Kapitel 6: Charlotte (1)
Scar forgetting about his apple ran over to where Zuhn was sitting and looked down at the book with his mouth wide open.
"What! How can you open that book?"
Scar looked at Zuhn and then back at the book with a look of bewilderment. After looking at the table of context for a bit, Zuhn flipped to the first chapter.
'Hm, Body Strengthening? The first level of Body Strengthening makes your foundation, You need to have a good foundation before you proceed to the higher levels. Depending on how well you build your foundation at the first level, will increase the likely hood that you will achieve higher levels and grow stronger. To start the first level and to achieve your foundation, you must follow these steps below.'
Zuhn kept reading and looked to the middle of the page. There were a couple of pictures that showed different stances and movements that you had to complete in multiple repetitions. Besides doing these movements, it also said that you need to meditate using any breathing technique.
Scar tried to look over Zuhn's shoulder and read along with him, but could only see a blank page.
Zuhn finished reading and turned towards Scar, "Do you understand any of this?"
"Nope, I only see a blank page, so it must be because of your special talent. When I first got the book, I thought it was trash since I wasn't able to open it, I've tried selling it, but no one was able to open it either."
Zuhn nodded before putting his attention back on the book. After reading everything in the first chapter, he wanted to see what was in the 2nd chapter. He tried to flip the page, but a weird force was stopping him.
*Sigh*
Scar was confused at the sigh, "What is it?"
"Looks like I'm not able to go to the next chapter till I reach the first level of Body Strengthing."
"Oh! So does that mean you are going to start cultivating?"
Zuhn put his hand up to his chin and went into deep thought.
'Should I start cultivating? I don't even know what it is, but according to Scar it's something super rare and since this body has the talent for it, should I just try? Well, I was given a second chance by someone, so I guess I should become strong in this life as well.'
Zuhn made up his mind, he was going to start learning how to cultivate in this new world, and grow stronger! Looking over at Scar, Zuhn smiled and said, "Yeah, I may as well since you said I have some special talent, I'm curious about it myself."
Scar's face turned into a radiant smile, "Wow! I've never met a cultivator before! This is going to be so cool!"
"Oh, Scar, do you know where I can find a new weapon." Zuhn held up his dagger, it had multiple cracks forming, and it was on its last legs.
"Yeah, I do know a shop, but we are going to need money before we even try. Luckily, I know just the person!"
***
In the center of Hencewood, a meeting was formed with eight elders and the nobility of Hencewood to discuss the death of the capital guard's Lieutenant that was killed mere hours before.
An old man dressed in a tan robe and wearing silver and gold jewelry was the first to speak, "Explain! How did a youth that isn't even over the age of 16 able to kill one of the strongest men in Hencewood!" All of the other elders nodded their heads. Lieutenant Green was ranked 4th in the entire town, behind the Young Master at 3rd, and 2nd and 1st were personal guards of the Lord.
Lieutenant Green was Middle Bronze which is considered very strong in Hencewood. While the elders and nobility were talking about the situation, the Young Master was at the end of the table listening to them both figure out how this happened.
Soon enough, the Young Master shouted out in anger, "That… That youth isn't simple… I'm Late Bronze and I don't think I can even beat him in a battle, I'm sure of it… That youth is at least Early Silver!"
'Early Silver?'
The whole table was brought into an uproar by Young Master's words. Everyone's hearts dropped, someone at Early Silver in the town of Hencewood. Even the two personal guards of the Lord were only Peak Bronze. The difference between Early Silver and Peak Bronze was like night and day.
Over the course of their whole lives, they've all only seen one or two seniors of Silver come to their desolate town. The seventh elder stopped talking for a second before looking up at the Young Master, "W-What are we going to do?"
The Young Master was also a bit puzzled by the situation with the youth, but after a couple of minutes, he came up with a plan.
"First Elder!"
The old man covered in jewelry looked at the Young Master, "Yes?"
"How about we tried to recruit this youth to the military? He's very young if he came to this town without anyone protecting him, doesn't that mean he's from the countryside? Imagine, if we are able to control him, I will be able to take the position of Lord and take over Hencewood!"
Greed was written all over the Young Master's face, but the other elders were a bit concerned to agree to his proposal. Even though it would be great for a young Early Silver to join their ranks, they had no idea about his background. The youth could be from a major town and just sent out to explore to gain experience.
Another problem the elders were worried about, was how they were going to recruit the youth to the military. Since Hencewood was so far away from major cities, they didn't have many resources to give to the Early Silver youth. Unlike major cities, Hencewood didn't have many beasts around them, thus they couldn't even help the youth cultivate.
