Chapter 3: Golden Page and a Black Book
Damian and the other kids are now back in their rooms while the others are doing their training, but most of the kids are diligently meditating, they are fired up because before they were dismissed by Garu he mentioned the forbidden mountains, it turns out that they are currently in a low level forbidden territory.
Forbidden territories are places where various battle beasts reside they are called forbidden because normal people will have zero chances of survival and even beast masters often perish inside a forbidden territory because battle beasts are not the only things that pose a danger to people the environment itself is dangerous, some forbidden territories have extreme weathers, and some are filled with poisonous air. The forbidden territory where Damain and the others are is called the forbidden mountains, it does not have a specific name and it is a low-level forbidden territory despite the dangers as long as one is careful and strong enough they will survive.
Though Garu mentioned that they are in a forbidden territory the kids are not scared, instead, they are excited, because a forbidden territory is filled with battle beasts meaning as long as they become beast masters they can search for the young battle beast to bond with and become a real beast master, even Damian is excited the thought of having his own battle beast is making him excited.
But unlike the other kids, Damian is not in a rush to train or meditate because he and the other four kids that Garu chose to represent their Shadow Hall Branch is called to the second floor where Garu's room is.
...
Inside Garu's room.
Damian and the other four are standing in front of Garu who is busy writing something.
Garu put his own down and he fixed his sitting posture.
" I called you five here to give you something, " Garu said and he reached out under his table, he then placed five pieces of old-looking scrolls on the table along with five pouches. He gave Damian and the others a scroll and a pouch each.
" Open the scroll " Garu commanded.
Damian and the others opened the scroll and it revealed some kind of map, he wonders why would Garu give them a map, and then suddenly Garu spoke.
" That is the map of the forbidden mountain we are currently in " Garu's words shocked Damian and the others. Gary just smiled at their reaction.
" You already know that we are in forbidden mountains, despite this place being a forbidden territory it is just a low-level one, meaning the strongest battle beast here is just a tier 4 battle beast, and that the class of battle beasts here is lower " Garu explained.
" Are you giving us this map so we can avoid the tier 4 battle beast? " Kane asked.
" No, the reason I give you the map is for you to have a better chance of bonding with a better battle beast, the whole mountains are filled with low-class battle beasts and there is only a minuscule amount of middle-class battle beasts and a high-class battle beast extremely hard to find, the map is one of the privileges that is given to the chosen representative of our branch," Garu said. " Although some of you guys are slightly disappointing " he added. Garu is referring to Layla and Gerald, their progress in meditation pales in comparison to Kane and Damian even Dante. Kane and Damian's performance greatly shocked Garu and he immediately reported to his superiors and they were shocked as well, and now Miller City Shadow Hall is paying great attention to Kane and Damian.
" Now open the pouch " Garu instructed.
Damian and the others opened the pouch and they saw a few pills and some vials.
" Inside the pouch are different kinds of medicine, though they are low level they are quite expensive, use them wisely " Garu said.
" Thank you, sir! " The five kids thanked Garu.
" Make sure you guys bond with a strong and suitable battle beast, your first battle beast is important as it will help you lay your foundation as a beast master " "Now go, train and meditate don't let our superiors down " Garu said.
" Kane, Damian, Dante you three stay " Garu added.
Layla and Gerald left the room together and are now more eager to increase their level, seeing that the other three are getting more attention than them.
Now that there are only three kids inside Garu took out something from a cabinet behind him.
He placed three wooden boxes on the table.
" Open it, " Garu said.
Damian and the others opened the wooden box in front of them.
Inside Damian's box is a beautiful black colored dagger, in Kane's box is a black colored sword, and in Dante's is a black colored bamboo stick about 12 inches long and some black colored needles.
" These are the weapons given to you three by our branch leader, he hopes that you will perform great in the future and bring glory to our branch " Garu explained.
Damian looked at Dante's weapon because during the death match, he used a sword but he was given a blow dart.
" You must be wondering why Dante is given a blow dart, that is because he is most adept at using it though we don't provide training in blow darts he is already great at using it before he comes here " Garu said.
" The weapons given to you three are standard weapons only given to level 3 members of the hall, so you three are extremely lucky getting one despite being new members " Garu added, he then dismissed the three, and they left carrying wooden. Boxes with them.
...
Inside Damian's room, there is no one inside.
" It seems like the others are busy training," Damian said. He then went to his wooden chest and placed his new dagger inside along with the pouch of different Medicines. Every kid is given their own wooden chest to keep their personal belongings.
Damian then went to his corner of the room with the map in his hand.
" Let's see what this map contains " Damian took out the map given to him by Garu.
Damian opened up his map and saw the whole area covered by mountains, there are blue colored spots on the map indicating that it is a body of water, and there are symbols depicting different kinds of landmarks and landscapes, but what got his attention are the cross marks across the map, there are a total of seven cross marks and the cross marks represent the area where the middle class to high-class battle beasts can be possibly found.
Looking at the cross marks Damian revealed a smile, he already decided where to go. After a few more minutes of studying the map, he rolled it and put it inside the chest, he then took out the book of battle beasts and started to study the different battle beasts.
" If I want to increase my chances of bonding with a great battle beast I should learn more about them " Damian started to study.
Damian trained with his dagger every morning, in the afternoon he studied using the big book of battle beasts and in the evening he meditates although his level will not increase anymore from meditating since he has reached the high level already and the book given to them about meditation only gives an instruction up to the high-level novice rank, if he wants to reach the intermediate beast master he must acquire the continuation of the book.
Damian continued his training routine for the coming month. But this time it is not just the same as before because he added a new training to his routine since he cannot progress anymore in his beast master level he decided to learn two new skills, in his left hand is a Golden colored page and on his right hand is a book with a black cover, these two things are the only thing left to him by his parents, his father was killed and his mother was taken by a red-haired man. That is how he became an orphan. When he became a novice beast master he finally understood the importance of the golden page and black book left by his parents, they are both spirit techniques he read the page and the book before and he learned that the technique on the Golden page is called Spirit Inspection Technique, it is a technique used to learn a battle beasts strength and potential while the black book contains a spirit skill called Soul Chains it uses spirit energy and forming them into the shape of a chain to bind battle beasts and enemies. Both skills will be useful for Damian not just now but even in the future.
Inside the room, after training his dagger skills and eating his lunch Damian went straight to learn the Spirit inspection technique.
" Focus the spiritual energy in the eyes " Damian mumbled as he do what the golden page instructed. After a few minutes, grey-coloured spirit energy started to gather in his eyes but it faxed.
" I still lack control over my spiritual energy " Damian said, once a person becomes a beast master they started to gather spirit energy and this unique energy can be used to strengthen their body that is why beast masters are stronger than average human physically and it can also help increase their lifespan, and this energy is also used when summoning their battle beasts to fight and also to use spirit techniques and skills that is why having good control over ones spirit energy is important.
Damian continued his training until it is time to sleep.