SOML – Chapter 12: The Brute, the Doofus and the Turtle

Chapter 12 – The Brute, the Doofus and the Turtle

…

“Okay, let’s introduce ourselves, shall we? I am Sarah Pendragon.” Sarah lifted her proud head.

After puking for how long, Ben finally stabilized his stomach. But this time, he felt thirsty. So, he gulped down hard before chuckling and bent his head. “Hehe. I am Ben. I don’t know about combat and stuff. But I am sturdy. I could even carry you, Sister.” Ben rubbed his palms to ease his nervousness.

The speechless two looked at him, but for different reasons.

Jed underestimated how tough Ben was. He only knew the guy could carry heavy things. Thus, when the boy asked him earlier, Jed hesitated but still said no.

Erasing these thoughts, Jed hummed and hemmed. “I’m Jed. And I am quite… fast?”

The skin on her face knitted. “Then, why you acted so slow?” Sarah clicked her tongue, causing Jed to choke.

“Aba, Sister. It’s true. I can testify to it. He could be scared back then, that’s why.” Ben to the rescue. Jed patted his chest and nodded.

“Oh, so I won’t call you Turtle anymore, Scaredy Cat.”

Jed became speechless. So, it’s me who you called Turtle back then!

By now, they arrived beside a stream. After a long time, Ben calmed his stomach while lifting the corpse with him. Behind him, Sarah picked up a chair-sized rock. Then, she put it beside Ben, patted it and sat on top. She let one hand underneath her chin.

Ben ran to the stream to wash his hands, rapid fast. His expression was weird.

Jed glanced at Sarah before taking something out from his shoes. It was a small knife and he used it to skin the creature. A while later, he completely skinned all of its fur. Now he was cutting the carcass into parts. He appeared used in doing these things. After that, he washed each slice and put them down on large leaves.

Not bad, Sarah thought. She was still doing nothing, though.

Ben got twigs and dried leaves to start a fire. Though he was desperately twisting the twig between rocks, it didn’t seem close to sparking a fire. Sarah shook her head and stood up.

Faso. Sarah willed it and a small circular object was floating above her palm.

It had an outer and inner circle, and between the two circles are rune-like words glistening with mystical colors.

The words were unfamiliar language.

“Whoa.” Ben cried in shock. A faint burn odor appeared. The wisp of smoke was twirling above the twig. Then, a small flame emerged and crawled over the twigs.

“Sis, are you a wizard?” Eyes shining, Ben stared wide eye at Sarah. His brown eyes glistening under the sun. Sarah curled her mouth, but her eyes twinkled.

“Nope.” But Sarah shook her head. “I’m not a full-pledge wizard yet. We can only consider an individual a wizard if she can use spells. I only chanted an incantation for fire.”

Ben wiggled his butt and looked at Sarah. “Nonetheless, you have a talent for it. Well, so, it’s true that you don’t know any combat or spell arts, huh?”

Sarah grinned. She pointed at the sliced meat and the bonfire. “Let’s start roasting this, shall we?”

…

Ben was quite hesitant at first, but when he tasted the meat, he had forgotten his thoughts. “So delicious.” He muttered in satisfaction.

“Of course, I bet all animals here are delicious.” Sarah licked her lips and the oils in her fingers. “Our teacher wouldn’t catch anything less he fancies. Only those with value can be here in the realm. I bet even the plants here are nutritious.”

“Why don’t we just eat plants then?” Ben stuttered, bowed his head and his pupils darting around. He gulped with nothing on his mouth.

“Duh. If we can get a plant like that, we can only eat a few and take the remaining with us. It can be used as material for pill making. That way, it will boost its medicinal and nutritional value.”

“Pills?” The boy blinked.

“What? You don’t know what pills are?” Sarah raised her eyebrows. She scanned him.

“Hey, you Turtle. Don’t tell me you don’t know about it too!” Sarah lifted her palm in the air and waved it towards Jed.

Although the two boys may be afraid of her, but seeing her actions made the two of them chuckling instead.

Sarah snorted. “Hey, come on. Explain it to him.”

Jed scratched his nose. “Pills are very important in training, Ben. Most of them are vitamins that invigorates and strengthen our body. We use others as a medicine. However, there are rare pills that can clean your body or to calm your mind.”

Ben was wide eyed hearing the last words. Jed smiled, knowing his friend’s frustration so this will really tempt him.

“Ben, I know what you are thinking. However, I didn’t tell you about this thing because it is not worth it.” Jed explained. Ben gripped his fist and exhaled. “Is there no other way?”

