if I was drowing under masses of black waters. My body turned sluggish and my mind was in disarray.

With heavy gasps I pulled the threads back, gazed at the old woman and I swear I could see her smiling towards me. I tried my best to play the role of the dumb baby, grinned like a moron and played with my blocks but ehr smile told me, 'she knew'.

Only when she really left could I normally breath. I was just sitting there in the corner, my parents still talking, and thinking about what happened.

There was no trace of mana in her, nothing, but she clearly felt what I did, she detected it. With a painful headache my parents carried me back to my craddle.

Another year passed. The old woman did not come this time. And to be honest, I was relieved. My mana manipulation stagnated and I was seriously getting bored.

To speed things up I decided to utter my first coherent sentences. Coherent but still uncomplete. My parents were jumping up in joy and hugged me, my poor spine nearly cracked.

I tried to hint towards my parents about my future occupation by asking them about their adventures. Each day I would talk to them, ask about the world and their past lives.

They seemed surprised at first but quickly accustomed themselves to their ingenious son.

Whenever I had time I would ask my parents in an cutely innocent manner about their past adventures.

My father would laugh hefty and soon talk himself into a trance like state. How he ventured into the Whiteback moutain range and has slain a group of Bickerwolves. Stout wolves with short limbs and white manes. They had powerful jaws and could crush skulls in seconds. Or how he was trapped inside of a Parachnea's web and still fought the beast to a standstill until rescue came.

To be honest I didn't quite believe what he told me, but whatever.

I also learned about the world. Elysium.

From what my father told me it has at least two continents. Ishgar and Eribor. It was said that both of them were once a giant supercontinent with the name Kubriem. The continent was shattered in twine when the Netherlord and his armies fought against the combined might of the demon-, beast-, and humankin. the result was a stable relationship between the three races and the victory over the Netherlord Melahchor.

My father was especially ecstatic over this event as it allowed him and my mother to marry, she was an Ashura from the demonkin. "War loving nomads that are not only passionate in war but also in love.". He said while winking. I had to surpress the urge to punch the bald man in the face but I bottled it up inside of me.

In the past the three races were constantly at each others throats but once a foe emerged that forced them to work together they realized they weren't so different from each other. Many suspect it was even the work of the Gods, a test for the denizens of Elysium.

But now, centuries after the Netherlord's fall the relationship became unstable again, the thing that bonded them ceased to exist and for that reason on a lone island in the midst of the two continents a academy was errected, Elysium academy. The most prestigious school of them all, only for those that show great promise and... have the money...

The main reason was to build good relationships between the new generations of the three races but it degenerated into a 'who-has-the-biggest-cock' competition between the three races, where the students had to partake in many tournaments to prove their worth and trump over the other two races.

I didn't really care and wanted to hear about things like magic but sadly it wasn't his expertise.

My mother would always chime in and tell father that he is exaggerating in his tales and he ended up more dead than alive after his journeys. I couldn't help but laugh.

I was already four when I made my first friends in the village. I tried to act a bit more like a looner as hanging around with small kids felt quite uncomfortable but the relentless assaults of cuteness from the small kids broke through my defenses.

In the end I spent most of my time playing with the kids and making new friends.

"HYRION! Catch!". A small red haired girl shouted.

I jumped into the air, catched the crude clump of leather in mid-air and tumbled over the ground with a judo roll. I sprinted towards the line that was drawn into the ground 20 meters apart from me. With my legs aching I made one desperate dive and landed face first behind the line.

"WOOOO HYRION!". A crowd of small kids cheered on me. Another kid on the sidelines drew a thin line on the ground, a score. It was 5 points for my and 3 points for the other team.

What we played was a simple version of football. Each touchdown would be one point, passing was only allowed to the rear and once tackled and fixated on the ground the round would start over.

The ball was only a mass of leather hold together by strings but it worked fine. The kids loved to play football, it strengthened them and made fun as well as being a vent for childish anger.

I walked back towards my team, wiping the dirt from my scratched chin with my sleeves and giving my team a dumb grin. The gril from before jumped towards me and I gave her a double high five.

Her name was Lina, a smart little girl, 5 years old. Her blue eyes and contrasting red hair made her incredibly cute and appear innocent but the opposite was the case. She loved football and wrestling with the older boys and was extremely brutal and tomboyish, nevertheless for me she was smething akin to a small sister.

"Lina calm down...". A shy boy answered while patting Lina's head. It was her big brother, slim and a boy of few words. He had raven black hair but the same crystal blue eyes as Lina. He was seven this year and because of my own looner nature I mostly hung out with him. He was incredibly smart for his age, curious about nature and animals, their inner workings and general metabolism. For a child he was a genius.

