NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 1: Growth
Spring.
This is a joyful season. After a long cold winter, people can finally start a new year without having to endure the cold. Food is easier to obtain and the variety is gradually becoming richer. So when winter turns to spring, it is the most important festival of the year. Not only humans, but also dwarves, orcs, elves and even ogres place the most important celebrations in spring. Of course, the world is so complicated that there will always be exceptions, such as the residents of the underground world, to whom spring has almost no meaning. Exceptions can develop to extremes, such as the snow demons, who hate spring the most. In any case, for most humans, spring is always a pleasure.
When the warm and humid air currents struggled over the Coastal Mountains and arrived at Rutheran Village, the villagers knew that spring had arrived again.
Rutherland is located at the foot of the Coastal Mountains. It is a very inconspicuous dot in this huge mountain range that stretches for thousands of miles. It is also one of the tens of thousands of human settlements. It belongs to Baron Tuck's territory and is also the territory of the Holy Alliance Empire. But even if calculated by straight-line distance, Baron Tuck's castle is nearly 300 kilometers away from here. Only during the autumn harvest every year will the people in the village see the baron's tax collector. Only at this time does the lord have a negligible sense of existence. The baron's tax is very light, just some local products unique to the mountains, and it has almost no effect on the daily life of the villagers. However, the village's output is limited. If the tax impact is greater, it will involve survival issues.
Life in the mountains is actually not that difficult, as long as you work hard throughout the year.
When spring arrives, the land outside the village needs to be turned over and crops are sown for harvest in summer. Hunters begin to enter the forest. At this time, the monsters that have been hungry for a winter in the depths of the forest gradually wake up and start looking for food. They become very dangerous and extremely aggressive. However, some specialties of monsters, such as some glands that can be used as precious medicinal materials or spices, are only in the best quality at this time and can be sold at the highest price. At this time of year, hunters will have casualties, but every year hunters will go into the mountains as usual. Therefore, in Rutheran Village, the goddess of forest and hunting receives the most faith. You know, in addition to the Eternal Dragon, the gods and beliefs on the Norland continent are as numerous as the stars above.
The Norland continent is a land of abundant resources, a land that worships strength, and a land with strict hierarchy.
Even a remote and peaceful village like Rutherland is deeply marked by the times. The villagers are simple and sincere, but they also respect the strong and despise the weak. A small village with only a few dozen households has a hidden hierarchy.
A small figure appeared outside the village. It was a boy, carrying a basket on his back that was almost as tall as himself, filled with breadfruit . In the spring, the winter's reserves had been almost exhausted, and the new crops had not yet been harvested. This fruit, which tasted not very good, was an important food. It was easy to obtain, just go to the woods next to the village to pick it up .
Behind the little boy, three teenagers who were a whole head taller than him appeared in a group. They were holding hunting bows and short forks, with short knives on their waists, and carrying deer, rabbits and other prey on their backs. Although they were less than ten years old, they could go into the mountains to hunt. Their prey was of course not monsters, but some tame animals. The main way to hunt was to rely on traps, but this was already very difficult. Most of the civilians and nobles in the town were still learning and practicing under the wings of their parents at this time.
The leading boy suddenly shouted, "Hey, Eldrin, where is your father? Didn't he teach you to hunt? When I was your age, I went into the mountains alone to set traps and catch rabbits!"
A boy nearby laughed and said, "Children without fathers can only pick up fruits!"
The three older boys laughed and ran past the little boy towards the village. Their steps were relaxed and it was hard to tell that each of them was carrying dozens of kilograms of prey. The little boy ignored the ridicule and continued to walk towards the village with his basket on his back. A strong middle-aged man sitting at the entrance of the village had seen everything. He waved to the little boy and called him over. Then he stuffed a piece of dried monster meat into the boy's hand, rubbed his head lovingly, and asked: "Little Eldrin, aren't you angry that Piru and the others bullied you like this? I will teach them a lesson later. Even if they are children, they should not speak too harshly."
Unexpectedly, the little boy shook his head and said, "No, I'm not angry."
"But..." The man scratched his hair with his rough, dark hands, a little confused. He thought he was afraid of the older boys, and couldn't help but want to say a few words. Children in the mountains can lack anything, but not courage.
The little boy smiled and said, "Although I don't have a father, I have the best mother!"
After hearing this, the man could only continue to scratch his head, smiling foolishly, and said, "That's it, that's it."
The little boy hummed a song, carrying a big basket on his back, and skipped towards the village. At this time, the gloom in Eldrin's heart had been swept away, and he became happy again, because his mother told him that no matter what time it is, he must make himself happy.
This year, little Eldrin was six years old. At the age of six, he learned to be happy.
