2 Information gathering

A child of 5 years was currently sitting on the floor playing with his toys under the watchful eyes of his mother. This was naturally Hwan or Edward as he was called in this life, ofcourse the playing was all an act so as not to draw unwanted attention to himself. Today was his 6th birthday and in this 5 years he had managed to learn his mothers language, even though it was not fluent but still it helped him a great deal for his information gathering.Naturally he cannot directly ask his mother complicated questions without drawing suspicion , so he played it cool by eavesdropping on everyone around. Him being a kid made others drop their guard around him and they freely talked around him. His vital sources were his neighboring aunties who found him cute, at first it was very embarrassing to be treated as a child ,particularly the baby talking , he wanted to punch the old hags faces but controlled himself , this was possible because of his nerves of steel working as a business man for around 70 years.

The information he so far collected were

1.The mystical world he lived was called Thethes ,magical creatures like griffins, wyverns and dragons, coexist with a number of human kingdoms the magical creatures were in smaller number compared to the humans, this helped to keep a delicate balance of power(magical beasts-Quality, humans-quantity). Currently Edward lived in the kingdom of Saurd which was the smallest human kingdom. It was at the periphery of human settlements and often faced attacks from demi human clans in the surrounding. The other neighboring countries(human) formed an alliance to help deal with the transgressions of the beast men but the Kingdom of Saurd neverthless paid the blood debt, hence it was weaker than the other countries.

2.The human kingdoms seemed to stand as a united front but there was lot of infighting and intra fighting happening between them.

3.His loving mother was called Jennifer , a commoner(only nobility had the right to have surnames)

his late father Edgar Farlorn was the second son of a local heavy weight clan, since he was the 2nd son he didn't have the right to inherit and had to enlist in the army for a livelihood. However he was talented and performed many meritorious services and rose the level of vice commander of a regiment. He died in the recent battle with the wolf clan of the beast forest.

4. The mother and son duo lived on the military pension of Edgar, Jennifer also tailored clothes with the neighboring womenfolks earning some wages. So feeding themselves was atleast not a issue.

5. There were different professions among the humans- knights, mages, priests , tamers/hunters. Each profession has further specializations but those information was currently unavailable for little Edward.

6. Edward had no idea of how these professions operated.

It was around 12 noon when the info bags(aunties) came to talk to his mother. He prepared himself to be pinched and baby talked. After exchanging greetings the women started to talk and Edward honned his ears to listen.

The latest piece of information was the talent hunt that is to be held in a year, it was a big thing among the commoners , due to declining population and dwindling of talents lost in the wars the kingdom had decided to open the royal academy to which the princes/princesses and nobility went to study for free of cost to the commoners. Even though the number of commoners that will be selected were less it was a heaven sent opportunity for the masses.The age limit for selection was 6-8 years as they were only selecting based on innate talent.

Hearing this Edward was happy as he could also participate in the selection even if his talent is not good for profession like mages and priests atleast he could become a knight like his father. When the neighboring aunties had left he asked his mother in a childish voice

"mommy what were the aunties talking about?"

Jennifer was surprised that Edward had listened to their conversation , she had her doubts that her son was more mature, neverthless she loved him wholeheartedly as he was the proof of her love.

She said in a loving tone " little Ed there is going to be a competition to select students for the royal academy. Your father studied there when he was younger. If it were before we wouldn't have the opportunity to study there but now my little Ed can have the chance to study in the prestigious institution."

She was initially very hyped but later it dimmed down as she was afraid that her son might have inherited her talents which was nothing.

Edward further inquired" mommy can i not learn elsewhere"

Jen replied" Professional studies require a lot of resources which an individual cannot afford, it is cheaper to run it like a institution so there is only a single academy in our kingdom. I had once heard the neighboring country of Kern has 3 such institutes and also they are much bigger than our country."

Ed asked " mommy what must i do to pass the test"

Jen replied "I heard your father say that for any profession the ability to store the natural energy of the world called Mana is important. Based on the professions cultivation techniques the usage of Mana differed."

Suddenly Jennifer remembered some thing , she hurriedly ran into the house and started to search for something. After a while she called Edward to come in, little Ed was surprised and went in , his mother was holding a old parchment made of beast skin in her hand and she was excited. She hurriedly closed the door and said to Ed in low and slow manner

"Little Ed before you where born your father had acquired a treasure when he was in the military. He said it was for you but he warned me to never tell anyone about it because some greedy people may harm us for it."

"If he were alive he would have taught you himself.But it doesn't matter you memorize it and i will burn this high grade cultivation technique. Once you can cultivate a little you can definitely pass the test"

"Though the kingdom might open its doors for the commoners the cultivation techniques given will be low grade. The martial techniques are almost common except for secret skills so once you master this high grade cultivation even with low grade martial arts you can become stronger. But you have to promise mommy that you will never reveal to anyone about this technique."

Little Ed was perplexed and overjoyed at the same time, he always thought his mother to be a simple and kind women not one with deep thoughts.

Jennifer also confirmed her doubts , that her son was really mature than a 5 year old kid because his face didn't show expression of confusion.

Little Ed promised his mother and got the Mana cultivation technique but when he opened it he was flabbergasted. His internal thoughts were exactly "WTF**k"