The wound Mel had on his arm was not of vital importance. He healed quickly, but after this incident, the young boy became warier in his surroundings. Actually, his walking speed did not slow down too much. What had changed was Mel’s perception and his readiness to use the wild energy he kept inside at any moment.
During the day, he could not find any traces of wild creatures. The top of the cliff he was on and the place he had walked for two months were like completely different worlds.
“It seems like I will be arriving at my destination in the morning. I’d better find a place to spend the night! ”
Contrary to the scorching air of the day, at night, a cold that would freeze the bones of a person was getting out of its hiding place and wreaking havoc.
Mel spent the night on the top of a long tree he found. He was once burned by milk, so now he was blowing on cold water. During his walk, he had never seen a flying creature and he knew the woods he was resting inside now very well.
He wanted to sleep for two hours without breaking his habit, but at the end of his travel, the journey picked him up early. He was still sleeping when the sun dropped its first lights on him.
“Damn, I fell asleep!”
Moving nimbly from the branch to the trunk of the tree, he walked down by using his clawed hands. He started running as soon as he stepped on the ground, and even though there was no arrival date to catch up, he did not like to disrupt his planned order.
The view before his eyes changed dramatically after half a day of running, and the dry land he had been traveling on for days suddenly turned green. This was not a gradual change. It was as if someone had especially left these two places in such contrast.
“There is humidity in the air. There must be a big forest nearby!”
Mel was right in his guess. The valleys that formed at the foot of the lofty mountains on the horizon were adorned with every tone of green color. He could feel the vitality of nature and even discovered that his energy could interact with plants to some extent.
“If my grandfather specifically asked me to come here, he should have known something. I will be there when I pass over those mountains!”
Moving on the slopes of the mountains by talking to himself, Mel thought that his destination was behind high mountains. But his eyes did not agree with him.
“There are so many mountains over there!”
There was nothing strange with his burst out. The landscape at the end of the slight hill he climbed was breathtaking for Mel, who lived his life in a remote mountain village away from humanity.
Rows of mountains overlapping each other greeted him. Despite the fog covering their hills, life was gushing from the remaining parts.
“So, Green Shadow Academy is such a place!”
He didn’t need to look at the parchment made of wild beast skin to know he was at the place marked on the map. Wherever he turned his head, he was hearing calls saying ‘this place is yours’.
Later, he glimpsed a structure in the distance. Once again, it was a mountain like others but seemed like there were unnatural shapes over there. Mel, whose breathing accelerated, took ten steps with each breath. Soon, he saw the thing he was trying to figure out in all its majesty.
A mountain, that he could not comprehend the height of its summit, was carved and a high wall and thousands of houses were built in this gap.
The sun was almost reaching the top. It was illuminating everywhere, but only the lands of the city, made of natural stones, were in shadow. Contrary to the ordinary, there was no black shadow on the settlement. A green breeze, as thin as a veil floating in the air gently, was covering the whole earth.
With his heart beating as if it was going to burst, Mel started running again without waiting to catch his breath. He continued to run this way until he had to walk because of the people around him.
“Wait, where do you think you’re going?”
Heading towards one of the gates opened on the giant rock carved in the form of a wall, Mel was stopped by two men standing at the entrance. As their large axes closed Mel’s way, these two men began to stare sharply at him.
“I want to go in!”
Mel openly talked about his intention. This attitude angered the rough-mustached guard a little.
“Ignorant boy, is this a place where anyone can enter? Why did you come?”
His voice was harsh, and there was a grunt in the crowd that had gathered behind Mel. The young boy, looking around in astonishment, replied quickly.
“I came to enter the Green Shadow Academy!”
The mood of the men, who had just looked cruel, changed suddenly. They pulled their weapons out of Mel’s eyes.
“Can we see the permission coin?”
Even their appeal had changed. The tension dissipated completely when the young boy showed the heirloom left by his grandfather, the only locket on him.
“Welcome to the Green Shadow Academy. After paying the entrance fee of ten cores of wild creatures, you can get in! ”
While everything was going well, the bomb exploded at the last minute. Using the creature kernels to refine the cave, Mel was now dead broke.
“I have no creature cores on me. Are there any creatures nearby that I can hunt?”
No matter how robust the large-shouldered, broad-bodied young boy was, his face still had the naivety of a fourteen-year-old.
“Are you crazy? The weakest of the creatures in the nearby forest are the creatures that can manage to circulate the power of nature in their bodies! “
The clean-shaven guard grabbed Mel’s arm and a few seconds later he began to give friendly advice to him.
“You haven’t yet stepped into the Spirit Force absorption stage. If you get there, death will be your end!”
Mel had no idea what these two guards were talking about. It was as if they were speaking a language that he hadn’t heard in all his life.
“My young friend, the entrance exams for the academy start in three days. If you can find ten creature cores, it’s fine. If you can’t, tough luck.”
The man standing in the line right behind Mel was impatient. But he couldn’t get rude, knowing that the one in front of him had come for the academy entrance exam. At that moment, a sound, sharp like a knife was heard from behind.
“Who said tough luck?”
The crowd dispersed without getting any orders and two people started walking through the opening gap. A young boy in blue robes, one head size shorter than Mel, having long straight hair tied with a ribbon; and a girl swiping the hem of her straight red dress while walking, approached the guards.
The girl’s hair was gathered in two buns above her head. The long wooden sticks she inserted to hold these buns astonished those who saw them.
“We came for the entrance exam of the academy too!”
After the boy’s speech, the pair took off their medallions and handed them towards the guard keeping the door. Since they could not understand what was happening, no noise was coming from the bewildered crowd.
“You can enter after giving 10 wild creature cores per person!”
The previous toughness of the guards standing at the door was gone, but they spoke loudly as if to show that they were conscious of their duty. The young boy did not seem impressed. He reached out his hand to his waist and held out the pouch to the guard.
“There are exactly 30 cores of wild creatures here. I guess enough for the three of us!”
When the rough-mustached man quickly confirmed the number; the guards, pulling their axes aside, cleared the way for the trio who came for the academy entrance examination.
“Come on my friend, let’s go inside!”
Seeing that the person he was calling out was looking around with empty eyes, the young boy in blue robes quickly held Mel’s arm. After a few breaths, the group of two boys and a girl entered the residential area protected by giant walls.
