Chapter 2: Learning
Sechs was now four years old. Over these four years he began to understand much about the new world he was in. The tribe he belonged to was located in the savage lands, these lands were home to savage beasts.
Savage beasts were animals who’s body was changed due to them being able to absorb elemental energies in the atmosphere, some of these beast would grow larger than the two story mammoth and none were as docile.
The tribe he was born into was a fairly large tribe consisting of at least ten thousand people, known as the Raging Mammoth Tribe. In the tribe his father was the younger brother of the chief and handled most of his older brothers responsibilities.
His mother was a shaman but he didn’t completely understand what that meant. He also had older brothers and sisters but they didn’t care for him much as he was weak and in the tribe being weak was a sin.
From the time he was born till now he never had much strength, at most he could walk around for a few minutes before tiring himself out. Sechs didn’t see that as much of a problem, seeing as how he could use the Ancient Mayan [Heart Devouring] technique to strengthen his body.
The one thing that he found amusing in all of this was his name, having learned the language he recognized what he was called, Sixth. He was told by his personal attendant that if he survived to the age of ten he would be able to chose his own name and take on the clan name as a sort of surname.
She taught him how to read as she had learned from his mother in the time when he still couldn’t speak. This was something that he greatly appreciated as he wasn’t sure if people who lived in tents and wore fur clothing had books or a writing system.
Their book where written on animal skin parchments. Sechs smiled looking at the book in his hand this book was the one he used for the last year to learn to read. The book depicted the story of a young man who ran into the wilderness of the savage lands and returned to his tribe a saint.
But a lot of what was written didn’t make much sense. Now that he could read, he could begin learning about everything available in his tribe’s collection of books. Turning to his attendant, Tekone, Sechs was quite happy knowing that starting today he would be able to learn more about the world and resolve some of the questions he had about the book he read.
In the tribe Sechs was considered an intellectual genius, but what was respected was not intelligence it was strength and In terms of strength he has far below the other children.
Being able to read and write at the age of four with proficiency would be considered good in any place especially in this savage land were only the higher ranks were taught how to.
“Tekone could you bring all the books available to me so I can chose some to read.”
“Yes young master.” Tekone nodded and headed out to collect the books that he would be allowed to read. After an hour she returned. In her hands were three books [Savage Beasts Encyclopedia], [Savage Lands], and [Path of the Strong].
Sechs chose to read [Savage Lands] first, then [Path of the Strong], and lastly [Savage beast Encyclopedia] his reason was simple first he desired to know about where he lived and what his tribes position was. In his previous life he remembered his family being well off but they were suddenly killed and he was taken to become an experiment.
The encyclopedia was last because he wished to take his time memorizing it, considering how large it was and knowledge of beast would help in his survival late in his life he wouldn’t dare skim through it. Picking up [Savage Lands] Sechs began reading with great interest.
The book cloud be summarized into four points, first the territory that was considered the savage lands was as big as the Russia back on earth and maybe somewhat larger. Second any human who lived in the savage lands would need to constantly roam, every tribe controlled a vast amount of land and would stay within it while moving every three to four months.
Third, the rulers of the savage lands were not humans but the savage beasts, even the largest of tribes would have to constantly move about to avoid attracting stronger beasts by staying in one place.
And finally, something that greatly intrigued Sechs, in this world outside of the savage lands, humans and beasts were not the only powerful beings there were also angels and demons.
Although there would occasionally be an angel or demon who would reside in the savage lands most of them would prefer to stay in their own lands.
Next he picked up [Path of the strong] this book interested him mainly because of the physical strength his mother had previously shown. In contrast to the first book he read this one was full of many more surprises.
The book didn’t have any martial arts techniques or cultivation methods but it did contain an explanation of the system of cultivation in this world that could bring a person through what is known as the five realms of power.
In the world there were three methods of cultivation a human could follow to go through the five realms of power. These three were to become a shaman, a runic warrior, or an aura warrior. Shamans were split into five realms mortal, apprentice, shaman, elder shaman, and true shaman.
They were close to what would be considered a mage, they used talismans made of different materials and inscribed them with elemental energy gathered from the atmosphere these talismans would allow a shaman to use spell like attacks.
But aside from using talismans shamans had on other important role, using elemental energy a shaman could inscribe runes onto his or her own body making them physically stronger. This was the reason why his mother was much stronger than she appeared.
Shamans could also inscribe those same runes on others, this is what lead to runic warriors. Because of the nature of their work shamans would not be able to use strong runes on themselves but on others there was no need to hold back so runic warriors were usually at least four times physically stronger than a shaman.