All of the elders were thinking the same, but the first elder was the one to speak to the Young Master.
"Young Master, we can all agree that it would be very beneficial to bring this youth into the military, but we don't know anything about him, or have the resources to even bribe him. We also can't forget that you send Lieutenant Green to essentially kill the youth."
All of the elders and nobility nodded their heads when the first elder finished speaking. Though, the greed on Young Master's face didn't fade.
"Lieutenant Green? Who cares about Lieutenant Green he means nothing if I can get my hands on the youth! I know father has some precious resources in his private vault, we also as a collective also have a lot of money."
The first elder's plea to the Young Master was shot down without any thought. The elders all knew that the Young Master was now controlled by greed and there was nothing they could do. Even if they didn't want to contribute money to the fund to bribe the youth, they all didn't have a choice. The Young Master over the last couple of years has been able to take over the entire military. Trying to fight the Young Master was the same as signing your death warrant.
Reluctantly, all of the elders and nobles contributed money to help the Young Master, in total, they were able to collect ten gold coins. Ten gold coins were enough for a family of four to live in Hencewood their whole lives. There is a total of four coins used as currency in the Ziom continent.
First, there are copper coins, they are the most used currency used in Hencewood, used in everyday transactions. Next is silver coins, it takes one-thousand copper coins to receive a silver coin. Silver coins are used for large purchases like homes in Hencewood.
The third coin is gold coins, one gold coin is equivalent to ten-thousand silver coins. Thus, only the nobility of Hencewood has access to them. Lastly is the platinum coin, one platinum coin is equivalent to one hundred thousand gold coins. It is rumored that only the Royal Capital has platinum coins since they hold such extreme value.
Looking down at the table, the Young Master's face had a radiant smile as he looked at the ten gold coins.
***
The slums of Hencewood were a very run-down place, all over the place were hundreds of wooden shacks just like Scars. Though there weren't just wooden shacks, closer to the road, there were actual buildings, but they weren't in the best condition.
While Zuhn and Scar were walking, Scar was explaining the groups that controlled the slums. Most people, like Scar, decided to join a group to have protection from others. There are large numbers of groups active in the slums, but the biggest one is The Bandit Rascal Group.
The Bandit Rascal Group controls 80% of the slums, making them the most powerful by far. Their reputation even reached inside Hencewood, making even normal citizens scared of them. Scar and his friends used the group's name to rob many outside of the city.
At first, they were making a good bit of money, but soon they started to get the attention of the city guards nearby and had to venture further out. Though, their last target as a group was obviously Zuhn.
Soon enough, Zuhn was able to almost fully understand the situation of the slums. Besides the slums, Scar informed him about the main city. The main city was controlled by the Skylet family. According to Scar, they were a total mess, the current lord of the family let his son roam free.
The Young Master controlled most of Hencewood with his iron grip on the military, breaking up the power the previous elders held. The Young Master controlled the cities through his puppets but kept a good self-image to be liked by the general public.
After walking for a couple more minutes, Zuhn and Scar came up to a small one-story building that had a dim light lit inside. Scar walked up to the door and knocked on it three times and stepped back from the door.
A short time later a small woman slowly peeked out of the cracked door, when she saw Scar her eyes lit up, but then her eyes moved to Zuhn. She hesitated for a second before Scar spoke, "Ah! Don't worry he's a customer!"
Once inside, Zuhn took a look around, it looked like an abandoned pub, with broken chairs and tables littered around. Scar made his way over to one of the only chairs that weren't broken in the corner of the room. Zuhn followed suit, while he watched the old woman disappear into a back room.
A few minutes later she returned with a hot cup of tea in her hands. She took a sip of her tea before looking at Scar,
"Where are the others?"
AUTORENGEDANKEN 
Kotrem
Kotrem All right, There are two things I want to talk about real quick.
1.) In the original version, I didn't have Zuhn learn anything about cultivation until he reached sects, but this time I want him to learn about it before.
2.) Also in the original version, Scar's character didn't really make sense, “Did this Scar forget that Zuhn killed his friends? Why is he taking care of MC? Yours were Scar I would simply kill you for revenge.”
This is a comment from my original novel and I completely understand. So in the next chapter, it will be better explained why Scar hasn't retaliated for Zuhn killing his friends, while it was slightly hinted at why in this chapter.
Anywho, Thanks for reading, 2 chapters a week min!
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
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Rangliste 
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Stein