Boneflare Kingdom, a very beautiful place filled with evergreen mountains covering areas as large as Everest. Between these mountainous areas was a secluded area where humans stayed, same as in the 19th century.
There were farmers, scholars, hunters and the rulers that is nobility who lived in palaces made of gold and silver, while commoners lived in huts and Hunters lived in apartments made of stones.
One thing worthy of mentioning about these mountainous areas is that, it is surrounded by thick natural energies released due to the very big trees present on the surrounding mountains, which can be felt by normal senses of humans.
The humans of this world had brought martial arts to a new level by absorbing these natural energies and improving their body constitution.
But where are riches there is misery also, not all of the people could cultivate these natural energies, as not all of them could absorb these natural energies due to compability issues.
Only noble persons, Hunters and thier lineage, and commoner geniuses at the rate of 1 in 1000 people could absorb these energies.
In one of the stone houses,
"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 youth sleeping on a bed in of the room, opened his eyes with excitement brimming in them.
You should know that only hunter descendants and geniuses in commoners could enter the Royal Hunter academy. Being a son of Hunter I naturally gained a chance to enter the academy.
After taking a bath I moved towards the dining hall, where three people sitting at the dining table.
Mother dressed in traditional attire with a beautiful face and tender love flowing through her eyes.
Opposite to her was sitting a cute little loli wearing a red frock with a pout on her face with her face tilted to opposite direction to me , obviously because I ate all her cupcakes when she was away playing.
Beside mother is sitting my father with a handsome face covered with a beast scar covering from his forehead to cheeks due to a beast battle and well build physique like an army man with a kind of savage aura flowing through him and a smile on his face, I don't know how many monsters he had killed to get his aura till this point.
But one sad thing mentioning about him is that he was missing his leg, which was lost in last war against beast tide during he was saving 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", Elsa said.
"Son let's drink 'Blueberry wine' when you complete your expedition," Dad said.
"Husband you always think about drinking, did you water herbs and fed fishes" Mother said.
"Yes, my Darling," Dad said.
Yeah, we have a business of transporting herbs to the medicine department and fish to Lavender restaurant which is one of biggest restaurant in the country for monthly expenses.
Although the money wasn't worth much compared to money earned by a working hunter, but was still good to cover up our monthly expenses.
I took my seat and started digging on this delicious food and competing with my sister who had already started.
"BURP". "BURP". We both burped at the same time after eating breakfast and I took my leave to pack my bag pack for the expedition.
While I was packing my things, father came into the room with the help of his walking stick and said with strictness written all over his face "Son, be careful of not only surprise beast attack but also of your companions you know the human heart can be cruel sometimes". Writing down my father's advice in my mind I said "Don't worry Dad I will keep watch on it".
"Take care then" he stared at me for a moment then taking note that I have taken his advice he left the room for watering spirit herbs and I started packing again. After packing all the essential things, I carried my bag pack on my shoulders as I walked out of my room only to see 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 said farewell to them.
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 see my home as I will be taking my leave from home for half year and saw the [General of war] placate hanging on mid of the building.
All hunters were provided residences according to their accomplishments and my father had accomplished great merits by being General of war and had awarded this beautiful and largest of all hunter's residence. But we could only hold this residence for 10 years unless any family member gets at least Lieutenant rank, or then it will be hard to keep this residence and we will have to move onto a lower residence. Now there were only 2 years left and I had great unspoken responsibility to maintain this residence as this was a memento of my Father's achievement. "I will definitely get Lieutenant rank," I said with clenching my fingers into knuckles.
Determination with overwhelmed emotions I moved towards the main gate and saw 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 said cheerfully pointing towards his bull cart.
"Yeah, let's go", I said getting inside the cart and making myself comfortable. "Go," Angun said to his steward who was tall and sturdy dressed in black attire and was 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 asked me seeing my somewhat depressed mood.
"It's nothing just worried about the genius test". Yeah, there were tests to evaluate cultivators of their talent so they can 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 hellfish' of 'Lavender restaurant'. It's 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 by imagining over the dish specifics.
I looked outside the window to see the changing scenery as we traveled and started to think over my next steps while Angun was lost in his 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 see a tall and large majestic palace covering the area as wide as you could see with your naked eyes. The palace was fully made of jade stones[2] and it had many buildings which were departments of the academy, you could also feel a kind of noble aura flowing through the palace.
[1] Bleeding heart 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 were available in different colours like emerald green