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Runic warriors were split into four realms five rune warrior, fifteen rune warrior, thirty rune warrior, and sixty rune warrior. Because sixty runes were the limit for a human being a runic warrior could only take a person to the fourth realm of power, it was said that reaching a fifth realm was possible but that was only a legend.
The most desired path for someone however was to become an aura warrior, they were split into mortal, aura, artifact, saint, and true aura. Aura warriors used elemental energy and converted it into an aura around their body to strengthen themselves by doing so they were also able to use incredible martial techniques.
Other than the aura the warriors would also use runes. The runes they could handle while only half as strong as a runic warrior were much more powerful when combined with their aura. From the information the book gave, in his previous life Sechs could only be considered to have reached top mortal realm.
That was because of the lack in earth’s elemental energy, although he could not gather it himself eating the hearts of others allowed him to take what they had previously gathered. And here in this world overflowing with elemental energy what could stop him from living freely.
Looking at the final book [Savage Beast Encyclopedia] he decided to save it for another time as his body could no longer manage to hold up for the day.
“Tekone please bring me to my tent.”
“Yes young master.” Acknowledging his words she immediately brought him to a small tent that his mother set up for him and Tekone, who would care for him in case anything suddenly happened to his fragile body.
“Young master do you need me to explain anything you read today?” Tekone was personally taught everything in those books by Sechs’ mother so she had a firm grasp of the content and would be able to explain anything he didn’t understand.
“No, I have the general idea about the content… Tekone are you a shaman, runic warrior, or an aura warrior?” Tekone smiled at Sechs, if she had talent to become a shaman or an aura warrior the tribe would not allow her to spend her time caring for the fragile young master even if that was what she desired.
“Young master I am a runic warrior. Your mother personally inscribed runes on me so I would be able to better protect you.” This was something she would always be grateful for, after her parents dies Tekone was alone and would have to fend for herself but being a ten year old child that wasn’t realistically possible. When she was taken in as Sixth’s personal attendant, Lumi inscribed her first rune onto Tekone.
“How many runes do you have?”
“Young master your mother has inscribed four runes. Soon I will enter the first realm and become a five rune warrior.” She was a fourteen year old girl to have reach the five runes before becoming fifteen would not be considered to great.
“Now young master you should rest you exerted yourself today going through those books. Tomorrow you can continue and read the encyclopedia if you desire and I will answer more of your questions then.”
In a large tent near Sechs tent Glyn spoke to his two wives about his son, Sixth.
“Lumi his condition hasn’t gotten any better in the last two years and he has not stabilized, for him to continue living this way will be hard… And I hate to think about it but when he turns fifteen tradition states that he will have to fight a savage beast.” This was a way for their tribe to show that the higher ranks deserved their spot at the top.
They were respected and followed precisely because of their ability to fight off the savage beasts if they were afraid or were killed by one, it would be seen as that individual having no place in the higher ranks of the tribe.
“Husband Lumi’s child still has eleven years until that time, for now why don't we focus on bringing him up to be stronger. From what I've heard he is a smart child maybe he can comprehend our ancestors [Raging Mammoth] cultivation technique quickly and gain enough strength to fight agains a savage beast.”
The one who spoke was Glyn’s first wife, Kone, she was always more positive in her thinking than him and tended to look one the brighter side of things.
“Kone is correct, he may be able to quickly comprehend the ancestors cultivation technique.” Lumi said this but still felt worried inside, what mother would be willing to watch as her son was brought before a savage beast to die. The only way for him to survive was to kill the beast or leave the tribe. Leaving the tribe would also be a death sentence as a lone person had little chance of surviving in the savage lands.
“Yes the only thing we can do now is wait for him to turn five and we will be able to test him to see if he has talent to become a shaman or an aura warrior if he doesn’t then Lumi can begin to inscribe runes on him early to strengthen his body and ensure he has some chance of survival.” The only thing that worried him now was if his son had an affinity to an element.
The elements were split into Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, and Lightning other than those five was the origin element. The origin element was not one thing but a general term for those who were born with a strange element not born of the world. Origin elements were not something anyone would want.
They were a gamble for power, one person was said to have been able to turn into a dragon or a ferocious king tiger but others could only do things such as control the movement of their bowels. The number of useless powers that came out of the origin element far exceeded the useful or powerful ones.
Their tribe only had earth shamans so if Sixth had an elemental affinity that would force him to focus on any element other than the earth element at least in the Raging Mammoth tribe he would be considered useless. On the contrary if Sixth was lucky enough to have the earth elemental affinity he would be considered a great asset to the tribe regardless of his constitution.