Book 1 Chapter 3: Different soul, Same ambition

Chapter 3: Different soul, Same ambition

In a secluded and sparse village, set amongst dark oaked trees that stood over 30 meters in height, was a young boy waiting in a not so short line of differently colored cloaked figures of sand yellow, dark green, crimson red, and azure blue.

A large mountain was the only thing that offset the sea of trees surrounding the village, and from it was the only vantage point to see the village itself without traveling through its spider web like trails. Next to and sometimes sticking through some of the natural and man-made buildings in the village were dark purple trees with slight glows to them. These trees, known as Purple Night Oaks, absorbed moonlight instead of sunlight through its chloroplasts and emitted a strange bioluminescence.

The village had no name, nor did it need one as the people who came to it never stayed more then was necessary. The reason? This village was one of the sole administrative testing centers for those wishing to enter the major capital competitions. There was no need to register, just simply make the choice of what emperor or king you wanted to fight under and be accepted under their guidelines and regulations. For some it was physique, like the kings for example who wanted men and women to have physiques tailored to the art of the weapon they wished to study.

The emperors cared less about physiques and more so cared of the affinities that an individual could be born with, or their spiritual potential.

Unlike Physiques, which could be innately super human or fast and have bodies designed towards certain movements. Affinities were interrelated with chance, mutation, generation, and evolution.

An example of this would be if someone with a fire affinity trained very hard over their lives and became a mighty and powerful wielder of fire. Through their training, their core essence would be driven to strengthen much to the alikeness of a beast having an evolution of bloodline. From a Karp to a Dragon, that new draconian creature would have the blood of a dragon. The more powerful the parents, the greater chance of a powerful inherited bloodline affinity.

However, through such a system as this deviations of course could occur. With a mother of water, and a father of fire, a child could be born with both or neither at all. Or, they could be born with a combination of both!

This new combination could be weak, powerful, strange, and non inheritable to later generations.

In a sense, magical affinity was like genetics.

Back to the village, and the young boy, time flowed on. This congregation of a myriad of colors led to an ornate building of gold and black.

This building had no affiliation with a particular king or emperor, in fact it wasn't in a kingdom nor a empire and was set in a vast land of trees indicated by the ones around the village itself. Lands like this of course existed, as the world was far too large for even the power of 10 great legends. The sea of trees was a land between continents, and was the vastest forest in the entire world and 6 continents.

This forest between two continents, known as the central north and south continents, was a land of great natural life.

More of this world will be explained later on, for now, staying within context is important.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The boy sighed, 'Will I make it?' his face showed naivety and contemplation, all he knew was to come here and try out the testing but not much more than that.

Just several days earlier, a man had arrived at his village and told everyone he has been sent as an emissary of the training center and to give him any warriors in training, mages in training, or children less then the age of 10 to go off to the testing center to be evaluated. Of course, no child in his village was a warrior or mage in training. They were far too, 'Out there', to have veterans or people of magics to pass down knowledge. They did have several old veterans, but that was of a long forgotten war.

With the boy being the only one below 10, 6 in fact, he was the only person the village offered up. The man wasn't surprised by this though, he instead smiled and waved his hand to the boy and then sped off back into the forest at the edge of his villages clearing.

The boy followed, and day in and day out he walked and ran behind the man until the man stopped and pointed off to the village he was currently waiting in line in. Waiting in line, for over 9 hours now.

It wasn't that the testing itself was strenuous, but it took a while for each person to go through it. Supposedly, as the boy listened intently to the chatter around him the test was composed of 5 parts.

First, spiritual pressure would be placed on the individual within the gold and black building and the longer they could sustain the increasing spiritual pressure the greater their spiritual potential. The second part of the test was a fully encompassing scan of their body through magical means to evaluate their potential towards weapons, as well as scan their aura for which magical affinity they had.

Finally, the third test was a simple series of questions related to their pursuits as a person. The 4th test, was a scan of their prints, aura, and spiritual nature for an identity token. With the 5th test, being in actuality an evaluation.

With each of these to happen, of course it would take a bit of time for even just 5 people to take the test. However, the people from each side of the sea of trees came to be evaluated here specifically because it didn't have any affiliation. The sea of trees was a main line between the central southern and northern continents. It was well over several hundreds of thousands of a miles from top to bottom, and over a 150,000 miles wide at its smallest.

To travel this distance, took for some years and years on foot. It was no small journey, if it wasn't for the fact the boys village was less then 200 miles away he probably wouldn't have reached this place till he was at least 10 years old.

None of the people here told anyone else of their affilitations outside of the places they lived, because who knew if an enemy was disguised as a friend. As for the boy, he chatted up any and all people he could. He was most definitely the smallest, youngest person here without a doubt.

Anyone near him seeing his innocent face, and fascinated eyes couldn't help but chuckle.

That was how he found out quite a bit about the world, magical affinities, and in fact the kings and emperors themselves.

