Chapitre 5: Lessons of life
As he finished speaking, Merlin suddenly remembered of some time in the past.
It was an icy afternoon, and a cold dew floated upon a robust forest. From the distance, loud animal grunts filled the valley and strange shadows flashed through the trees.
At the border, two figures came walking from a grassy hill nearby. One was a tall robust man and the other was a 7 to 8 years old kid. From his clothes, one could see that he passed through some hardships.
Then, the tall man turned to the kid and pointed to a distant half mountain in the middle of the forest.
"Merlin, my son! Now we're in the final test of your training. You'll have three days to get to the cabin in the top of the mountain! Good luck my son!"
Then, without any more, the man suddenly flashed in speed into the forest, disappearing between the trees.
Merlin was exhausted since they were walking for four days straight already. After training some strange martial arts since 5; his father suddenly woke up one morning and said they would go in a trip to "conclude his training".
In the last four days, they parted from London by foot, passing through lots of different places as his father fought him almost the whole time, beating him up almost every day.
Now, he abandoned him next to a wild forest with just his bare hands. Heading slowly into the vast green, Merlin rapidly started his search for water. His throat was so dry that he could not even breath properly.
Passing through the trees, he suddenly felt something with his "sixth sense", that he developed by fighting his father ever day. It was like an battle intuition. Looking around alert, a big shadow seemed to follow him behind the vegetation.
A bit forward, Merlin heard the sound of a waterfall. Heading at its direction, he finally found a little pond with a calm waterfall from a cliff.
Excited by finding water, he left his guard down for a small moment. As so, a giant dark creature attacked him from behind. It was a huge black bear, about 4 meters tall.
Merlin only had time do dodge to the left, as it's sharp claws ripped by his right arm. Ignoring the deep pain, Merlin launched a fierce kneel attack at a spot underneath the bear's arm.
However, the giant animal seemed to feel nothing. Turning around once more, it used his heavy arm to send Merlin flying at a solid rock wall nearby.
The impact was very hard, and Merlin almost lost his conscious. He heard a loud sound from his left ribs, and he split a mouthful of blood. Then, upon seeing the black bear running in his direction to finish him off, Merlin started to panic.
Quickly looking around, he luckily saw a long sharp-pointed wood log nearby. Using the few seconds he had before the bear's arrival, Merlin dragged himself to the wood log in a slow motion manner.
When the bear was almost above him, Merlin gave a loud shout as he launched himself to the log and lift it up in the bear's direction. The beast was so close was it did not have time to dodge and the sharp log pierced though his left chest.
Laid below the dying bear, Merlin was bathed in hot blood, looking more like a war devil. Moving to the side, Merlin used the rock wall to get up, walking to the water's direction.
He could have finished the bear, but he was so exhausted that he simply forgot. And for that, he payed a heavy price. Seconds later, he felt a sharp pain at his back.
Falling down, he looked behind, to see the bear's last breath after he pierced his five claws deep in his back. Te wound was awful. The marks were about 5 inches deep, starting next his shoulder down too his waist.
Moaning in pain, Merlin knew that if he passed out now, the smell of blood would probably attract more animal and he would be doomed. Using his final strength, he got to the pond, and washed the blood of the better he could.
Eventually, somehow he managed to complete his father's test, but he knew that scar would be with him for the rest of his life to remember him to always finish off his opponents for good.
From that day forward, Merlin hated to fight, but if it was to battle, he would give his blood and soul de destroy his opponents. For Merlin, if this guy he broke his nose came back for revenge, he was a dead man.
Returning to the present, the first matches were finished, and Merlin simply abdicated from the next battles. Mr. William did not say nothing, but he knew who was really capable among his students.
After a tall silk-pants noble eventually became the squad commander, and they headed of for a more detailed tour through the pavilion.
Mr. Willian took them to the to the Student Area, the Battle Simulation Department, and other important places.
Then, they finally headed to their classroom, where a big mundi-map awaited them. After everyone sat down, Mr. Willian explained about the map.
It clearly was very detailed about the european part, but when it came to the rest of the world, like the great Dark Country Of Below, the Chinese Empire and other oriental powers; the map only had its names on a white square place, waiting to be filled.
Lookin at that wimpy map, Merlin once more remembered of his dream of explore and mapping the whole world, tasting of everything it could offer him.
Merlin gave sweet smiles as he imagined about all the beautiful ladies he would conquer, and all the riches he would have at his disposal. All the gold, the fine wine, the luxurious rides, and everything one could imagine.
He only came back to himself when he heard a loud sound and pain filled his head. Looking around with a fierce gaze, he found the new squad commander looking at him disdainfully.
"Hey you shit, stop day dreaming as Mr. Willian teaches. Watch out of the next time, you'll take more than one slap!"
The kid was feeling wonderful and powerful about demonstrating his influence upon his peers. However, his happiness would not go on for long. For the time being, Merlin just sat their silent. He could not simple beat every one up at his first day.
Also, he was not stupid. As he stepped in the school today, Merlin realized that all theses nobles were from a single party, the Prideful Gladiators of the fourth prince. It was truth that he could spank a few dozen, upon in front of a thousand, what could he do with himself and two more?
As so, he wanted to keep the most low profile as possible until Leonard's force came to be an powerful backbone for his acts.
The class went on for some time, as Mr. Willian spoke about lots of introductory concepts of navigation and cartography. As everyone were dazed with his words and knowledge, Merlin just kept a bored face.
After it finished, the sun was already setting at west and the darkness once more took the sky. However, as everyone was heading to there new rooms or too the central yard to meat friend of the other pavilions, a dark shadow was flying above the roofs.
Stopping at the top of the Navigation Administrative Building, it suddenly took a black book with golden letters on its cover out of his backpack. The shadow was Merlin.
He was preparing to use his new magical items for the first time. Opening the book, there was some intact pages and a hole with the three metal balls and the sextant.
Sitting down, Merlin opened the book at a specific page and places the magic items in front of him. He did not know of to read the language, but there were some images of how to apparently bound these tools to his soul.
Through this process, they would become his soul tools, and would become more powerful as his cultivation grew. For now, they were at their weakest, since Merlin was only at the first stage of the cultivation method.
Taking a little knife with his left hand, Merlin rapidly cut his right hand, dropping the blood upon the metal balls and the sextant. Then, following the book, he made three strange hand seals.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone