In a small village isolated from the rest of the world, you could see several people in simple clothes walking and talking to each other about different topics.
And meanwhile, in the forest that was a little away from the village, there was a child who looked to be between 7 and 8 years old and was facing a giant centipede that was making threatening noises towards her.
However, the boy didn't seem to have any fear as he stood with a confident smile on his face waiting for the monster to attack.
Seeing that the child didn't seem to be afraid at all, the centipede got angry and launched a furious attack towards the boy who dodged the attack without any problem.
With that, the centipede became even more furious and launched several attacks in sequence towards the boy, however the boy seemed not to care about the attacks as he calmly dodged them all as if he already knew the creature's movements.
And he continues with quick movements attracting the centipede towards a huge rock without it noticing and then when the centipede attacked him again the boy dodged and the centipede hit the rock with everything breaking it into several pieces.
However, the blow caused the centipede to become confused for a moment and seeing this the boy smiled even more and wasted no time and jumped towards the monster's head and with his fists covered in flames he struck a blow at a point between the eyes, breaking the scales of the creature that quickly roared in pain, but that didn't stop the boy who continued attacking until the centipede stopped moving.
Seeing that the centipede had died, the boy stopped his attacks and quickly searched the hole he had made for the centipede's power core and soon he found it and kept it in his bag with a smile.
The boy then looked towards the sky and realized that it was already close to dark and then he thought: 'I think I'm done for today, it's dangerous to stay in this place at night, anyway today I got a good harvest I think I'm going to earn a lot with today's hunt.'
Thinking about the money he would earn, the boy smiled and started running quickly towards the village, he didn't want to risk staying in the forest at night, as several powerful monsters appeared at night.
Entering the small village, the residents noticed his appearance and waved and greeted the little boy, who responded to everyone with a smile. One of the residents who had a more ferocious appearance laughed and said: "You really are something huh boy, you've barely left the traps and you're already venturing into the forest, really kids aren't afraid of anything, so did you have a good hunt?"
The boy seemed a little irritated by the man's jokes and said: "I'm not a child, I'm already very strong and I can hunt alone."
The fierce man laughed even louder and said, "Hunting alone doesn't make you an adult, brat."
Then the man looked around and gave an ugly smile and continued speaking in a low voice: "Listen here, boy, to become a real man is easy, you just have to take a beautiful woman to the bedroom and then...", but before he could finish, he heard a female voice behind him saying: "So what? Alec."
Hearing that voice that sounded angry, the man's fierce appearance completely fell apart and his face quickly turned pale as he turned to face the woman who had spoken. He then quickly spoke almost stuttering: "Honey, I was just joking a little with the boy I wasn't going to say anything too much."
The woman continued to stare at her husband with a look of disapproval, but soon turned to the boy and said with a smile: "Don't worry about him, Cyrus, he only talks nonsense, are you here to sell the cores you got today? "
Cyrus quickly replied, "That's right Aunt Ellen, you better get ready today my hunting was really good."
The woman smiled and said: "That's great Cyrus, so let's go to the store... and you Alec, without saying any more nonsense to Cyrus, he's just a child and you're a grown man, you have to set an example."
Alec replied with a downcast face, "Okay, okay I was just making a joke."
Cyrus was a little irritated at being called a child, but he didn't say anything after all he didn't want to find out how a simple woman could put so much fear into one of the strongest men in the village.
The three quickly entered the store and then Cyrus began taking out the cores of the beasts he had killed today.
Seeing the large number of cores Alec and Ellen were surprised and Alec asked, "You managed to kill so many beasts like that, what level of body refinement are you, Cyrus?"
In this world, basically all people trained in martial arts and body refinement was the first stage and the starting point for martial artists, it consisted of nine stages and then when the martial artist reached the limit of this realm, he would gather energy to move on to the next realm which was called energy refining.
However, few people were able to take this step after all it took a lot of effort and talent to reach this point, in the village few managed to reach this point with one of them being Alec who was one of the strongest and most influential in the small village.
Hearing the question, little Cyrus smiled proudly and said: "I entered the 5th stage of body refinement last week."
Alec and Ellen were surprised by Cyrus' progress. They both knew that the boy was very talented, but crossing the 5th stage at just 7 years old was something unheard of in the village.
Ellen then smiled and said: "That's very good Cyrus, you will definitely be one of the most powerful in the village like your father in his time."
Cyrus smiled even more at Ellen's words, one of the things he was most proud of was his father, everyone in the village always greatly admired his father and his strength and this continued even after his death.
Alec also smiled and said, "You're definitely a good brat, you'll probably follow in your old man's footsteps and leave the Village and explore the world."
Hearing Alec's words Cyrus' eyes lit up this was his dream, when his father was alive, he spent all his time telling Cyrus stories about his adventures about the mystical beasts and mysterious places he found.
And obviously this lit a fire in Cyrus' heart, he wanted to live these adventures, fight against powerful beasts and live the life of a great hero, but that would still take a long time, he still didn't have the strength to cross the forest that surrounded the village and so This he trained every day with a single goal in view.
Thinking about all his future adventures, little Cyrus smiled and said: "I'm going to travel the whole world and have all kinds of adventures and when I come back, I'll be even stronger than my father."
Alec laughed loudly and said: "A brat like you has to eat a lot to reach your old man's level, he was out of the ordinary and you're just a brat." Cyrus was irritated by Alec's jokes and said: "You're going to see you damn old man when I grow up, you're going to be the first one I defeat."
Alec laughed even harder and said with a mischievous smile: "Ahhh really so maybe I should take advantage of the fact that you're just a brat and give you the spanking of your life?"
Cyrus looked at Alec who had a terrifying expression and took a few steps back in fear.
Seeing the boy's fear, Alec was even more amused so he decided to play a little with the cheeky boy, but before he could do anything he heard an irritated cough that terrified him to the depths of his soul. Looking back, he saw his wife with a terrible expression staring at him and thought: 'Shit I forgot she's here.'
Ellen looked at her husband and quickly spoke in an angry tone: "You idiot stop threatening Cyrus you have no shame on your face you are a grown man threatening a child with such an ugly face, stop looking at him like that your face can scare even ghosts and send demonic beasts running in tears."
Hearing Ellen's words, Cyrus started laughing without stopping and Alec looked at this with a dejected expression and said to his wife: "How can you be so heartless to say such things about your husband."
Ellen also laughed at her husband and said: "You asked for this, threatening little Cyrus in front of me... So, Cyrus in total is 2 level 5 cores, 9 level 4 cores and 17 level 3 cores which in total will give ...1200 bronze coins all right for you?"
Cyrus quickly nodded and took his money and said goodbye to Alec and Ellen and headed towards his house which was a little further to the left of the store.