To Become Stronger!
The town of Junn, an ordinary town located within the Kingdom of Crescent Moon, north of Fusha Mountain Range, the only mountain range in the Sephic Continent aside from the forbidden areas.
The sun was only about to rose but almost all of the citizens in this small town had already come out to begin working. Some of them are mostly around six-or-seven years old, compared to those children from noble families the children in this small town had already gotten out of their bed and already began their morning exercises.
In an open ground at the west region of the town a large group of children can be seen there. Roughly around one or two hundred in number, these group of children are divided into two groups and in each group the children are divided into several lines. They lined up uniformly that if you don't look carefully you might mistaken them for a platoon of warriors.
Standing in front of them were three middle-aged men with well developed and robust body. Sweeping their gazes to the group of children with a satisfied smile on their wrinkled faces. Behind was a two meter tall box, which was made of wood but you can see that the workmanship was neat.
"If you want to become a strong warrior then you must work hard from youth" the leader of the middle-aged men, with his head held high proudly and his hands behind his back. He coldly look around the group and all the children straighten their bodies and didn't dare to utter any words.
The name of the leader was Proto. He was in charge on managing the guards of the town while he also train this group of children in the morning. He believed that as long as Junn town produce another warrior they will surely rise and develop their town.
"All of you are commoners. Not like those noble families, you won't have any access into secret manuals and a lot of resources on aiding to your cultivation." he stop and looked at the dejected faces of these children before he continued speaking. "But it is not like you won't have any chance to become one." after saying that the dejected faces of the children around him suddenly become excited and immediately losing control of themselves.
Looking at the easily distracted children in front of him he was slightly disappointed but his gaze was attracted to a small youth at the corner of the group. If it weren't for the group's unrestrained excitement he would have never notice this youth.
Although this youth had greater control of his excitement it still cannot hide the small hint of it on his immature face.
He then quickly moved his attention back to the wild laughter of these children and said. "A great warrior is not only strong. A great warrior must also have self discipline and must be hardworking. Although we don't have any secret manuals or resources then we will use the ancient way of training our bodies."
The children nodded hurriedly in unison, none of them could hide the excitement on their faces.
A great warrior! It is the dream of almost all of the children in this small town. If you're a great warrior then you will have a lot of privileges and will be treated with respect.
"Our ancestors had become great warriors without the use of these secret manuals. What they have only done was to work hard and train their bodies to the extreme and continuously breakthrough their limits." he sounded proud, being a descendant of these great warriors is a great honor.
Almost all of the male in the Sephic Continent would exercise very hard from a very young age. And in the future, anyone who slacked off would be looked down by others. Power determines a man's status in this strength based hierarchy. A man without power will be looked down upon even by women.
If you want your parents to be proud of you, wanted a lot of women to worship them, and wanted to live a comfortable life. Then they must word hard to become powerful warriors!
"Early in the morning there will be an abundance of yang energy which is very beneficial for men to cultivate. The Nine Temporal Body Stances were passed down by our ancestors from generation to generation. Each of these stances can only be cultivated if you have sufficient strength." he swept his gaze towards this group of children.
The young ones are confused and clearly they didn't understand any of it. While the slightly older ones vaguely understood what he said.
"In cultivation there are six different ranks and each ranks has nine levels. The ranks are Herald, Guardian, Crusader, Archon, Legend and Ancient. The highest cultivator in our town is level 3 Guardian, which is our chief."
Admiration and Respect. This is what these group of children feel towards the chief of their town. Who is said to be the strongest person in the town.
With his power he enjoys a lot of privileges in the town. Instead of eating grains to conserve food he eats meat. Instead of sleeping in a hard bed not different from a typical rock he sleeps in a comfortable soft bed. Instead of sleeping alone he sleeps with a lot of woman who voluntarily climb up on his bed.
If you have enough power then you can virtually do anything you want.
To become the greatest warrior is what Sejo dream ever since he was young. If he become a warrior he can live a comfortable life with his little sister.
Sejo's parents had already died when he was only young and from then on he had rely on his own for him and his little sister to survive. Because of his hard work he managed to feed his sister and gave her a place to live safely. His sister is the only family he have so he will do anything to give her a good life.
"The first stance of the Nine Temporal Body Stances is for the level 1 Herald. The second stance is for the level 2 Herald. Third stance is for the level 3 Herald....
and the ninth stance is for the level 9 Herald." Proto continued on his lecture while the children are listening to him earnestly.
"All of you here have not reached level 1 Herald so you cannot cultivate using the Nine Temporal Body Stance. So the training exercise I come up for all of you will help you increase your limit and hopefully help you to breakthrough and become a level 1 Herald." after he finished speaking he looked at the two middle-aged men at his back and nodded to them.
The two middle-aged men also nodded to him in response. And they moved forward to the front while Proto moved backward to sit down while still looking at the children.
"Today,I , Shiva and my good friend here Garen will be the one in charged of your training. Each of us will handle one group, Garen will be in charge of the group on the left while I'll be in charge of the group in the right." one of the middle-aged men named Shiva said as he straighten his body showing off his robust body.
