Rathe's Test

Two suns came and went as the Iron-body Gorilla clan had finished their homes and families began to emerge. Some couples had already started to grow their own families, raising the morale of the entire clan.

Oli, like most of the gorillas now, focused solely on his cultivation. He had broken through to low-novice after gathering enough essence energy, mostly thanks to Trada's gift of many cores, and was already aiming to be a mid-novice before long.

When Oli had shown them the map, he also made sure to show them the earth bracers and some gold coins to wipe away any suspicions they may have had about Oli's void ring.

One thing he did regret doing was showing them one of the black coins. Oli just wanted to learn what they were, but he highly underestimated their value. He was ordered to put it away and never show anyone again, saying that it was an oxite coin and it was worth one thousand gold pieces alone. It took him a while to calm them down but eventually, they returned to their discussion about the map and planned to go and explore the border.

The final sun was setting as Oli cultivated his Ravaging Earth technique on the beach to the northwest of the gorilla settlement.

He found it best to train in a cycle, switching between dark and earth essence every other day. On every fifth day, Oli would focus on his soul technique, hoping that his soul would soon be strong enough to interact with the soul jade.

Rathe was standing about ten krin away, watching Oli closely. With a big laugh, he picked up a pebble and gave it a good toss towards Oli.

Thanks to his focus on earth essence, Oli was able to sense the high-speed pebble but sadly, his body wasn't fast enough to get out of the way. In hopes to catch it, Oli lifted his hands and somewhat absorbed the blow before being pushed into the water on impact.

"Ha, Ha! Look at you, all wet!" Rathe pointed like he was talking to an infant.

"Uncle Rathe!" Oli jumped to his feet and ran towards Rathe, closing the gap in a few seconds. His right fist swung out to Rathe's broad chest, certain of a direct hit.

Rathe waited patiently without even putting up his guard. The punch flew past him as he made a simple sidestep in a very casual manner. Feigning a yawn, Rathe extended his arms to the sky. "Come on, Oli. You've gotta do better than that. If this is all you've got, then it won't even qualify as a morning stretch."

Sensing the lack of effort Rathe needed to dodge his attack, Oli sighed, "You're something else, Uncle Rathe. I don't have a chance of beating you, but I'll land at least one blow."

"Oh?" he finally seemed to wake up. "I'd like to see you try it," Rathe stood square. He left himself completely open in wait for Oli's ambush.

"Here I come!" Oli shouted as fists flew from all angles. Uppercuts, jabs, hooks, Oli threw them all in an attempt to at least box-in Rathe's range of motion.

"Good idea brat, but you've gotta be quicker than that." In less than a second, Rathe stepped back and then vanished from Oli's sight.

As Oli adjusted and tried to shift his moment, his movements were clunky and failed to turn around in time. Rathe's fist flew at high speed to Oli's face, who winced in terror, but the blow never landed. Scared stiff, Oli opened his eyes to see Rathe holding his gut in laughter.

"Not bad kid, keep this up and you'll breakthrough to mid-novice in no time."

Oli was glad to receive his uncle's praise and puffed up his chest proudly. Suddenly, Rathe's big arm smacked his back and knocked him off his pedestal.

"But that's not important," Rathe kept up his lofty air, "What matters is that we start you off right and build the strongest foundation possible, that's when you'll stand out. Right now, you qualify to be called a genius. But don't get cocky, that's only compared to the average crowd. Some kids your age have already reached early-adept, and the true geniuses are at least high-adepts. Of course, the higher on the scale you go, the slower the cultivation gets. But there are plenty of geniuses who come from powerful divine clans with an enormous backing. They receive the best techniques and the best materials to help their growth and that's not something we can match at all."

Hearing that, Oli grew more thankful to Trada for leaving him so many things. If it weren't for her help, his path would be far more difficult than he could imagine.

"Oli," Rathe's serious tone grabbed Oli's attention, "we aren't some powerful divine clan with a crazy powerful divine bloodline. But we Iron-body Gorillas can be considered peak-elder bloodline, only a step down from them, and there's something you have that they don't."

"Hmm… an advanced intellect?" Oli guessed.

"Make that two things. What else?" Rathe still wasn't satisfied with his answer.

"Umm…" Oli was at a loss for words.

Arms as wide as tree trunks landed on Oli's shoulders, "You've got balls, kid. You're fearless and won't let anyone get in your way. That's something that those other spoiled brats can't imitate."

"Oh, thanks Uncle Rathe," Oli scratched his head shyly.

"Don't sweat it brat, you'll be fine. Oh, and don't forget to head home for dinner. If you're late, then don't blame me for not leaving you anything." Before Oli could start running, Rathe slapped his back again and pushed him into the sand, taking the lead. Oli quickly got back up and followed behind him.