City of Ironmountain, 120 years ago…
The green blades of grass gently danced to the wind, the birds flew high in the clouds, and the sun shone brightly on the city of iron and stone.
Early in the morning, Hesich woke up to pack his stuff for the trip to the iron mountain ranges.
He packed clothes, water, food, bandages and other things that he found necessary in case of emergencies along the way.
He put on his armor and took his sword with him. When he went downstairs, his other siblings were already there.
Levis stood there with an unperturbed expression, Vesiro leaned against the carriage as he circulated his Divinious for maximum efficiency. And finally, Scrieno was just there, not minding the invisible tension between all of them.
"Finally you're here. What took you so long?" Scrieno gestured with his hand for Heisch to come over once he saw Heisch appear. "Come on, the carriage is ready for the trip."
Heisch walked over and got on the carriage and stuffed his bag under his seat. Levis went inside as well as Vesiro, who didn't even speak to anyone. Scrieno was the last one to go inside and shut the door as he got on.
Seeing that everyone was ready, the carriage began moving.
Neigh!
The horses ran and the four brothers were sent to the mountains.
From afar, if one decided to hover above the Nacoris mansion, over eighty carriages could be seen setting off from the Nacoris manor. Welkanor sent some of his men to guard the mountain foot so that the competition between the four brothers wouldn't be interfered.
Welkanor sent one Pragius ranked Slasher named, Ythira.
She is a trained awakened slave from the Nacoris family. Yes, just like the swordsman and the warborn that Chrysos fought, she was just like them. A slave with no identity and no freedom.
Ythira has pale yellowish hair that looks like very fine strands of hay. Her eyes had green, horizontally stretched hexagonal irises that seemed to rotate 90 degrees every time she blinked.
She had slightly dark circles under her eyes as a result of her habit to take very cold baths every midnight on the nearby lake owned by the Nacoris family. And unlike other enslaved awakened ones, she had plenty of freedom because of her extensive contribution to the family that led to her left cheek being torn open, revealing her sharp canines and pinkish flesh that healed.
She usually wore long and baggy dark colored clothing just because of how comfortable it feels for her.
Heisch looked outside the window as the carriage moved. "According to our father, we have a week to hunt the bull, right?"
Scrieno nodded. "Yes, but it's going to be enough since there's four of us against that thing. Well, I guess you can still help in some way.."
Levis rolled his eyes. "Scrieno, just tell him the truth. He's too weak to even fight that thing, so he wouldn't be of much help anyway. He's much better off staying away from it." He wasn't the type to sugarcoat things. Levis preferred to bring the truth as much as he could, despite the possibility of hurting someone's feelings.
Scrieno turned his eyes away from Levis for a second to inhale some fresh air before looking back at him. "Look, do you really have to be so rude to everyone you get to talk to? Plus, Heisch is still sixteen. What do you want him to do at his age? Experience torturous trials for years so that he could learn?"
Levis replied with a sneer. "When I was sixteen, I was already stronger than how he is today. If we keep sugarcoating the situation, how will he ever learn?"
"Hey-" Scrieno was about to say something when Heisch cut him off.
Heisch looked at Levis and said. "I know that I can't be of any use against the bull. I won't interfere with you guys. And I know that I am severely lacking in terms of strength and it's something that I should work on more."
Levis clapped his hands together and pointed at Heisch. "See Scrieno? That's how you take what people say to you. Instead of being sad about it, you need to take the criticism and become better. That's how you begin to mature as a person."
Scrieno replied with a calm voice. "Look, all I was saying is that not all people have the same strengths as one another. Some are strong, and some are weak. If you want the weak to become strong, you must tend to what they need first."
"And that's why the weak are weak. They don't become stronger fast enough. Tell me, will the enemy let a threat grow before killing it? No! Of course not. That's why the strong survives and weak crumbles to dust." Levis clenched his fist while he was looking at Scrieno.
"That's your interpretation. We have different views and ideas, so not all of them can work." Scrieno then looked outside the window. Refusing to engage with Levis any more than he had to.
"Tch, yeah I think so too." Levis also stopped talking.
Heisch sighed in his heart. None of his brothers really get along with each other. Every time they talk to each other, it always ends up in an awkward silence that lasts for hours.
"..."
After eighteen hours of traveling, they saw the tall iron mountain range far away while being covered in gray mist. The sky was dark, and Heisch couldn't help but feel unsettled.
The glory and strength of the iron mountains. It wasn't something that a mortal like him could go against.
Heisch snapped out of his daze after the carriage slightly shook after stopping.
Vesiro, who was silent the entire time, finally spoke. "We're here." He looked up the mountainous peaks of the dark and foggy Iron mountain ranges.
Scrieno looked at the tall mountains with mixed feelings. "When they said that the iron mountains were dangerous, I really hoped that they were exaggerating."
Levis scoffed. "What? Are you afraid? It's just a mountain. You should worry more about the beasts living here. I heard that one time when the Viscount of the Alo Cecire family sent one thousand men to hunt down an Azure Scaled Wyvern. And let me tell you, the people who returned were less than twenty."
