2 Elias
1300 years after the great battle, Welsand Continent, Kingdom of Madura.
Madura Kingdom is a kingdom that located in the very north of Welsand continent. It's weather is hot and humid, the kingdom is always warm with the sunlight all year long. Half of the year, from the beginning of the 10th month to the end of the third month, the land rained frequently, almost everyday it was rained (btw the months in a year is twelve months and the days in a month is 30, not different in any months). And from the beginning of the fourth month to the end of the ninth month it was very hot and the rain just fall at most four times a month. This season is almost the same in every countries in Welsand continent.
The Kingdom bordered another two kingdoms, in the southwest is the Gladia Kingdom and in the northwest is the Krossen Kingdom. Madura Kingdom is a big country and very strong, it is one of the four strongest countries in Welsand continent. There is ten countries in Welsand Kingdom. The Madura Kingdom is a historical country that it's history can be trailed back to the Great Battle 1300 years ago. The founder of the kingdom is a noble woman of a noble family, the Madura Family. This family is one of the noble family in Great Wesland Empire before the Great Battle. After the battle occured, many leaders perished and even the Emperor died in battle against the God Slayer. The Empire became chaotic and divided into five kingdoms, one of them is the Madura Kingdom, one of the two kingdoms that still intact until now when the other three kingdoms collapsed because of war or internal conflict and became eight smaller kingdoms.
At that time the head of the Madura Family also perished with majority of his mage and warriors. They died not because of fighting, but the wave of the battle hit them to death. Fortunately the civilians and the some of the member of the family has been evacuated to a safe place. As the strongest of the remaining members of the family and the oldest daughter of the family head, Nithania Madura took the position as the new family head. She and some of the mages and warriors of the family fought their way to protect the family and the territory.
At that time Nithania met with a dwarven warrior, they fought together and established the kingdom. Then Nithania married the dwarf and became the first ruler of the Madura Kingdom. Their descendants have a trait that similar to humans and dwarfs, with tall and very sturdy body. Many of their descendants became famous warriors, but only a few of them that became mages. But that trait slowly fading as the time pass, since the last decade the Madura Royal Family look no different from other humans, and many of their members became prominent mages.
The current king of Madura is King Norad Madura, someone who is a strong warrior with the strength of a level 1 archwarrior.
By the way, this is how the strength of the people if this world divided:
1. Beginner mage/warrior= level 1-9. The ones with this level is the apprentice mage/warrior
2. Intermediate mage/warrior= level 1-9. The ones with this level is ordinary soldiers and adventurers
3. Advanced mage/warrior= level 1-9. The ones with this level is usually from platoon leader to batallion leader.
4. Grand mage/warrior= level 1-3. Those are the generals of an army
5. Arch mage/warrior= level 1-3. The people that reached this realm are considered as some of the strongest people in the current era.
6. Great mage/warrior= level 1-3. The ones with this level are the old monsters that lived hundred of years, they are very rare. Even the leaders of some of the strongest sects just reached the lowest level of this realm.
7. Divine mage/warrior= level 1-3. In the current era there is no one who reach this level. The last ones that was in this realm are ten experts that fought against the God Slayer 1300 years ago, five of them perished in the battle while five others died not long after the battle because of the grave injury in their bodies.
8. Heavenly mage/warrior= level ?-?. the only one that reached this realm is the God Slayer Elias Janks who is a warrior. There is no record in the history that noted about an existence with the same level as him.
With the strength of King Norad, there no one in Welsand continent that dared to oppose the country. But it's not meant that there is no one with the same level as him.
The capital city of Madura is Gordon City. It was named after the husband of queen Nithania, the dwarven warrior. The population inside the city numbered to 500.000, and in the surrounding region is 2,5 millions. This city is a prosperous city with weapons, clothes and silks as it's commodities. This city also famous because one of the best academy in the continent is located in there, it is the Glorious Brolin Academy, an academy that established by the archmage Brolin hundred years ago. This academy teached the students in the way of magic and inner strength. Many of it's graduate became notable figures, one of them is King Norad himself, and the Great General of Madura Army, Grand Warrior Lucas Powell.
