Chereads / Lore of the World / Chapter 3 - Learning

Chapter 3 - Learning

It has been 5 years since Jin had come to this new world.

He had learned a few things during these years including the language of this world.

That this world was called Tir, a world with a single continent and various islands to the east.

And there were 4 primary 'gods' that this continent believed in and the corresponding 4 great families that were descendants of these gods.

The gods and families were:

The Azure Dragon, whose true name was Chung Ryong, whose family ruled over a small portion of the eastern side of the continent as well as the eastern islands. The Ryong family had authorities over the rain and water and were often prayed to and were hired by farmers to help the growth of their crops.

The majority of the Ryong family lived as fisherman in between the islands of the east.

The Vermilion Bird, true name Juzak, of the south. The Zak family was the current ruling family of the dynasty and ruled over the central area of the continent. They had the highest offensive power in large scale battles with the authorities over fire. This had allowed them to win the position of the ruling family and allowed them to hold onto them for years.

The imperial army's high ranks were mostly monopolized by this family.

The White Tiger, Baek Ho, who was the ancestor of Jin's family. Jin's family, the Ho Family, ruled over the mountain range of the west with their main branch centered around the tallest mountain near the center. The Ho family had authorities over the winds, this allowed each member to be able to swiftly travel in between the mountains.

Legend said that their ancestor, Baek Ho, could travel from the western mountains to the eastern islands along with the winds themselves, only taking a few hours at most whilst the majority of the people will have to travel months in order to make the same trip.

The Black Tortoise, Hyun Mue, of the north. The north was the territory of the Mue family, they were solemn seen as the majority of them hid in the caverns they had built out for themselves. They had the authorities over the earth and often built out huge cavern systems between themselves.

Legends speak that the spirits of the deceased all flowed north and that the Mue family had authorities over 'death' itself as well but this is most likely just a myth.

Today was his naming ceremony, each child had such ceremony on their fifth birthday as tradition. On this date, the name of the child will be blessed by their ancestor and will accompany the child until death. Today will also be the day when they find out how powerful the blood flowing inside him will be.

This tradition had existed within the four great families and it was both a curse and a blessing.

This was because the four great families had extremely low fertility rates where most couples will only be able to have one to two child throughout their lives, sometimes even none.

Instead, the descendants had various privileges such as being closer with certain elements of nature and their bodies being stronger than the norm.

Thankfully, after years of settlement the number of the members of these families was not to be trifled with.

And despite only being 5 years old, Jin's body was similar to the build of an 8 year old from earth.

His family were the descendants of the mythical creature, Baek Ho, the white tiger. His mother, Yeri was actually a commoner that had married into this family and had died a few days after giving birth to Jin. His father Luca, on the other hand, was a true member that carried the blood of the white tiger in his veins and had been the one to raise Jin.

"Are you ready?" His father spoke out from behind him.

Jin was kneeling before a stone statue of a tiger. The stone had various white specks embedded within like tiny jewels.

"Yes father."

There were only two of them within this room. Though there still were members of his family alive, many outside the main branch lived separated from the family land and were outcasts.

So in this small town in the mountains, only his father and him had the blood of the tiger running in their veins.

"Alright we shall begin." Luca brought out a knife and cut a tiny slit on his finger and then held the cut open to let the blood flow out, then he let the blood drip onto Jin's head as the cut quickly mended itself.

Ssssssss...

The blood, upon making contact with Jin's head, fizzed away like a hot drop of water in a scorching hot pan and the red wisp from the outcome blew towards the statue before them.

Hong!

At that point, the air seemed to have become extremely heavy as Jin's vision started to shake.

A silhouette of a tiger appeared before him as a pair of white eyes appeared upon the tiger.

"Another child, congratulations Luca." A voice rang out from the shadow.

Jin's father, Luca, was bowing towards the shadow as he replied. "It is only our duty, ancestor."

Jin had been baffled at this sight the entire time, a talking shadow!?

"Hello child." The shadow's gaze turned towards Jin.

"T-This child greets ancestor." I hastily spoke out the script my father had told me to say whilst bowing down.

"Good manners, you've taught him well Luca." The shadow spoke out again. "I can sense quite the strong amount of blood flowing within you, quite concentrated. Strongest I've seen in quite a while"

!?

His father, Luca, quickly raised his head and stared at the shadow of the tiger in shock.

This was mainly due to the fact that his own blood in his veins were very meager and was one of the main reasons he had been an outcast of his family, almost having been forgotten. Though his talents said otherwise, his blood had lied to him.

"Yes... Perhaps only my grandchildren could compete with you child. Hmm...I can also sense a longing and familiarity towards the darkness..." The shadow seemed to be in thought for a moment as silence befell unto the room.

"Ancestor... What does this mean?" Luca asked in caution after a moment.

"Hmm... I shall grant you the name of one of my fallen firstborns... Heuk of the darkness." The shadow spoke out as a strange wisp broke out from its body and flowed into Jin's body.

"Heuk... I thank the ancestor for the blessing." Jin felt a strange power flowing through his body as he spoke out.

This sensation quickly converged towards his arms and legs as strange tattoos surfaced upon his skin before quickly disappearing.

Luca quickly bowed as well before hurriedly speaking out "I thank the ancestor for the blessing."

"Hmm... Take care of this name." The shadow quickly dissipated with these words.

...

Silence befell the room as Jin continued to feel the mysterious sensation his body was going through at this moment as he thought.

'Heuk...'

At that moment Luca broke the silence and stood up. "Child...Heuk, my son, follow me."

Heuk quickly stood up and quickly followed after his father, leaving the now silent and empty praying hall behind.

Sss...

A pair of eyes appeared before the statue that gazed at the door the two had left through before quickly disappearing.