Chapter –1 – Boy in the forest

A boy was running hard through the forest. His arms were swinging to both sides, removing all the plants and branches that were coming onto his face. He had a bow and set of arrows in his quiver tightly laid on his back. The Bow was swinging lightly while the arrows rattled, the bow was not eye-catching but it was a good strong bow. He slowed his pace as he neared an open pasture. He halted and climbed the nearest tree which gave him a high vantage of the open pasture.

Out in the clearing, there was a 3-foot-tall animal. It was called a Blackpelt Buck. It was famous for its strong back legs for kicking as well as running. It was very alert occasionally looking around to ensure nothing is bothering its snack time. These animals were famous for their high speed. But were also famous for being the kind of meat you could preserve longer without losing taste.

He found himself a high branch on which he could stand properly and steadily. He stood with one leg in front of the other bend both his legs with his right leg knee touching the wood. He stretched the bowstring and stabilised his shoulders. if held incorrectly, the bow took a rather heavy toll on every archer's shoulder. This bow was the kind made and sold by the local smith.

Every good archer who hadn't completed the ceremony in the village had it. It was his father's gift. He learned and mastered the art of archery with that bow. The archoak wood arrow was a bit crude as he made it himself but provided a sturdy weapon with its iron tip. He could have brought it but he made it himself to save money.

He put those thoughts aside and calmed his mind. He had his full focus on the buck in front of him. It was emersed in enjoying its meal even when it was alert. He waited with the bowstring pulled. He was waiting for the right moment. Every archer's main weapon is not his great body or strong mind it's patience. When the buck bent its head to take a bite of the grass again it closed its eye to stop the dirt from getting into his eyes for a moment. It was all it needed for the boy to execute his weapon mastery.

'Twang…...Swish…...Pluck…...Thud' 3 sounds were heard in order.

He climbed down the tree and ran to where the animal had fallen. The arrow had pierced through one eye and came through the other. 'Dead in a second.' He thought. He bent down took his knife and plunged in the gut of the carcass and prayed "Oh mighty Mara, please take this soul and give it a place in heaven where it belongs, for it has sacrificed its life for my need"

He then tied its legs and covered the wounds with leaves so as to not let the blood drip into the ground. He put the carcass around his shoulders with the front two of it to his left and the other two on his right. He breathed out a long breath and started walking back home

His name was Veda, Veda Ambu. He came from a long line of archery masters. In his mother tongue, Ambu was the name for a great marksman. It was synonymous with being one like an arrow. This forest was the Eastern Forest. Yeah, a name given by his village ancestors after great thought. It was situated in the eastern part of the old village, which expanded, now this forest is now in the northeast direction. But the name never changed. The name of his village was Mattha. It was a village situated in the southern part of the Chera Kingdom in the Jambu Empire.

Veda was 15 this year. He was around 5 feet and 4 inches tall. He was tall among his peers but not the tallest. He was above average in height and was well built because of frequent visits to the forest. He had to carry the carcass for about 5 km from the forest to his village. The buck weighed over 60 KG but it was not a problem for him. He was one of the top students in basic Ki management.

Ki is the force that stays inside a human. It strengthens the human body. It's an internal force. A human collects Ki from the surroundings and converts it to useful internal force. Everyone can do it. Capacity and rate of conversion changes. He was above average in this capacity.

But the best in his school was the son of the martial arts teacher Mr Phalvan, Purushu. He could carry over 100 KG. He is a hunk of muscle. He thought he could overtake Purushu. But his teacher stopped him saying competitiveness is good but you should consider your body. Anyways I was not interested in weight lifting so I didn't give it more thought.

He was in deep thought while walking. Two days from now was an important day in the village. It was Spring Equinox or Vernal Festival. On this day every child in the village who has attained 15 years between Autumn Equinox and Spring Equinox is given a ceremony where they could find their force and elemental affinities. There are two ceremonies for affinity testing on the spring equinox and autumn equinox every year. Affinity testing helps one to choose their profession.

Force affinities are of 3 kinds – Ki or Internal Force, Mana or External force and finally Aatma or Soul Force. People can use Ki to increase one's physical features. Ki helps humans to increase the speed and strength with which they move or do things. It strengthens muscles, tissues and bones. You can't attack directly using Ki. But it can improve humans to limits almost like a metal. If correct affinities are found Ki makes one's body very tough to break.

Then comes Mana, which is an external force. It does not change or add any benefit to one's body directly. It is used in conjunction with sounds, spells, or actions that turn into attacks or defences. Mana is a magician's weapon. Mana users need to be very intelligent to effectively and efficiently use it. There is something called Mana weaponization which is a very tough mana technique that converts mana into a physical weapon like a sword or a spear.

Last is the Aatma or Soul force. This is the craziest out of the 3. Aatma can be used to attack directly but only mental attacks, not physical attacks. But Aatma is commonly used by way of making a soul pact or contract with a soul beast. People with a high amount of willpower, intelligence and wisdom tend to be highly successful as Aatma users.