The world was just too large for people to travel to outlandish places without cause to explain things to what they considered country pumpkins. The veterans of his village had come there long ago, to never speak of their past other then their reason for leaving; War.

So, the boy only knew of a chaotic war-torn world outside of his peaceful village and yet now with all this new information he was adversely being affected with a disease known as curiosity.

"Big bro, what do you train in? Or rather, what do you want to?" The boy asked a 10 year old nearly twice his age that was leaning next to a tree not far away.

"Well…I've thought about that question for a long time now little bro, my father trains in fire qi, since he's a warrior. With warriors, they can train in qi…mages train in magic. For me? I don't know, if I happen to have an affinity for fire in a magical sense…ill do that, alongside a weapon that suits me. If I don't, then ill train in fire qi anyway and use the sword as he does…I know what it looks like together, and my clan already has the styles relating around the blade with fire qi….so…either way that's the route I want."

"I see…I wonder what kind of blades are out there in the world to train with!"

"Oh little bro! So many! Gods, there is great blades, curved blades, long blades, short blades, master blades, bastard blades…oh man, they come in all sorts and shapes in sizes, that's not even including other weapons like chain blades, scythes, axes, spears, staff's, hidden weapons, transforming weapons…oh man, so much was left behind from the old world too…and then, on top of all of that there is magical items!"

"Wow!" The boys eyes glazed over as he tried to think about what weapon he would one day want to use.

"Remember…just because they tell you what things you inherently can do best, doesn't always mean it will be what you will love…think about it deeply, and then follow that path to the end!"

"Well said!" Another boy the same age as the one against the tree said from afar. Others nodded their head, before giving the boy a thumbs up.

"Does anyone have any weapons they could show me? Its really hard to guess what it all looks like, ive seen knives and such because we have a black smith in the village but he's never made more then bows, arrows, and tree axes…" The boy looked around, and several boys and even some girls stepped forward to take sheathes off their backs.

They each pulled out one knife or another, or a staff, spear, or sword. All of these had been given to them to take along with them and learn with as they experience the world to here and back. With a several year journey, a good weapon would keep them safe and give them something to train with day in and day out.

"Mmm…none of these seem to be what I like…its…I don't know just not right" He had a disappointed look on his face.

The boy leaning on the tree nodded, "That's okay little bro…you shouldn't just seek what others have as your own anyhow, look for something that calls to you and then pour your heart into it…that's what my old man said. Just because my dad uses a great blade doesn't mean I want to, I want to use a rapier! A thin and agile blade, with style and sauve. I know it sounds kinda stupid…but it is what I want, and he too told me its okay to not want his…he told me he wants me to want what I like."

Several more nods were thrown his way from the kids holding their weapons, they each stowed away their weapons into sheathes and holsters before going back to standing in line. Leaving line didn't really have a meaning, they had to wait so long that some people took turns letting others sleep before telling them it was their turn.

"Hey…you never told us your name?" The boy leaning on the tree asked curiously.

"Oh me? Well…I do have a mom and dad, our sir name is Zhu, my name is Zephyr, but you can call me Z."

"Zhu? Like bamboo…I very good thing in nature kiddo, it's a good sir name." A girl mentioned with a smile.

"I don't know…I think it comes from the fact my family grows bamboo. We have many types of forests here…and where I live, there is an especially nice bamboo forest. Even our house is made from it…so much…bamboo shoot soup…ugh"

All the kids laughed hearing this but soon a silence came over the group.

A person stepped forth from the golden building with a dejected look on their face.

"Hey Tom how did it go?" Someone called out to the person who had just stepped out.

He looked up for a second, and then kicked the dirt on the ground "I didn't even have the strongest affinity for what I wanted to train in…they told me id do better as a warrior."

Everyone nodded, sometimes aspirations weren't the same as what one desired within. This was okay though; you could still pursue what you desired you would just have to work twice as hard for half the reward.

"Hey! Kiddo, skip ahead of me I don't mind, go find out what you want to be in there…and goodluck!" "Yeah let the kiddo go, we have a while anyhow." "Why not"

A bunch of the kids waved their hands and patted Z to go forward ahead of them to the gold and black building. Every time a bit of anticipation washed over him, a hand would swipe it away. These were kids of course, but also the first friends he had made.

The ornate door was almost soft to the touch. It was a strange feeling, like looking at stone and yet feeling cotton. The hinges and surrounding aspects of the door looked like wood, but were in fact metal. With a silent whoosh the door swung open before being followed by a light click sound as the door shut close behind Z.

"Sit down at the chair over there kiddo…you're actually the first to come in being the right age, past the age of 8 it becomes a lot harder to start early on training. You've earned a point in my book…"

An old man in dark green robes sat near a hearth. No smoke could be seen billowing out from the building, so where the vapors of the firewood burning in the hearth were going was unknown.

More interesting then that was the fact his feet were perched directly inside of it!