Chapter 2: Early Childhood part 1

Elder Kale:

I wake up to a splitting Headache,

‘Ughh, should have cut down on all that ale yesterday’

Not that I could avoid it with all those geezers around. I peer out of the window to see the sun rising up the Earth Wyrm Peaks. Ahh, late again today. I walk out the small door to my somewhat secluded room on the outskirts of the mansion grounds. The maids and gardeners greet me as I walk through to get to the training grounds with a great deal of haste in my steps. Some smile while the others sigh at this most familiar scene in the mornings.

‘Yes, go ahead and make fun of an old man getting up late, if not for these delicate gardens preventing me from running, I would have reached long ago.’

One not familiar with the workings of the Zarion household might think ‘Who cares about a garden? Just run.’ But lacking two major pieces of information, you could call it an uninformed thought. The first one being that gardening is the shared hobby of two ladies in the household and that running for a Asura is more alike to wrapping from one place to other, leaving complete destruction in its path, especially so for such short distances, as it doesn't offer much time to accelerate or decelerate, so the best way for an old man to continue living here is to avoid running in the ‘delicate gardens’.

As the somewhat irritated old man reaches the grounds, he finds that, much to no one’s surprise, the pupils are here before their master.

“Good morning, Master!”, says Gino with a graceful bow.

“You are late again geezer; we already finished our morning drills...!”, remarks Jillion with a smirk.

“Yeah, I can see that you brats, face each other and begin the duel.”, I spat, looking around, searching for the third one. I scan the grounds from the garden to the gates, not here yet I presume. That’s strange though, considering he was here at this time yesterday and the day before. Did he get too tired? Possible but improbable, he could manage this much just fine, and his drill was far smaller than these boys'. Or maybe he is slacking off? Hmm, that too is unlikely. Anyways, no reason to worry, at this time at least one of the old men who wake up early, unlike me, will keep an eye on him.

As my thoughts go on as such the duel ends with Gino’s sword at Jillion’s neck, applause broke out around them, bringing me back to the present. The sun right above our head by that time, quite a crowd had gathered around them. As this is the only form of entertainment in this rather quite village, all the villagers free at the time gather here, from old to young, as the maids walk around serving refreshments. Today's duel was especially entertaining, Jillion had put up quite the fight, compared to yesterday, todays lasted an hour and half more. He is catching up to his brother quite fast, too fast actually. They don’t seem to be four years apart right now at all. As the crowd continued to chat about Jillion’s improvement and Gino’s skills with the sword, I spotted Katy with anguish written all over her face.

“Don’t worry Katy dear, he will be here soon”, I say so as I walk over to her glancing at the gate. Although he is a little late today, there was no reason to worry, this was still within Zaria after all.

“But...”, I stop her sentence midway, by pointing at the gate.

“Here he is.”

Through the gate enters a small figure, covered in dirt from head to toe, walking sluggishly, as if drained of all energy, with dark black hair and a frail looking body, looking almost ready to collapse. He barely manages to reach halfway towards us, before he collapses beside his brother.

As Katty rushes to his side, I follow behind listening in on the conversation between the tired brothers.

“Why are you so late Zeff?”,asks Jillion.

“Thats because I tried running to the wyrm peaks today like you and brother Gino...” says Zeffross trying to catch his breath. Ahh, so that’s what he was up to, that might have been dangerous. I glance back to see an old woman; she gives me a thumbs up as our eyes met, well if Gazziela says so then I shall consider it safe. Should I scold him? It's good to know he has an adventuring spirit though, and I of course don’t want to be the villain in this situation.

“Hooh, did you reach it then?”,

“No, I collapsed before even reaching the highway...”

“Haha, as expected, you should take such things one step at a time, although at your age I was running to and from the Wyrm peaks in this time...”, said with a smile best described as condescending, but almost everyone could tell he was trying to act cool in front of little brother, not sure about Zeff though.

“Next time, I am going to reach it for sure.”

“No, you won’t,”, says an angry Katty as she checks him for any injuries and then casts a water spell, followed by warm air to dry him up.

“But mom! Brother Zeff was doing it from my age, even I want to see an Earth dragon”, he stands up as he offers his futile resistance.

“No, not until Elder Kale says you are allowed.”, now the boy looks at me with pleading eyes,

‘Ahh crap, not this again. Well played Katty.’

“You can do so after you manage to complete your daily drill before noon without tiring yourself too much.”, I say so with a strict expression. Zeff nods, eyes filled with determination. The crowd around, now almost dispersed, leaving behind some old men and women each with a smirk of their own design looking at Zeff. Bet they were reminded of their own childhoods. Being motivated is good if the goal is attainable, but I doubt little Zeff would ever complete the routine before noon, that too without tiring out.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

My thoughts wander as Katty scolds Zeff for leaving the town without permission.

It has been 5 years now since his birth, as soon as it was known that he was born with 4 cores, preparations began for finding and implementing the most reliable cure. Scholars and Doctors from faraway lands, who have dabbled in the study of Mana core nature, have been invited to the Household to collect data on various such cases from history and myth alike. As the ‘Multiple Core Mana Disturbance Syndrome’ is very frequent and widespread in this era, it is being researched quite extensively and a wide pool of data was acquired without much effort. Some scholars who were reluctant to lend their knowledge from years of hard work, were either moved by money or by strength (offering the services of their sword mostly). Though most couldn’t refuse the Zarion House in the first place. Either way, the data collected suggested that the only way to cure it was to get rid of the cores, forcing the child to live a life of a Pseudo Asuras, but the survival rate for that was less than 0.1%, as a result new solutions were sought after for a century. Multiple solutions were discovered as a result of worldwide research. Prominent among which were storing the cores in an artifact close to the body and removing only the cores most disrupting the body. The research suggested that most of the problems arise from mismatch of the core types, Magic Cores being parts of our soul, which act as a tool which can be used to convert Mana to any form desired or simply put, wield magic. Generally, all cores can be used to wield any form of magic, but the cores themselves are more attuned to one element or the other. This being the case the cores are later classified into Fire, Wind, Wind and Earth based on their compatibility respectively. As such in the case of multiple cores, some cores just don’t get along with the others, as a result disturbance is caused in the Hosts mana leading to hindrance in Body growth and later Physical weakness, bring termed as ‘Multiple Core Mana Disturbance Syndrome’.