800 km away, northeast of Gordon City, Tiris Town.
Tiris town is a small coast town in the northeast of Madura. It's population numbered to 30.000, the majority of them working as fishermen or salt farmers. It is ruled under Viscount Lorist Rivald. There is not many to be told about this town, just an average town with it's citizen working everyday to fulfill their life necessity and to pay the tax to the lord.
But there is two things that special about this town, it was a big forest west of the town and a big island as big as the Madura kingdom and its surrounding region. The forest and the island was full of mighty beasts that some of them reached the level of grand beast, and there was a myth about an archwolf that inhabited the inner region of the forest. The levels of beast is the same as humans and the other races, the difference is just that the lowest level of the beasts called as low beast. Many expert tried to conquer both of these places but all of their efforts became futile, many of them perished inside the forest and the island. Even the great general Lucas Powell under the order of the king tried to explore the forest. But the result is many of the army under the General died in the forest and the General himself barely escaped with the self sacrifice of his trusted aide. Since then there was no expedition to explore the forest and the island. But the strange thing that happened is that the beasts inside the forest and the island never come out of their region, it was like there is a barrier prohibiting the beasts to come out of both the forest and island. The forest was called as Man-eating forest, as for the island it was called as North Doom Island.
--__--
Outside of the town there is a small hut standing in the middle of a small farm. The hut's size is only 9 sqm with only one room to sleep. Surrounding the hut is a small vegetable farm. At north of the hut is a chicken coop with 5 chickens.
The owner of this hut is a young man about 23 years old with no family or relative. His parents has passed away some years ago. His father was a platoon leader of Madura's Army. When Madura was engaged in a skirmish against a neighboring kingdom in the southern border, the father in order to save his comrades that was being sacrificed by the fortress lord to raise his own merits, he defied the Lord's command. He managed to save them, but he was accused with grave crime and brought to the military court. In the end he was executed.
After his death, his wife and son had a difficult life. Because the label as a family of a mutineer, there's no one in the town that dared to give them a help or a job. So the mother sold their house with a very low price and moved outside of the town to build a small hut. They were living by selling some vegetables and chicken eggs to the town.
Two years later, the mother fell to sickness, and because of having no money to afford a medicine, she died not long after. It was when the kid is 15 years old.
Since then, the kid lived alone without family and relatives. He continued his life the same as before, working in the farm and tending the chickens. This custom continued until now when he is twenty three years old.
This guy's name is Elias Pledl.
He has the same name as the God Slayer, but it's not something rare, there is so many people with the same name as his.
Elias is just an average young man with low talent in cultivation. Currently he is only in the third level of beginner warrior. When he was 10 years old, he was awakened with fire energy. Until now he can only release two battle auras (battle aura is the manifestation of energy a warrior released, the it's similar to magic that released by a mage). Those two battle auras is 'Flame Surge' that only allow him to warm his body whenever the weather is a little cold. The other is 'Torch' that only releasing a small fire in his hands with the purpose to illuminate the surrounding area, with a distance of 10 meters. At least he was stronger than the common folks that can't have an awakening.
Elias is just an ordinary kind-hearted person, his only wish is to have a proper life with no scorn or despise directed to him. He want to have a family that can warm his heart. He want to have friends he can laugh together. He want to have neighbors to chat with in his leisure time.
--__--
One day, Elias busy plowing his field, he plow it with a hoe. Elias planned to plant some eggplants and tomatoes, because these two vegetables is the most suited for this season which the rain is so rare. Because of the season the soil become a bit hard to plow, he need to exert all of his strength. After plowing a tenth of the field, he stopped and sit under a banyan tree beside the field.
'how wonderful it be if I can buy a cow, it will help making it easier to plow the field...'
'but it's impossible with the money I saved, it's not enough to buy even a calf.'
'hmmm, how about I take a loan from Old Lig, I heard that he often giving loans. But I don't know if he will give me one though'.
'let's just try this afternoon, wether he give me a loan or not, at least I give a try'.
