Jura's hand passed through the hologram covering the trap door in the corner of his home. He planted both hands on the ground and effortlessly pulled himself out into the room. He knelt down on one knee and slightly pushed in three different sections on the wall near the trap door, causing a small click sound to manifest as the hologram was replaced with real flooring.
After walking near the door, Jura grabbed a few small berries and tossed them into his mouth. He named the berries Poison Kicker Berries after their powerful taste and strong liquid poison. The taste was rather sweet, sometimes too sweet, which would definitely deliver a kick to the consumer's taste buds. The berries did actually have poison within them, which was masked by the sweetness. The poison was powerful enough to take down a full grown Gaceon, which are large boar-like animals that are known for their tolerance of poison. Poison Kicker Berries are actually one of the most poisonous plants in the entire Mutoda Forest.
The most poisonous plant, which was named by Jura, is the Ghost Tree. The tree itself is very thin; the largest Ghost Tree discovered by Jura only had a diameter of a foot. The wood was actually almost transparent in appearance. The tree is covered in similar transparent branches that sprout black leaves; the wood expels a natural poison which results from a defensive mechanism, Jura hypothesizes.
He actually doesn't know why the Ghost Trees emit such a poisonous liquid from their wood, because all the life around the trees are either dead or non-existent. The strange thing, Jura discovered, is that the black leaves hold the antidote for the poison from the wood. He used a small Fluro, which is a small fluffy-type herbivore, to test his hypothesis. His first test failed because Jura discovered that the poison automatically attacks the hearts, blocks the valves that release blood into the body, and coagulates the blood. It allows blood to flow into the heart and coagulate but not flow out, which causes the heart to explode from the pressure within it.
Unfortunately, Jura did not know of the poison's effects at the time so the Fluro had already perished before he gave it the antidote. He dissected the Fluro to reveal the poison's effects. After identifying the effects, Jura tested it once again to record the amount of time for the poison to take effect. The time it took for the poison to attack the heart was about ten seconds. After that, the antidote would be ineffective in stopping the poison. Jura would know because he tested it multiple times. Poor Fluros.
He tried using other antidotes to stop the poison, however, only the black leaves were strong enough to cure it. Unless the thing poisoned had a unique power or equipment, it would definitely die.
Back to the Poison Kicker Berries. Jura isn't effected by their poison because of his special equipment. Actually, it was safe to say that is was actually technology. After he traveled into the forest when his village was destroyed, he happened upon a hidden piece of technology. That sci-fi-like item was not the only one, however.
Hundreds of years before Jura was born, items called Breakers began to appear after a great explosion had occurred on an island in the middle of an ocean. So far, more than 800,000 Breakers had been discovered. There were two different groups of Breakers: The Numbered and the Lettered Breakers.
Numbered Breakers usually have normal power-types like swords that give the user the ability to create waves of fire and what-not. Lettered Breakers are the real unique ones because their powers are all completely unexplained. Only seventeen Lettered have been discovered, apparently, which is a whole lot smaller than the 800,000 Numbered Breakers.
The Breakers that Jura happened upon was Breaker Z. It gives him great regenerative powers for his entire body. Not only that, but every area that heals is granted more strength than before. Obviously Jura took advantage of such an ability; who wouldn't? He vigorously trains everyday to tear his muscle fibers in every single part of his body. His Breaker heals those muscles and strengthens them significantly more than normal workouts would. However, the increase isn't that much in the short term. Jura had been doing such workouts for about ten years. Not only that, but he also forced himself to go through excruciating pain in order to increase the strength of his skin, eyes, bones, and everything else. His master, Vilis, personally helped with the process of strengthening the more hard-to-reach areas.
Due to such harsh training and strengthening methods, Jura's skin alone is stronger than steel. His bones are capable of withstanding tremendous amounts of weight and his muscles give him the ability to lift gigantic boulders that weigh several tons. The reason why he eats poisonous foods is to strengthen his organs and other insides. Not only that, but he enjoys the sweetness of Poison Kicker Berries. To him, the poison inside the berries is just an extra. The poison had long become ineffective against him as his organs had become too resistant.
Jura walked next to the pond, looked into it, and dipped his hand into the waters. A few small fish swam to his hand and nibbled on his fingers, tickling him. He faintly smiled as he let the fish brush past his fingers before lifting his hand out of the clear water and moved down the path he always travels upon. However, this time, Jura sprinted.
Along the way to the river a mile down the path, Jura would look for and pick up perfectly round stones. They were big enough to fit in his palm and small enough to not be a nuisance. He stuffed them into the several pockets in his uniform and quickly proceeded onward.
Each breath he took created puffs of visible carbon dioxide in the air. Because of the chilling wind that blasted against his face, small traces of frost started to materialize. Although his hair was already white, the small traces of ice crystals caused the sunlight to flicker in his hair. The frost on his eyelashes were more accented in-front of his dark blue eyes that seemed to be as deep as an ocean.
He arrived at the river in just under two and a half minutes. The rushing water rendered frost incapable of forming. However, it was still as cold as ice. If someone fell into the river and somehow escaped, they would have to strip their clothing off immediately and huddle near a fire just to survive. If the person was capable of using fire magic, their chances of survival would instantly skyrocket.
Some magicians that specialized in ice or water magic would naturally travel to such places. Water magicians that prefer water as a liquid than a solid would train near ice-cold rivers that still had flowing water to try to comprehend the reason why the water could be so cold yet not frozen solid. Flesh practitioners would sometimes use intensely cold areas like rivers in the middle of the winter to temper their bodies and bolster resistance. Unfortunately, that method is also how many magicians and flesh practitioners die.
