Alexis was sitting idly on a chair inside of Yu-ba’s house, reading a book called The Adventures of Orberek, the dragonslayer. Written by Quilaana Mispeletti.

“Hmph, nothing more than an embellished tale.” he thought as he closed the book and put it down on the table next to him and picked up the next one from the pile.

“Hmm. Mordred’s Medicinal Remedies - even your grandmother reads this book, why shouldn’t you! … this feels more like spam mail. How did this ever get made into a book,” he mumbled to himself as he threw it onto the pile of books again.

“Hey! You should treat books more carefully, you shitty brat!” a voice of a young girl shouting at him came from downstairs.

“Ugeh! Nightmare Hands!” Alexis said out loud and made a distasteful expression when he looked down through the fence from the top floor. 

Gloria had come to pick him up for his survival lessons. Normally, a four year old would not be allowed to go into the forest at such a young age, but Alexis had asked his mom, which in turn had threatened Gloria into being a guard and teacher for him. 

He had spent most of his time reading at Yu-ba’s house, trying to learn of the world. But nothing could come close to hands-on experience with a real adventurer inside of the forest. 

“N-nightu-ma-re han-do? Speaking nonsense now again… you really say the weirdest things sometimes. Well, a child making up new words is nothing new I suppose. We’re gonna be late ya’ know? The request has to be done by dinner!” 

“Wait a second, Dinner? I’m sure it had a ‘no time limit’ on it. Has something changed with the request?” he asked as he dropped a book from the third floor, down on her head because she was snooping through Yu-ba’s work desk. A large thud was heard inside the house.

“Bullseye,” he whispered to himself.

“O-ouch! What the hell are you doin’ ya’ shitty brat!?” she placed both hands on her head and fell on her butt with tears in her eyes.

“Ya’ really should stop stealing from your buddies, ya’know?” he tried to imitate her country bumpkin accent that she would always use when she get upset.

“Thieves get what they deserve,” he said as he showed a small and wicked looking smile to her.

“Nah! Mumumumu…. “ she made some angry sounding noises for herself before letting out a sigh.

“Haa, damn brat... the request is the same, I just want it to be done by dinner so I get to eat delicious food! There’s no way I’m working overtime and skipping out on a meal, I’d rather die than not eat.” she said with a voice filled with pride and pushed out her chest.

“... even if you push that part out, nobody will notice something that does not exist in the first place,” he muttered under his breath.

“Hah? What was that?”

“Eh? No, nothing. Just me talking to myself,” he said with a flustered voice. Gloria’s hearing was pretty keen, her long ears were not just for show.

He had made fun of her short build and small chest before. Just thinking about the beating he took at that time made him put on a troubled expression.

Closing the book that he had picked up he continued, “Then it’s fine. But if you skip corners on the request, or on teaching me, I’ll make sure to tell mother about it.” He said with a wide innocent smile on his milk white, child-like androgynous face, his green emerald eyes fixated on her as he walked down the staircase. His dark hair had grown to shoulder length, his mother had insisted on cutting it short but he just tied it up instead to not get in the way, leaving just small locks of hair on both sides free covering his face.

“Geh! There it is, Dark Alexis. You really have a nasty side to ya’ like Stella,” she said as she made a miserable face.

The mere thought of Stella finding out about her slacking made Gloria hug herself as she started shiver and mutter to herself. It took Alexis a couple of pats on her shoulder to wake her up from her daydream nightmare.

“Hiiiiii-!” Gloria shrieked as she jumped to her feet with a bounce.

“... You must have had it hard, huh.” He said with pity in his voice. “Well, it’s good that you finally got on your feet. Now, shall we be off?” He started walking out the door, not waiting for a reply.

“Nn, yeah. There’s nothing to eat in this place anyway.” She said, she bounced lightly on her feet and caught up with him to try and hold his hand to lead him on like a proper big sister.

“Tsk,” Alexis clicked his tongue and quickly slapped away her hand as he walked on past her. “Don’t get overly familiar with me, Nightmare Hands.” he said with a scowl on his face.

Gloria rubbed her hand in silence with a sad look in her eyes. She trudged along after him with her shoulders slumped, feeling a bit crestfallen at her failed attempt to appeal like an older sister.

They exited Yu-ba’s house which was located in the northern part of the village, on a small hill inside of the walls. It was the Elder rise, they would call it. Two elders lived there, Yu-ba, in her 3 storied house that was shaped like a small tower, and next to it was Tendou’s house. A round shaped house that looked like a mushroom. It was decorated with tribal runes and paintings on the outside. Alexis had never seen the Tendou elder nor been inside of his house. He was called Te-ji, as a nickname by the villagers. Almost everyone had a nickname given to them as a sense of familiarity, bond or to make up for not having a surname.

Almost nothing was spoken between the two of them on their trip to the forest. Gloria bought a smoked fish from a food stand when we passed through the village marketplace. Alexis was busy prepared himself mentally, to see a magic beast for the first time in his life.

