My name is Andhaka and it has been 5 years since I have seen my master or them, “I wonder how they are doing.” said I. But I needed to focus on strengthening myself to uncover the secrets of my own past and become the strongest man in the Orient.

I ran away from home and have been training alone for 5 years but I still haven’t unlocked my Virya. “Nothing is going to happen if I keep whining, I should start with today’s training. I’m going to kill a 100 boars today”, I thought.

I headed to the forest. I may not have any Virya powers but my physical strength, speed, and reflexes were of a fine warrior and my weapon was a sickle. To my luck, a sounder of boars was headed his way. I wasn’t a coward and was determined to increase my strength.

I rushed towards the sounder, slashing my sickle at a speed that a normal person would find unable to keep up with. In the time of an hour I was able to slay 120 boars, threshing them as though they were stalks of wheat. I placed the carcasses on an abandoned cart that I found on the road and headed to the capital city of the Kingdom of Purva, Ekamra.

After a long journey of 5 hours, I was finally able to make it to Ekamra. I stood in front of the colossal gate and looked at the teal and oceanic colors of the city. It was a magnificent shade of blue. It was ineffable. It was beyond expression in the language of man.

It was calm and it felt like it was calling my name saying,” Come on child, the answers to your past and future lie here”.The city was filled with people from healthy and hardworking elderly citizens to beautiful women to energetic and troublesome kids.

“I’m sorry” said I to a kid I bumped into, The kid was rather energetic and he headed towards another group of kids “I guess they are friends, we used to be playful like that too I guess” I mumbled. This was my first time in the city so I kept bumping in to people,

“Pardon me” I apologized when I stumbled into an old man carrying boxes of unusual looking metal scraps.

“Is this man a black smith? Not any blacksmith,those unusual looking metal scraps were the special Mastelite metal used to make virya based weapons, I remember master saying that we can say what type of Virya weapon is going to be made just by looking at the Mastelite’s colour, Those had a blue-tint to it so I guess they will be used to make a vari virya weapon”.

I bumped into a really tall and strong man,he grabbed me by my collar and lifted me up saying “Are you trying to pick a fight brat?”

“You might be big but your strength is still pretty minimal”I thought to myself because saying that aloud would waste 5 minutes of my precious time to beat his sorry ***

So I replied “Oh I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to bump into you and its my first time around the city so I am pretty lost over here,Could you tell me where the trading shop is?”

He dropped me down and said “As its your first time in town I will let this slide,bump into me next time and I will beat you to a pulp”

“Tch, Beat me to a pulp, I might as well slice you hollow before you land your first blow on me” I thought to myself.

He continued talking “Go about 50 meters east from here then take a left,there’s only one line of shops their so it will be the 5th shop”

“I’m grateful for your help” said I, I headed towards the shop as I bumped into a woman, “She is pretty,aren’t her clothes a little revealing and she smells like roses” that’s when I remembered what Master once told me “Remember Andhaka, If a beautiful lady,wearing clothes which show skin and she smells like roses,that means she comes from a dangerous place,the redl…..Entertainment district,Stay away from women like that or they might make you impure”

To the eight year old me it sounded like a terrifying story, Until later on when I found out what the entertainment district means,

My face was as red as a tomato,The lady lent me a hand and said “Are you fine Little boy?I hope you didn’t heart yourself”

I got really nervous and I got up and bolted from their heading towards the trading shop saying “I’m sorry but I’m too young”.

“Too bad that boy was actually a good catch” said the woman.

I was able to make it to a trading shop. The shop owner was a middle-aged man, maybe in his forties. I never really had a conversation with anyone other than my master and them so I got anxious and asked for his name first; He laughed at me and said:

“My name is Bhaskar! Your first time huh kid?” I got a little embarrassed started rubbing my hair, and said:

“Ye..ss It…is, I came here to sell some boar carcasses.”He replied:

“Sure, I will buy them from you, but first tell me your name and how old are you?”

I had no idea why but whenever someone asked for my name, it boosted my confidence. I replied in a pompous tone in a very warrior-like voice( it sounded warrior-like to me) “My name is Andhaka and I am 17 years old.”

He replied in a relieved voice:“Oh, so let me guess you’re here to join the imperial knights”, For a second there Andhaka thought that Bhaskar had mind-reading skills but then he started speaking

“I’m not a mind reader kid. Many people of your age come to Ekamra with the same dream, and you might actually stand a chance looking at the carcasses. They weren’t slain more than 6 hours ago and slaying 120 boars at once with nothing but a sickle(“I think he saw my sickle, Bhaskar is fairly observant”)that sure takes some physical strength and some refined skills you might really stand a chance against the Imperial Knights. But, you know, commoners like us can’t just join the imperial knights. For commoners like us to join we have to win a tournament and prove our worth to join the Imperial Knights. Luckily for you the tournament which will be held in a couple of weeks from now.”

He handed me a piece of paper with details about the tournament and asked me to keep them. The man also paid me 10 Silver coins for the boar carcasses. I was able to find a lodge for 30 coppers a night and with the money I had, it was enough for 2 to 3 weeks of lodging. I didn’t need lodging everyday since my training required me to stay close to the forest. The ten silver coins would probably last till the tournament started.