However, Jura had no problem with this as he just simply jumped over the river to the other side. The river itself wasn't that wide; it was about ten meters wide. That small distance was easy for Jura to successfully jump across. Although he is incapable of using magic, his Breaker would heal him if his body temperature became too low. That also increased his resistance against the cold. A similar method was used to increase his resistance against hotter temperatures, which was a type of body training that Jura absolutely despised.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
After jumping over the river, Jura quickly traveled the remaining distance through the forest. He passed by several different animals that instantly recognized Jura's black clothing and white hair. Some instantly ran away while a few simply bowed their heads towards him. The few that showed submissive nature toward Jura were naturally the strongest of the animals in the Mutoda Forest. Jura personally battled against those animals. When he first began training, Jura was under Vilis's watch as he fought against those animals. However, after several years, Jura was capable of defeating those many animals without Vilis's interference. This caused those animals to respect Jura for not only vastly improving his strength but also for defeating them in a fair one-on-one fight.
There was one animal that Jura had never dared to fight against. That animal was the White Mutoda, a large tiger-like animal that had ferocious black claws which were very apparent among its lush white fur. It had a black metallic spine that ran down from it head to its tail. Small spikes jutted out from its spine and it was capable of shooting those spikes out if it was desperate. Its three eyes were suited for high-speed and group battles. It could individually control each eye to look wherever the eyes were able to move. It was three meters tall on all fours, which allows it to look down at Jura when he stands next to it. One of the reasons why he wouldn't fight it was because it caused him to discover Breaker Z. That alone created a sense of respect and, for lack of a better word, companionship that would never be broken.
After exiting the forest, Jura entered a large, grassy plain that had a few large hills placed randomly around. Forty miles northeast was the large trade city of Kard. The Darli River, which began in the Mutoda Forest because of a giant mountain, ran straight past Kard City. The river rushed past the city and into the vast Luoa Ocean, where a giant ship dock was located to allow traders to sail from other continents. Kard was actually one of four major trade cities; the other three being Dreim City, Todon City, and Zila City. Of course, each city had a large military force capable of defending the city if it was needed.
Kard City was where Jura's academy was located as well. Because Jura was seventeen and in need of education pertaining to the world's workings, history, and other information, Vilis recommended Jura to go to the academy. It would also give Jura a better identity as a student rather than the Destruction Squad's vice-captain of the Black Market. The academy has its other uses and also allows Jura to not become more of a shut-in than he already was, which was mainly caused by his research.
The road leading into Kard led to a separate production city called Vimdun City. The name was taken from an ancient race that practiced forging to a very high extent. Unfortunately, that race, the Forions, met their end when the Human King of the time wanted to take their technology for himself. The Human King ended up discovering that the Forions forging methods were passed down through tongue and experience rather than paper. In his anger, he tortured the remaining Forions in order to obtain their knowledge. However, he was only met with more misfortune as none of the Forions spilled their secrets. That Human King had basically massacred an entire race for nothing. The only reason some people used Forion names is to give some respect towards them, even though those events occurred almost two thousand years ago.
Vimdun and Kard would trade resources and items all the time. Kard was unable to forge their own weaponry because the architect that built the city had miscalculated by a large margin. The error was only caught after the entire city was already completed, so the architect was executed and Vimdun city was built nearby. The reason Vimdun was built as an entirely separate city was to allow skillers, which is the name of those who practice certain skills, to practice their crafts among other skillers. Vimdun attracted large amounts of skillers, and, because Vimdun was always sufficiently supplied, its reputation grew even larger. Thus, it became a major city for skillers. Though it wasn't a great place to start if you're a beginner.
The caravan that was traveling from Vimdun to Kard held a secret prototype weapon that, if successful, would be capable of matching up to the Artificial Breakers created by BBU, or Breaking Breakers United. BBU was responsible for the Breaker Academies being built and they led the journey of discovering new Breakers around the world. In a way, the academies were like military training schools and graduates are usually recruited by BBU.
Anyway, the reason why members of the Destruction Squad were dispatched was to destroy the caravan, steal any papers related to the weapon, take pictures of the weapon, then destroy it. Jura would then obtain the information about the weapon, to which he would have to try to reconstruct the weapon or at least explain what it was. Of course, reverse-engineering technology was incredibly difficult for normal people. However, Jura's own understanding of science was far above anyone else's, even his father's. Although, without his father's blueprints and notebooks, Jura would have never accomplished anything scientific.
The Destruction Squad members were quite powerful, as everyone was equipped with a Numbered Breaker. However, some Numbers were weaker than others. Spirit Masters on the other hand were very powerful, because only a magicians capable of controlling the rare Spirit element would be able to contract with a Spirit Beast. That increases the magician's power by several folds instantly, thus making them more powerful than almost all Numbered Breakers. That is fact in one-on-one battles, of course.
Jura assumed the only reason why the DS (Destruction Squad) members had trouble was because the Spirit Master was capable of flight. That, coupled with the Darkness element, would bring about a large amount of destruction because Darkness attacks corrode and breakdown all matter, including Numbered Breakers. Fortunately, Lettered Breakers were special in that they could be absorbed into the body of the host.
Jura felt excited about encountering a Darkness Spirit Master. He had fought against dark magicians before, however, their power is nowhere near a Darkness Spirit Master. Jura wanted to test his body's durability in the face of real power.
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Second chapter released, woohoo! As you can tell, these starting chapters will slowly introduce the world as Jura travels to and from Kard city and Mutoda Forest. Also, for those who have experience with fictions such as these, you know that they tend to be a bit longer and slower. If you're a reader that is looking for a thriller fiction, you're in the wrong place.
Of course, this story will feature action scenes (why wouldn't it) and other...scenes...but it will most likely take more time to get to them. Once most of the world building is complete, the plot will begin to take over more quickly. I don't know when that'll be though.
Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed. Time to finish Modern Deity's chapter. :)