26th November, 3027 B.E.

On a dark night, the night sky was full of stars. The starry sky looked like a beautiful picture drawn by an acclaimed artist with stars like shining pearls against a dark background.

A cool breeze was blowing and leaves were making beautiful rustling sounds. The birds have already gone to sleep after returning from a busy day of hunting for their food.

Jacob was doing an intense workout outside the house. Even in the cool breeze, he was sweating heavily. After exercising for a few minutes, he took the towel near him and wiped off his sweat.

After that, he stood in the cool breeze and enjoyed it. He was also looking toward the beautiful starry sky. Although, he looked at the night sky almost every night and never got tired from watching its beauty.

He was always mesmerized by the picturesque night sky. It was very calming to the mind. Every time he looked up, he always wondered what was there.

He guessed that the reason his father used to stare at the sky during their hunting trip back then was due to its beauty. He could not think of anything else. It was hard to determine between his father staring at something consciously or staring into nothing.

A few minutes later, when he thought that enough time had passed, he went inside the house.

"Father." He greeted his father with a smile. His father was sitting on a chair near the window.

"Have you done your exercise?" His father nodded toward him and asked a question.

"Yes, father. I am done. I am preparing to sleep now. Do you need anything?"

"No, son. I don't. But before you go to sleep, why don't you accompany me for a few minutes."

"Of course. Your will is my command." Jacob obediently put down his towel and came to sit in front of his father. He started looking at his father's silver eyes calmly. Every time he looked into them, he felt a great sense of majesty.

"Son. You are a hardworking child. You want to be a cultivator, right? Tell me. Why do you want to be a cultivator?"

"I want to be a cultivator because I want endless adventure. I want to see the world and learn many new things. I want to lift boulders and throw them at the beasts. I also want to fly."

Jacob became excited after hearing his father's question. With a childish glee, he revealed almost all his reasons for becoming a cultivator. Though, he hid one of the reasons consciously.

The elder smiled after seeing Jacob's excited expression.

"Is that it? These are all your reasons for wanting to become a cultivator? Is there something else?" The elder raised one of his eyebrows and asked if Jacob had any other reason.

"No, this is not it. There is something else." Jacob's smile slowly disappeared after hearing his father's questions. He had vowed to never lie to his father.

He was already feeling very bad after hiding some of his wishes from his father, such as buying cultivator weapons and training equipment.

His father had already spent so much money on him. He did not want him to spend much more. So, he made a sad face and replied.

"Why don't you tell me about it also?" His father nudged him to reveal the last reason.

"I also want to protect you. That is also why I want to be a cultivator. I want to become very strong and protect you." Jacob replied with a sad smile.

Since that fateful night more than a year ago, the fear of losing his father became one of his greatest motivations to work hard. He was scared.

He was scared of losing his loved one to criminals and beasts. Every time he looked at his father's face, his fears increased. He could not afford to lose him at all.

He was powerless now. He was not strong enough. He was much more knowledgeable now. He knew about the bandits and beasts. He knew the gravity of their threat to humanity. He lived every day in fear.

He feared that they could be attacked by them at any time. If his fears came true, he could not hope to do much with his short arms.

More than a few times, he had asked his father about moving into the city. But he was rejected each and every time. As a result, he made his fear his fuel. He had increased his exercises to the limits of what his body could handle.

He wanted to take it further but stopped due to the fear of his little body breaking down. He was already very proficient in archery. So all he could do was try to enhance his physical strength and prepare for cultivation.

"From who does my son want to protect me?" With an amused expression, the elder asked Jacob.

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"I want to protect you from each and everything that hopes to harm you. I will destroy them all. I won't even let them touch your hair, much less harm you. Whoever is your enemy is my enemy. Their destruction is my duty. You are my everything."

Jacob became more and more agitated with each word he uttered. His anger peaked and his blood started boiling at the mere thoughts of his father being hurt by others. He would turn into a destroyer if such time comes.

His father remained silent after hearing his reply. He looked at his son deeply. After Jacob had calmed down, he nodded and said,

"In that case, I will help you in becoming a better cultivator. A simple exercise is not enough. What do you say?"

Jacob immediately became excited after hearing his father. He was going to learn new things from his father. He quickly nodded his head and said,

"Absolutely, father. I will work hard and never disappoint you."

"Well then, I will teach you how to use different kinds of weapons. I will also make you undergo various special kinds of exercises. That will hurt you greatly. You will feel great pains the entire night.

But when you become a cultivator after undergoing such special exercises, your cultivation speed will be fifty per cent greater than normal in the initial levels.

What do you want then? Do you want to follow both paths at the same time or the first one only? Can you bear the pain?" The elder patiently explained the pros and cons of his training to Jacob.

"I want to do both, father. I will bear the pain for success. I will never buckle just because of some pain. Success is my goal." Jacob made a serious expression while answering his father's question.

"In that case, I will train you in both. Another thing, from now on, you are not allowed to bow to anyone else except me. Very well, go to sleep now. We will start tomorrow.

We will reduce the time we give to woodcutting and use all the time after your lunch for your training. Prepare yourself. From now on, it will be very tough for you."

"Good night, father. See you tomorrow." Jacob nodded toward his father and stood up.

Although he found the command of not bowing to anyone a bit strange but he would obey and would not ask any questions. He then went to his room and put off his upper garments. He then threw himself on the bed like a log.

He had a slight smile on his face. His chance of doing something more was here. His father was going to personally teach him many things. He was very excited about the prospect and anticipated many things from the day tomorrow.

