Sam was eight years old now and had done a lot of growing up. He looked taller and more mature compared to the typical eight-year-old boy. His hair was curly and a deep black, likely inherited from his mother’s genes. His body, was lean and he wore grey trousers with and a black shirt with a sheathed sword hanging at his waist.

On the sword’s hilt was tied a torn piece of cloth that he had scraped from his father’s shirt when he won his first successful swordsmanship duel a few weeks prior. Granted, he had tripped on his thoughts which caused him to haphazardly change his attack and catch his father unawares. But that was beside the point.

“A win is a win,” his father had said. “Only weaklings make excuses. You learn from your losses and move on.”

“What have you learned from this loss, papa?” Sam countered jokingly.

“…” Aziel didn’t even humour that with a response. Kids sure are cocky these days.

On this day, crunching sounds of dried leaves being crushed under the weight of boots filled the air as Sam pushed aside a thick shrubbery about waist height to expose a benign looking green grass. Each plant had three blades and it grew to about a foot in height. In this particular location, there were about five such plants growing together. This was a rare herb that he had spent the better part of the late morning looking for.

Today, aside from his usual quota of herbs to pick, his mother had tasked him with looking for the ingredients for the Mana restoration pill.

After he mastered the herbs in the garden more than a year ago, his mother had tasked him with growing a few seeds and seedlings she had given him. She said that he was supposed to grow them till they looked like the ones she had in her garden in the compound. From that day on, he had toned down his reading of history of the world’s paragons to reading about herbology.

The herb compendium often mentioned a few of the pills and elixirs that the herb was a main ingredient in. It was here that his interest was piqued and he started to read more about alchemy and herbology in general. He would read about things like the aether restoration pill that helped one restore aether energy, soul nourishing elixir that would help injured souls.

He had never heard of many of the pills mentioned in the book but their effects sounded miraculous. It was on one such day that his mother found him reading an alchemy book that she decided to teach him alchemy. Thus, she would assign him plants and herbs to look for in the forest as an assignment.

Today however, was a special day. Sam had finally opened up all of his 20 meridians and was ready to progress to the mana condensation stage. If the books he read was anything to go by, then this should be the first step on his path to being a powerhouse.

Apparently, the so-called innate body stage that his father told him about wasn’t even a real stage at all. According to his father’s revised teachings, every person would naturally open their meridians and acupoints as they matured, the only difference was on the fitness of the person. A fit and healthy person would naturally have more acupoints and meridians opened as opposed to an unfit and obese one. The latter would have numerous clogged meridians which would disrupt the energy flow of their body.

While it was not impossible to condense mana with clogged meridians, it was painfully slow and inefficient. Therefore, it was standard practice for a person to have their meridians opened before stepping into the mana condensation stage as this would make mana gathering easier and smoother.

Sam squinted his eyes as he gazed at the sun through the tree foliage. He calculated the time to be about noon from its position. Today was the furthest he had ever ventured away from home alone. For the past two years he had made multiple forays into the wilderness but he never encountered anything too dangerous. The most had been a large bear that seemed to be looking for a place to hibernate.

The bear was fearsome and disgustingly strong. He had learned that the hard way. Sam only clashed with it once but the force behind its attack was enough to send the sword in his hand flying and nearly shatter all the bones in his hands. Luckily, he hadn’t taken the blow directly and only suffered fractured forearms and a dislocated shoulder.

The boy was scared witless!

He disregarded any and all delusions that he was some mighty figure from the books he read and run as fast as he could. It took all of Sam’s strength to weave and roll out of the trajectory of its attacks. It wasn’t until he made it to the fence of his house that the grizzly gave up the chase. From that day on he vowed for the umpteenth time that he would focus on the sword and grow strong!

Rustle!

Sam was still thinking about how he would be one step closer to his goal of ultimate invincibility after he reached mana condensation when he heard rustling nearby. His ear twitched as his mind went on full alert.

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His face fell into a serious expression and his eyes sharpened. He slowly and silently unsheathed his sword as his muscles tightened.

He continued to listen but he soon found something peculiar. The forest was still active and he could still hear birds chirping in the tall trees. This meant that whatever was close to him wasn’t strong, if there was even something close to begin with.

“Phew…” exhaling softly, Sam made his way to the rustling as silently as he could.

As he got closer, the rustling was accompanied by a soft hissing and sputtering sound. Curious, Sam continued on stealthily.

