Starborn Apotheosis: When Demon-Elf Hybrid Unlocks the Primal Codex

Growing Up

Spring.

It is a time to rejoice, after a long cold winter, people can finally start a new year without having to endure the cold, food is easier to get and the variety slowly becomes abundant. That's why when winter turns to spring, all the most important festivals of the year take place, not only for humans, but also for dwarves, orcs, elves, and even ogres. Of course, the world is so complex that there will always be exceptions, such as the inhabitants of the underworld, for whom spring has almost no meaning. Exceptions could be taken to extremes, such as the Snow Demons, a race that hated spring the most. Regardless, spring has always been pleasant for most humans.

When warm, moist air currents trudge over the Coastal Range and reach the village of Rutherland, the people of the village know that spring is here again.

Nestled in the foothills of the Coastal Mountains, Rutherland is an unassuming dot in the vast mountain range that stretches for tens of thousands of miles, and one of tens of thousands of human settlements. It was part of the Barony of Tark, which was also the territory of the Holy Alliance Empire. However, even if we calculate the distance in a straight line, Baron Tucker's castle was nearly three hundred kilometers away from here. Only once a year, during the fall harvest, did the villagers see the Baron's tax collector. It was also the only time the lord had a tiny presence. The Baron's tax was light, only collecting a few local products unique to the mountains, and had little impact on the villagers' daily lives. However, the village's production was limited, and if the impact of the tax were any greater, it would mean survival.

Life in the mountains is not really difficult, as long as the year of hard work to the end of the line.

When spring came, the land outside the village had to be turned over and sown with food to be harvested in the summer. The hunters, on the other hand, began to enter the forest, and at this time of year, the magical beasts in the depths of the forest, which had been starving all winter, gradually awakened and began to forage for food. They became extremely dangerous and aggressive. However, the specialties of some magical beasts, such as certain glands that can be used as valuable medicinal herbs or spices, are only available at this time of year, when they have the best color and can be sold at the highest price. Every year during this season, hunters are killed or injured, but year after year, hunters go into the mountains as usual. That's why in Rutherland Village, the goddess of the forest and the hunt is the most worshipped, knowing that besides the Eternal Dragon, there are as many gods and beliefs as there are stars above the continent of Norland.

The continent of Norland is the land of wealth, the land of power, and the land of hierarchy.

Even a village as remote and peaceful as Rutherland is deeply marked by its time. The villagers were simple and honest, but they also respected the strong and despised the weak. A small village with only a few dozen households, it also has a hidden hierarchy.

A small figure appeared outside the village, a boy, but with a basket on his back almost as big as he was, filled with breadfruit. In the spring, when the winter's reserves have been largely depleted and the new crop is not yet ready to be harvested, this tasteless fruit is an important ration. It was easy to get, just by picking it in the woods near the village.

Behind the little boy, three teenagers, a full head taller than him, appeared in company. In their hands were hunting bows and short forks, and in their waists were short knives, with deer and rabbits and other prey on their backs. Although they were not yet ten years old, they were able to go into the mountains to hunt. Of course, their prey was not magical beasts, but some tame animals, and the way to hunt was also mainly based on traps, which was already not easy. At that time, most of the commoners and nobles in the city were still studying and practicing under their parents' wings.

The teenager at the front of the group suddenly shouted, "Hey Eldrin, where's your father? Didn't he teach you how to hunt? When I was your age, I went into the mountains to set traps and catch rabbits all by myself!"

A boy next to him laughed in agreement and said, "Fatherless children only pick fruit!"

The three older boys laughed and laughed, crossing over to the younger boy and running toward the village with a light gait, not at all obvious that each was carrying dozens of kilos of prey. The little boy ignored the taunts and continued to carry his own basket toward the village. A middle-aged strong man sitting at the entrance of the village had long since seen everything, he waved to the little boy and called over, then stuffed a piece of air-dried magical beast jerky into the boy's hand, rubbed his head affectionately, and asked, ''Little Eldrin, Piru and the others are bullying you like this, aren't you angry? When I turn around, Uncle will go and teach them a lesson, even if they are little children, they can't talk too much.

To my surprise, the little boy shook his head and said, "No, I'm not angry.

"But ......" The man scratched his hair with his big rough and dark hand, and it was a little hard to understand, and he thought that he was afraid of those big boys, and he could not help but want to say a few words. Children in the mountains, everything can be lacking, just not courage.

What do you know, the little boy smiled and said, "I don't have a father, but I have the best mother ever!"

The man could only scratch his head, smile nervously, and say, "That's right, that's right.

The little boy hummed a song, carried a big basket on his back, and hopped off to the village. By this time, the little gloom in little Eldrin's heart had long since been swept away, and he was happy again. His mother had told him to be happy no matter what.

In this year, little Eldrin was six years old. He learned to be happy at the age of six.