“Oh.” Sarah glance between the two. She seemingly understood it and patted Ben. “Doofus, it is worth it if you train your foundation arts without external aid.”

“Why? Wouldn’t it help you succeed easier?” Ben said. Question marks masked his face.

“But then, you will regret it. You will have a hard time breaking through higher levels if you do it.” Sarah pursed her lips. “Honestly, only the vitamins-type are the goods ones. You can take one every day without consequence. As for the medicine, you probably don’t want to get injured a lot, no? The cleansing of the body is very great, though, it can only be used once. Unless, you find or create a more potent than Grand-Grade pills, then you better forget it. And last, the pill that can calm mind is better used those in higher levels.”

“Of course, these are worth coins.” Sarah blinked and her face was playful. She twirled a strand of red hair and stared at it.

Jed knew it better than Ben. He had been wanting to buy these pills and other resources so he could start his training. However, he didn’t have money yet. He estimated that an entire month income of his shop was equivalent to one bottle of vitamin-type. So, the alternative he had was exercising. But it was slower than if he bought a bulk of the pills.

As for the other type of pills? Forget it, they were more expensive than the vitamin-type. Especially the body cleansing pill.

Sarah knew it too. Even her clan could only get a few bulks of these pills. It seemed large, but counting all the clan members; it was not enough.

“Bro, are there grades of pills too?” Ben looked at Jed.

“Yes. Just like the categories for treasure, there are four categories for pills too. Common-Grade Pills are those pills easy to manufacture because its ingredients are easy to find in the wild. These pills have limited effect to your body.”

“Precious-Grade Pills are pills that have, mystical effects on your body. It is quite substantial in terms of effectiveness and they fetch for a large sum in the market.” This time Jed chuckled powerlessly.

“Next is the Grand-Grade pill. Body cleansing and calming type pills are in this category. Of course, there are vitamin and medicinal type as well, but their effects are incomparably potent compared to the previous categories. This category is worth a huge sum of coins.” Jed started counting on his head. “Maybe around… five years’ worth of working in the market.”

Ben was tongue-tied hearing that.

“Well, that’s it.” Sarah clapped and started packing the remaining food. “We need these for lunch because it is hard to hunt at night. The two of you need to learn how to survive in the wild, especially you, Ben.”

“Let’s find somewhere to hide first, then we’ll talk about our next move.”

…

The three brainstormed together last night. The boys thought Sarah was going to boss them.

“You see, the purpose of this trial is not really on the flag. The process is more important than the reward.” Sarah said.

“Sister, why would you say that the process is the more important?” Ben’s brows furrowed. He slapped away the leaves, but the sunlight blinded him.

Sarah gave him a one eye. She was standing at the front and was observing the surroundings. “The reward is only the bonus. Adapting to changing situations and environment is the most precious training we can get.”

“Oh…” Ben remembered the rumors about her and asked. “How did you hunt the Beast? Does training in the wild strengthened you or you are already strong before you went to the wild?”

 Sarah blinked many times. “You think I’m strong?”

Sarah leaned closer to Ben. Even though they had the same height, Ben felt Sarah was looking down at him. “Naivety is good-and-all in society. But if you go outside, that behavior of yours will be your downfall.”

“If I punch you right now, there’s no stopping it because I’m stronger. And in the outside world, there are more terrifying characters than me. And I don’t want to be their stepping stone, so I’m working hard to prevent that to happen.” Sarah tapped Ben’s shoulder with her index finger.

“Asks less, talk less, train more and work more.” Sarah stated before stretching. Behind her was the dumbfounded Ben, shaken by her words.

Ben inhaled. The negative thoughts had preoccupied him these days. He muttered under his breath. “You have advantage because of your clan and bloodline.”

Sarah craned her neck and pursed her lips. “I don’t hear it. What did you say?”

The boy shook his head. Sarah scoffed. “What a naïve guy.” She thought. She strutted till the foliage covered her back.

Ben sat and closed his eyes. He knew he lacked knowledge about training. Thus, when he finally introduced it, he became excited. He thought that he would succeed easily. But as time passed, a thought kept on bugging him.

And that he wasn’t talented.

Even though he didn’t want to compare himself to others, it was hard after seeing every one of the same age besting him.

Ben calmed his mind and told himself not to chase for immediate success. He may not be talented, but at least he would try it until he succeeded.

Sarah saw this and nodded. She was sitting on top of a tree. Glancing around her for the last time, she started her training. She didn’t forget what her dreams.

