3.

Monstrography took place in between Spiritual and Physical Exercise and was about monster knowledge.

The reason I decided to visit was simple. Besides saying there would be a group battle, Elder Kang hadn’t mentioned anything about where that battle would take place. So, it could be in the first tier of the forest. And even if it turned out the battle was somewhere else, more knowledge of monsters could never be bad, right?

That part was correct. Monstrography was useful. But it was also one of the most boring classes I’d experienced in my life, and I lived on an island before this.

A lady with complete grey hair stood before the blackboard at the front of the classroom of around thirty students. Chalk lines drew themselves on the board without her moving a finger, forming into the shape of a tiny bird with two heads and four legs.

‘The Doublehead Sparrow,’ Elder Chinju said in a dull voice.

It was the opposite of the rolling voice of a preacher, who could drag the audience with them in their story.

‘Not native,’ she said. ‘Like nearly all monsters in the valley. Is there anyone who can tell me what they feed on?’

The elder had to look around for a moment since most of the class was barely paying attention. I couldn’t blame them because who cared about a darn sparrow? We were here to learn about monsters.

To end the elder’s suffering, a skeleton-thin boy ahead of me raised his hands.

‘Initiate Brana,’ the elder pointed.

Fahim was a favourite, it seemed, because the elder smiled fondly as she did.

‘They feast on the sap of ancestral trees that can be found in the third layer and above.’

‘Ancestral trees,’ elder Chinju repeated, tasting the words. ‘Could you explain that term?’

Fahim nodded.

‘The trees within the valley absorb maura from the earth, extending their life expectancy. When they reach at least three hundred years old, their sap and fruits evolve, turning into treasures that can help levelling a hunter’s or beast’s core. Such trees are called ancestral trees.’

‘Correct. Thank you, initiate Brana.’

Fahim’s lips curved upwards, and he inclined his head before sitting ramrod straight again.

‘Ancestral trees have more benefits,’ the Elder said. ‘Depending on the type of maura they absorb, they can offer environmental advantages to those in their presence. This makes them the perfect territory for powerful beasts. They’ll claim these trees for decades on end, waiting for them to produce their treasures.’

As the elder’s words finished, my eyes came to rest on Fahim’s back. Besides acting like a nerd, he’s composed, I thought. Many of the students not on his side blamed him for escalating yesterday’s issue. But he was carrying it with dignity.

Did he feel my gaze on his back? Because he rotated and caught me staring. His eyelids sunk a little, and his chin bobbed up and down.

I chose to return the gesture—more on reflex than anything else—causing the wrinkles on his face to lighten some.

Our attention returned to the elder, who was staring at someone beside me. I followed her nose and had to swallow my snicker. The boy next to me was faking writing down notes.

Elder Chinju turned to the rest of the class without commenting on it.

‘Of course, it’s not as simple as just consuming the fruits once they bear. They are poisonous unless properly prepared, for one. Second, because of the energy they gather, a hunter needs at least a C rank physique just to break through the skin. Likewise for the bark of the tree.’

My eyelids touched the ridges of my sockets. The boy at my side looked up, too, his attention perking up together with the rest of the class. That meant the sparrows had physiques stronger than C rank. Really?

‘I detect disbelief,’ the elder said.

Her eyes fell on me.

‘Release it,’ she said, ‘and never forget that monsters are naturally more powerful than hunters.’

Huh. I shot a tentative look around, then raised my hand when I saw no one else would.

The elder motioned for me to speak.

‘In what way, elder?’ I asked.

She paced forward. Her heels clicked on the wooden floor, and the bottom of her robes twirled above the heightened well of attentiveness.

‘The Divine Emperor, the First Hunter, is known for many things,’ the elder said. ‘Among them is a saying: “Worship nature, my young hunters, or you disrespect our elders.”’

‘Do we know what he meant with that?’ she said.

Her head swivelled, looking for hands again. There were plenty this time around—everyone loved the emperor.

The elder chose none of them and gave the opportunity to Fahim to reward him for his previous loyalty.

‘The Divine Emperor’s teacher was a lord spirit,’ he said. Then, because there were plenty of eyes on him, he added: ‘Allegedly.’

Elder Chinju chuckled.

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‘Never add a postface to the truth.’

The thin boy nodded but other students shuffled in their seat, not quite convinced. The elder disregarded them and continued.

‘Human lords,’ she said.

Heavy was the term leaving her mouth, and the feet of my chair drilled into the floor as it weighed me down.

‘Those of us that have achieved the pinnacle of their element and have absolute dominion over it. They are few but they exist. Yet their power is achieved after thousands of hours of rigorous training. Lord spirits are simply born.’

Her gaze swept the class. We breathed in collectively, allowing the elder’s words to simmer in our minds.

‘Maura permeates their body from the day they churn into existence. Not only are their strength and abilities unbound to their physical shape—’ she pointed back to the sparrow ‘—but their intuition for their maura nature is unmatched. This is not limited to lord spirits, S-grade beasts, or any other rank of monster. Every creature is the same. Except for us.’

I hummed. There was truth to it. The E ranked lupine in the forest were faster than me though we were the same rank and lacked any abilities. And while May was on her way, the flames of the alpha were on an entirely different level. May achieving D rank herself wouldn’t change that. Most likely, she wouldn’t reach its degree of power until much later.

And that’s what cursed me, I thought. A creature which had absolute dominion over her element and could shape it to her will.

My hand went to my neck before I could stop it. The siren hadn’t been on the forefront of my mind with all the chaos. But she’d been inside it.

The elder shook her head like she felt pity for my silent thoughts.

‘We start as babes,’ Elder Chinju said. ‘Weak and fragile. So, we must use everything at our disposal to get on top. Knowledge. Advantage in numbers. Intelligence.’