The middle-aged man's name is Bobby, and he is the village blacksmith, while the boy's mother is said to be a magical apprentice. Little Eldrin was still wrapped in her arms when she came alone to the village of Rutherland. She was a woman, not particularly pretty, but gentle as water. Her arrival in the small village of Rutherland brought a whole new atmosphere to the village, for the first time there was a healer, one did not have to walk dozens of kilometers away from the town to see a doctor for a small illness, or simply endure and wait for it to heal naturally. Her name was Elaine, and she had opened a small apothecary shop on the outskirts of the village, and although she could only make the most rudimentary potions, she had saved the lives of more than one villager in her first year. So the village chief and elders decided to give Elaine a piece of land and officially accept her as a member of Rutherland. In the small village of Rutherland, most of the people were hunters, and there were only three professionals: the blacksmith, Elaine, who was also a doctor, and the village chief, who was a retired sergeant. These three people supported the whole village.

Life in the village of Rutherland was quiet and slow, time passed without anyone noticing, and in the blink of an eye it was another spring.

Little Eldrin had grown another dozen inches and looked about the same as an eight or nine year old. According to the traditions of Rutherland Village, he should already be learning to make and set traps to hunt rabbits and other small, grass-eating magical creatures. In a forest not far from Rutherland Village, there was a large number of these small magical beasts, while the large magical beasts were almost nowhere to be seen. This was the village's training ground for the children. The hunters never hunted the small animals there, but they did make regular patrols to clear the depths of the forest of the dangerous large magical beasts that occasionally intruded. Every few days, however, young Eldrin would make his way up the mountain with a basket on his back. The baskets on his back didn't seem so out of place anymore, but it showed that he was still gathering fruit. Breadfruit wasn't very tasty, and it was all over the mountain, and the people in the village preferred delicious magical beast meat. Even if they didn't care about the taste, it was something that could increase their strength if they ate it.

Even at the age when he started hunting, Eldrin still had to gather fruit, it was a requirement of his mother. More than that, he had to gather herbs along the way, four of each in each season, and then follow a set and tedious process. Half of the process was to be done while he was picking the herbs, and the other half was to be done when he got home. What he didn't understand was that breadfruit had to be processed in a similar way, and the process and time involved were considerably more. No one in the village had ever made their family do this before; breadfruit was the easiest food to obtain, and after ripening it would naturally fall to the ground in a single night, ready to be picked up and eaten. But the mother demanded that the breadfruit not be picked from the ground, but from the main trunk, and that the size and color of the breadfruit be fixed, and that the method of picking be special. Eldrin did not understand why, and did not feel that the breadfruit brought back in the special way tasted any different, but any breadfruit he did not pick according to the instructions was picked by his mother. After a few reprimands, little Eldrin never played tricks again, but took it seriously and did every tedious step right. It was only in the winter, when no breadfruit could be picked, that his mother told him it was to teach him perseverance.

That year, little Eldrin was seven years old. At the age of seven, he remembered the need to be persistent in his endeavors. If there is one unpleasant memory of being seven years old, it is that every dinner was breadfruit. This little incident ended up being one of the lingering nightmares of his childhood.

A new spring has come, and the village of Rutherland is still the same. Bobby the blacksmith is still single, Elaine's apothecary shop hasn't seen an upturn in business yet, and the village leader is still fit and strong, always at the front of the line when there's a difficult beast to deal with.

Eldrin was finally able to learn how to set traps. And by this time, Piru and the others had begun to carry their shortbows and follow the village hunters into the mountains. Crossing the threshold of ten, they could already be called teenagers, and the upright figures would be mistaken for fifteen or sixteen when placed in the city.

Trapping is a learned skill that requires a great deal of experience, a keen eye, a skilled hand, and a certain amount of luck. With only rudimentary tools, novice hunters are likely to injure themselves while trapping, except for experienced hunters. Young Eldrin is gifted in his studies, showing for the first time that he is superior to his peers, and is praised by the adults of the village for the great success of the traps he sets on his first day. Bobby, the blacksmith, even tells everyone about it, rejoicing as if Eldrin were his own son. However, almost everyone in the village knew what he was up to, and if Eldrin could call him father, Bobby would probably be willing to close the blacksmith's shop.

A few days passed, and Eldrin had learned several traps. He began to venture into the depths of the reservation and set several large compound traps. This was a place that was occasionally infested with large magical beasts, and he wanted to try his luck.Eldrin's luck was in, as a Kamchatka boar came into view and ran headlong into the trap. A trap made of thorns, sticks and nails caught the boar's front legs. Although the boar was very strong, Eldrin's trap was well made and the balance of forces was very well managed, so that after some frantic tugging and shaking, the boar surprisingly did not break free. Eldrin, who was hiding off to the side to watch, was so nervous that his hands were sweating and the hunting knife in his hand was not so reliable for the first time. A wounded boar is a dangerous thing, and although the Kamchatka boar is small and timid, it's only a child.

