Chapter 1 Khyree leaves the Northern Wilds

Summer Year 13721

On a clear summer day just a little bit past mid-day, when the sun was beaming down in all of its radiant glory. A young man was seen walking out of the Northern Wilds, he was tall, just under two meters in height. He had dark skin that glistened in the afternoon sunlight. The youth was a bit on the slender side but, there was a strength that seemed to emanate from his thin, wiry frame, he had long thick dreadlocks that hung down to his waist. He was dressed simply in a linen loincloth that had clearly seen better days and a cloth satchel that he had slung over his back.

Behind him stretched the Northern Wilds, a heavily forested jungle-like area that spanned thousands and thousands of kilometers wide. In front of him, just a little ways away was a small village that teemed with life. There was a narrow stream that ran parallel to the village, it was connected to a medium-sized lake. In front of the village, there were a few small family farms.

The young man's eyes glanced at everything in sight and was filled with a sense of wonder and hope, and excitement. His eyes were as big as saucers as his gaze took in never seen before sights. He saw the fields of wheat in the farms, the reeds that grew along the riverbank and the many other crops that he had no names for. His sense of smell came alive in the open air. There were a million new and different smells that filtered through the new environment. He stood there and let the rays of the sun caress his flesh. He loved the feel of the cool wind as it blew through his thick locs.

For all of his fifteen years of life, he had only ever lived beneath the thick canopy of the Northern Wilds so this was a new and exciting experience for him. Khyree glanced back at the Northern Wilds behind him. This would be his first time leaving the only home he had ever known. He felt like this should be a solemn occasion. Yet he could not stop the stirring of excitement in his stomach. He didn’t know what the future held in store for him, but he figured if things ever got too rough for him, that he could always come back home.

All he knew about the outside world was the things he had heard from his guardians over the years while growing up. The most important of which was that it was filled with more creatures that looked like him. Humans. In the Deeps of the Northern Wilds where he was raised, Khyree had never seen a live human before. Only fossils long entombed inside of deserted ruins. The walls of which were often covered in vivid glyphs.

Khyree would often sneak into these ancient ruins and would spend hours upon hours studying the old glyphs. At first, the stories they told were very confusing to his developing mind, but as he got older and started asking his guardians questions about his origins, the more the glyphs began to make sense to him. Once he was able to understand, his mind was blown by the concepts in the stories.

The stories found in the glyphs drove him to find and explore every ruin he could find in the Northern Wilds. Of course, there were some that were either sealed up tight or were simply too dangerous for him to explore on his own. Whenever he came upon those locations he would mark them in his mind for later exploration for when he got older and stronger.

In fact, that was partly the reason why he was starting his journey now to the outside world, to learn more about his people, and to get stronger. As a human child, there was a limit to how strong he could grow in the Northern Wilds. He would have left years earlier but his grandfather made him wait until he felt that he was old enough and strong enough to have a chance in the outside world.

Now that he had turned fifteen years old, his grandfather, who was his chief guardian had finally determined that he was ready and let him go with his blessing. Khyree immediately packed some fruits for the journey and after paying his respects, left the deeps.

Khyree took a deep breath of the fresh air of the outside world. He looked forward to experiencing more of this new world. A juicy apple in hand, he stepped forward to continue his journey into his new life.

A short time later just beside one of the fields outside of the village he came upon an interesting scene. Along a dusty road that had seen plenty of traffic, there were a group of young men engaged in a kind of conflict. There were four young men, somewhere in their mid-teen years. Khyree figured that based on their sizes that were probably around the same age as himself. They were dressed in colorful tunics, and linen pants and had random pieces of expensive jewelry on.

Their faces were filled with mocking expressions and malice as they tormented a youth of similar age, who was curled up on the road. They took turns punching and kicking the youth as they called him disrespectful names, all the while they were laughing amongst themselves. Khyree was too far away to hear the words that the youths were speaking. The youth cried and made whimpering noises as the boys continued to pound on him.

This was his first time seeing live humans that looked like himself, and yet so far he was far from impressed. The scene in front of him reminded him of similar scenes he had seen his whole life in the Northern Wilds. Groups of animals ganging up on smaller, weaker specimens than themselves. In fact, as the sole human child in the Deeps, he had often been subject to such brutal beatings himself.

The difference was that the beings that beat him, at least had the decency to not look like him. No, instead he was beaten by a variety of essence beasts that called the Northern Wilds their home. He never thought that humans would treat each other the same way as those beasts did. In all of the glyphs he had seen, humans were seen working together and building civilizations together. This was not what he imagined his first meeting with humans to be like. The whole scene in front of him put a sour taste in his mouth.

“Could it really be that all of those images were some sort of an elaborate lie?” Khyree asked himself. “That all humans are no different than the beasts of the Wilds. “But then why would all of the glyphs in all of the ruins tell similar stories. Incredible, vivid stories that invoke things like brotherhood, hope and civilisation? No, they couldn’t have all been just lies. Some of them had to have at least been based on some version of truth. I just have to keep going. I refuse to believe that this group of humans can be representative of the whole species.”

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Disgusted, Khyree sped up his steps so that he could escape the scene as soon as possible, he made sure to put as much space as possible between himself and the party of youths on the road. As Khyree neared the area that was just on the other side of the road from the youths, their words became clear to him.

