The Boneflare Kingdom is a stunning place filled with evergreen mountain ranges spanning regions as vast as Everest. Between these mountainous regions lies a remote area inhabited by humans.
Similar to the people who lived in the 15th century, this place has farmers, scholars, hunters, and aristocrats namely nobles. The nobles resided in palaces made of gold and silver, while commoners lived in huts, and Hunters lived in apartments made of stones.
One noteworthy aspect of these mountainous regions is that they are encircled by dense natural energies that are normally perceptible to human senses. These energies are released due to the massive trees that encircle the surrounding mountainous ranges.
The human beings of this world have elevated martial arts to a new level by assimilating these natural energies and strengthening their body constitution.
However, where there is wealth there is also misery. Because of compatibility concerns, not everyone was able to absorb or utilize these natural energies. Only noble individuals, hunters and their descendants, and commoner geniuses at the rate of one in every thousand people could absorb these energies.
In one of the lavish stone mansions,
"Delvin wake up!"
"Son wake up!! It's your first hunt expedition."
"Big brother, I said to you not to eat my cupcake, now guess you are sleepyhead, hump."
Hearing familiar voices, a young man resting on a bed in the room, opened his eyes with excitement brimming in them.
You should be aware that only hunter descendants, and geniuses in commoners could enroll in the Royal Hunter Academy. By being a son of Hunter I naturally gained a chance to enroll in the Academy.
After taking a bath, I moved towards the dining hall, where three people were seated at the dining table.
Mother dressed in traditional attire with a gorgeous face and her eyes were full of heartfelt affection.
Opposite to her is a cute little loli wearing a crimson dress. She had a pout on her face, and her face was tilted in the opposite direction to mine, obviously because I ate all her cupcakes while she was away playing.
Beside mother is sitting my father, who has a handsome face covered with a single beast scar from his forehead to cheeks due to a beast battle. He has a well build physique like an army man and a kind of savage aura radiating through him and he smiles upon seeing me.
I'm not sure how many monsters he had to kill to acquire his aura to this point. After being with him for a decade, I have been naturally grown resistant to it, so it didn't affect me in any way.
But one tragic fact that is worth highlighting about him is that he is missing a leg, which was lost in the last war against Beast Tide while he was rescuing his companion.
"Son have your breakfast, today I have made your special fish curry for celebration on your first day", mother said.
"Hehe I'm going to dig in first for Bother's celebration", replied Elsa.
"Son let's enjoy 'Blueberry wine' when you complete your expedition," Dad suggested.
"Husband you always think about drinking, did you water herbs and feed fishes," Mom said.
"Yes, my Darling," Dad said.
Yes, we have a business of transporting herbs to the medicine department and fish to Lavender restaurant which is one of the largest restaurants in the kingdom, to cover our monthly expenses.
Although the money was not worth much in comparison to the money earned by a working hunter, but it was still sufficient to cover our monthly expenses.
I took my seat and started digging into this delicious food while competing with my sister who had already begun.
"BURP". "BURP". After breakfast, we both burped simultaneously and I took my leave to prepare my gear for the expedition.
While I was packing my belongings, Father entered into the room with the help of his walking stick and remarked with strictness written all over his face "Son, be careful of not only surprise beast attacks but also of your companions; you know the human heart can be cruel sometimes". Writing down my father's advice in my thoughts I said "Don't worry Dad I will keep an eye on it".
"Take care then" he stared at me for a moment then taking note that I had heeded his counsel, he left the room to water spirit herbs, and I resumed packing again.
After packing all the essential things, I carried my backpack on my shoulders as I walked out of my room only to find my sister and mother waiting there with packed food in their hands.
"Don't forget your dinner and be sure to eat it on time and be safe" Mother said.
"Big brother don't forget to bring back 'bleeding heart flower[1], or I won't forgive you."
"Yeah sure," I said. "Goodbye Mom and Elsa and don't worry I'll be taking care of myself," I remarked as I bid them farewell.
I opened my house's main door while saying goodbye to my mother and Elsa.
After walking out of the house, I turned my head to check my home as I will be taking my leave from home for half a year and notice the [General of war] placate hanging in the middle of the building.
All hunters were provided dwellings based on their achievements and my father had accomplished great merits by being General of War and had earned this exquisite and largest of all hunter's residences.
However we could only remain in this residence for 10 years unless any family member attained at least a Lieutenant rank, or then it would be hard to keep this residence and we would have to relocate to a smaller residence.
Now that only 2 years were remaining, I had an unstated but significant obligation to maintain this residence, since this was a keepsake of my Father's achievement. "I will get Lieutenant rank," I declared clenching my fingers into knuckles.
Determined and overcome with emotions, I made my way towards the main gate and noticed a brawny youth, somewhat taller than me, my best friend Angun, waiting there. "Delvin it's our first day and you are still late, get inside fast or we will be late", Angun excitedly pointed to his bull cart and exclaimed.
"Yeah, let's go", I responded as I climbed into the cart and made myself comfortable.
"Go," Angun said to his steward who was tall and sturdy dressed in black attire, and in his mid 40's and looked more like a bodyguard than a steward. The steward commanded bulls to move forward towards the academy.
Angun's father was the one whom my father had saved in the last war and we were friends from childhood and after the incident, our bond also became stronger. Angun's father has a post of vice general in the hunter's army, so he has better privileges than my retired father as this world is a cultivation world and only the strong are revered while the weak are discarded like the deadline for our residence is same as discarding the weak.
"Brother why do you look so worried today," he questioned, seeing my somewhat melancholy demeanor.
"It's nothing just worried about the genius test". Yes, there were tests to assess cultivators of their talent so they could be grouped accordingly for training expeditions.
"Don't worry brother after all these years of hard cultivation we should at least rank in the middle so let's talk about other things like have u eaten the new dish 'Salmon hell fish' of 'Lavender restaurant'. It was so delicious when I ate it, it was like this dish recipe has come from hell, as it tortures us to taste it every time we think about it."
"No, but by looking at your drooling face I really want to try it, let's go together there for a celebration after our expedition". I said
"Then it's done we are going to celebrate there". Angun said still drooling and envisioning the dish's intricacies.
I stared outside of the window to see the changing scenery as we traveled and started to think over my next steps while Angun was lost in dreams, no one knew what he was thinking.
Being dazed in my own dreams and Angun dazed at his own dreams we soon reached our destination, as all hunter residences were only a few miles away from the academy. We both stepped out of the bull cart to view a tall and large majestic palace covering the area as wide as you could perceive with your naked eyes. The palace is entirely composed of jade stones [2] and it has numerous buildings that serve as various departments of the academy, you could also feel a kind of noble aura flowing through the palace.
################################
[1] A bleeding heart flower is one of the most beautiful flowers in the world which is in the shape of a heart and red in color and grows between spring and early summer.
[2] Jade stones are naturally found stones in large quantities in this world and are available in different colors like emerald green.