Another tree ape urinating, perhaps… Sam thought to himself.

Indeed, it was as he had suspected. As he drew closer, he did indeed see the animal that was relieving itself. It was no tree ape but rather a human!

Back arched slightly backward, legs apart and Excalibur drawn! The man freed himself of all inhibitions as he whistled to the tune of steamy hot liquid sputtering on the thicket in front of him.

“Haaah…” with a final shake for good measure, the man sheathed his ‘sword’ before turning around and walking in the opposite direction.

“For how long do we have to stay in this god forsaken forest?” came the raspy voice of the man. He looked dishevelled and poorly kempt.

Sam followed the man as quietly as he could. This was his first time seeing another person aside from his parents. Naturally, he was curious. However, curiosity was curiosity and foolhardiness was foolhardiness. The man did not look like the kind sort with his rugged and travel-worn appearance that didn’t seem to have gone through any kind of grooming for weeks. Thus, he decided to follow along from the shadows and observe the stranger. Luckily, the tree canopy only allowed a scant few rays of sunlight to reach the ground so hiding wasn’t too big a problem for someone who knew what they were doing.

***

Not far away.

“Hey leader, why did you bring us out here?” a gruff sounding voice echoed over the cacophony of conversation. The man was tall and well-built with the entire right arm burned up to the elbow. The man didn’t seem to mind the disfiguration and rather wore it as a badge of honour.

Standing up from his seated position over an exposed tree root, he made his way to a group of six men who sat in a circle and conversed over alcohol. The very picture of carefreeness, they laughed at the top of their lungs as they hurled insults at each other. One might even mistake the place for a tavern.

“Huh?” The leader was somewhat startled by the abrupt question but quickly broke into a wide grin. “Trust me fellas, it’s a big fish this time.”

The leader was a shorter than the average adult and his stocky physique did not do him any favors. However, while his stature might be modest, he was not to be underestimated. This could be seen by the wide berth others gave him. The exceptions were the group of people that he was seated with at the moment. They seemed to be as close as brothers as they laughed and cursed at each other.

“Yeah yeah, you said that already,” by this time the taller man had made his way back to the group. He lit a cigarette before plopping himself on the ground beside the leader. “We normally get our own jobs or go through the guild. Are you sure we can trust the source?”

The leader was silent for a while.

“We can trust their money. They paid up front. With this amount, it should be a good enough split to move to a city and get citizenship. Maybe even buy a house.” The leader shrugged as he took another swig of the alcohol flask he held in his hand. “We can finally leave the scavenger life behind.”

The taller man exhaled a cloud of smoke before lifting his head to look at the sky through the obstruction of the tall trees. The scene seemed to remind him of his life. The tree branches and foliage akin to the metaphorical obstacles that blocked his path to true freedom. Day after day, he slogged in the undergrowth of society like an ant unable to escape the quagmire.

He exhaled once more before taking a swig of the alcohol in the leader’s flask.

“I trust you, leader,” the taller man said while wiping the cheap liquor that trickled down the side of his mouth. “I just have a bad feeling is all.”

“Hmm,” the leader nodded. “We’ve got some famous scavenger groups and I recognized a few guys from the Black Wind Gang. If I’m not mistaken, some big shot is either looking for canon fodder or he’s looking for a scapegoat…”

“Trouble either way.” This time it was neither of the two who spoke but another of the seven-man group. This man was more kempt and exuded a faint heroic presence about him.

The group fell silent.

“In any case,” It was the leader who broke the silence, “we don’t have to work too hard. Just stay together and don’t stand out. If things get too dicey, we run.”

“Plus, we don’t even know what the job is,” added another of the group with a chuckle. “It may not even be all that hard.”

“…” silence was the man’s only response. There was no such thing as a free lunch. They all knew this. The easier the money seemed to be the heavier it weighed in their pockets.

Whoosh! Thwak!

It was at this moment that they noticed a commotion with a group camped a few meters ahead of them. It was the Black Wind Gang.

One of their members had shot an arrow at a tree. The group turned their attention in that direction with mild curiosity.

The arrow was followed by a yelp and a rustling of leaves.

The archer clicked his tongue and drew another arrow. More seriously this time, the arrow sliced through air as it whizzed towards its target.

Clang!

“Ahh!”

This time the scream was accompanied by a clang of metal. Then a figure was seen rolling out of the thicket before scampering to its feet and running off into the forest.

“A kid?”

The leader of the seven-man group and the archer said in unison.