Chapter:07 The Venhorst territory of Novo Redondo.
It's been a week since John and Alex's training began, and during that week they had pushed themselves to the limit. Now they were both able to reach the other side of the pool and back without either of them falling into the water. Even though it was a bit of a struggle, they were both proud of their achievements.
During the terrifying process of endlessly falling into the pool full of piranhas, the two's dexterity and speed had increased greatly, John felt that he could control his body better.
An Iron Tail's senses are naturally better than humans', the Iron Tail racial trait encompasses high strength, heightened senses, and elemental layer in the earth and water elements. As he grew up, John noticed that his body was different from his previous one, at first, he thought that the tail was the only difference between a human and an Iron Tail. tail .
As his body grew, his vision, hearing, smell, touch and taste - all five senses - were expanded. Now, relying only on his sense of smell, he could distinguish everything around him without even opening his eyes. He could now hear a type of sound frequency that only animals could hear. The range of his vision improved greatly to the point where he could reach objects.
During the week of training that passed, Catarina and Fernando supervised the boys' training on different days. Catarina saw how the two were able to go back and forth without any problems and nodded her head and said.
— Boys , it's time to take a break.
When the two, Alex and John heard Catarina's words, they increased their speed and quickly returned without any impediment, lately the piranhas were unhappy, this is because John and Alex did not fall into the pool anymore and therefore they were left with nothing to bite.
Woxim
Woxim
With a start two boys jumped out of the pool, one a little over 7 years old and the other looked to be 9 or 10 years old. As soon as John got out of the pool he ran to Catarina and gave her a big hug, he sighed and said.
—This training has become very boring, when are we going to stop doing the same thing, day after day.
Alex didn't say anything, but he agreed with John's words, nodding his head, for Alex it was also boring to do the same thing every day, Catarina looked at the two of them and laughed mischievously.
—Very well, you have forced my hands, since you are bored of giving me something to do without complaint.
The two of them looked at each other and saw each other's caution. Catarina raised her staff and chanted an incantation in the Baboan language . She pointed the staff and suddenly the pool shook a little and without warning, it began to expand, expanding several times, until it turned into a large lake. With another incantation in the Baboan language , pieces of trees arranged themselves to form an obstacle course, much more complex than the previous one. Now the pieces of trees were a little further away from each other.
Catarina was far from finished, she removed the piranhas from the lake using magic, again chanted another complex incantation the water in the lake began to boil, with one spell, the water reached 100 degrees Celsius, steam began to rise into the sky, it was difficult to see clearly with the steam, but with the vision of an iron tail was no problem at all.
The entire route was properly prepared, Catarina explained the objective of this new route in simple and clear words.
— This route is the opposite of the previous one, which helped you have better control of your body, working on your agility. This route will train your speed. With the boiling water, if you don't want to end up like soup without vegetables, you would have to be very fast.
Catarina spoke seriously, for her it was tedious, she prefers to teach magic, at the end of the day she is an elemental mage not a warrior, preparing someone else's body to be a warrior was boring without a doubt, it is like a teacher teaching something outside of his specialty, but even so, she pointed the staff indicating for the two to jump into the newly formed lake .
The two jumped onto the wooden platform, John felt an intense heat running through his body, his throat went dry, sweat began to run down his entire body, he tried to take a deep breath but hot air entered his nostrils.
Cough cough cough .
John looked at Alex, he had already started to run the course, he didn't wait but he also started to run accelerating at a gradual pace, the faster the two ran the faster they lost vigor, it was very difficult to run the course with the boiling water, after a few laps at high speed, both were breathing heavily, his vision was blurry, his head hurt, after 5 more laps he jumped out of the lake, Alex lasted a while but in the end it was only 6 laps more than John.
The two were lying down breathing deeply, they both looked at each other for a long time until the tiredness abandoned them, after thirty minutes of well-deserved rest, they jumped into the lake again and resumed their journey.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Throughout the day they ran the course several times, until they could no longer stand it. When they finished, their bodies seemed to be even lighter, and their speed increased greatly. The training proved to be very effective, and the results could be seen quickly, which made the two of them very happy. However, fatigue was also apparent, and they had to stop often to recover, and their bodies were cooked.
One day.
Two days.
Three days.
Four days.
For several days John and Alex trained, with the aim of surpassing each other thanks to this objective, they gradually got used to the high temperature, the time inside the lake increased in the same proportion as the rest time decreased, their speeds increased to a point that running the course no longer helped, but even so they trained throughout the month.
During the past month, Catarina gradually increased the difficulty of the course with her magic, all the magic that Catarina used for training were low-grade magic, they were magic of a level 1 primary being.
***
It was already September, there was only one month left until John's birthday, in this past month John and Alex became good friends, John discovered that Alex was a simple and very respectful boy, he had a burning desire to become a warrior as soon as possible, without Fernando's help Alex would not become a warrior so soon, even though Ceto is an average warrior he signed a non-disclosure contract of the warrior's path, so he could not pass it on to his son.
*****
Venhorst Castle .
In the dining room, John was happily eating dinner with his parents. He now had good dexterity, his body control was decent, the training had paid off after the hard work. Fernando seemed worried about something. In the last few days, he had been making preparations to go to the capital to resolve some matters. Fernando's biggest concern was John. He didn't want to leave without John passing his first evolution. This would give him extra protection.
— Dad, I want to take a tour of the territory tomorrow.
John asked with anxiety on his face, he was already tired of staying in the castle all the time, he came to this world a long time ago, it was time to breathe new air and get to know his family's territory, Fernando spoke without any expression on his face, in fact he already expected John to make this kind of request, it was just a matter of time, so he was prepared, the same could be said of Catarina.
— I'll tell Ceto to go with you.