He was so excited that he could not fall asleep. He tried very hard to fall asleep to pass the night quickly. Unfortunately, he twisted and turned for a couple of hours before he could finally fall asleep. He had great expectations from tomorrow.

The next day, he was not disappointed at all. From then on, he was taught how to use different kinds of weapons. After that, he had to undergo those special exercises that his father mentioned.

That special exercises were in fact nothing but that punishment poses that the instructors back at the clan made the absentees or late comers do in order to punish them.

But according to his father, these poses were for the cultivators belonging to the first level of cultivation. They underwent these poses in order to cultivate efficiently.

The only difference between the instructors and his father was that his father had a greater repertoire of those special poses and he controlled the durations of Jacob's poses with pinpoint accuracy. As a result, Jacob had to suffer with bearable pain during the nights.

The pain was not unbearable the likes of which the punished children back at the clan had to suffer. Even that bearable pain disappeared completely in the morning. But still, Jacob could not sleep many nights due to pain.

Yet, he held on. He persisted and did not give up. In fact, his life had become exciting due to wielding the weapons he saw in the racks every day previously.

Jacob found it fun trying weapons other than a bow. He absorbed the teachings of his father like a sponge. He was taught the right posture for all those weapons and how to use them effectively. He was taught many kinds of manoeuvres and stunts that he could pull with them.

He also had to spar with his father using his newly learned knowledge. He sparred with him using all kinds of weapons many times.

In every match, his father used the same weapon as him. But as expected, Jacob lost all of the matches. He also had to taste dust many times. But Jacob was thankful inwardly that his father did not use too much force when hitting him.

After the spars, his father pointed out all of his mistakes and how to correct them. He also taught him how to improve his fighting like how Jacob could have used better moves such as this and that at particular moments during their spar.

In this way, Jacob's fighting capability increased rapidly. He also became more and more proficient while using mainstream weapons such as swords, spears, sabres, axes etc

In this manner, many years passed.

In those years, in addition to the fighting and training, his father also taught him many things, such as basic smithing, weapon maintenance, basic herbalism etc.

He also held special classes with him and taught him various kinds of knowledge such as how to identify eatable fruits or mushrooms in the forest, how to identify various kinds of herbs, how to identify various kinds of ores etc.

The elder taught Jacob about the various kinds of beasts and how to differentiate between them depending upon their cultivation. Jacob learned that the beasts of the same kind but having different cultivations from each other had subtle differences.

It was a must for a cultivator to know those subtle differences in order to identify the danger level of a beast. Otherwise, he would be presenting himself to a beast for a meal.

His father told him that people learned such kind of knowledge when they become cultivators. But he was teaching him that in advance so that he could concentrate on other things in the future.

Jacob was also taught politics and the way of the world. He slowly started understanding a little bit of politics in the newspaper.

Now he knew that the small kingdoms were a kind of vassals to the greater powers, with ultimately the sovereign clans at the top of the power pyramid.

The smaller powers were completely autonomous. The only things they had to do as vassals were to pay taxes to the higher power backing them and try to grab as many resources as they could for them.

If a smaller power did not get backing in time, it would be attacked by the great powers immediately. Their masters were like a shield to protect them from other higher powers.

On the other hand, there was a consensus among humanity that the higher powers were not allowed to declare war on each other. They were also not allowed to grab more personal land in the newly reclaimed areas.

There were many reasons for such a strict rule. The two most important ones were to preserve the strength of humanity and to let new countries form.

The newly reclaimed lands were given to retired war veterans as a reward for their meritorious services on the battlefield. That was how new kingdoms were formed with war veterans as their kings.

That was the reason they used the lower kingdoms to grab more resources. In return, they acted as their guardians against others. They also aided them in other fields of life. The only thing they could not do to aid their vassals was to provide military support. It was another consensus among humanity.

The water in the political world runs deep. This was Jacob's thought as he contemplated the political situation of the world. After he started understanding standing some of it, he became a little interested in the local politics of the Ursus Kingdom, his home country.

He soon noticed that something was wrong between the Ursus Kingdom and the neighbouring Red Horn Kingdom. They were behaving quite weirdly with each other.

He could not understand the reasons behind most of the strange interactions between them no matter how hard he tried.

He also came to know a piece of very useful information from his father. It was related to the sects. He learned that a sect on the front lines was like a boot camp headed by a high-level cultivator. They acted as one of the sources of fresh blood for the war efforts.

It was up to a cultivator in the sect to decide whether he want to take part in the war or not. But they were not exempted from an emergency conscription order.

He also came to know that the sects on the front lines were not original. They are in fact branches of the sects located in the depths of human territory.

When enough land was conquered ahead of them, the sects do either of the two things. One of them is to entirely relocate their branches near the now-shifted battlefield. The other option they adopted was to reduce them to remain as an outpost and form a new branch near the new front lines.

In those years, a significant event happened on the front lines. In the newspapers, Jacob read that the twenty-sixth army had suffered a major defeat in the far south near the sea.

They were pushed almost twenty-five kilometres back before they could hold on. Two sect branches were also forced to relocate in order to not get destroyed by the advancing beast army.

The nearby populations were also being relocated because they were too close to the newly shifted front lines.

The population had to maintain a buffer of fifty kilometres with the front lines. That rule was present to prevent any tragedy from taking place in case of defeat on the battlefield.

Except for that and a couple of exciting matches in the coliseum, nothing else happened that garnered Jacob's interest.

He passed those years while working hard and trying to live up to his father's expectations. He did not want to disappoint him at all. So, he never slacked off and tried to learn as much as possible.