The trip to their new home took three days and four boat changes going deep into the archipelago to the largest currently known island which actually had quite a large landmass, enough to support one major city and at least three towns with many villages.
That said, the current island was far from that state and all it had was a port town with around 500 inhabitants who were the pioneers. Naturally among these 500 were experts for the safety of the settlement and to put down pressure towards the monsters for them to think many times before attacking.
Besides the leading figure, most of the protectors are retired men and women.
What was amazing about all these protectors is that every last one was single and each of them had adopted as few as two or as many as five children.
When they arrived, they were arranging a house but they didn’t start training, instead the children’s father went to meet the port master and figure out the arrangement.
Within expectations, he got a full report from the man about the manpower.
First off the port master himself was a rare A rank master, following after him was 30 B rank adventurers including Maxwell himself.
There were 120 C rank people and these are split in half between fighters and skilled craftsmen.
The rest are all children adopted by the many skilled and retired adventurers.
Maxwell spent most of the day talking before getting a map of the island with initial assessment and a division of territory.
Each B rank adventurer will form a group with 3 others to develop the land. The first needed job to complete is clearing the land of B rank monsters, of which more than a dozen were located. After that is opening the land to form villages and clear monsters. Finally is opening farm and pasture lands.
The best locations which would work best for trade would eventually form the four towns and it is still undecided where the major town would appear. It might even form naturally as people were attracted to any specific town.
He arrived back at his house with basic rations since the town was still not open to trade.
“So are we going to start training father?” Olivia asked.
“Nah, let’s get something to eat and wait for now. Within the next few days I will be talking with the other old folk to decide which areas to clear out first.” he said.
With that decided he took out some smoked meat and vegetables and began to teach them how to make simple travel food which every person must know to survive in the wild.
It was a very simple meal and they each took out some folded mattress and blankets to go to sleep early.
The next few days he did just as he said and talked with the other B ranks. As for the children, they just did their own thing. Olivia actually asked for some kind of exercise that she could train to grow stronger.
Logan on the other hand just walked around exploring the port town. He eventually reached the pier and found a few men fishing. They laughed and called him over and gave him a small rod and some worms.
He spent the day with the men. To his surprise, the eldest man was a C rank fishermen.
It should be known that the rank of a seafarer and the rank of a land fighter are just a little different. The difference stems from the fact that sea creatures tend to be much more powerful.
A C rank fisherman is almost equal to a man already with qualifications to try out to gain the rank of B rank.
While they fished small fish, he told stories from his youth and his peak when he hunted huge beasts like infamous Metal Nose Swordfish and Mega Sharks. He even said he once saw a true A rank Sea dragon fighting with a kraken. They couldn’t even get near them and their battle actually caused a change in the currents of the sea and the weather around them.
Logan was shocked by the power of monsters and asked, “How can humans even survive in a world where a simple fight between two monsters can change the weather?” Logan asked.
All the older men laughed, “If you ever have a chance to explore, you will eventually understand, child. Not every person can reach A or even S rank of today but those who can are all unparalleled in their power. Monsters use brute strength and their excessive mana capacity but humans use skills and techniques. We concentrate our small power over many, many years of training until it becomes so sharp that even nature has to bend slightly to these few powerful men.” the old fishermen explained.
Logan fell into thought but at that moment the fisherman’s rod suddenly bent heavily and the old man grinned and got up before pulling heavily.
“Ahahaha! Finally caught you!” he roared happily.
As soon as he said that, a loud roar came from the water and suddenly a massive fish burst out of the water.
Logan turned pale in an instant but he felt an arm around his chest and he instinctively grabbed his sword in the same instant before he felt his body accelerate and he found himself nearly 200 meters away.
When he realized, he found one of the fishermen was putting him down and turned and ran to the side and grabbed a large pouch filled with harpoon.
“Stay right here kids, we were charged by the port to clear out the dangerous sea creatures around the island to open trade routes. Don’t get too close or it will be very distracting for us.” He said and pat Logan’s head before speeding forward with a shining harpoon in his hand.
The large beast finally landed with a huge splash and the old fishermen held on to the fishing rod which began to glow. Mana was moving in a very strange manner making the seemingly weak rod stronger than magical metals.
“Feel my wrath!” the old man shouted and suddenly the tip of the fishing rod lit up and a powerful flash ran along the line of the rod.
At once the beast roared and burst out.
The younger fishermen were ready and with their entire body into it they shot out harpoons with power no different from cannons.
Each one had a rope attached and they slammed into the belly that was exposed after it jumped and at once they each grabbed the rope and pulled.
The two biggest shouted for the others to hand them the ropes and after some struggles they all handed over to the two.
It was amazing because they were like two powerful steel pillars under intense weather. They did not even move one bit and after the next attack of the old man the rest of the fishermen shot more harpoons until they finally dragged the monster into the pier.
