Author's note:

'thoughts'

"dialogues"

artwork page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100088473842323

Chapter 1

A new world.

 

In 2030 the Earth reached its limit, since due to technological progress and scientific discoveries, life expectancy increased considerably, reaching more than 10 billion people.

 

The pollution that was destroying the planet reached its threshold. That same year several natural disasters in a row devastated humanity, it seemed to be a warning that the planet was at its limit.

 

After this catastrophe, 90% of the population was extinct. The survivors desperately tried to find a way to fix the damage done to the planet, but it was too late the planet was collapsing, it was not known how much time was left.

 

In this race to save humanity they have outdone themselves once again, in one of the technological installations a group of scientists managed to maintain a stable dimensional portal with the particle accelerator.

 

Teegarden was a world that could only be described as mystical, it was bathed in a vital energy called mana, this energy nourished the body and mind of living beings.

 

After several conflicts, humans managed to settle down and live in peace with the people who inhabited this new planet. Helping with technological advances, in many areas, peace and prosperity has been preserved, if only on the surface.

 

Maplewood, northern city of the Sunnydale empire, a man and a boy were in a tree, the immense amount of trees made it very difficult for the sun's rays to pass through the leaves, this was the Shadow Forest.

 

“Hey Old Man let's try to go a little deeper into the forest today, the mystical beasts haven't been appearing frequently for several days now!”

 

Arthur was an 11 year old boy with gray hair and green eyes. His family had to flee Earth, his father who was in the army died in one of the battles, leaving Arthur and his mother Hellen alone.

 

Sunnydale was the empire with most of the human people, the last great war of the 4 empires happened 150 years ago, to avoid more destruction each people assumed an empire, Bedrock for the Dragonians, Greenbow for the Elves, Sunnydale for the Humans and Rising for the Lycans.

 

Nowadays there is no prohibition in any of the empires, so it is not strange to see all kinds of people, even with prejudice life was peaceful.

 

“Hey kid, you know how dangerous this forest is, I promised your mother I would never put you at risk.”

 

Lucious was strong, 1.90 m tall, red hair and blue eyes, he was the hunter of Maplewood and as he had a crush on Helen he took Arthur as an apprentice. He wanted to teach the boy just the basics, but over time Arthur showed a great aptitude for hunting, he was great at detecting the details that the beasts left, in addition to being very dedicated with physical and magical training that Lucious passed on to him.

 

In Teegarden literacy and some general knowledge was done by magical books that could transfer knowledge, when used by a person, as it was very expensive and difficult to do just for basic things existed.

 

When children turned 12, their bodies began to accumulate mana and create a mana core, at which time they could be enrolled in the Imperial academy.

 

Arthur was already in the process of circulating mana in his body, many children from powerful families learned various techniques even before joining the academy. As Lucious wanted to impress Hellen, he started teaching Arthur a circulation technique.

 

“You just want to look responsible to my mother, old man!”

 

“Hey you kid, you know there are all kinds of dangers in this forest, the deeper we go the harder it will be to protect you.”

 

Arthur knew very well that it was dangerous, but it had been more than 15 days since he and Lucious had not been able to hunt a single beast, after his father died his mother had to work in a boarding house to get food at home, Arthur swore to himself even if that would change.

 

“My mother wanted to eat a beef stew, but you are right and very dangerous.”

 

“Yes, it is very dangerous, but as I told you once, if a hunter doesn't go through dangerous situations, he will never be a real hunter.”

 

Arthur knew that his master was very fond of his mother and he supported their romance, which is why he always used his mother to deceive Lucious.

 

The truth is that without the hunting money that Lucious shared with Arthur to help, his mother's burden was getting bigger and bigger since he started learning to hunt, the situation at home improved a lot.

 

“Since we are going to go too far the class is over, now you stay behind and give me arch support, and remember if something gets out of hand run away without looking back.”

 

The two started advancing through the forest and after advancing almost 1 kilometer, Lucious realized something was very wrong. Mystic beasts were able to purify their body with mana in a natural way from birth, and they also accomplished this by hunting other beasts.

 

Lucious knew that there was a beast hunting the others, so in those 15 days he just studied the area with Arthur, he planned to find out what kind of beast it was before hunting it, but as he always wanted to fulfill Hellen's wishes, he decided to hunt the beast today with Arthur thinking it would be a good example of how to face high level beasts.

 

Lucious said his core was at the advanced Green level, but as he didn't have abundant resources it would take many years to break through to Blue.

 

As he purified himself and trained his body, the mana in his core became denser and purer, taking on different colors and the highest level ever recorded was Red. The core started off White, then Green, Blue, and Red. And each level was divided into beginning, medium and advanced.

 

For the beasts it followed the same model, the difference is when the core of a beast reaches blue it develops intelligence, and the more it evolves the smarter it becomes.

 

"Arthur something is very wrong, the fact that there is no sign of a fight over territory shows that the beast must be at a much higher level than expected, perhaps Green or Blue."

 

The only way for a beast to kill another without leaving a trace and its level is two steps above its prey.

 

Lucious signaled Arthur to start retreating, but they were already too far away from getting out without a fight, a shadow jumped on top of Arthur without giving any sign of attack.

 

The only thing Arthur felt was a sharp pain in his right leg, when he looked down at a gray wolf with white eyes and claws digging into his thigh.

 

Lucious couldn't react in time to prevent Arthur from being hurt, but he was already on top of the wolf with a dagger stuck in his head.

 

'Everything happened in less than 2 seconds, what would have happened if I was alone…'

 

That was the only thought in Arthur's head, he didn't even pay attention to the pain that spread throughout his body. He was about to say something to his master when he saw that he was no longer close, but pushing 4 other wolves away from Arthur.

 

'Damn I have to concentrate, one mistake can kill me. Even with Lucious holding 4 wolves, if another Beast appears, he won't be able to help me.'

 

With that thought Arthur took a small green potion and drank it, his heart ached, as each of these potions cost 5 coppers. He then took out an arrow that had sleeping pills on it and put it in his bow.

 

Quickly climbing a tree to have a view of the whole area, he started shooting one arrow after another, even though his aim was admirable he still spent 10 arrows to hit the 4 wolves.

 

After the wolves were hit, Lucious who was under pressure managed to kill the wolves and what was more incredible that these 5 wolves that appeared were in the initial green grade.

 

Lucious quickly placed the 5 wolves in his space ring and retreated with Arthur, he would take leave to clean the animals and collect their core when they were home.

 

“Hey old man, I want 3 cores.”

 

“As if I were going to deliver 3 nuclei…”

 

"Of course I'll use the cores to buy another outfit, replace the arrows and the potion so my mother won't notice and ask questions about what happened."

 

"Damn brat you have the nerve to threaten your teacher who saved your life, tomorrow your physical training will be 5x worse you don't lose by waiting."