"Shut up Erik!". Lina retorted. Sadly Erik was often bullied by his own younger sister, but the sibling love between them was undoubtly there, they would do everything for each other even if it seemed different on the surface.

My mother rushed towards the field. With elegant strides she made her way towards me.

"Hyrion dear, you wanted to practice the bow didn't you?". She asked with a bright smile.

I pestered her for weeks that she should teach me simple archery but she always prohibited it, asying it was to dangerous for a child and whatnot. I clearly made my point clear that I was above average in every aspect compared to kids that were as old or older than me, yet she refused everytime!

"Are you serious!?", I asked half ecstatic and half doubtfull.

"Yes of course, I simply can't stand your constant pestering anymore!", she replied with a smirk.

"YAHOOOOOOOOOO!". I jumped into the embrace of my mother with open arms. "Let's go!", I urged her.

"Huh... alright, let's go!", she replied and turned around.

"Bye guys!". I bid goodbye to the children and ran behind my mother.

"Bye Hyrion!", a chorus of high pitched voices resounded behind me.

A few minutes later I stood on an empty field, trampled dirt for hundreds of meters. Around me were other people training, mostly 10 years of age +/- 2 years. My mother stood behind me, leather pants and a white vest clung tightly onto her body. A large wooden bow was straped on her back and a smaller version was in her hands.

I looekd at her with greedy eyes, or rather the bow. She sighed and gave to bow to me while strapping a leather quiver on my back.

I felt the rough grain of the wood and the abrasive bowstring with my frail fingers. It felt good the rough marterial on my hands, it was handmade and yet screamed 'High Quality!'. My mother was a guard and huntress for the small village Omir. The village was close to the east coast of Ishgar, situated in the kingdom Adrian, named after its founder.

The village was flanked by a giant forest in the west, the Omir forest, and a few hundred kilometers east would be the Burning seas.

Sometimes monsters came from the forest, searching for a safe shelter or fresh meat. For that reason the village was quite disciplined. From age eight upwards the children were trained in survival and close-quarters combat. I loved it as it meant that many villagers were adapt in fighting and could assist me in my purpose.

Back to the training fields.

A target made of hay was positioned fifty meters in front of me. I was a novice in archery but with the help of my mother and a mind that could easily implement words into actions it was quite easy. My mother was sometimes correcting my stance or grip on the bow but overall she had a satisfied grin on her face when I shoot the first arrow.

The bowstring lashed forward, propelling the arrow with immense speed into the air. The wood uncocked and straightened. With a high pitched noise the arrow whistled through the air, in seconds it dug itself deep into the ground a few meters behind the target.

I sighed dejectedly and my mother patted my shoulder.

With her urging gaze I nocked the next arrow. My left arm held the bow's frame while my right hand pulled the bowstring backwards. The fletching felt nice between my fingers. I breathed out and released the arrow. The wooden projectile few through the air, landing only two meters away from the target.

I clicked my tongue and nocked the next arrow. I closed my eyes, breathed in and out, relaxed my mind. I shoot the next arrow. Another miss.

I repeated the same process over and over, getting closer and closer with each shoot.

My nerves were tensed and my body was tired but I didn't give up.

I nocked another arrow. Hurried and with pent up anger inside of me I released it. A sharp pain followed the whistling of the arrow. The tip cut straight through my index finger and red thick drops tainted the wood and ground. I clicked my tongue once again, the arrow missed... once again.

I did it over and over again. The whole day I stood there, the arrows hit but I wasn't satisfied. I practiced until the sun went down. My fingers were bleeding and my legs hurt from retrieving the arrows. The tips were already dull and the feather were notched. The blood on my fingers dried at some point but with every shoot a new layer of skin was ripped open, making way for more blood.

Salty sweat flowed into my eyes and the stinging pain made me tear up. 'Nice!', I thought as my vision became more blurred with each passing second.

I nocked the last arrows for the day. Time slowed down, my exhausted mind was going into overdrive. My eyes fixated onto the target and my arms tensed up. I lited the bow up and shoot.

'Bullseye!', I screamed in my mind as the arrow hit the center of the target. The next arrows followed behind, each of them making its way towards the porcupined center. Like homing missiles each hit exactly the center.

I grinned satisfied and let the bow fall on the ground. My knees buckled and I fell back into the hard ground. I gazed at the orange sky and smiled to myself. 'Today was a good day.', I thought as a broad silhouette leaned over me. Hidden behind a thick beard my father gave me a broad smile and lifted me over his shoulders.

The soft tapping of his trod lulled me into a peaceful sleep.