Ki users tend to take profession with a high number of physical confrontations. Even in the non-combat profession ki is preferred by professions like smithing, sculpting and mining. Punches or kicks from Ki users always pack a load. Ki users also have high-speed attacks. In a physical confrontation, it's better to avoid them or run away from them.

Mana users on the other hand are long-distance fighters. They are magicians and Mid-range attack suits the best. Professions like Magicians, Priest, and Elementalist are all examples of mana users. Non-combat professions like Alchemists, and Doctors also prefer having mana.

Aatma users are people who are summoners, Pact makers or contractors, Necromancers etc. They use connections with the beasts or elementals or beings from other planes to fight or get their work done. There are some users who attack with weapons and use their combination with the beast to fight or work. All non-combat professions are good with Aatma users but there is nothing, in particular, they are very good with except in maybe farming and animal rearing.

Professions are generally 2 kinds Combat and Non-combat. Combat professions are 6 and non-combat are numerous. Most people after selecting a profession take one of 2 options. Either they Study or go on a journey of Lovitus. A citizen of the Jambu empire has 18 University options to study from. All of them are very prestigious there are even students from outside the empire coming there to study. People are coming from the far west where there are only deserts and from the far north where it rains snow and lakes are frozen for half of the year.

For combat professions, university education is for 5 years but for non-combat professions, it extends for 8 years. For the combat profession, it is 2 years initial then 3 years final. But for non-combat, it is 3 initial 2 intermediate and 3 final. After their education both of them serve the empire for 3 years only after that could they do what they want. They could either continue the work or take up something.

The university education is on a merit basis with it being free for the highly talented and paid for the less talented. Most universities can accommodate up to 300 students a year. So, each university has around 2500 students at each time depending upon their speciality.

The second option for them is to join the adventurer association. If they join, they have to do compulsory work once every year which the adventure association recommends for atleast 12 years. After that it becomes optional. Even then most adventurers do those because of the high amount of compensation from adventurer association's work.

By the time Veda had thought about all that he had reached the village border. There was a huge wall which was for defence purposes. And a gate that was 13 or 14 feet in height. There were two burly men one shorter than the other sitting together on one side of the door. They saw me coming. I waved my hands at them and they waved back.

"What have you got there Veda. It seems big. You could have got something bigger than this. Why settle for this. You would have to hunt in 3 – 4 days again." Carl the bigger of the two said. He was probing the animal lightly. This was a standard procedure they will look at your goods just to ensure there is nothing dangerous even though there are lots of easy ways in which things could be transported. This is just a formality.

"No, I wouldn't need to go. I will most probably go for the trip after the vernal festival though I am not sure. But most probably I will go. Even if it is a university there is the travel time between here and there so I would be travelling in 3 – 4 days. Plus, this is for rationing. I got enough meat for atleast 4 more days in my storage other than this." I answered him

"Oh yeah, you are 15 this year huh. How time flies. Have you decided on your profession? Are there any force affinities you would like to have?" it was Mark who asked this time. He was the other guy.

"My profession, hmmm. Isn't it obvious?" I showed them my bow by slightly turning my body. "As for my force affinity. I don't have any preference. It's not like any affinity will go against my choice of a profession, so, any of it is welcome. Same for elemental affinity. None of them would be adverse for me as a Bow user. Would it?"

"Nope, generally all affinity has no difference for your choice. Just small changes. But what if you get the cleric's blessing?" Carl asked laughing lightly.

"Then I would treat people by shooting arrows at them. Tell them it's a new type of treatment" I joked back

"Good luck getting patients" he said back

"Yeah, yeah and Dr Bowmaster, Oli was here looking for you. She seemed to be searching for you for a long time. You didn't tell her" Mark asked

"No, I came out to hunt early and didn't have time to tell her. Oh yeah before I forget, here is your apsara fruit Mark. It was up in a very high tree and nowhere near where you said it would be. And to make things worse a Blue scaled Fire Snake was lying near the tree fortunately it just had eaten something so it didn't mind me. Otherwise, you could have said bye-bye to the fruit" I said as I handed over some fruits which were reddish yellow in colour and each one was half the size of my palm. I wanted to taste it so I had a couple more of them in my storage along with other similar fruits which were requests from various people. I am waiting for the vernal festival to finish I don't want anything to ruin my ceremony.

I walked past them and the gate. I could hear Carl and Mark talking. Carl was asking Mark to give him one fruit to which Mark replied "No, I won't give you. Your wife is pregnant and you got no use for it. My wife was saying she wanted a boy too. My daughter is now 3. So, we are going to try for a boy"

Mark was still talking about something but I couldn't hear as I reached a long distance from them. The village could be seen from here. There were 3 ways in front of me one to the market, one towards my home, one towards the area of the school, temples and Noble quarters and guesthouse. I walked towards my home. I walked for 10 more minutes before reaching my home. There were not many homes near my home. It was in the middle of a farmland. My neighbours all had small farmlands. Nothing much. My father also had farmland but after they died it was taken back by the village. I was only left with the home I live in.

"Home sweet home" I said looking at the thatched hut with roofs made out of sweet coconut leaves and sweet palm leaves.