“Everyone kept making excuses. Talent? Resources? Help? Everything is fleeting if I don’t work hard.”

“Life is a grind, but the blade comes afterwards is beautiful.”

“My dream is to beat up my father.” Sarah grinned. “I want to be the strongest. The strongest Transcendent of all.”

She was pushing her vertical body with one finger. But her face changed a second later. “And to learn the truth.” She exhaled. “Faso.”

Separated from the others, Jed was also considering his plans while picking the fruits nearby. He already made a plan, but seeing the opportunity in front of him, he may start now. The food he had found was nutritious, which could help him in his training.

Jed was in the Expert Level, training on a Combat Foundation Art. He only had the four levels of his Foundation Arts. The missing levels didn’t dishearten the boy. He didn’t even consider perfecting his foundation arts. He had only one goal, after all.

“This realm is good. Our teacher didn’t restrict us from eating the plants here, especially the better ones. Common vitamins and nutritious food had to be taken regularly in order to boost my system. But these fruits can force my body beyond it was capable of. I can’t thank this opportunity enough.” Thus, Jed started biting a fruit. Then he started training on one of the combat arts he brought out from the academy’s library—Basic Hope Combat Arts. It was only a couple of movements, so it was easy to copy. As for the art left by his parents, he felt the nutrition of the fruits was unqualified.

Jed immediately set forward. First, he punched into the air. It was very straightforward, but the combat art was only basic and Jed wasn’t picky. A punch after another. He was sweating bullets but he could still feel a tiny amount of energy appearing inside him so he continued.

He normally could work-out for about an hour. But the Combat Art sapped his strength in a minute. But thanks to the fruit, he lasted over three minutes. The nutritional effects were not immediate. Only complemented and accompanied by rigorous training the effects could be felt.

He rested for about five minutes before standing. He chewed on another fruit and copied other movements for kicking this time. The boy went from one move to another while resting in between.

“My usual exercise differs from this. The latter followed a certain rhythm, patterns and coordination of the body. The amount of fatigue and stress is greater. Though, my hard work these years also helps, else I won’t be able to last this long.”

Thick veins emerged from his face. An enormous volume of perspiration swam down from his forehead.

His energy was already scarce. And his body was teetering to collapse.

However, he still pushed himself.

“My talent might not be comparable to Sarah and other heaven defying children, but still higher compared to others. But basing only this will not spring me to greatness. In fact, I have to maximize this talent to build my foundations.”

“If I can surpass my limits every time, then it will build a higher foundation. I need to have greater expectations of myself.” Jed grimaced. “Only if I can eat these fruits every time… no, if I consume pills every time, my training speed will be double.”

“Though, this is only a Common-Grade Art. Precious-Grade or Grand-Grade will be harder. But that’s for the future. I have to master more Common-Grade Arts if I want to take that path.”

“Huff.” Jed exhaled. His body felt numb. It was twitching time to time. But Jed was grateful. “One more month and I’ll be able to master it.” The boy stretched his hands and scratched his head. He made a wry smile. “I think I need to collect more plants here. At least, a large number, enough to last till the business became sustainable.”

After a long time, the three of them finished their training. Sarah’s condition was still the same though, aside from the boulder sitting on her back. The quiet Ben exited his training as well. He still not succeeded but his frame of mind was a lot calmer. On the other hand, Jed looked like he would collapse any moment.

When the two boys saw Sarah, their lips couldn’t help but twitch. Even though Jed was training in Combat Arts while Sarah didn’t and was only exercising, the difference was still relative. Because judging from how large the boulder is, Jed prayed he’d be lucky to lift it for a few seconds. Jed wondered that only Precious-Grade could drain him that quick.

Looking closely, sweat drenched her clothes. But she continued lifting the rock. Heck, she was even sitting beside them, devoid of emotion.

“Hm. Sis, we need to find food, no?” Ben gulped down, still staring at the strange sight in front of him.

“Yep. Remember the stream? I saw some small fishes in it. We can make wooden spears and try to catch some. There is also an option of hunting some wild animal.”

Raising his hand, Ben spoke while his eyes darting around. “Is there an option of eating fruits and vegetables instead?”

“You have eaten meat before, correct? Just yesterday and last night, I remember we did.” Sarah continued nodding.

“Yes…”

“So, don’t be a worrywart and just eat what I kill, is that okay for you?” Sarah clicked her tongue. She didn’t want to expect Ben contributing on hunting anymore. “You also better find some fruit or else, I’ll beat you up.”

