Chapter 2: Peace & Chaos

Venfir woke up very early in the morning as usual and began his morning routine. After that as per usual he went out in the backyard and started stretching his limbs and began his exercises.

Once finished, he began his daily laps around the house, running till he started to feel the familiar tiredness. After completing his run he climbed up to the rooftop, sitting down to watch the sunrise.

The morning was peaceful and calm, with the gentle wind blowing while sweet chirping of birds echoed in the surroundings while in the distance the sun finally began to rise.

After around half an hour he could hear his parents waking up inside the house. And after another hour or so his mother called him down for breakfast, just like she always did.

Recently, his mother had been in a very good mood because, after a long time, she had finally become pregnant. Before this, Venfir had assumed that his parents simply wanted one child, but he later learned that that was not the case.

They had been trying for a second for quite a while without success. His parents had visited the village doctor, who was unable to diagnose the problem. After the doctor's suggestion his father had taken his mother to a well-known doctor in the nearby city.

But even she, who's said to have both "Healing" and "Alchemical" talents, wasn't able to find a reason and was stumped. Her best hypothesis was that Venfir's mother lacked sufficient vital energy.

She recommended using a vitality pill to replenish it, but the cost of each pill was 30 gold coins, which was so expensive that selling their house would barely cover the price.

So his parents decided to choose the next best option, which was to wait and keep trying, hoping that time would resolve the issue.

There was, however, one more option, and that was to find someone with a "High Tier" or higher "Healing Talent." And according to the doctor, such treatment would cost no more than 2 gold coins.

However, the problem was that finding someone with that tier of talent in this rather poor and rural region was, rather, close to impossible.

The most renowned healer in the area who only treated the affluent and wealthy people, had only a "Mid Tier Healing Talent", but was regarded as a noble.

While the doctor herself, who was well-respected, possessed only "Low Tier" Healing and Alchemical Talents.

When Venfir heard the news about his mother's pregnancy, he was very happy, no, he was elated.

He had always wondered what it would feel to have elder or younger siblings, and now that dream of his was going to become reality, and this filled him with a profound sense of happiness.

On one hand, he was jumping with joy for becoming a big brother. On the other hand, he was also surprised to find that in this new world, there were people who had awakened talents. And in this world they were not called Awakeners, but "Cultivators".

But what truly shocked him was that in this world not everyone was a cultivator. But that doesn't mean that there were very few cultivators. Rather, if you had sufficient money, you could simply buy a "Soul Unlock Potion" to awaken your soul energy.

Venfir was no stranger to soul energy; after all, it was the main reason behind the catastrophe in his previous world.

Other than the potion there was another way, and that was to naturally awaken. But it was generally considered impossible for common people.

The chances to naturally awaken to unlock soul energy is considered to be less than 10%, and that too is when both the parents were cultivators. And it is considered miraculous for those whose parents are non-cultivators.

Venfir hadn't known about this till now, not because his parents had hidden it for him, but because they themselves were non-awakened. In fact, there hasn't been a single cultivator in this village till now.

This new information had piqued his curiosity, so he decided to dig deeper into this. And the more he got to know the more amazed he was regarding the similarity between the Awakeners of his previous world and the Cultivators of this.

In his previous life the highest tier awakened was Tier 9, but in this world the publicly known highest tier cultivator is Tier 15, also called "Saint".

While In his previous life people simply used the Tier as their title, in this world, each tier is given a title of its own. These titles reflected the strength and status of the Cultivators within each rank.

The titles for each Tier are as follows:

Tier 0 - Novice

Tier 1 - Apprentice

Tier 2 - Initiate

Tier 3 - Adept

Tier 4 - Warrior

Tier 5 - Rising Star

Tier 6 - Master

Tier 7 - Grand Master

Tier 8 - Commander

Tier 9 - High Commander

Tier 10 - General

Tier 11 - King

Tier 12 - Lord

Tier 13 - Overlord

Tier 14 - Emperor

Tier 15 - Saint

Another similarity Venfir found that as it was in his previous life, anyone who awakened our unlocked soul energy would have some sort of talent. He himself had three talents while the highest number known was seven.

