Chapter 17: Outer Part of the Valkyrie Forest

As usual, Kraftvoll's morning started with the morning training under the tutelage of Stark. But there was something different in this day from his normal daily routine because today he was told to come with Stark and the others to hunt Seishin Beast in the Valkyrie forest.

Normally, men of Schild City can start hunting seishin beast after they had reached the age of 18. The majority of people usually attain the rank of Seishin Captain at this age but since Kraftvoll reached this stage at the age of 9, he was qualified to go with them.

After the daily morning training of the youth in Schild City, Kraftvoll and the others departed to the outer part of the Valkyrie Forest.

The Kingdom of Walkiria was divided into 26 regions. This was because of the Valkyrie Forest that encompasses across the kingdom like a web, serving as borders of different territories. This is why the division of territory in the kingdom was easy for human ancestors.

As they went to their destination, Stark did not let go of this opportunity to teach Kraftvoll about seishin beast. "Kraftvoll, what do you think are the reasons why seishin practitioners needed to starts hunting seishin beast after they reached the rank of Seishin Captain rank?" asked Stark.

This question made Kraftvoll wonder. All he can do was to provide insights from what he learned from Stark's past lessons for the whole town. "I think we start fighting them at this stage to gain real-life battle experience and become adept in using seishin in casting spells."

"That's correct but that's not all. Like I said before, seishin is everywhere, which means that seishin beasts have it too. They are the main source of seishin essence for the cultivation path of seishin practitioners." Stark explained.

"How do we extract seishin essence from seishin beasts?" Kraftvoll wondered. "After slaying the seishin beast, somewhere inside its body, we can find a seishin core. After the seishin beast absorbs seishin from its environment, it formed a condensed stone of seishin essence which we call the seishin core." Stark answered.

After a couple of hours of traveling, they finally reached the outer part of the Valkyrie Forest. "Everyone, here we are, don't let your guard down," Stark commanded. "Yes sir!" everyone responded.

Kraftvoll and the others transversed the forest carefully. They can't afford to let their guard down as it may result in their demise.

As they walked in the forest with their guards up, the scout of their squad detected something. "Sir Stark, my wind detection spell found something from the northeast."

In a squad, the usual scouts were usually Wind element practitioners. Seishin practitioners of the wind element have spells that use the surrounding winds to detect the presence of nearby entities.

As Kraftvoll and the others slowly walked to the northeast direction, they saw a ferocious lion. This lion was not an ordinary lion because this one formed a seishin core inside it. All of the seishin practitioners in their company felt it because of a dense seishin essence around the seishin beast.

"Kraftvoll, this is training for you. Try to defeat this seishin beast," said Stark.

These words made Kraftvoll a little nervous but since his mind was comparable to those of adults', he was able to regain his calm composure quickly. "Okay, sir Stark. But how will do it?" asked Kraftvoll.

Since this is Kraftvoll's first-ever battle, he tried to seek advice from Stark. Although they practiced duels sometimes in their daily routine, this battle was different because this was not against humans. Humans can think rationally but a low-level seishin beast had low intelligence levels.

"You can use the basic spells we've taught you in your morning training. Use tactics or strategies to avoid any dangers falling unto you. Maybe, you can try to use the spell I've taught you." Stark stated.