The middle-aged man was named Bobby. He was the blacksmith in the village, and the boy's mother was said to be a magic apprentice. When she came to Rutheran Village alone , the little Eldrin in her arms was still in her cradle. She was not a very beautiful woman, but she was gentle as water. Her arrival brought a new atmosphere to the small Rutheran Village. For the first time, the village had a doctor. There was no need to go to the town dozens of kilometers away for a small illness or simply endure it and wait for it to heal naturally. Her name was Ilanie . She opened a small pharmacy on the edge of the village. Although she could only make the most basic potions, she saved more than one villager's life in the first year. So the village chief and elders decided to give Ilanie a piece of land and officially accept her as a member of Rutheran . In the small Rutheran Village, the most people were hunters. There were only three professionals, namely the blacksmith, Ilanie who was also a doctor , and the village chief of Retired Sergeant. These three people supported the operation of the entire village.
Rutheran Village is peaceful and slow. Time passes unknowingly, and in the blink of an eye, it is a new spring again.
Little Eldrin has grown a dozen centimeters taller and looks like an eight or nine-year-old child. According to the tradition of Rutheran Village, he should have learned to make and lay traps to hunt rabbits and other small herbivorous monsters . In a forest not far from Rutheran Village, there are many small monsters of this kind , but large monsters are almost nowhere to be seen. That is the reserve where the village trains children. Hunters never hunt small animals there, but they patrol regularly to clean up the dangerous large monsters that occasionally break into the deep forest . However, every few days, little Eldrin still carries a basket up the mountain. The basket on his back does not look so out of proportion, but it shows that he is still picking fruit. Breadfruit is not delicious, and there are many of them on the mountain. The villagers prefer delicious monster meat. Even if you don't consider the taste, it can make you stronger.
However, Eldrin still had to pick fruits at the age when he started hunting, which was his mother's requirement. Not only that, he also had to collect herbs, four kinds of each season, and then process them according to the established and complicated process. Half of the process had to be completed when picking the herbs, and the other half had to be done after returning home. What he didn't understand was that breadfruit also had to be processed in a similar way, and the process and time were much more. No one in the village had ever done this. Breadfruit was the easiest food to get. After it was ripe, it would fall to the ground naturally overnight and could be eaten directly after picking it up. However, his mother required that breadfruit could not be picked up from the ground, but had to be picked from the main trunk. There were fixed requirements for the size and color of the selected breadfruit, and the picking method was also special. Eldrin didn't understand why, and he didn't feel that there was any difference in the taste of the breadfruit brought back by the special method, but as long as he didn't pick the breadfruit according to the requirements , his mother would pick it out. After several reprimands, little Eldrin no longer played tricks, but was serious and did every tedious step well. It was not until winter , when breadfruit could no longer be picked, that his mother told him that this was to help him develop perseverance.
This year, Eldrin was seven years old. At the age of seven, he remembered that he had to be persistent in doing things. If there was anything unpleasant in his memory of being seven years old, it was that he had breadfruit for dinner every time . This little thing eventually became one of his lingering nightmares in his childhood.
The new spring arrives, and Rutheran Village remains the same. Bobby the blacksmith is still single, Ilanie 's pharmacy business has not improved, and the village chief is still strong, always rushing to the front when a difficult monster appears.
Eldrin was finally able to learn how to set traps. Meanwhile, Piru and his friends had already started carrying short bows and following the hunters from the village into the mountains. After crossing the threshold of ten years old, they could already be called teenagers, and their tall stature would make people mistake them for fifteen or sixteen years old in the city.
Laying traps is a science that requires rich experience, a pair of observant eyes, a pair of dexterous hands, and a certain amount of luck. With only simple tools, novices are likely to hurt themselves when making traps, except for experienced hunters. Little Eldrin is very talented in learning . For the first time, he showed his advantage over the boys in the same village. The traps he laid on the first day were a great success and were praised by adults in the whole village. Bobby, the blacksmith, told everyone about it and was so happy that it seemed as if Eldrin was his own son. However, almost everyone in the village knew what he was thinking. If Eldrin could call him father, Bobby would probably be willing to close the blacksmith shop .
A few days passed, and Eldrin had mastered several traps. He began to go deep into the reservation and set several large complex traps. Large monsters occasionally appear here, and he wanted to try his luck. Eldrin was lucky. A Kamchatka wild boar appeared in his sight and ran into the trap. The animal trap made of thorns , vines and nails firmly clamped its front legs. Although the wild boar was very strong, Eldrin's trap was finely made and the balance of forces in all aspects was handled very well. After a crazy pulling and shaking, it still did not break free. Eldrin, who was hiding on the side and observing, was so nervous that his palms were sweaty, and the hunting knife in his hand seemed unreliable for the first time. The injured wild boar was very dangerous. Although the Kamchatka wild boar was small in size and courage, he was just a child.
