Chapter 3

“Ugh….think I’m going to stop this. I don’t really like this sensation. Just how those Mage be able to endure this gross thing? They’re truly pitiful.”

Surprisingly, he stops. Yeah, he stopped just like that. Even with all the swearing he had done while proudly looking at the sky.

So I repeat, he STOP.  He even dares to pity all of the Mage in this Greatania. Amazing right? That’s the power of child you know, that naivety and innocence is truly frightening. Beware if you ever meet one of them.

“I think I’ll put this mana away, maybe I should just strengthen my body. Well at least I can keep training until I’m good enough to be a foot soldier for the army….”

See? This is what kids are, they tends to keep forgetting their own objective. You see, in my opinion there would probably not many humans who can even remember their childhood clearly like in those certain manga or novels.

“Hrm…maybe I’ll start with a few push-ups. Training body is much comfortable than to keep feeling those gross things. Sheesh, just how those Mage live until now?”

This is what we call a frog in well. Root truly doesn’t know how terrifying is a real “Mage” is. It is because he never has the chance to meet one of them. By the way the energy that Root had started to sense is obviously not mana at all. Mana is a pure elemental energy that is created from the nature around him. The tree, rocks, sea, etc… is the one which produce the mana. It is pure, not full of negative feeling like the black particle. Than what is that black particle?

Who knows right? *Snicker*

“Hrgh, 10, 11, 12- “

So with a new “objective” Root has start to strengthen his body. He created a new routine to stick with and chose the empty cave as his training spot. He went back to the village at night to sleep, and work on afternoon to eat. Then on evening he starts his routine of strengthening his body and pushes his limit. For someone like him, that is quite admirable.

The village where he live is called, Popolu Village, an ordinary-tier village with no conflict whatsoever. Though, the community there do looked down on him, they still give him work to do. Instead of complaining, Root just done the work diligently and endure the insult as much as he can. But most of the time he just burst of rage.

For 1 year, he keeps the routine without stopping and push his limit towards the end. Sadly, he finally meets the wall on his training. He can’t improve no matter what he does.

“Why? Rather than improving, my body seems to be slowly degrading….I can’t even do the 100 push-up anymore!”

He starts to get impatience and irritated with his routine. Without knowing it, Root slowly loses his motivation on the routine. It actually much more shocking that he can keeps this up for 1 year. Man is bound to be bored and get used if doing the same thing repetitively. But still, his position in the village becomes slightly better in this one year. He can finally do heavy-labor work easily without any mistake. So the employer’s treatment becomes much better and he can finally earn enough for his daily expenses.

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“Damn it. What should I do? I can’t find someone to train me. And my money is only enough for myself!”

Root sits on the ground of the cave while his upper body is naked. For 11 years old kid, his body foundation is quite solid especially his core and shoulder. The repetitive push-up had made his body lean and strong enough to cover adult’s work. Surprisingly, in this 1 year, Root’s mind seems to become more mature and the thirst of being strong becomes much more eager. 

Rather than sensing the presence of mana, he seems to love on working his body to the limits much more. He might be a natural-born masochist.

“*Sigh* Even if I keep complaining there’s nothing I can do. Even my peers now are afraid of me. In a sense, my daily life had improved a lot than before….”

After stopping the push-up routine, he usually takes a rest for half-and-hour while leaning on the wall of the cave. After fixing his breath, he stands up and walks out of the cave. The bewitching scenery appears in front of him.

“Hehe, I can never get bored of this.”

The dark and moist atmosphere around him seems to give him a peaceful feeling. The chilly air which surrounds the little forest breeze and the dampened grass and earth. This scenery is actually one of Root’s sources of motivation on keeping the routine treating it as the reward for completing the routine. The empty cave is situated at the back of the village and it is rarely visited by anyone. In his 1 year of training here, Root had only meets a few people from the village and most of them are only the elderly of the village. But this time, that solitary has been destroyed by a howl of wolf.

*AOOOOOOO*

Root’s startle and his face turn into a panic expression. Cold sweat starts to pour from his back.

Beast? There had never been any beast here! That howl….it should be a wolf…If it just one of them I probably can handle it but….Like I said, that is probably what you guys predict of what he thinking of right? Think realistically, he is a kid with no experience at all.

He’s thought is actually,

What should I do? What should I do? What should I do? Dang it! Why the hell did I stole old man John’s mantou! Now I came much later than usual for my routine! What kind of beast is that? Is it a tiger? A lion? Maybe a dragon!? 

Argh! Why is my luck is so terrible!? I had never meets any kind of beast!

“Must make a run for it!”

But still he did have a little courage and determination. Root starts to run towards the village direction. It usually took about 45 minute by running and it is also one of his routine so his stamina also didn’t lack much more than his strength.

In the end he still can’t calm his heart down as if something frightening is chasing him. So he ran and ran as fast as he can. His sweat start to pour around his body like raining and his heart is thumping like a machine-gun.

Don’t stop! Don’t look back!

*AOOOOOO*

Once again, the howl came back but it appears to be much more crisps and close towards Root. He can’t help but to look back because of his curiosity and what he sees is a pair of crimson eye slowly nearing him.