So Elias continue to plow another one tenth of the field before getting a breakfast,, no, it is lunch though.
In the afternoon, he went to the town. The distance of his hut to the town is approximately one km. He is walking with leisure not slow and not fast. Once he arrived at the town gate, the guard called out to him,
"Hey Elias, any business in town today?". The majority of the soldiers know about the truth behind Elias's father's execution, but they don't dare to help them openly, they are afraid to be implicated by the problem. Some of the old comrades of Elias's father tried to help him without anyone else noticing.
"Just trying to get a loan from Old Lig, maybe he will be kind enough to give me a loan." Elias answered.
The guard's expression turned bitter after hearing it, he knows how difficult the life of this young lad is, but he can't do anything to help him.
"are you sure kid? How much money do you need? It's better for you not to have a contact with that guy, I have a neighbor that borrowed some money from him, but he can't pay the interests. In the end Old Lig took one of his daughters to sell her in the brothel"
"I'm just trying, uncle. If he asks for something outrageous, of course I won't agree."
"okay then. But be careful kid"
"thanks, then I will leave"
"bye".
Inside the town, there is a tavern that built in the middle of the commercial area. In this tavern 10 people gathered to drink. There is three middle aged men that drinking in the biggest table. One of them is a fat man with goatee style, he is the one called Old Lig. He is a cloth shop owner at the north of the tavern. But he was widely known in the town as someone who gives loans with high interests. The other two is his bodyguard, both of them are warriors and their levels are beginner level 9 and intermediate warrior level 1, those two are enough to bully the common folks who have difficulty to pay back their debts.
`while those three are busy chatting and drinking, there is a man in his thirties approaching them.
The man whispering to Old Lig and said;
"sir, there is a young man who asking to meet you"
"let him in", said Old Lig".
The man returned to the front door, and not long after he brought a young man in his twenties over to Old Lig.
That young man is Elias.
"so, what bring you here kid?" Old Lig asked him.
"I want to borrow some money from you mister" said Elias.
Old Lig looking at Elias up and down, he showed disdain in his eyes. He thought 'just a wretched young lad, if I lent him money, how much benefit will I get? It won't be much of course'
"what's your name lad?" Old Lig asked.
"Elias sir, Elias Pledl" Elias said.
"I think I heard that name somewhere before, so, kid, do you know the terms and the condition and how the payment done for borrowing money from me?"
"no, I don't". Answered Elias. Elias really doesn't know how the payment is done because he never borrowed any money before.
"how much do you want?"asked Old Lig, he started to make a scheme to make a benefit from Elias.
"hmm..twenty silver coins". Said Elias hesitantly, he tried to see Old Lig's expression to make a conjecture wether he will lend him or not.
"what??? Are you sure you can pay it back?". He was surprised because even this sum of money not too much for him, but for someone with the appearance like Elias, it seems like an outrageuous request.
"I can't say for sure if I can or not, but I'll try", said Elias
"do you have any collateral to guarantee that you won't be running away after I hand you the money?".
"no, I don't", said Elias.
'It seems that I won't be able to buy a cow this year' Elias sighing in his mind.
Old Lig facepalming, he don't know what to say to this lad.
"are you joking with me kid?". He was speechless.
"no, sir."
"it seems I can't help you here". Old Lig said.
"okay then, sorry for taking your time sir. Good bye." Elias excused himself before walking to the front door.
Old Lig thinking about something and realized that he can make this kid running an errand for him.
"wait, come back here kid". Shouted Old Lig.
Elias stopped suddenly and thinking what scheme Old Lig will play against him.
"there is a way for you to get that amount of money without worrying about the payback. If you want to do it I can give you 20 silver coins right away, and if you succeed in retrieving the thing I ask you to get, I will add another 1 gold coin, how about that lad?"
Elias grew suspicious. There is no way the infamous Old Lig will be this generous. It could be the errand is a difficult one or maybe a very dangerous mission.
Old Lig continued, "you don't have to be suspicious about this kid, I am just asking you to get me a medical herb in the outskirt of Man-Eating Forest".
