"Ha!"
"Ha!"
"Ha!"
The sound of someone punching something fiercely resonated into the woods.
Looking closer, a young man could be seen striking a tree with his fist covered by a white linen repeatedly. His face was well chiseled and his bare upper body was well defined, almost looking nothing like a youth but that of a man in his late twenties who has gone through the hardships of life. The only contrast to his body was the immaturity one could see in his face. It was very easy to identify that this was a youngster that was still around fourteen to fifteen years of age.
The young man wore just brown trousers that looked worn, but he didn't care and continued his exercise. Looking at his face, his short brown hair stood straight, but the most captivating thing about him were his golden pupils. They looked like they were from another world.
From time to time, his golden pupils would glow brilliantly, like a flash of lightning and the speed of his strikes would increase exponentially.
As the young man trained, an older man walked out from a wooden shack that was at the side of the woods.
"Zyler!" The man called out.
The young man who was still training stopped the second he heard his name, sweat dripping from his body as he turned to look in the direction of the shack. The resemblance between the duo was striking, but the young man looked his age, while the other man seemed to be over fifty. His eye bags didn't change his stunning look in any way.
The young man who was training was none other than Zyler Ackerson.
It has been almost fifteen years since his birth, and he found out from his father that his mother died shortly after his birth.
"Coming, father." He picked up his linen sleeves and walked over to his father.
"You were supposed to bring in some wood thirty minutes ago." His father raised his brow.
"I'm sorry father, I'll get them now." Zyler apologized, before leaving he paused, "Dad…"
"Hmm." His father looked at him curiously, waiting for the reason he called him.
"I'm feeling more energy as the day goes by." Zyler said.
"I see. Increase your daily training, in a few days you will be able to check your mana grade." His father comforted him and said, "The reason I made you start cutting wood from such an early age was due to this."
Zyler nodded and walked into the woods. He didn't visit the village too frequently, as he's sometimes mocked by some dimwits with the passing of his mother. His father was the one who sold wood to those across this village and the next, while from what he knew, his mother was the best healer across the neighboring villages. People came from all over to get treated by her, so when the news of her passing spread, some people felt it was all Zyler's fault and they placed the blame on him.
This made growing up very difficult for Zyler since he would get mocked and laughed at by some of the children of those his mother had once healed. These people held a grudge against him and passed it down to their children.
One of the things about his mother was that she charged them lesser than what most healers charge, while she's also more effective. This made her loved by the masses, and scorned by other healers who were forced to reduce their exorbitant prices.
The grudge these people had towards Zyler was strong.
In a world filled with mana essence, one could only have access to mana after getting to the age of fifteen, this is when the mana core in the body would be fully formed. Of course, your mana core grade will determine if you will be anything good or not. A village like this only has those with the lowest types of mana core grades, even Zyler's father wasn't excluded from this. His mother was a little better, but not that superior to the people here.
Once one gains access to mana essence, their bodies will slowly start to grow stronger as they absorb mana. This, however, is not the case for Zyler. From birth, he already has access to mana which made growing a little difficult for him. Without a core to help channel the mana his body was receiving, he had to go through painful experiences to help burn out the excess mana from his body.
After getting to the age of three, Zyler's father was advised to find a means for Zyler to expel the essence in his body by one of the physicians he met. And since he was a wood cutter, he started taking three year old Zyler with him, and that relatively made Zyler's life easier as there was a means to expel the pent up energy in his body.
….
Zyler occasionally thinks about what his life would've been like if his mother was alive, but he will never know. His father had shown him nothing but unconditional love and his life didn't seem that boring since his father was his friend.
He went on with the wood cutting, it was winter and they needed to distribute wood to the people of the village and the next ones to warm their houses.
The wood cutting process wasn't easy, but after a few hours, Zyler was ready to send out the wood to the villages around them.
….
When he got back to the shack, his father was already prepared to move out.
"Zyler, given the demand for wood, I'm afraid we will have to split up." Zyler's father said after he returned.
Zyler nodded, this wasn't the first time they had to split up like this during times of high demand, and since he had turned into a young man, his father didn't mind handing jobs like these to him.
His father quickly shared the woods before taking his share and moving out. Zyler looked at him and couldn't help but sigh.
"I hate going to that place." He murmured as he carried his woods.