“Yes, Ma’am!”

“As for you Turtle, hiding in your shell? Why are you always silent?” Jed wasn’t spared too.

“Hm. I can help—.” Jed tried to speak while also presenting the few remaining fruits he had found. Sarah immediately snatched one, interrupting him.

“Good found.” Sarah bit one, juices flew out from her toothy mouth.

“Okay. Help me hunt some animal. We need protein. Fruits lack the nutrition to help us survive this trial.” Sarah waved at Ben and Jed before walking towards the direction of the stream.

“You, go over there, try to stab anything that passes me. As for you, just search in the corner but don’t be silly and disappear from our vision.”

Thus, started the survival days of the trio.

…

The Illusory Realm contained things and locations similar to the actual world.

Shrubs and fields of rice with a golden hue existed. There were mountains pierced through the sky and plains stretched to the horizon. Several sorts of flora and fauna existed, struggling to live. If the trio didn’t know, they would mistake this place as the actual world.

With the landscape seemingly changing every time, the constant bug bites and beast attacks in the dense forest eluded and drained the trio. So, they rested dog-tired for today.

Ben cracked his knuckles and sensed the heaviness of his eyes. “Do we really need to do this, Sis?”

Sweat trailed on her face. Sarah wiped it and remarked. “Of course. We need to act as though we are competing for the rewards. This way our training and experience will be fruitful.”

Dark lines drawn out under Jed’s eyes. He could only keep his mum. He retreated to the side and uncorked a handmade flask.

Sarah nodded at Jed. She glanced at the flask and said. “You got excellent hands.”

They woke up early the next day. They started a fire and cook the meat they collected. The smoke and aroma attracted some beasts, which became additional meat jerky thanks to Sarah. They patted themselves clean before standing for another journey.

These kids went anywhere. Sometimes they would trigger traps or chased by a drove of beast. Thankfully, they remained safe despite a few close shave and injuries. Dirt and grime covered them - looking more of a beggar than a student.

“We need to be accustomed in such life. In the future, if you don’t want to fall in mediocrity, then this will happen to us.” Sarah combed her fuzzy hair with her hands. She observed the two. She noticed that Jed was quite calm in the entire event. The boy also had many tricks on his sleeves. The only thing was, he remained quiet and smiling. As for Ben, he was ignorant and always marveled at everything. Sarah thought why she was partnered with this guy. She shook her head and continued trekking an up-slope.

Ben patted himself. He thought with his tough body he could keep up with the two. He exhaled and smelled his odor.

“Bro, how do you keep up? Is it because of Foundation Arts?” Ben asked.

Jed smiled and shook his head. “I’m used to it.” He didn’t mind the dirt and scaled the slope with his hands. “Don’t worry, you will be used to it.”

Ben smiled. Actually, he was satisfied with his first journey.

“Doofus. Turtle. Look here.” Sarah shouted. She was standing on the top.

The boys gave wry smiles at each other. They also gave her a nickname, but they didn’t have the courage to say it in her face.

…

The festival’s opening ceremony had long since finished. To call it jovial was an understatement.

The kids under nine years old played and chased each other like wild ponies. Children graduated from the academy have their own circle too, as they talk about their experience before they graduate and what they were doing right now. Some of them were training while others worked.

But for teenagers and adults, the ceremony was far more meaningful. Friends caught up and drank merrily. Sometimes a new bud sprouted between opposite sex. Romance and familial energy spread as people’s face filled with joy and laughter.

The flower decorations highlighted the festival. Their fragrance filled the world with galore of nature and mesmerization.

There were also drummers and singers adding to the merriment of county folks. Dancing was not a strange sight as people battled with their moves.

But the most awaited was still the Meteor’s wedding.

This event had already spread towards the neighboring counties, even the capital county sent a convoy to witness the scene and congratulate the couple.

Everything was completed and everyone just waiting for it to happen.

Not all people could get there. But the reception included everyone, albeit in their own houses. Meteor had amassed a small fortune so he could order chefs to cook and brought presents for everyone in the county.

People had passed this tradition since eras that even the poorest couple still spent an amount of money to give gifts to everyone in the county, even someone they didn’t even met. Some people only gave gifts that were easy to buy. Thus, most people won’t be hard on Meteor even if he spent little. Yet he still did. Because of his love for his county.

Soon, there was only one day left. And everyone was expecting the grand wedding of the person who bought them joy and pride.

…

Chapter 11 | Chapter 13