章節 1: Boredom...

"Why live life like a destination; when life is supposed to be a journey." - Me, after taking a dump in a toilet.

- - -

THE LARGE SUPER RED ANCIENT DRAGON looks down at the party, enraged at them for disrupting his sleep. THE LARGE SUPER RED ANCIENT DRAGON starts to growl before beginning to roar, releasing a soundwave that shakes the entire cave.

The party starts to shake in fear, questioning their life decisions on how the hell they get to this point of fighting a fucking dragon all of a sudden but as four out of five were terrified by THE LARGE SUPER RED ANCIENT DRAGON, only one grinned and stepped up to THE LARGE SUPER RED ANCIENT DRAGON. It seems to be a human with no weapons, just him popping his knuckles and cracking his neck.

"Don't tell me you plan on taking me down alone? With no weapons? Ha! That's honestly hilarious!" THE SUPER RED ANCIENT DRAGON said, snickering at the human just approaching him.

The human just snorted before giving a glance back to his party. "Don't worry. You can just watch, he's all mine!" the human said, stepping up to THE SUPER RED ANCIENT DRAGON.

"Are you seriously approaching me?"

"I can't beat the shit out of you without getting close."

THE SUPER RED ANCIENT DRAGON laughs before bubbling his mouth and releasing a large flaming breath at the human. The party screamed in fear of losing their leader.

"ZUBAN!"

"N-No! It can't be!"

They all start stepping back before hearing laughter inside the flames.

"It's ok guys," Zuban said, holding back the flames with his fist. (How tf is he doing that?) "I told you. He's ALL MINE! ZUBAN SODSA TO THE RESCUE!" he yells out.

"ZABAN!" A voice in his head said.

"What the -"

"Zuban... Zuban..."

"Mother... Is that you?"

Zuban would then get smacked across the face by a large stick, waking him up from his dream and making him stop snuggling with his pillow as he stares at who hit him.

"Zuban Sodsa. Solider #4. You slept beyond your bedtime alarm AGAIN. I command you to wake up this instant and give me 1,000 push-ups as punishment," Corporal Ezof commanded, gripping the stick tightly.

"Why are you gripping that large twig so aggressively-" Zuban responds before getting whacked again in the forehead.

"1,000 Push-ups. Now."

"Ok. My apologies," Zuban said, sighing and immediately rolling off the top bunker bed and falling off.

"Ow."

"Make it 1,500 since you let the floor hurt you! You're supposed to not feel close to NO pain at all!"

Zuban sighs and goes to do his morning punishment of doing 1,500 pushups with little struggle.

* [THE HUMAN FIGHTER] *

After doing his 1,500 pushups in the morning, Zuban and everyone else gets forced to eat breakfast. Eating twelve dozen eggs, cold broccoli, and water. That's it. That's all they eat.

While Zuban eats, he starts getting into deep thought. "I wish I ate something like pancakes or something..." Zuban says in his mind while eating nonchalantly, almost looking as if he's bored.

Afterward, Zuban would go train in brutal workout sessions. Using torture machines to stretch to the limit, do 2,000 Muscle-Ups, an hour of shadowboxing, 8000 reverse crunches, 4000 pull-ups, another hour of shadowboxing, rest for 5 seconds, and run for 2 hours straight with no breaks, then you can rest for 10 seconds. This is only the morning routine before they do the real workout.

Zuban and a few others didn't struggle, a few sweat glands is all. It's not surprising though, Zuban is the #4 ranked solider who outperforms thousands of comrades. Zuban and everyone else were immediately put in harsh training at the age of 10 and it only got more brutal the more they age in the Riversia Village. Zuban seemed to adapt quickly, only using his bare knuckles to fight but it was putting in results so the Riversia Village didn't bother to give him a sword.

The Riversia Village is made up of nothing but many garrisons and military barracks, only small houses, apartments, and shops (Usually the shops are military-based anyway). They send young men at the age of 10 to do military service, have large walls with large guards that wield large weapons watching 24/7, and if the female isn't doing any work, they'll send females to do military service just to add more manpower. The village headman, Osei, is a very paranoid man who fears one day that ghouls, evil mages, kingdoms, etc. Would come and massacre his people, with this thinking, he set up a heavily militarized village and orders the military to make them go through brutal training to be ready when the day comes to defend themselves. "No one can come in and no one can come out." as the motto states for the Riversia Village.

Zuban though, started questioning himself while looking at the night sky after a hard day of training. "What's the point of all this meaningless training if I'll die before I use any of my cool fighting techniques?" Zuban thinks in his mind. "I'm only a mortal, this is no better than being lazy and sitting in a house like a fat slob. I want to go do something and not live the rest of my life devoted to military service, retire, and die... Is this how I want to live my life?" Zuban thinks to himself while sighing, staring at the sky.

"Solider #4. We have to return to our post and sleep. Corporal Ezof ordered that we must sleep 8 hours a day," Solider #3 said, having hands behind his back and looking stoic. A butterfly flies to Solider #3's face-

"Target spotted. It appears it is trying to land the first strike," Solider #3 says before slipping past the butterfly then getting out his combat knife and slicing the butterfly in half.

"Target Neutralized," he says, putting the knife back. Zuban just stares and yawns, "Dude. It was only a butterfly."

"Even bugs can be a threat to the Riversia Village, #4. Mosquito bites, bed bugs, spiders, scorpions. All of them are threats to human nature, therefore threats to the Riversia Village thus they must be," Solider #3's eyes sparkle reflecting the moonlight, "Neutralized."

Zuban just blinks and sighs, standing up and following #3 back to the post. As he lay in his bunk, with arms crossed behind his head and staring at the ceiling only with his thoughts turned back to his childhood, a time when dreams seemed readily attainable and perfectly within his reach. He distinctly remembered yearning to become an adventurer, the best one at that, and confiding in his mother about this aspiration. Despite his hopeful optimism, his mother advised against his desired path, exercising caution and displaying typical parental concern for his safety. While appreciative of her concern, he refused to resign himself to a life of quiet desperation within the confines of his village.

"As if. I'm not devoting my life to this place any longer... I will leave this strict-ass village one day," he whispered almost unconsciously, entirely oblivious to the fact that a concealed listener was privy to his words.