Just as Eldrin was sure that his prey would not be able to escape for a moment, and was about to rush out, a sudden strong force came from behind him and pushed him hard out of the way, and Eldrin landed heavily on the ground, only to feel the sky spinning and a wisp of fishy air in his mouth and nose. He heard a bowstring rattle and then the screams of a boar. A few cheers rang out beside him, the sound very familiar.

Eldrin slowly climbed up and saw that Piru had appeared at some point with three teenagers, and it was one of them who had just pushed him out of the way. And Piru was holding a hunting bow in his hand, looking down at the poor Kamchatka boar with glee. An arrow was stuck right in the boar's neck. It wasn't easy to hit the vitals with an arrow, even if it was caught in a trap. The boar was jumping around and curling up wildly.

"You robbed me of my prey!" Eldrin shouted angrily when he suddenly realized what they were up to.

"Everyone here can testify that I shot that boar. How can you call it robbery? Just because you set a trap? Good hunters know that such traps are only used to catch rabbits." Pilou said slowly and looked at Eldrin with disdain.

He was almost a head taller than Eldrin and much stronger. In fact, he was stronger than anyone of his age, almost as strong as an adult. This was because Piru was the son of the village chief, who, as a retired sergeant, was often able to hunt down powerful magical beasts from the mountains. The meat of such magical beasts was useful for strengthening the body when eaten.

"What brings you here to shoot boars?" Eldrin's rhetorical question left Piru speechless. They looked down on Eldrin's thinness, but had to admit that Eldrin was indeed smart, and it was said that he could even write a lot of words. But Piru and the boys didn't respect Eldrin for that. Why do they know so many words if they can't use them to hunt?

But Eldrin's rhetorical question annoyed Pilou, and with a vicious wave of his hand, one of the teenagers around him came up behind Eldrin and pushed him hard to the ground.

Eldrin climbed up, his little face flushed, his hand gripping the hunting knife tightly, and the aura that erupted at that moment made several teenagers inexplicably feel a deep chill! The hunting knife was finally not pulled out, a hesitant effort, Piru has kicked him in the stomach, the teenagers swarmed, snatched the hunting knife, and then it is punched and kicked the siege. Pilou even stomped on Eldrin's head, crushing his face deep into the dirt!

The mountain boy's bones are full of strength, this beating is really not light.Eldrin does not struggle to resist, and does not make a sound to beg for mercy, just silently endure.Piru more and more angry, the heavier the blow, he felt from the silent reaction of contempt. Piru hit harder and harder, the more angry he became, and he felt only contempt from Eldrin's silent reaction.

"Still not convinced? No?" The teenager got harder, too, and Eldrin just let him beat him, as if his body wasn't his own. It didn't take long before Pilou got scared. He was afraid that if he hurt Eldrin seriously, he would surely get a good beating at home. The village chief's temper was as hot as his strength, and Eldrin never had a good reputation in the village.

The teenagers gradually stopped as well, and after a while Eldrin slowly got up. Pilou threw down a few harsh words and set off with the boar. When they were well on their way, Eldrin sat down under a tree and rested for a long time before he struggled to his feet and made his way home.

In the evening, Elaine looked at little Eldrin, who was covered in bruises, and tears came to her eyes uncontrollably, but the boy reassured her that it was all right, just a little sore. After the medicine was applied, the boy looked at his mother and asked, "Still can't fight back?"

"Uh-huh!" Elaine gritted her teeth and nodded vigorously.

"Okay, I'm not going to fight back, but I'm not going to give in either."

Over the next few days, Piru came after Eldrin a few more times in a process that consisted of nothing more than hard blows. But the hardest, until all the men were tired of beating Eldrin and Eldrin was completely unable to get up, Piru didn't wait for the boy's submission and plea for mercy, nor did he even hear a moan. And every time they were tired of fighting and ready to leave, Eldrin slowly climbed to his feet and calmly looked at Pilou. This calm and serene look suddenly made Pilou feel a shiver in the deepest part of his heart. This look was like looking at a dead man.

Pilou began to have nightmares that year, and every time he beat Eldrin, he had nightmares for days. Every time he hit Eldrin, who never fought back, he had nightmares for days, and Pilou got stronger and stronger, and the height difference between the two men grew. But every time he saw Eldrin, Pilou saw the serene look of the boy, and then the nightmares lasted for days. Another thing Pilou couldn't understand was why Eldrin didn't go to his father and tell him off. If the boy had done that, Pilou would have gotten at least a few lashes. But from the beginning to the end, Eldrin had never mentioned the beating to anyone in the village.

The teenagers picked on Eldrin less and less, and when the boy once looked at them with blood hanging from his mouth and smiled instead, the teenagers dispersed in a huff. That was the last time they harassed Eldrin.

By the age of eight, Eldrin had learned to be tough.