“...stop squirming so much, Daquan Mourntree! You were brave enough to smile at the peerless Jasmine Kimathi. Now be man enough to take this beating like one,” yelled the high bone youth that Khyree presumed to be the main aggressor. He had soft features with cruel, dispassionate eyes. “Or are all of you Mourntrees nothing but spineless cowards when face to face with real men?”

“Yeah get him, Varnan Covenmoon,” yelled one of the youths in his group, a light skinned man with a shaved head. “Teach that lowly farmer’s son to stay in his lane.”

“Hey! Save some for me,” called out another, a muscular young man with short braids.

“I’m sorry Varnan,” said Daquan plaintively. “I’ll never talk to her again I swear.”

“Damn right, you won’t. You filthy peasant,” Varnan roared as he delivered a particularly vicious kick to Daquan’s stomach. Varnan just couldn’t wrap his head around Daquan’s audacity. Everyone in the village knew that he had laid claim to Jasmine a long time ago. It didn’t matter to him, that she never returned his interest. He knew that it was only a matter of time before she succumbed to his charms.

Varnan had been sending her gifts for the last year, none of which she had ever accepted. It never failed to happen, that within a day the gift would be returned. It never even occurred to him that she wouldn't be attracted to him. In this out of the way, Varnan’s family was basically minor nobility. In fact, his family was a very distant branch of the Covenmoon family in Rosehill City. A merchant family of not-so-insignificant means. As such even though Varnan and his family were located in Idlewild they were the wealthiest family in the village.

So rich, that Varnan never had to work a day in his life. While he could have gone into the family business, he had no talent for numbers. Fortunately, the family priest discovered that he had a talent for cultivation. In addition to being rich, being a burgeoning Immortal granted him another level of prestige in this frontier village. He had a loyal group of followers, and many of the young women in the village wanted him.

Growing up while being spoiled by his family he naturally felt all of the attention was well deserved and only fitting considering his station in life. But neither the money nor the social status seemed to matter to Jasmine Kimathi. She was the only woman he couldn’t seem to get. A fact that drove him to endless frustration. So much so, that he often traveled about to neighboring villages in pursuit of a gift that Jasmine would finally accept and acknowledge her love for him.

Upon returning from his latest trip he was driven to a furious rage when he learned from his cronies that Daquan had been seen in the company of Jasmine. What was worse was that she was seen laughing in his presence. Laughing. Laughing, when Varnan could barely get two words out of her on his best day. In a state fit to be tied, Varnan, after he gathered up all of his followers, tracked Daquan down to this field that he was working on, and attacked him en masse.

Taking a break from stomping on Daquan, Varnan stepped to the side to let his people get a few licks in. That’s when he noticed the stranger walking past them on the other side of the road. There were a couple of things that struck him as odd. First was the fact that he had never seen the stranger before. There simply weren’t too many people that came to this frontier village. The second was when he saw what the stranger was eating. An apple. But it was not a regular apple.

The apple that the stranger was so casually eating was a Galactic Starry Apple, an essence fruit of the middle rank. It was a fruit that was highly beneficial for Immortals especially still in the condensation level. It was said to be able to help Immortals to better sense and connect with the essence of the earth and the universe. Though Galactic Starry Apples were not exactly easy to come across this far out from the main cities due to the fact that they only grew on trees closer to the center of the Wilds. Which considering that the Wilds were filled with high-ranking essence beasts, meant it was very dangerous to tread its depths.

So to see a stranger about the same age as himself, and clearly without the financial backing of a Sect or a wealthy family like his own to be so casually munching on one was surprising, to say the least.

Just a couple of years ago, Varnan would have never been able to recognize the essence fruit at all. But ever since he had been discovered to have a talent for cultivation, his father had been using his money and connections to secure cultivation resources for him. Thanks to that, Varnan has been slowly growing his cultivation base.

Judging from the shape of the bulges in the cloth satchel, Varnan was convinced that the stranger had even more fruit on his person. He could only hope that it was more essence fruit.

Without the slightest hesitation, Varnan called out, “Hey kid! Hey slow down, and let me talk to you,” he said while crossing the road.

Khyree who had been steadily walking past the group paused after having been addressed. Surprised at having been called, he quickly looked around. He was convinced that troublesome youth must be calling someone else. Realizing that no one else was about he pointed at himself and said, “Eh? You talking to me?”

“Yeah. Let me talk to you,” Varnan said striding over to Khyree. “Where did you get that Galactic Starry Apple from? You know what, never mind all of that. Hand it over, and whatever else you have in the satchel of yours.”

Khyree, immediately felt the anger rising up inside of himself. I might have given him one if he had nicely asked, but to demand one out of me with no offer of compensation. There is no way that I’m going to let that slide, Khyree thought to himself. All the while he kept his facial expression calm, while the storm brewed inside of him.

Khyree had seen a lot of conflicts while living in the Northern Wild. He grew up while dealing with any number of strong essence beasts and easts and creatures, and one of the first things he had learned was to establish dominance. Strength in body and strength in character determined all things. The weak-willed, and the physically weak were always the victims. Now he might not have been the strongest among the many beasts he had fought, for he had lost more fights than he had won but regardless there was one thing he was not, and that was a victim.

“No,” he said in a firm voice and loose stance.

Unwilling to believe that a simple peasant would speak to him like that, Varnan sputtered, “What?”

Bing!