Without the protection of the water dispersing the magic, the old man grinned, “Die!” he shouted and the most powerful light burst and fried the nerves of the massive beast.
It trembled heavily for a while until it finally stopped and the men relaxed.
They moved from the pier to the beach just next to it and pulled the carcass out.
It was huge. It had long dangerous scales with a white underbelly. The mouth was very wide but the hook had somehow hooked between the many teeth. The body was nearly 20 meters in length and looked like a mix between a whale and a shark but it wasn’t a simple filter feeder, it was a powerful predator.
All the men were happily chatting and one of them opened the sea beast’s mouth before ripping the hook out.
To Logan’s horror, the thin fishing line was actually attached to a hook that looked no different from a small anchor with one of the two legs broken off.
The man easily carried the ‘hook’ to the old fishermen and dropped it down letting him reel in the line safely.
Logan swallowed hard when he saw the power of these fishermen. It made him excited that he might become like them but deep inside, a small burning flame of rage sprouted as he thought that if he could get this kind of power he could personally save his family.
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The fishermen called him over and pulled out huge butcher knives that looked like two handed cleavers, they butchered the sea creature and packaged a portion.
“Here kid, you need to eat well to grow strong.” the old fishermen said.
“But it’s your catch.” Logan said.
“You spent some time with this old man which is plenty for me. Take it, we will have plenty of excess food for a long time until migrants come.” he said.
Logan thought a while and accepted but as he put the basket on his back, he almost fell backwards from the weight.
He had to bend forward and walk slowly back home and hand over the meat to Maxwell when he returned.
“Hmm, that is the large Savage Whaleshark the old men caught today.” Maxwell said.
"I spent time fishing with them and when they caught it they gave me a bit.” Logan said.
Maxwell laughed, “That old man always had a soft spot for kids. Don’t worry.” He said and patted his adopted son’s head. “This is actually very good because tomorrow I will go into the wild with two others and clear a large number of monsters and a B rank creature to open the land for our future home.” he said.
He took the basket with a smile and cooked it. Part of it he smoked for himself tomorrow while the rest the three ate together.
Furthermore he gathered the two that night.
“Today I will show you the basic training form for my training technique. Don’t think this is simply swinging the sword. There are many complex movements of mana through the body that has to be learned and carefully completed to bring out the true force of the attack.” he said and pulled out a scroll and hung it on the wall. It dropped down and stopped just before reaching the ground and showed several diagrams of both men and women with many lines.
“Starting today, you will learn about the human body's mana channels and mana pool, how to draw mana as well as the basic training form. Every morning you will have to do all the swings of the form 100 times together with the movement of the mana.” He said.
The rest of the day he taught them and as he expected of the two talents he picked out. They were soon able to feel mana and after a while, they could move a small bit.
He had them complete the movement of the mana in their bodies dozens upon dozens of times and they even complained that their bodies were sore.
He still made them train it until they could consciously move while doing that. Then he made them grab a training sword and do the basic form.
Very quickly he found that Olivia was the right choice to inherit his main legacy while Logan had trouble using the Nodachi training sword. When Maxwell changed it to a sword which would match the katana, he felt like the entire atmosphere of his adoptive son had changed.
The basic form was no different but amazingly he felt no problem with training the basic form with the imitation katana.
This sent a few bells out to the ex-mercenary as he looked at his son. His eye slowly moved to the sword he carried around with him at all times.
After thinking a while he made Logan stop. “Kid, grab that old sword of yours.” He said.
Logan looked at the sword and put down the training sword and went to grab the other one and pulled it out of the new sheath.
The harsh scarred blade was in the boy’s hand and the size to body proportion was actually within the nodachi training sword size.
“Hmm… train with your own sword from now on. You seem to have a special connection to it that can make you learn quicker and better.” Maxwell said.
“Alright.” Logan replied. He also felt comfortable using the sword even if it was nearly broken. If it was just to train the forms he didn’t mind. He also knew very few common things would probably be able to break it easily but if anything like metal had to be hit he would switch swords.
Like this, they settled into the first day of learning and the next day Maxwell left to go clear the area he was designated.
It took close to a week to find and kill the B rank monster before they found a suitable location for the village which had several nearby springs and rivers along with fertile land and all.
They brought other C ranks to spread out and start killing the monsters and build. The fishermen had the biggest success as they almost always returned daily with either a C or B rank sea monster. Above the C rank fishermen was a B rank captain who led the killing of such creatures.
Both land and sea were undergoing a huge change as monsters began to feel the danger from the humans and after a month, the sea creatures of high level began to migrate away from the dangerous hunting areas of the fishermen.
As for the land, several villages were opened and common people had begun to migrate to the port town and soon to the villages to start a new life.
10 years later
In a well built dojo, a young man stood holding a curved sword. His muscles were lean and chiseled. He had his eyes closed.