"That's not concerning at all.." Scrieno revealed a wry smile.
The iron mountains are filled with beasts and strange phenomena that usually occur in mysterious ways. Especially with the thick fog and high chances for the gray clouds shrouding the peaks of the mountain to lash out strong lightning strikes, almost no one wanted to go here unless they had a chance to get something of equal value.
The four of them grabbed their equipment and supplies. Scrieno hurriedly scrambled for his bag but he accidentally rummaged Levis' equipment instead.
"Hey! That's my bag!" Levis nudged Scrieno off.
"Whoops, wrong one." Scrieno saw that the identical looking bag wasn't his so he awkwardly reached for his stuff.
"Hmph." Levis gave out a snort.
Heisch looked at this and he was trying his best to keep himself from laughing.
The four of them got off the carriage and the chief of the guards walked over to them. "Young masters, please be careful out there."
"Don't worry, we'll be fine." Scrieno patted his chest.
Ythira then spoke with a deadpan expression, "If something happens, run back here. I am not permitted to follow any of you up there." As her mouth moved as she talked, some of the people around them couldn't help but glance at her exposed teeth through her cheek.
"You don't have to worry about me." Levis shrugged and pointed at Heisch. "If anything, you should tell that to him."
Heisch didn't speak but he did show an expression of being slightly annoyed.
The chief guard nodded his head and the four brothers set off towards the mountains.
"…"
Vesiro went ahead and he was the first to split from the group. He walked away from the three of them and disappeared in the mist.
Levis also went on his own way and left both Heisch and Scrieno together.
Now, it's just the two of them together in the middle of the woods.
"Alright, I will also go on my own way now. Heisch, are you sure you want to stay here?" Scrieno asked him before he left.
"The reason why I went here is because I didn't want our father to think I don't take him seriously enough. As his son, I have to at least honor the Nacoris family in some way. Staying behind would show my disinterest and then I'll lose face in front of him from then on." Heisch sighed. "But go ahead, I won't be going too deep in the forest."
"Good. I'll be going now." Scrieno turned away and walked towards a random direction.
"Don't do anything stupid!" Scrieno's voice rang out before slowly fading.
Alone in the gloomy atmosphere of the forest, Heisch did feel a bit unsettled.
Heisch rested both of his hands on his hips and said to himself, "Now I just have to survive for an entire week... good thing I have enough supplies." He took out his sword and began walking towards a bunch of trees huddled together, forming a thick canopy of leaves.
Using his sword, he cut them down using Divinious to make a simple shelter. With his abilities as a Steel Armorclad, he was better working on his defense than offense. However, that didn't stop him from using his unique ability, "Aggravated Crash" to cut down the trees in a thrashed up manner.
Heisch formed a red magic circle on his chest, enveloping him in an aura that probed the mind for aggressive tendencies. It works on weak minded awakened ones, but Heisch wasn't weak minded. He resisted the anger flowing through his mind and used the strength flowing through the Divinious and his body to charge forward like a cannonball.
Bam!
The trees all fell down after being thrashed by Heisch's forceful charge.
Seeing all the badly cut logs laying down as if they were rammed by large beasts, Heisch sighed in obvious dissatisfaction.
"Back then, I usually sliced logs so cleanly… Maybe I really became weaker as time went on.." Heisch sheathed his sword, swallowed his self deprecation and moved on.
By of course, moving the logs and forming a crude shelter. After that, Heisch began to look for wild animals to hunt down.
He wandered off in the misty woods with anything barely being visible. Heisch was a very patient person though. He wouldn't easily give up in front of such simple matters.
And because of his efforts of finding prey, he finally caught a glimpse of something living from afar, he could see a silhouette of a creature that resembles a deer. Although it took him an hour, he found food eventually.
Heisch slowly crept towards the figure by crouching and gently placing his steps to not alert it. When he was close enough to get a closer look, he saw that it was a Stone Fur Deer. It wasn't too weak to be considered as easy prey, but it was powerful enough to fight its way out of trouble and run away.
Heisch didn't want that to happen so he took it stealthily.
As he approached the oblivious deer, he held his sword tightly and silently activated his unique ability called "Brutal Harvest."
His sword was shrouded by energies of strength and sharpness. When he was about one meter close to the deer, he activated another of his unique abilities called "Heavy Charge."
He silently conjured a magic circle on his chest like the previous ability. "Brutal Harvest" is a very devastating attack-type unique ability. A powerful burst of strength rushed towards his body that heavily fortified his legs and his arms. With this power, he propelled himself forward as he held his sword.
Boom!
The deer didn't have enough time to react when Heisch's sword chopped a deep cut into the deer's neck.
The deer wailed in pain as it fell over. It tried to run away, but Heisch was one step ahead of it. He grabbed the deer's antlers and he kept hacking down his sword at the deer's neck.
After receiving such brutal energy from "Brutal Harvest", Hesich was able to deliver devastating blows until it didn't have the strength to run anymore. It died shortly after.
Heisch stood in his place to catch his breath. After regaining some of his energy, he stood up and carried the deer's body to his camp.
