[Draft] [BPOF] Chapter 1 - Escape (Patreon)

This Chapter is subject to change. Consider it an early review copy and not a final draft or anything. I will likely have another version up in the next week. However the story will be the same so comments on that would be appreciated.

And his grandmother died. In a small house on the edge of town a nameless boy is now alone. He is soon found by a groundskeeper because of the boy’s uncontrolled sobbing. That groundskeeper runs out to spread the news. His shout rings out through the clan’s compound, “Everyone! The jinx’s grandmother has died!”

Despite being night everyone shows up at the house. A strong man with the look of a body builder despite his gray hair soon leads a group of elders into the house. In the bedroom they find only the boy, a cooling body, and a dying fire. The man takes a staff that is handed to him by a hunched old women next to him and knocks it on the floor 3 times. Each knock ring out through the compound. Everything goes silent, even the boy has stopped crying though clearly not by choice.

With a nod the man walks forward and makes an announcement, “As the head elder and with the power vested in me by the clan I exile you nameless child. You lack any direct relatives to hold you in our clan and we see no reason to keep you any longer. By the dawn we expect you to be gone and you may take nothing with you as it all belongs to the clan.”, and the elder glances at the child’s dirty loincloth, the only thing he is wearing, “On second thought keep that rag to cover yourself so as to not dirty our eyes even more.” The head elder bangs the staff three more times and noise seems to return to the world. A quick nod and he turns around and leaves.

The nameless boy is once again alone in the house. Now crying silently to himself as he won’t even be able to bury his grandmother. Remembering her lasts words after crying most of the night he scrambles to his feet. It is past time to leave. However when he goes to leave the house, voices can be heard outside, “Keep watching the damn door. If he doesn’t come out, it makes our job easier. Killing him here will be a lot cleaner than having to tail him till after dawn.”, hearing that the boy doesn’t even wait for them to finish talking before backing away from the door. It seems the clan doesn’t want to let him go. Luckily his grandma had seen this coming. Ever since he became able to understand the need for secrecy they had worked on digging a back way out. He had been using it for a while now to try and find herbs for his grandmother’s sickness.

A quick wiggle through about 3 meters of dirt and he was free. Unseen by him that very much wasn’t the catch. Back in the compound alarms go off and a disk stopped showing a dot and instead had an arrow. Unknown to the grandmother the clan had a small formation setup to detect any such breaches in security. When they had first discovered the boy digging the hole, the elders had wanted to shut it down. However the head elder offered a much more devious plan. Instead of stopping him why not let him leave? His thoughts where that as long as they could detect when he left and could track him it didn’t matter. After that decision they ‘gifted’ the boy his loincloth. That disk with the arrow? It was tracking the loincloth or rather the formation placed on it that releases a spike of energy every few minutes. Smiling the head elder gives said tracking disk to the team of ruffians they had on hand for such things.

Back to the boy we see him hiding in the town. Down a side alley we find him behind a large stack of boxes. Finally when he doesn’t hear anyone follow within a few minutes the boy calms down. Just as he thinks that there wasn’t anyone coming after him the peace of the night is broken. Not far away, seemingly down an alley next to him a lot of boots pounding against the road is heard. Having people so close almost shocks him into exclaiming aloud before he stops himself.

His hiding spot no longer safe the boy starts sneaking away. Just as he gets out of sight his decision is proven out. The sound of the wooden boxes being smashed rings out. With that it is obvious to the boy he is being tracked and he can’t stop himself from running anymore. Great speed fueled by fear drives him clear out of town. Not knowing where else to head he ends up going towards the forest.

The boy gets two thirds there before a group of ruffians stream out of the towns gate. One of them quickly points him out and shouts to the others. They raise their swords and charge. The only saving grace for the boy is that none of them have ever cultivated and so their speeds are only the difference between a child and an adult. As the kid reaches the outskirts of the forest the ruffians get to where they had spotted him first.