On the other hand , Garen, who was standing beside Shiva was not that imposing but his well-developed robust body tells everyone that his not ordinary.
"Starting today all of you shall carry this heavy belts. Each of this belts weighs 30 kilograms and you can add this metal ball and attach it to the belt. The metal ball weighs for about 10 kilograms. And the belt can only hold seven balls so a heavy belt full of metal balls will weigh 100 kilograms."Garen said as he opened the box at his back.
The box was a man tall about 2 meters and it was 4 meters in width. Inside the box there is over a hundred heavy belts and more than a hundred metal balls. The so called heavy belt looks similar to an ordinary belt except for the eye-catching seven circular ports attached at the belt. The size of the metal balls perfectly fit to the circular ports, the metal balls was pitch black in color and it was very cold.
Garen and Shiva distributed the heavy belts among the group of children, some of them can't take the burden so they have to wait until they have enough strength to carry it.
After the all the heavy belts was distributed only a dozen was left inside the box while the metal balls was the same as before. It was because Shiva and Garen did not allowed them to add metal balls as they want them to first get accustomed on the weight.
Looking at the group of children struggling to keep standing ,Proto was slightly satisfied with this years group. He swept his gaze on the children and he found two peculiar boys. While the others are having a hard time these two are just there standing calmly, especially the boy with the silver hair. He was standing there seemingly unaffected by the weight added while the other one was doing much better compared to others.
'If I want to become a warrior then I have to breakthrough my limits. As simple as carrying extra weights can't stand on my way.'
Sejo gritted his teeth as he continued to endure the weight of the heavy belt. Although it was only 30 kilograms but for a six-years old it was almost the same as their own body weight.
"Hold out as long as you can, the longer the better." Proto coldly said.
An hour passed the legs of this children are starting to wobble. After holding out for a short moment some of them can't hold on any longer as they started to collapse and sit on the ground one after another.
Proto's expression did not change but deep inside he was quite satisfied with the performance of these six-and-seven-years-old.
As time pass by more and more children can't hold it anymore and they began to collapse and also sit on the ground. Half an hour passed there are only two children left standing in the middle of the field.
"Hmm?" Proto and the other two middle-aged men Shiva and Garen suddenly stared, astonished, as they look at the two children who are still standing in the middle of the field.
At this point everyone has already seated and have started to rest, but in the middle of the field two young men are standing firmly like and immovable mountain.
"This must be there first time using the heavy belts. Although 30 kilograms is not that much they should be tired after carrying it for 20 minutes." Garen said, as he was amazed by this two kids' performance.
Proto and Shiva also noticed them.
"It is already and amazing feat to hold on for half an hour but to think that this two kids are almost on it for two hours. It must be that ..." before Proto could even finished speaking a loud thump sounded loudly.
When he looked at the direction where the sound came from he saw that it was the silver colored hair youth. This time only the brown-haired boy was left standing still holding firm. Tightening his lips, he stared in front of him determinedly, both his fist tightly clenched so hard that his face was starting to turn into a tomato.
"I guess this is the silver-haired boy's limit and it is already a good record. But what surprises me is that that brown-haired boy is determined not to give up that easily." Garen said, but he glanced at the brown-haired youth with admiration.
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'I did it?' Urgot was drenched in sweat, his clothes are soaked wet as he wipe the seat on his forehead. Breathing heavily he was quite proud when he saw that almost everyone was already seating before him. This means that he was the last one to give up.
That was what he thought so before he saw the brown-haired boy still standing in the field. Everyone was watching closely to this boy as they waited when will he collapse.
He clenched his teeth as he struggled to get up. The only problem was that his body won't listen to him no matter how hard he tried, he can only helplessly shook his head.
'You might have won today but I shall win the next time' Urgot muttered to himself as he glared at the brown-haired boy.
"This kid has some great endurance. It has already been three hours yet he is still standing there like a stone statue." Garen sighed in admiration.
"Your right, to last for three hours this kid must be blessed with great endurance. If not then I don't know I'm going to sleep this night." Shiva joked as he said that.
While the two middle-aged men was talking, Proto who was behind the two of them fell unto deep thought.
'Is he a bloodline warrior? No it's not possible there is only one man I know that has a bloodline in this town but I've never heard he had a son. Could he be an outsider? If he is then why is he undergoing training. Even if I don't exactly know the treatment for bloodline warriors it is much better than sending them to this small town, right?' he was quite helpless as he can see through this boy.
He then looked at the boy who was still standing under the heat of the sun.
Sejo was oblivious to what are the others opinion about him as he fully immersed himself on enduring the burden longer. He shouted repeatedly to his heart.
To Become Stronger!
To Become Stronger!
To Become Stronger!
Repeating this again and again. He was determined to do everything just to become a warrior so that he will have the strength to protect his little sister.
[1] The Six levels of Cultivation (Temporary): Herald, Guardian, Crusader, Archon, Legend, and Ancient
[2] Turn into a tomato means his face was so red similar to that of a tomato.
[3] Urgot and Garen was the name of heroes in the game League of Legend