When he returned, he started by skinning the deer to remove the tough hide. He then sliced it into chunks of meat and then he used a wooden pike to stab the chunks of meat together.
He used an earth spell to create two thin earthen poles to hold the pike from the ground. He used a weak fire spell to start a fire underneath the deer's meat.
While the fire was still being made, he washed his hands using a magic spell and then he used spices and covered the chunks of meat to give it flavor.
He took out a scent masking potion and soaked the meat. This scent masking potion is odorless, flavorless and it's also safe to ingest, so Heisch knew that it was something that he could use.
After setting this all up, he used a wooden stump as a chair and sat down as he cooked the meat.
A while later...
Heisch put out the fire and took a chunk of meat and began eating it. He looked at the gloomy sky, but the tenderness of the meat still made him feel better even though there was an oppressive feeling to the atmosphere.
He took another bite and enjoyed the flavor of his meal.
Heisch casually glanced at the forest as he chewed. Knowing that he would probably stay here for some time, Heisch wasn't feeling all that well.
Meanwhile, somewhere deep in the forest.
A man with a tattered hood ran away holding a brown bag on his left hand. He leapt from a tall level of a hill and landed on the rough green grass down below with a roll to negate his fall.
He slowly stood up and dropped the bag, held his knees and turned to look at the ledge where he was earlier. Under the gray and desolate clouds of the tall unforgiving mountains, his face was shadowed by hood, only revealing the lower portion of his face.
The man smiled and grabbed the bag, rummaged through it using his right hand and took a scroll that was made of the skins of beasts. The sinister aura exuding from the numerous magic circles on the scroll gives off the feeling as if you are watched. A hopeless prey in the middle of trees and darkness.
He then took a map from his left front pocket and laid it cleanly on the ground and crouched at the same time. The man looked at the map and scanned the different areas by tracing the map's surface using his finger.
The man took a slight pause to confirm the area, then he bit his thumb. Dripping the blood on the map, he slowly stood up and placed his attention on the scroll.
He breathed out to calm himself. The man fully unfurled the scroll vertically and began pouring his Divinious into it.
The magic circles began to glow as a mist of rage and aggravation spread out like a ripple from a rock thrown into a serene lake.
The forest shook.
Roar!!
Howl!!
Screech!!
Somewhere in the foot of the mountain range…
Heisch heard multiple cries and roars of different beasts almost at the same time.
"What was that?" Heisch took a piece of cloth and took some meat chunks from the campfire. Quickly gathering everything he had just in case something horrible were to occur. He wore his backpack and raised his sword from his waist.
He heard slight rumbling from the forest.
Heisch couldn't help but look down on the ground and saw small pebbles weakly vibrating. But the slightly problematic part was that it was slowly getting stronger.
Something was terribly wrong from what Heisch could see. He was weak compared to his brothers, but he wasn't an idiot.
He used a mystical ability called, "Survivalist's Hunch" that summoned a large hazy gray magic circle bigger than his upper body. Stretching his arm towards the magic circle, he opened his palm wide open and poured Divinious into it.
Suddenly, Heisch found it easier to see as if everything in the dark mountainous area was within his sights. He used it to peer through the fog to see what could possibly cause the ground to shake.
What he saw beyond the fog was the most terrifying thing he saw in his entire life.
Wolves, bears, large birds, giant insects, primate like beasts, and many more creatures in all shapes and sizes. Some had claws, armor, sharp teeth, tough skin, bulging muscles, and ferocious eyes.
This was the last thing that Heisch didn't want to see.
He immediately ran for his life before the beasts found him. There were no second thoughts, all he cared about was to survive. His body knew the danger and recognized it.
"Why? Why? Why?! Why is there a damned beast horde at this time!?" Heisch cursed inwardly.
He was currently at the mountain foot and the beasts came from the dense forest. He couldn't run up any of the mountains since that would just slow him down. So a better alternative was to run away from the mountains. But then again, the beasts are faster than him.
"No no no, I can't run from them… I have to hide." Heisch decided to hide and let them run past him. That was his only hope of survival.
He looked around as he ran and he saw a tree with small pocket under its roots. Heisch ran over to the tree and used Divinious to dig out the dirt from the roots to give him more space to squeeze in.
As he dug, the beasts came closer and closer.
Sweat slowly dripped down his face as he desperately created a small hole for him to hide in.
When he saw that it was big enough for him to fit, he jumped in without hesitation and splashed scent masking potions all over himself just to hide from the beasts with keen senses.
Outside the tree, he heard the beasts running past him. He heard wild growls and the loud footsteps of beast horde.
He held his breath trying not to reveal his position. From the corner of his eyes, he could vaguely see the beasts that went by.
He just wished that this nightmare would be over soon. He only wished to survive and see another day again.
He curled into a ball and covered his head. Heisch kept covering his head and ears for hours until midnight and only then did the beast horde finally go away.
But because of doing so, fatigue soon crept all over his body. His eyelids became so heavy that despite his unwillingness, Heisch eventually slept.
"Hopefully I don't die... when I'm still..."
Heisch fell unconscious. But he muttered one last word before he did so.
"... Sleeping."