Originally the boy had only wanted to hide on the outskirts of the forest but that plan is thrown out the window as he escapes inward. As they reach the trees all but the bravest stop. Even the most fearless don’t leave sight of the outside. Looking around, they can only shrug. They had their orders for this and can only retreat a distance away before making camp. With their detection disk they will know if he leaves the forest. Tomorrow if he doesn’t leave a group of cultivators will meet them and take over. All they can do at this point is sigh and hopes the boy comes out. After all, they only get half pay if they don’t catch him.

Sadly those thugs will be disappointed come next morn. Our boy never planned to come out of the forest. To be honest, he barely had a plan beyond not dying to his own clan’s machinations. Even better if he died at least make it so they don’t know. Why give them the relief of knowing his passing? So instead of waiting a bit farther into the woods he kept running. Straight towards the center of the whole forest. Even if only normal beasts live here those deeper can threaten the few cultivators in the outpost.

As the boy runs various glowing eyes observe his passage. For once his complete lack of talent aids him. None of the predators want to bother with a human welp with such a low base. Finally though his luck seems to run out. Right in front of him a fox taller than he is jumps out. The boy is so shocked he actually tumbles to the ground, paralyzed in fear. Head over heels until he rolls to a stop a few strides in front of the fox. It seems he has only moments to live.

Sadly for the fox that isn’t quite the case. While a no talent human isn’t tempting for most of the creatures a weak fox is another thing entirely. Barely through it’s growl the fox is attacked by a living shadow. It is only after a quick chomp to the foxes neck that the shadows recede and a panther twice as tall as the fox appears.

Taking this as a good chance the boy scrambles away hoping the panther doesn’t feel like having a boy shaped dessert. Luckily the panther doesn’t even glance at him. Once he gets behind a nearby tree the boy stands up and runs. This time fueled by pure terror. Branches tear at him and animals growl. Through the night he runs. At this point even another beast jumping out it wouldn’t stop him. However he has now gotten deep enough that the number of beasts have thinned. Only the truly strong live here.

Normally a human penetrating this deep would enrage the territorial predators. Our boy though, sweating out more fear than ten normal beasts and without a shred of energy in his flesh, looks like a hassle. While no beast can be intelligent, they are wise enough to realize hunting him would just take effort for no gain.

After an unknowable amount of time the boy is shocked out of his terror. Ahead of him is a small clearing, the first he has seen. In the center stands a hill on top of which sits a giant turtle, bigger even than the shed he lived in. Hearing his approach the turtle turns and looks at the boy who freezes in place. It feels like the turtle can stare into his very soul. After a short moment the turtle pulls back into its shell, seemingly content to just ignore the boy.

Standing there the boy almost falls over but the sounds of beasts coming from behind him shocks him into action. Below the turtle almost unnoticed a small cave goes into the hill. This is his only hope. What little he knows about the forest tells him that the only clearings are controlled by powerful beasts. The turtle clearly controls here so nothing should live there and the turtle can’t fit through the entrance.

The boy creeps into the clearing. Luckily the turtle clearly doesn’t care about him as it stays in its shell allowing the boy to sneak ever closer. As he reaches the base of the hill, the turtle stirs. Not wanting to take any chances the boy just throws himself into the hole. As he hits the ground, he notices the cave is actually sloped downwards.

Though it would have been hard to miss, what with his flight turning into a roll. Instead of hitting the ground hard he ends up going head over heels deeper into the cave. He soon finds out where it went as he comes to a sudden stop with a big splash. His roll brought him deep into the earth and into a pool of water. As he pulls himself out of the pool all that can be seen is a glowing moss on the ceiling. No other signs of life are present here, even lacking pond scum. The boy can’t help but shiver with this discovery. Not only isn’t there anything edible, the water probably isn’t good to drink. The thick layer of muck at the bottom should have seeds but nothing took root.

Once out of the water the boy starts exploring the cave under the blue glow of the moss above. Looking back, he doubts his ability to leave how he entered. The passage exits well off the floor. Luckily this isn’t a dead end. Unlike the path down the tunnel forward is big enough for someone thrice his height and would let four people walk side by side.