There were also monsters in this world, but other than getting confirmation he didn't get much information.

The most he got to know was that they were found in the wild lands, which was around a week's travel from the village. But due to patroles on the border there hadn't been any seen here in more than a decade.

***

While Venfir was trying to find more about this world's history, around sixty kilometers away, was a small forest that had been turned upside down.

Trees lay splintered, stumps were riddled with arrows, and the once-quiet and tranquil forest, now had become a place filled with broken branches and scattered leaves.

At some distance from this devastated scene stood two youths, a boy and a girl, wearing lavishly embroidered clothes clearly indicating their wealth and status.

They held finely crafted bows, decorated with intricate carvings and precious jewels, clearly made for more than mere shooting an arrow.

A short distance behind them, a group of twenty people consisting of fifteen men and five women clapped with exaggerated enthusiasm after every shot.

The girl, her expression sullen, was the first to lower her bow. Her annoyance was clear as she looked at the person standing next to her and spoke in a clearly irritated tone.

This is boring," she complained, while tugging back some strands of hair behind her right ear.

"What's the point of just shooting at trees? We should have brought some slaves and made them run through the forest. At the very least that would've been a bit more fun."

The boy, who was still aiming at a distant target, also lowered his bow, but after hearing the girl's complaint. He let out a quiet sigh and shook his head slightly at her words.

"We're heading to the Wild Lands to hunt an 'Advanced Rank' beast," he reminded her, his tone calm but firm. "And we'll have to get past the border security, and you know as well as I do that having slaves with us, in the open, and that to when that mad general is posted there, is nothing more then suicide."

The girl's expression turned sour, clearly more annoyed than before, but she chose to say quite, because she knew that the boy, her brother, was speaking the truth. Her brother hadn't noticed her expression as he continued to speak.

 "That bastard wouldn't give face to dad, you think he would think twice about us if he finds out that we have slaves with us? No he wouldn't. He would just kill us, because for him consequences be damned. This is the reason he had been sent to the border. By the way, you do remember what happened three years ago with the Miradi family right?"

Hearing the Miradi family's being brought up, the girl's features shifted, her irritation replaced by a hint of fear. How could she forget? The memory was still fresh in her mind. Miradi's youngest daughter, Faeyra, once her best friend, but not any more. Because, now the Miradis were a shadow of their former selves, relegated to some backwater village.

And all of this happened because the Miradi family had acquired a new batch of slaves. That mad man somehow got the news and went to free them. He directly barged into their estate and demanded that they free the slaves.

But the Miradi family thought that they could deal with a Lord with their eight King Ranked cultivators. But as soon as the fight started, the general tore two of the kings apart, demonstrating that his power was no joke.

This frightened the remaining six King ranked cultivators, but they fought. Not only they fought, but soon were joined by the Miradi family's other cultivators, but it was all in vain. In less than two hours, only one King survived, that too barely on the last leg.

Other than some tier 2 and 3's that didn't join the fights everyone else was dead. Their fight not only destroyed the surroundings but around 70% of the Miradi family was destroyed.

The boy finally noticed the somewhat fearful expression on his sister's face, making it clear that she had remembered what had happened back then.

But then, as if struck by a thought, she spoke:

"Did I ever say that I wanted to bring the slaves to the Wild Lands?" she snapped back, her tone clearly rebellious.

"I just said that shooting arrows at these trees is boring. Anyway, all the slaves would have been dead after our target practice anyways, so how would that bastard even find out?"

With a huff, she stomped her feet, turned around and walked away to a nearby tent, leaving her brother standing. Looking at his sister storming away he smiled ruefully as he murmured to himself:

"Dad has really spoiled Jen. But seeing her like this, I also don't feel good. Maybe we should've brought some slaves for target practice. No matter, next time we go hunting, I'll have Arkog fetch some from the underground mines. Twenty... no, fifty should be enough to keep her entertained."