Hadden ate a sandwich while sitting on top of the bed. The sandwich had 2 thick pieces of bread on either side and lightly charred and saucy chicken meat on the inside, along with a bunch of greens and onions.

He munched on it excitedly, making sure to let Ning and Emma know that he hadn’t eaten something so good ever in his life. They were in a small tavern room in a small city just a day more walk away from Ulharis city. If it were just them, Ning would have decided to walk nonstop, but with a kid this young, especially one that had been through so much today, they decided to take a break.

Emma ate another sandwich just as the boy too. With all of her energy spent, she started feeling hungry all of a sudden. Only Ning didn’t feel any hunger at all.

They went to sleep after eating, the boy sleeping next to Ning. He cried for some time while clutching his new necklace before going to sleep.

Come next day, he was ready to go to a new city.

He rode on top of Umbra after walking for a while and played along with Lyra and Lori who were getting familiar with him after a day.

He looked around the roadway as they walked, seeing the many new people and carriages and beasts and surroundings, and… it was overwhelming him.

His village had been about over 2 hours away from the main road, and nearly a day’s walk away from any other cities or towns. As such, he had rarely been on the main road and had only always been in the village and the mountainous forest next to them.

Seeing the many people and beasts and whatnot was extremely new to him. He would audibly gasp when seeing a new beast or get scared when a carriage zoomed past him at a quick speed.

From time to time, he would cluck onto the necklace that hung around his neck, looking for courage.

“Alright, enough riding,” Ning said. “You’ll need to walk now.”

Hadden’s heart sank. “But teacher!” he cried. “My legs hurt.”

“Good,” Ning said. “Do you think you can become strong without getting hurt? Now come on down and start walking. Lyra, Lori, you two need to walk as well.” action

The two children had no qualms about that at all. They both jumped down from their mother’s back and started briskly walking along the dirt road.

A few hours passed, and Hadden could barely stand. He panted loudly, his feet burning in pain. He would try to stop momentarily to let the legs stop, but Ning would push him to continue moving.

Hadden couldn’t tell if he had gotten himself a teacher or a torturer. He was finally allowed to ride Umbra again around 2 in the afternoon. The afternoon sun had been especially unbearable for the kid, so Ning decided to let him rest.

Emma slowed her pace and walked next to Ning before asking, “Why are you hurting him?” she asked. “Can’t you let him be?”

“No,” Ning said. “I need him to get hurt, to get used to pain.”

“Why?” Emma asked. She couldn’t keep her curiosity away. “Because very soon, I’m going to teach him how to split his core,” Ning said with a smile. “And since he hasn’t started absorbing Essence just yet, he will be able to do it perfectly too.”

“Oh, you’re planning to give him that technique?” Emma asked.

“Why not?” Ning asked. “There’s no point in keeping it. He might as well learn it and make good use of it.”

Emma gave a faint hint of a nod. “I suppose,” she said.

The dirt road turned to cobblestone as they got close to Ulharis city. The crowd around them had gotten larger as well since multiple roads had joined to their road as they got close to the city.

A carriage pulled by a flaming horse, two people riding on a green, scaly lizard, a person riding on an elephant with crystalline spikes growing out of it, a large blue bird flying in the sky, with people riding on it; there were many fantastical things to see.

Even Emma and Ning were amazed by what they saw, let alone Hadden who couldn’t believe his eyes that such things were possible.

There were houses around them now, the forests and large fields long gone. As they walked, their houses got more and more congested to the point that there was barely any land left for more houses to be made.

And in the distance, there was the massive Ulhairs city, with buildings of up to 10 floors sprawling across their vision. One could hear the hubbub of the city from this far away, and the entrance exam to the Star Beast Institute only caused the crowd to get rowdier.

Hadden walked now, out of his own volition. His hurting legs meant nothing to him as he walked on the uneven cobblestone, nearly stumbling a few times but his eyes still fixed on the grandness of what he beheld. “This is a much bigger city than I thought,” Emma said. “They weren’t lying when they told me it made the Trobble city seem like a newly formed town.”

“It’s certainly massive,” Ning said. “It reminds me of the Blackhawk city. Damn, this might even be bigger than that.”

They crossed the many houses, made both out of rock and wood. There was a similar system for beasts here where they had to let the beasts stay in a repository if they were to be left alone.

Except, unlike Trobble City, there seemed to be no limit on how strong the beasts could be.

“System, what is the average Essence rank of the strongest people in this city?” Ning asked.

“No wonder they don’t worry,” Ning said before turning to look at his group. “Let’s go find a place to stay for now.”