The sun hung high above in the sky as the slightly chilly winds blew through the forests beneath it, clearly indicating the oncoming spring.
In the clearing where the third elder's abode was located, the children sat just before the huge tree underneath which sat the third elder, Survath, in a lotus position.
After they had greeted him, they were told to sit down on the ground, and the classes began.
Survath was a very straightforward person thus he only said what needed to be said without any extra words,
"Listen well, my students. Right now, you all are weak, very very weak, but I am not just talking about your physique I am also talking about your will and mind."
His words echoed throughout the place, but not a single child was dissatisfied, in fact they were listening to his words very seriously,
"What do I mean by that? It means you will become weak when faced with a strong enemy because your will is lacking, it means your ignorance and lack of knowledge will cause your demise before the fight has even begun."
As the words came out of his mouth, the children's eyes started to glow in admiration,
"But it is not a sin to be weak, for we are all born weak and ignorant; what is wrong is to remain weak."
"Etch these words into your heart, my children, A true warrior isn't only strong in physique but has the will to face deadly situations stronger than him and holds the knowledge to overcome the situations."
The children's eyes had by now started to emit light out of the admiration they felt for their teacher, even Sundrin felt nothing but pure respect for his master,
"From today onwards, I will not only teach you how to fight, I will also impart onto you the knowledge of the world, that is how the beasts you will be hunting behave, how to track them, the basics of medical treatment, how to survive in the forest and many more things"
Indeed, anybody can become a teacher by just spouting out the knowledge he or she knows, but only a guru can spark interest in his or her students about the subject and show them the importance of the knowledge.
All the students sat straight and listened even more attentively,
"Let's first start with how the beast's strength is measured."
"The basic measurement used to estimate a beast's strength is called a tiger. normal beasts that are the most common in the forest have the strength of 1 tiger."
"The measurement used to estimate the strength of stronger beasts is an elephant. 10 tigers are equal to 1 elephant, and the last measurement you need to know for now is called mammoth, just like before 10 elephants is equal to 1 mammoth."
After finishing, Survath waited for a few moments to let the information sink into the minds of the children, and when he saw that all of them had understood he continued,
"Now comes the ranks of the beasts. We know how to measure the strength of a beast but to make it simpler, we divide the beasts into ranks. These ranks are"
"Normal beasts who have the strength of 1 tiger, these are the most common type of beasts that you could find anywhere in the forest. They can't even put in rank 1 due to their harmlessness, so we call them rank 0."
"Next are the savage beasts who have the strength of 5 tigers. Although not as common as normal beasts they you can find them anywhere as long as you head out of the tribe's territory. These are classified as rank 1 beasts."
"Then there are fierce beasts with the strength of 1 elephant. Now, these are a bit dangerous and are deadly in nature due to having survived this long to evolve into their current state, These are rank 2 beasts."
"Finally, for now the last type of beasts you all need to know about are called alpha beasts. These are far more ferocious, and it takes a team of intermediate warriors or a strong advanced warrior to slay them. These are rank 3 beasts."
After finishing his speech on the beasts, the third elder looked across the faces of his students to see if they were paying attention,
"Do you all understand?"
The kids nodded with vigor upon being asked, and Survath continued,
"Now, just like the beasts, we also classify our strength into ranks so that we can decide a person's missions and what their social standing will be."
"The first rank like the beasts, is rank 0. This is the rank you all are at now, and the way we classify these is very simple: if you can hunt a rank 1 beast, you will be called a rank 1 warrior, also known as an initial warrior."
"Then, if you can hunt a rank 2 beast, you will be a rank 2 warrior or an intermediate warrior. Now let me tell you the first three ranks. There are more, but for now, this will suffice."
"The ranks are rank 0 or junior warrior, rank 1 or initial warrior, rank 2 or intermediate warrior, and rank 3 or advanced warrior."
After saying this, he paused yet again so that the kids could digest the information, It wouldn't do any good to bombard them with information and not give them the time to properly understand the concepts. After he was sure they had understood, he continued to the next topic,
"Now, let us come to the topic of how one can advance in their strength. There are many factors when considering a person's strength, but for us who practise the way of the sun, we cultivate the fire inside us."
"The concept itself is very simple actually, all you have to do is grow the size of the flame inside you and your strength will increase with it."
"But don't be fooled, although it sounds simple, it is far from it. There are many ways one can grow the flame but at one point, they will face a bottleneck, and this bottleneck will take some time to overcome."
"And there isn't only one bottleneck; the further you advance, the more powerful bottlenecks you will have to overcome."
"The first bottleneck that any warrior of the tribe has to face is one where they have to grow their inner flame to the size of a huge boulder. If you can do this, you can go toe to toe with a savage beast, meaning you are considered a junior warrior."
"The next step is to create four more huge boulder-sized flames, and the second bottleneck will come when you are finishing the last flame. Again, if you can do this, your power will soar, and you will qualify to fight a rank 2 fierce beast head-on."
"The last bottleneck you need to know is when you will try to fuse all the huge boulder-sized flames into one hill-sized flame. At this point, you can be considered an elite of the tribe and can fight an alpha beast, meaning you are now an advanced warrior."
After having said so much, the third elder finally stopped and breathed out a bit. He looked at his new students and saw that some of them wore a bit of a confused expression,
'It is only natural as this is their first time hearing about this, and they are also just kids.'
He thought to himself as he opened his mouth once again,
"Finally, I will tell you about Chakra, It is the pure force that exists in nature and is used by us to grow our inner flames. It is a very complex subject, so we will talk about it later during our upcoming lessons."
Finally finishing, he stood up on his feet. Seeing this, all the kids also got up,
"Now that I have told you the basics, we can focus on strengthening your physique."
The kids grew excited at his words, after all they were all just kids who admired strength,
"The best way to strengthen your physique is to train your body and push it beyond its limits, This will also help in growing your inner flame as a body that is fatigued will automatically absorb Chakra. So we will be having daily practices to strengthen you all."
"Furthermore, after you are done I will give you a breathing technique which you will practise after your daily training sessions. This breathing technique will allow the Chakra to circulate more freely and more swiftly in your body."
Finally, having finished his lecture for the day, the third elder Survath, looked sternly at them.
The kids' bodies grew tense as a bad feeling overcame them, and Survath finally opened his mouth,
"Now…. run with all your might, and you are not allowed to stop until I say so."