He did not quite understand what made a beast into a magic beast. From what he had read in the books over at Yu-ba’s house: a magic beast always contains a magic crystal. That was about it, he severely lacked the information he wanted.

They headed for the western gate of the village to exit, it was only guarded by one man, a volunteer, Derek. He and his father were proud members of the only force in the village, the volunteer guards. Their duties would be to guard the gates, deal with troublesome travelers and patrol around the fields and at the edge of the forest. There were a few more in the volunteer guard but Alexis had not seen them since he lives outside of the village and had only recently started to come to town alone to read books at Yu-ba’s house. Also, he lived on the east side of the village, this was his first time exiting the west gate.

“Yo, Gloria! Ya headin’ out?” Derek the guard asked her when they arrived at the gate.

“Nn, I have to teach this brat a thing or two.” She answered with an unamused voice.

“Wha-?!” The guard was shocked. “Who’s this boy and what he done to get dragged outside for a smackin’? Did he make fun of ya’ being itty-bitty-teeny-tiny? You always beat-GUH!” Before he could finish his sentence Gloria had punched him in the stomach. He looked almost as he had folded in two from the impact.

Crazy fast as always, Alexis thought to himself as he had almost failed to keep up with her movements. He had felt the wind rush next to him to fill the space where she had been and the ground shook, just a little bit before she had disappeared. The ground where she had stood just a second ago had a deep imprint on the ground from where she had kicked off.

You could laugh at her clumsiness, but laugh at her height and you will not get off lightly, no matter what, Gloria was still a very skilled adventurer.

“Hmph, whatever. Let’s leave this loser here, I’m starting to get hungry and we still have ways to go,” she said as she patted down her knee high skirt. She was dressed in a white linen blouse with a leather vest on top. At her waist was a tool belt with leather pockets and pouches tied to it. Below that was her plain black linen skirt and she had a pair of brown leather leggings underneath. Her boots were also made of brown leather. Strapped over her chest was a belt of throwing daggers she fancied and in a shoulder holster she had her favorite skinning knife. She carried a small bow with the bowstring strapped over her as well as her quiver of arrows. Her left wrist carried a metal arm guard while she only had a bracer on her right arm. She also had to carry a bag over one of her shoulders with the camping supplies: a tent, some water and food; blankets and a few magic stones in it. Her blond hair was tied up into two low-hanging ponytails that reached below her shoulders.

Alexis, on the other hand, did not need to carry anything other than his clothing. He was dressed in simple cloth, a white shirt with brown pants. He used a pair of brown leather boots as well. Those were the standard shoes around here where the ground and mud is always wet. He did not carry a weapon with him. He felt that he did not need to. 

They both left the gate and headed for the edge of the forest. The guard was still collapsed with his face in the mud, holding his stomach and coughing when they left.

Almost five years had passed since the day Alexis healed himself and surprised those around him.

Many things have happened since that day.

They arrived at the forest's edge, the trees were thick, thicker than Alexis had ever thought from seeing them only from far away. The smallest one was around five meters wide and the largest was well over ten meters. The bark on the trees had a rust color and their leaves looked enormous. This was truly a primal forest, untouched by man for centuries. The air flowing from the forest felt cold and damp, like it denied anyone from entering this wild land. “What are these trees called?” He asked Gloria.

“Eh? Eeeeh,” she put a finger to her chin and rolled her head trying to remember. “Large-ass-trees?” She shrugged her shoulders as she gave up trying to remember.

Alexis only looked at her and sighed at the response.

“I can’t help it if I don’t remember what every damn type of tree is called,” she said to defend herself. “I love meat but I don’t like greens!” She said with a prideful voice.

“No, no, no. I Don’t see how your food habits can extend to even non-edibles like trees in the first place.” He retorted back at her.

There was a long pause between the two. Gloria seemed to try and remember something and Alexis looked at her with a tired expression. He knew exactly what she was going to say.

“Well, let’s leave that to someone else that cares about trees, I sure don’t.” She left the subject entirely. Well, this was not the first time, she did this every so often. If you asked her about magic beasts and animals you would get a plethora of information, but if it ever was about some kind of flora or fauna she would almost always give up on answering it.

“Mm, let’s leave it at that, we’d be stuck here all day if you tried to remember what a flora was called after all, sorry, my bad for asking.” 

“As long as you understand,” she said with an attitude that seemed to show that one should not ask the obvious. “Now surruvas me, we surruv this trail to a clearing I usually go to.” She pointed to an opening in the forest, a small animal trail that led inside.

“What does Surruvas mean?” He had to ask her since he had never heard the word before. “It means to follow me, dimwit.” She answered and gave out a sigh.

He could not help it. He had been trying to learn the language for a long time now, specifically, he was trying to learn the Parlevian common merchant tongue. It is said to be the most common language spoken around the world according to Yu-ba. She had been a great help to him all these years. He had been visiting her on a daily basis to read her books or ask about all the strange things she had collected during her travels. But, whenever he heard a new word for the first time he would of course need to ask what it meant. He had been very active with asking and questioning things in the past, but when they began to think of him as a strange child he started to hold back instead. 