Here she paused and said:

‘Spying.’

She waved away the raised hand of another initiate, reading the question they wanted to ask.

The elder turned to me.

‘I was a teacher here when your mother, the Tidal, started her first year.’

My circulation cut off as many heads faced me. The elder had taught my mother?

The elder smiled.

‘There was a rumour going around of how she spent her time in the first two months. Did she tell you?’

‘No, elder,’ I whispered.

Elder Chinju nodded like she’d expected it, and there was a pang in my chest, an echo of an old wound opening. Yet I leaned forward to hear better.

‘According to it,’ the elder said, ‘she spent at least four of her fourteen working hours diving through the local waters and studying the aquatic wildlife.’

My forehead creased.

‘Why?’

What was she looking at, fish? What good would that do? Mother taught me about different animals whenever she visited, of course, but that was only as a passing fancy—anything besides a serious study activity you would spend hours on if your life was on the line.

The elder raised her shoulders.

‘That’s for the aspiring hunter to realise themselves.’ She regarded the rest of the class. ‘Important is this: the Divine Emperor’s teacher may have been a lord spirit, yet no one mentioned the spirit taught him voluntarily. “Worship nature.” Or better said, watch and learn from nature.’

“Learn from nature.” The statement reverberated in my head. I swallowed it with trouble. It was foreign to me; I didn’t see the valley as anything besides a challenge for me to overcome.

Mother, I thought. What else had she done while here? I must ask after the lesson finished.

Elder Chinju waggled back towards the blackboard.

‘We infested the valley with different monsters and maura rich environments for a reason,’ the elder said. ‘Every experience can lead to an epiphany. No matter how small. Which is why you must absorb every bit of knowledge offered to you.’

A silence crawled from underneath our desks into the air, which held the entire classroom in a chokehold. I, too, had to admit my thighs trembled in excitement.

‘So,’ Elder Chinju said. ‘The Doublehead Sparrow.’

Everyone had their pen in their hands, and the ink spilled from the tip onto the paper as we stood primed to jot down everything the elder said.

The elder smiled wide and went on with her explanation.

4.

Elder Chinju’s eyes followed me as I approached her desk at the end of the lesson. She had a loving, knowing look on her face. That of a grandmother, who saw their grandchild sneakily open the storage cabinet in the living room.

I bowed before speaking. But when I raised my head, I saw a raised palm.

‘Let me preface this conversation,’ she said. ‘I cannot tell you more about your mother.’

My lips pressed on each other. Rejection had appeared fast.

‘Is there anyone else who knows more?’ I said.

There must be others that had experienced my mother. Maybe Elder Sui? But I hadn’t seen her since the assessment. From what I knew, she didn’t provide any lessons either.

Elder Chinju shook her head.

‘Knowledge isn’t the issue. I know plenty about your mother, child.’

‘Then may I ask what is, elder?’

The elder placed her arms flat on the desk, locking her hands.

‘We elders aren’t allowed to give information on previous initiates. Even what I told you during the lesson is skirting the line, I’m afraid.’

I looked at the floor. A matter of privacy? But I was her daughter…I breathed out sharply. And what was I going to do If I was? The rules are the rules, Djina.

Yet I didn’t give up immediately.

‘I’d hoped to discover more about her routine,’ I said. ‘She never told me much about her time here.’

Though I lowered my tone on purpose, my voice broke at the end despite me trying to keep it whole. The twisting in my chest was still there, forcing me to admit that Mother hadn’t told me much. Period.

The elder paused. She rubbed her chin, then smiled.

A piece of paper shuffled over the wooden surface of the desk.

‘What kind of training schedule are you following, child? Write it down for me. Perhaps, this old woman can give you some pointers.’

I frowned before the connection sprung in my head and hastily scribbled down a rough outline of what I did each morning and afternoon.

The elder made an effort to study it, wrote some notes and corrections, then handed me the slip of paper.

‘Thank you, elder,’ I said quickly, my heart shooting through the roof of my head.

She waved me away.

‘Begone before anyone notices and starts complaining.’

I basically teleported to my seat, where my eyes greedily roved over the schedule.

The first thing I noticed was that Mother was an early riser. Classes started at eight. Mother rose at five to go into the forest. It wasn’t known what exactly she did but presumably she went out to meditate near a water locus.

A water locus, I thought. An area where the water maura was denser than normal. They were perfect for meditating. Maybe also for “painful” meditating. But that would require me to scour the first layer of the forest in hopes of finding one. I wasn’t sure if I had the time for that.

I’ll investigate it, I decided.

Reading further told me the only two lessons she followed every time were Spirituality and Physical Cultivation. Other than that, she chose a different lesson to attend every day.

Interesting. I could see the merit in that. A class like Monstrography was easy to sit in on whenever you wanted, for example. Sadly, there was no mention of which classes she attended offhandedly, so I read on.

In the evening, Mother entered the forest again but not to meditate. The note said she split her time between exploring the different bodies of water near the academy and studying the aquatic wildlife.

The bodies of water…well, who knew what there was to find? Treasures like from an ancestral tree, perhaps? Being under water more often would also help me train my water striding skills. But I still couldn’t for the life of me understand what “studying aquatic wildlife” was about.

For a moment, I considered asking the elder again despite her already doing me a huge favour, and I looked up. But Elder Chinju was speaking with another student.

The short boy was repeatedly glancing at me from the corner of his eye whilst speaking with the elder, which was weird to say the least—

A shadow flicked past me, and my vision made a quarter circle.

The early, noon sun pierced through a gap in the clouds, shattering through the windows. Fahim’s tall back blocked out the rays, and his gourd rapped over the floor repeatedly, like a request for entry, as he approached.