Just when Eldrin was sure that the prey could not escape and was about to rush out, he suddenly felt a strong force behind him and pushed him out fiercely. Eldrin fell heavily to the ground, feeling dizzy and smelling a fishy smell in his mouth and nose. He heard the sound of a bowstring, and then the screams of the wild boar. A few cheers sounded nearby, and the sound was very familiar.
Eldrin slowly climbed up and saw Piru and three other boys who had appeared out of nowhere. It was one of them who had just pushed him out. Piru was holding a hunting bow and looking at the poor Kamchatka wild boar with a smug look on his face. An arrow was stuck in the boar's neck. It was not easy to hit the boar with one arrow, even if it was trapped. The boar was jumping and pushing its body wildly .
"You are stealing my prey!" Eldrin suddenly realized what they were going to do and shouted angrily.
"Everyone here can prove that I shot the wild boar. How can you call it robbery? Is it because you set a trap? Good hunters know that this kind of trap is only used to catch rabbits." Piru said slowly, looking at Eldrin with disdain.
He is almost a head taller than Eldrin , and his physique is obviously stronger. In fact, his strength is greater than that of his peers, almost the same as that of an adult. This is because Piru is the son of the village chief. As a Retired Sergeant, the village chief can often hunt some powerful monsters from the mountains. Eating the meat of such monsters is very useful for strengthening the body.
"Then why did you come here to shoot wild boars?" Eldrin asked, leaving Piru speechless. They looked down on Eldrin's thinness, but had to admit that Eldrin was indeed very smart. It was said that he could write a lot of words. But Piru and other young men did not respect Eldrin for this. Knowing how to write could not be used for hunting, so what was the point of knowing so many words?
But Eldrin's question made Piru very angry. He waved his hand fiercely, and a young man next to him went behind Eldrin and pushed Eldrin to the ground.
Eldrin climbed up, his face flushed red, his hands tightly grasped the hunting knife, and the momentum bursting out at that moment made the teenagers feel deeply chilled! In the end, the hunting knife was not pulled out. When he hesitated, Piru kicked him in the stomach. The teenagers rushed forward, snatched the hunting knife, and then beat him up with punches and kicks. Piru even stepped on Eldrin's head and crushed his face deep into the mud !
The mountain boys had plenty of strength in their bones, so the beating was really hard. Eldrin didn't struggle or beg for mercy, but just endured it silently. Piru became more and more angry as he beat him, and his beating became heavier. He only felt contempt from Eldrin's silent reaction.
"Still not convinced? Not convinced?" The boys beat him harder and harder. Eldrin seemed to be a body that was not his own, and he just let them beat him. Before long, Piru was scared. He was afraid that if he really hurt Eldrin, he would definitely get a good beating when he returned home. The village chief's temper was as hot as his strength, and Ilanie had always had a good reputation in the village.
The boys gradually stopped, and Eldrin slowly got up after a long while. Piru threw a few harsh words and walked away with the wild boar. When they were completely far away, little Eldrin fell down under a tree, rested for a long time, and then struggled to stand up and walked home.
At night, Ilanie looked at the bruised little Eldrin and burst into tears. The boy comforted her and said that it was okay, it just hurt a little. After applying the medicine, the boy looked at his mother and asked, "You still can't fight back?"
"Yeah!" Ilanie gritted her teeth and nodded vigorously.
"Okay, I won't fight back, but I won't give in either."
In the following days, Piru troubled Eldrin several times, and the process was nothing more than beating him severely. But the worst time, until everyone was tired of beating Eldrin, he could not get up at all, but Piru did not wait for the boy to surrender or beg for mercy, and did not even hear a groan. And every time they were tired of beating and were ready to leave, Eldrin would slowly get up and look at Piru quietly . That calm and peaceful look suddenly made Piru feel cold from the deepest part of his heart. That look was like looking at a dead person.
From that year on, Piru began to have nightmares . Later, every time he beat Eldrin, he would have nightmares for days . Eldrin never resisted or struggled, and Piru became stronger and stronger, and the size difference between the two was even widening. But every time he saw Eldrin, Piru would see the boy's calm eyes, and then he would have nightmares for days . There was one thing Piru couldn't understand, which was why Eldrin didn't go to his father to complain. If the boy did that, Piru would at least be whipped a few times. But from beginning to end, Eldrin never mentioned the beating to anyone in the village.
The boys gradually troubled Eldrin less and less. Once, when the boy smiled at them with blood on his lips, the boys dispersed. That was the last time they troubled Eldrin.
At the age of eight, Eldrin learned fortitude.