“Ugh, to be called a dimwit by a dimwit…” He mumbled to himself as he continued to follow Gloria.

They moved through the forest walking along the small winding animal trail that led deeper into the forest to start the survival lesson. Gloria had walked these paths many times and had set up a makeshift camp in a clearing inside of the forest, that was the place they were aiming for. All it had was a fireplace and a log next to it, but it was still comfortable with the open space and the sunlight, and it had enough room for them to set up the tent that they would sleep in tonight.

Alexis grumbled a bit about them having to share a tent, but it was easily brushed aside by Gloria when she explained that they are both small and take up a small space, having more than one tent would also increase the burden that the party would normally need to carry. After having said that, she lamented at the fact that she had called herself small. It brought a smile to Alexis’ face.

On their way to the campsite Gloria would sometimes leave the trail to check on her traps in the area. She had traps set up throughout the forest so that she could sell whatever she had trapped back in town, or eat at the camp whenever she got there. 

When they arrived at the camp he counted 3 Horned rabbits and 2 Green Hibiscus snakes. Quite the catch for a halfwit, thought Alexis. The animals were not magical beasts however, so he decided to ask about what the difference was between a normal animal and a magic beast, as part of his lesson.

“Haaah? Why should I bother explaining that to you?” She retorted. “Didn’t you read a bunch of books over at Yu-ba’s place?” She made a face that showed her annoyance on it. “Can’t you see I’m busy now? I Have to dismantle all the animals I caught on the way now, so shoo, shoo!” She waved her hand as to drive away a pest. 

She laid out the animals next to a flat and bloody rock in the clearing they were in that she had been using in the past to dismantle her catch. Her skinning knife had a curved edge and was pretty small for a knife, its inner edge was extremely sharp and she used it skillfully to dismantle everything. Cutting open the stomach to remove the guts and then flay the skin, cut off the heads and hang it on a branch to drain the blood and dry until she was hungry or had to head back to the village. If you would ask why the dagger was so small, the answer would be simple. Because she is also very small. The wood handle and the silver-looking blade had small and intricate ornate patterns on them, it was a very cute and deadly knife.

“Hmm, is that so. Well, I understand that you need to dismantle them, but Yu-ba’s books didn’t really say much about magic beasts after all. I think the knowledge of a very skilled and mature adventurer would be many times better.” He tried to coax her with some sweet sounding words.

“Eeeh? Compliments coming from you?” She asked with a surprised voice. “Will the sun will be painted black and the ocean boil next?” She dismissed his coaxing easily, she scoffed and rolled her eyes before continuing with the dismantling of the second snake, they were pretty simple to dismantle so she had almost finished with them both during the small conversation. However, the rabbits would take up a bit of time, compared to snakes that don't have limbs and a horn growing out of the forehead, there is a world of difference.

Hmm…I’m out of practice. Let’s try a different approach, he thought. 

“I suppose that mother will be very pleased when she hears how the survival lesson went.” He said as he flashed a bright smile at her.

“You wouldn’t dare…” she turned her head to him with a troubled expression. Her eyes pleading with him.

“That depends on you.” He said with a smirk.

“You know... there is nobody out here except you, me, and the monsters. Anything could happen while we’re out here, all alone.” This time it was Gloria’s turn to smile.

“Oho? Is that a threat I hear, Nightmare Hands?” He asked as he was impressed with her attitude, to actually threaten a child. He placed his hands on his sides and puffed his chest out, “If you think I’m scared of you, think again! I’ll teach you a lesson in humility!.”

In truth, he was a bit scared, but he had prepared to fight as best as he could while he grew up. He had reconstructed and modified his body all these years. He had increased his bone density and muscle mass to an unnatural degree with his skills. All of his body's muscles were molded into the pink kind. If red was the big and explosive strength kind, pink would be the lean and efficient ones with superior stamina consumption. Also, his bone density was abnormally high, giving him even more natural strength and durability. He was almost five years old, 120cm tall and weighed close to 120 kilos (260 pounds). His mother had stopped lifting him up after he started eating solid foods and could walk, after that he had concentrated on building up his density by a lot. He was several times more powerful now than he was at any point in his previous life, and he would only continue to grow. But right now, it was only slightly above the average adult male farmhand in this world.

“Ah?” She looked at him like she could not believe what she just had witnessed, and then she started laughing at him wildly. Her laugh was like a combination of a young girl's laugh and a dirty old man. It was highly disturbing and amusing at the same time.

TO BE CONTINUED... MAYBE?

Validtility

There's a TON of notes and world building that was happening in this chapter after this point, but it's only to here that was revised. There's alot about the world, planet and monsters, gods and all sort of common sense that was suppose to be in this chapter after this point. Chapter 5 had the foundations set aswell. Thanks for reading this far! I hope someone enjoyed it and any feedback is welcome. Also! Throw a vote down here if you want me to continue writing this or something completely different.