With no other way and only starvation at the pool our boy continues forward. Almost complete silence envelopes him with only the chattering of his teeth to accompany him. The loincloth that had been with him so long no longer clings to his frame. The boy can’t even remember when he lost it, was it at the fox or maybe the slide down tore it off? Though as his thoughts are straying to such things a change happens to the tunnel. Where moss had covered the ceiling even that has vanished. Now it is clear that what glowed wasn’t said moss but rather lines of intricately carved runes. When the boy notices this change he is shocked out of his daze.

Only the simplest of talismans and runed items existed in the town. This mystical script however was beyond anything that should be within maybe even the entire kingdom. Just looking was enough for someone untalented as him to notice World Energy swirling around each character. Though no matter how long he stared, the moment he looked away all knowledge of them vanished.

Spooked he can only go farther into the tunnel and deeper under the earth. If it wasn’t for the walls curving constantly in one direction, the boy might have thought it was even leaving the forest. However deep in the back of his mind a suspicion dwelled. No matter how far he went a gut feeling was telling him that he would just end up back under the hill he entered.

Soon even those thoughts left him as a doorway came into view. Intricately carved and thrice his height stood a wooden gate. Despite lacking the blue glow of the runes above the boy felt that it was an even more mystical script. Though he lacked the enlightenment to even compare the two. Deep in his heart there was an understanding. If the gate did not accept him, then his very existence would stop.

With nowhere else to go and a slight hope that it would destroy him so thoroughly that his clan could never confirm his life or death, our boy approaches the gate. Only a few paces away he stops. Not of his own will but rather because of an invisible force that wraps him. Unable to move he can just stand there as the gate starts to glimmer and then glow. Then beams of light shoot at him from the gate and a grand sounding voice rings out, “Brave one that you are I hope you prepared for death. If this gate finds even a trace of a cultivation technique from one of my enemies, you shall cease to be. If you do pass don’t feel relieved for only more tests await you further in.”

At this the boy actually relaxes. How can he have an enemies cultivation technique when he isn’t even a cultivator to begin with? However the mention of further tests do give him a moment’s pause. Though the voice soon solves that as well, “Congratulations for having passed. Though if you thought of just retreating at this point, I regretfully inform you that is no longer an option.”, and the gate opens before the force holding the boy drags him through it. Then with a soft clang the gate is shut behind him.

The boy just stands there for a few moments before realizing the force has released him. With a shrug he trudges forward. His body supported purely by the adrenaline running through him. Luckily the test isn’t far from the gate though he would have almost preferred the force grab him again so he could rest. No such luck as there only a flat stone blocking his way forward and covered in words. However these are not the written language he is familiar with and that sends a jolt of worry through his mind. After all how can you pass a test you can’t even read.

The wall soon answers this dilemma as the words shift into his language. After reading though the boy is confused. All it asks is quite simple though asked from many different angles. All the complexity aside this wall just wants to know what he lives for. Not the easiest thing to answer at the bests of times and our boy has so many potential options. Does he seek revenge against his clan? Of course he does but can you really call that the thing he lives for? There is also the fact he would really like to become powerful enough no one can ruin his future. However that doesn’t feel quite right to him either. But then it hits him. The revenge, the power? None of it matters in the end. All he wants for his life? It’s what his grandmother wanted for him, “I just want to live a good life”.

With that simple answer the stone slides up into the ceiling. Just behind it the boy glimpses the next stone and reads, “Why do you want that?”, only to have it also slide into the ceiling. In fact three more stone slabs are raising behind that. Those are too far away to read. The boy can only scratch his head. Apparently his answer was truly the correct answer.

Now nothing bars the boy from proceeding. In fact he ends up just walking right into what looks like an entrance hall. Along the sides are benches and in the center of the room stands a vase containing an assortment of flowers made from stone or possibly turned to stone. The boy can’t tell. In fact he can’t even think straight at this point. With all the danger gone his body is failing him. It takes all his remaining strength to make it over to one of the benches. Barely even managing to lie down before he loses consciousness.