John frowned, he didn't want to go visit his city like the young lord, he wanted to explore the territory on his own, without alarming anyone, he knew that although Ceto acted as the family's butler in Venhorst Castle , in fact in the city's estate Ceto is Ferdinand's representative, if people see him with Ceto it would be easy to deduce his identity, this would prevent him from exploring and doing what he wanted.
- Dad , I don't think it's a good idea to go with Ceto, I just want to go for a walk, I don't want to attract too much attention.
Catarina looked at John then looked at Fernando showing some concern in her beautiful eyes, but she didn't say anything, Fernando thought for a while and said.
— You can't walk around alone, after all you are the young lord, at the very least take some guards with you, for your protection, I believe that this way your mother will be at peace and so will I.
— Don't worry , mom, dad , Alex will go with me, no one will know that I left Venhorst Castle .
John spoke with an air of confidence on his face, Fernando thought for a moment since no one will know that he will be in the city for a visit, there will be no problem, he replied saying.
— Okay, you can go with Alex, but don't stray far from the city, there's no way you're going to the slums.
John nodded with a wide smile on his face, his goal was achieved, and so dinner came to an end. After dinner, John went to his room, anxious about tomorrow, soon night fell and gave way to a new day.
****
The next day.
John was having breakfast when a maid came in respectfully, she bowed slightly and spoke.
— Young lord, Alex wants to see you
John happily put the food aside and went out to meet him in person. When John and Alex saw each other they smiled at each other, they bumped fists.
— Alex.
— John.
The clash of fists was a form of greeting, for those who were close, Alex asked with a smile.
— are you ready to meet the new round one?
— Ready and enthusiastic.
John's answer came as soon as Alex asked.
— Who will escort us to the new round? I don't see anyone around here. Alex asked.
— My father allowed only us to go to the new round.
Alex was skeptical.
- serious ?
— You are the young lord, how can we leave without an escort?
— I want to see the new Redondo without alarming the inhabitants, it would be boring if people
keep an eye on me just because I'm the young lord.
After John enlightened Alex, the two left Venhorst Castle through the back doors, none of the servants knew of John's departure, before leaving Alex lent John a set of clothes, he didn't want to wear his own as they would draw too much attention.
With a few copper coins they boarded a carriage they found along the way, coincidentally the carriage headed to Novo Redondo. Venhorst Castle is on a plain far from the city of Novo Redondo, this is because Fernando preferred the silence of Venhorst Castle rather than the bustling castle of the estate, in the city of Novo Redondo, Alex had a comprehensive but superficial knowledge of the Venhorst territory , John saw the carriage moving away from the plain he was familiar with, little by little, he looked at the blue sky, the morning sun shining brightly, the wind blowing lightly. Although the distance is not great, it would still take 2 hours by carriage to get to Novo Redondo, John asked.
- Alex, do you know how the territory works? My father and mother didn't explain much about it to me, I only have a very superficial knowledge of the territory.
Alex thought for a moment to organize his words and began to explain how the Venhorst territory was organized and how it worked .
— Your family's territory is very large, it measures about 95,900 square kilometers, it is formed by plains, plateaus and mountains, many races and Clans live in it, in the mountains to the south lives the water clan, it is a clan of humans with a high level of affinity in the water element, most of them are water elemental warriors, they can communicate with aquatic animals.
Alex looked at John who was listening to him attentively and continued with his speech.
— In the mountains to the east lives the race of fierce barbarians. They are very strong. They are warriors, but they do not use elements. They only use brute force for combat. In the east there is the forest. The forest is very vast. A great diversity of monsters live there. Only warriors and magicians can go there.
— I haven't been informed about other parts of the territory, my father hasn't explained it to me yet, my knowledge is also superficial, but the most important are the agricultural areas and the mining areas.
—in the territory there are small cities that are controlled by minor nobles without title, they pay taxes annually, many nobles help the territory in the small cities.
— the heart of the territory is the city of Novo Redondo, it is the center of commerce, the nobles and some merchants live there, all the races and clans of the territory pay their tributes annually at the lord's castle, and of course my father is the chief supervisor.
When Alex spoke of his father, a gleam of pride and respect passed through his eyes. Fernando is the lord of the territory, but he did not have time to act as the lord castellan. He delegated Ceto as his representative when he was away. He preferred to stay in the capital, improve his skills or wander around in search of opportunities for his evolution. That is why he would leave his authority as lord castellan to his most faithful man.
The carriage moved forward quickly at a steady pace. During the journey, two people joined the party. They were from the human race, a man and a woman. Both were adults. They were not very talkative and remained silent throughout the journey. Alex spoke happily about the territory. Because they were talking about basic knowledge, they did not attract the attention of the two humans.
The trip went without incident, the two hours that passed John was listening to some important aspects about the city of Novo Redondo, soon in the distance the city could be seen, a wall made of stone and concrete surrounded the entire city, the stones in the wall were well worked, a gigantic gate gave access to the entrance to the city, two men in armor and spears were charging the entrance fee to people who wished to enter the city.
The carriage stopped in front of the gate and everyone got out and were intercepted by the gate guards, with their spears raised they swept the eyes of the newcomers, from the clothes they wore they deduced that at most they were middle class, seeing this they acted with undisguised arrogance, they spoke extending their hands with a smile.
— 10 copper coins to enter the city.
John and Alex each took out 10 silver coins and gave them to the guards, the two who traveled with them, the man and the woman, also did the same, giving each of them 10 copper coins without opening their mouths, in fact considering John and Alex's position, they did not deserve to pay to enter, but a measly 10 silver coins meant nothing to Alex, what to say about John the young lord of the territory.
After paying the fee, the two of them passed through the gate and entered the city.