So nowadays, curing the run Syndrome includes first recognizing the cores causing the problem and removing them from the body. Storing them in an artifact being optional as such artifacts are rare and really expensive. But whatever the cure you opt for, includes ejecting one or many cores from the body. That in and of itself is a high-risk operation involving multiple variables for success. The biggest one being the strength of the Host body. As the cores act as a deterrent for foreign mana, their loss can lead to invasion and erosion of the body from inside out.

A strong body can resist the force of the world, this being the core principle of the Asuras. This is mostly not possible for the hosts as their body growth is affected by the syndrome in question. As a result, even after the extensive research into the topic, the survival remains at a measly 50% for 2 cores, 20% for 3 cores. The lack of data for 4 cores is mostly due to infantile deaths between the age of 0 to 4. Hence, a strong body and a stronger mind is absolutely necessary even to hope for a cure.

Due to this, since an early age of 3, Zeff had to undergo a grueling physical training schedule to force his body to get stronger by working to the limits every day and forced to pick up skills like Deep Meditation to calm down the disturbance purely on instinct for survival. Deep meditation being a technique used to sense mana and learn to exert your will using it. It is usually trained from the age of 10, as by then the soul has manifested completely. Doing so before that puts a lot of stress on the soul and in turn, it takes a lot more time to manifest. Right now, the tea of Sendrance Herb is aiding him in meditation, reducing the stress on the soul, but doctors say, he may soon develop a resistance to it, and so must get used to it quickly. Therefore, his daily routine consists of physical training beyond the limits of his body and mental training not suited for his age, nothing resembling that of a child of 5 years.

After finishing my breakfast with the kids, I leave for the Necros’ Shrine a forest North of the Zarion Region, to slay some monsters with Jill and Gino. Zeff is to continue his routine under the watchful eyes of another instructor.

Today we encountered a few Giant Mice and a Flame Lizard. The mice being about as big as me, covered in grey fur which can only be cut by a clean slice, whereas the Flame Lizard is a lesser wyrm species known for its fire breathing and hard scales. The boys did quick work of the mice without breaking a sweat but had to struggle a bit with the Lizard. As it frantically waved its tail to avoid Jill’s attacks from the back and continued to fling flames at Gino, they grew tired and had to change tactics.

Gino cast water magic in a nearby pit, which was dug out for a situation just like this. By the time the pit was filled, Jill chased the lizard, tactfully guiding it towards it, whenever it seemed like it would deter from the path, he slashed it with wind blades to realign it. Soon the lizard approached the pit, still running at full speed, the pit was not covered as there was no time for it. It seemed as if the lizard had sensed the danger ahead and was going to jump over it, although the pit was wide, I doubted it was wide enough for a lizard to jump for its life, and I doubt the kids have sensed anything, they still lacked that instinct.

As I thought that, the lizard took a leap, but much to my surprise Jino took a leap of his own, he pulled the lizard down the pit by the tail. Gino stood on a tree nearby, a mixture of shock and awe on his face, soon following behind his brother. The lizard was at a huge disadvantage underwater, its body surging with enflamed mana was soon losing its temperature as clouds of steam started to rise from the pit, by the time Gino got in Jill had already cut its tail off, Gino with one full swipe severed the beast's head from its base, the creature let out a final cry of agony before finally falling limp. The boys brought the corpse up, with a leap, drenched in water and sweat.

“Jill, that was too dangerous, jumping into the pit with a cornered creature.”

“I know, but no risk no gain right.”

“Yes, but that was a risk better avoided as the gain we had was already enough”

“But Zeff really likes dragon meat soup, don’t you remember that look on his face when we had some last month”

“But that’s a lizard, not a dragon.”

“Yeah, big difference, both are overgrown lizards anyway”, both laugh as they bring their catch to me.

“Greatly done Young'uns, you’ve learnt to predict beast behavior, keep it up.”

I take the beast off their shoulders and store it in my bag, a dimensional artifact, and return home.

As we reach home, we see the servants and nurses running frantically to and from inside the mansion. Oh no, seems like Zeff is having another physical breakdown. The boys rush inside the mansion and I follow after them after dropping the prey down in the kitchen. The grim atmosphere of the mansion does make my stomach sick every time something like this happens. I reach the room and wait outside listening in on their conversations, sensing the disturbance in the boy’s body, though calling it a disturbance would be an understatement, as it seems like a storm is rising in there.

“No, don’t close your eyes young master, stay awake at all costs”, says a panicked voice.

“Zeff, wait a little longer dear, your father is on his way.”

“Yes Zeff, I even bought dragon meat today, don’t you want to have that soup you like.”

“Yes, Jill here thinks there's not much of a difference between an overgrown lizard and a dragon, wait till father hears about it.”

“Nonoo, don’t tell father, I don’t want to listen to the stories of him getting his back burned because he mistook a dragon for an overgrown lizard, again!”

A weak laugh escapes the boy’s mouth, and the atmosphere lightens. A few minutes later to the sound of their bickering I hear the footsteps of someone approaching the room. Recognizing the owner of those feet, I sigh in relief.

‘Hopefully he will manage again somehow.’