After a moment his ear twitched and swung his sword in the empty air but felt a resistance and behind him a cut ball appeared falling after hitting the wall.
This continued for close to an hour before he sighed and lowered the sword.
“Good, you have basically mastered all the basics I know about the katana and several techniques I used on the Nodachi with the katana.” a muscular older man walked out.
He was like a wall of muscle that had not reduced one bit since 10 years ago. This was the ex-B rank mercenary Maxwell and father of Logan and Olivia.
Naturally the young man was Logan who was now 17 and learned all the fundamental basics of using both a Nodachi and Katana in 10 years.
The people from the eastern continent say that it takes 20 years to master the katana so for a child to use 10 years to master it clearly shows his immense talent.
This was mainly a result of the strange thunderstruck sword which somehow helped him learn in the quickest time. Even so his sister, Olivia, was not far behind him and could even be said to be ahead of him as she focused primarily on the Nodachi and learned even more beyond the basics. This is because she is learning the complete Legacy of her father which included many magic sword techniques.
Logan had also learned them but with far less success and instead was using them as reference and was slowly trying to develop similar techniques for the katana. It is like making a new school of martial arts based off of one already existing with a different weapon.
“Now I can finally sign up as an adventurer?” Logan asked his father.
“Sure, it will help temper you.” Maxwell nodded. “Come.” he said and led his son outside and to a different room where his sister was already waiting. “Since you both have fully grown up and are strong enough to become F rank adventurers, I will let you go out to explore and train in the wilds. As a gift from me, I got a few things for you to keep you safe.” he said and took out two boxes which rattled a lot and two cases, one very long and the other much shorter.
He opened the two boxes first and revealed a set of E rank armor.
"I am not going to indulge you two with high level armor, you have to get that yourselves. This is an E rank Steel riveted double-layered leather armor. It is light but it’s protection is very high. The leather comes from E rank Bison from within the mountain range of Eshen reared by farmers. On the other hand…” he said and opened both cases. “These are hard to come by masterpieces I obtained in my youth when travelling the eastern continent. I already taught you both Nuntip continent language as well as the eastern continent, Junpin, main language. This is so that you can travel freely without impeded language barrier.” He said.
“What grade are these?” Olivia asked.
“These are two somewhat famous swords. The Nodachi I have used quite a long time myself until I retired. It’s name is Dahai lieren which means Great Sea Hunter in our tongue. It is a sword originally made from the skeleton of a Sea Dragon of the eastern continent and forged using a special steel which only rare swordsmiths of the east know how to produce. We of the western continents call this Divine steel for its immense power. It is said many mystical and powerful swords were born simply because they were forged of this metal.” he said.
“And this katana?” Logan asked.
“It is called Weifang which translates to Breeze or gentle wind. I've long noticed your affinity for lightning magic as a result of your past and that sword. The past ten years I have looked for a Katana that can properly improve your handle on lightning magic. Wind magic is the most basic form of mana before lightning and this sword contains the innate property of wind.” He said.
Logan looked at the sword and thought seriously about it before taking the sword. He gripped the handle but felt no discomfort but there is no major connection like he has with his thunderstruck sword.
Still though, as he pulled it out he saw the drawn flames and beautiful shine of the sword. He couldn’t help but admire the immense workmanship of the smith who made this.
Still, at the back of his mind, Logan knew that compared to using the other one, he would probably not be able to bring the full power out of this sword without many years of training.
He did think of something though, “Is that why you spent the last 3 years making me do that impractical training of dual wielding a katana?” he asked.
Katana are, without a doubt, a two handed sword. Naturally there are many shows which have single hand wielder but that is easily explained by their abnormal strength. In true practice, people would not use two katanas at the same time, it is impractical due to the range which requires a huge amount of training to get used to using such a thing.
“Yes, I had long planned to make up for your lightning magic with wind. You know the basics of course but it is up to you to develop this into advanced techniques. As for obtaining a lightning element sword for you, well that is not really possible. One is enough for now.” he said.
Basically he means that Logan should use his lightning talent to train the magic and execute them through this wind sword after learning wind magic.
Logan sighed, although he trained in an impractical style, his father did not know that if he worked hard enough, he might actually restore the other sword and be able to function with two swords.
After some thought, he decided not to tell him anything. He kept the sword and the two children thanked their father for the generous gift that could last them a lifetime.
He gave them a substantial amount of money as well for them to travel to the main continent and travel by airship or boat to locations they needed.
He also had pre-booked tickets to the capital for them to register to the guild that would test them and give them their licence as adventurers.
After 10 years, the war against the neighbors had ended with Eshen victory and they took a portion of land from Odriacia but with so much magical weapons used, it caused many chaotic weather patterns and with all the land abandoned of human activity, it gave monsters a prime breeding ground and all the western land of Eshen is now in chaos under monster rule and had to be reclaimed.
After spending the day with Maxwell, they finally boarded the ship to the mainland.