Chapter 20 Sameer

A boy who is around fourteen years old was loitering around the forest. He walked with cautious steps watching everything around him with keen eyes. In his hands, he was holding a bow with arrows on his back. He was putting on boots that run up to his shin, a blue jeans and a brown t-shirt. Black hair, brown eyes and a pale skin. He was on his toes ready to take action. Although he is not awakened, his battle prowess has been natured to the maximum of his present capabilities. Although being fourteen years and not having awoken has its negatives, it depends on how the family takes it. Sameer is just an ordinary boy from an ordinary family. He and his parents live in a small cottage in the village. Although it's a village, it has groups of people who are powerful to shake the government. Rospos village, that's where he lives with his parents with him being the only child. Being a village, the authority is in the hands of a chief who was appointed by the main authority. After a chief is appointed, he is in charge of everything including collection and submission of taxes. All the main authority cares about is the taxes they earn. No security, no hygiene, no health facilities, nothing. Lack of security leads to the village being a target of several bandit groups that look for easy money. When you corner a cat with no way out, it would fight for its life. Thus the village began the training of the village guards. The guards are paid from the tax collected from the villagers. That's to imply that, if the original tax was about fifteen percent of their total earnings, then the villagers would pay twenty percent. The extra five percent being for those working for the village's safety. Apart from guards, there are hunters. This group of people are in charge of hunting in the nearby forests and bringing back meat to the community to ensure that the diet is balanced. The hunters have their own leader just like the guards, who are also referred to as village warriors. For one to be a hunter, he or she must be registered first before he or she starts venturing into the forest. Finally, there is a group in charge of the village hygiene. This group mainly consists of women and the elderly. Young men are also allowed to join but they would be the laughing stock in the village. Lazy bones, that's how they would be referred to as. This group endures that the village is clean. No dumpings everywhere, the animal pens are clean, the village square is spotless and many more in regards to cleanliness. Sameer's father is a village warrior. He began working as a warrior before he even married. Paxton Siguen. The husband to Marry Siguen and a father to Sameer Siguen. That makes up a whole family that's filled with love and good relationship among them. Marry works in the hygiene department while Sameer began his hunter training at the age of twelve. And and he's about to turn fifteen and complete his training. And now, his final course of training is to hunt an initial stage rank 1 martial monster. Sameer has specialized in long range weapons. Although he is a long ranger, that doesn't mean that he's not good in close combat. Every male in the village has an abled body since birth and thus Sameer's robust body. The village has several awakened people who are specially trained by the chief who is a rank 7 mage. The number of awakened ones are minimal though as the resources of making those who have awakened to grow to a good level is minimal. This leads to people having low power and when bandits attack, they spare no one that has awakened. This ends up cutting of the lineage of awakened ones leaving the majority of the population to be those that have not awakened. Kacha! Sameer had a sound of a dry twig breaking. Being on a training course, he is supposed to hunt solo then he would join a squad where he would train teamwork. He immediately turned to his left and saw that a panther was stealthy walking towards him. It indeed had a good plan but that plan was ruined by the twig causing Sameer to notice it. Seeing that it had been noticed, it immediately dashed towards Sameer who had already drawn his arrow. Sameer who has been training since the age of twelve had fast reaction speed and thus he released the arrow from his bow before rolling to the side. Puchi! Roar! The arrow directly pierced the Panthers front limb making it roar in pain. Its attack was brought to halt by the sharp pain coming from its limb. After landing where Sameer was previously standing, it looked at where he had already gotten to his feet with burning anger. It again charged at him ignoring the pain it was feeling. Seeing the Panther running towards him, Sameer smiled as he put his bow on his back and took out a dagger. The dagger was having a thin blade and was about fifteen centimeters in length. He then took a fighting stance. When the Panther arrived in front of him, it jumped with its unharmed paw ready to strike. In return, Sameer got to his knees and let his upper body bend backwards. He then used the dagger in his hand to stab the panther on its lower jaw. The dagger swiftly penetrated the Panther upto the mouth. The Panther gained momentum from the stab and it flew to the side of Sameer's body. Thud! It fell heavily on the ground with blood coming out of the wound in pulses. Still, the panther persisted and tried getting back on its feet. Sameer didn't want to waste time and quickly rushed towards the monster before it got to its feet and stabbed it with an arrow he took from the quiver from his back. Since the dagger remained where he had stabbed previously, he used the arrow as a weapon and stabbed the eye of the panther directly to its brain killing it instantly. "Time to see if how I have performed," Sameer said in a low breath as he retrieved his dagger.and the two arrows he had used in the fight. "A genius indeed. Such battle prowess and wits is worth of being a hunter," shouted a middle aged man as he came out of his hiding place where he was watching the fight. He was the vice captain of the hunters department Shamsed. "A true linage of the Siguen. This boy needs nurturing. Just that he has failed to awaken till now. Otherwise, he would have been the best there was in the history of the village," said a man who was following the vice captain. "True genius," added another one. The group of six had been here to witness as Sameer finished his final course in his training. They were the ones that were going to rate Sameer's performance. "Vice Captain, what is my score on the final course," asked Sameer politely as he approached them. "You have done well. Good reaction speed, accuracy is good with the bow, good strategy too. One thing that you've been down now is perception. Had that panther not stepped on the twig, you wouldn't have noticed it until it pounced on you. A good hunter needs sharp senses. And so for that error, you gain a score of 93%." Shamsed said to Sameer finalizing on the course. "Arrgh, I think I need to train even more. I really wanted a score of a hundred but I am seven points out," Sameer said in a dejected manner. "Hey, cheer up. You know I only got 73% which is considered good and even the vice captain had a 80% score so stop mulling there," said one of the men that had come with Shamsed. They then left the forest and went back to the village. When people heard about Sameer's performance, they started preparing a party. A new member has finally joined the hunters. This implies that food supply would increases by a certain margin. "Well done son. I am proud of you," said marry as she took Sameer into her embrace. "Congratulations son. I am proud to be your father. As a reward for the good performance of your training course today, I'll give you our family's heirloom," said Paxton as he handed Sameer a small box. Sameer took the box and thanked his father then rushed into his room. He indeed wanted to see what it was as he always saw the box but he had never seen what it contained. After settling on his bed, he opened the box and found what was inside it. The box had three layers. The first layer had a dagger that his father was using during his youth. The second layer had a skill book named light arrow and a space ring. The final layer had a dagger that was in a golden scabbard with blue stripes. It also had a golden handle with silver stripes. Then, there was another skill book. Sameer took the book with a brown cover and read the title loud," System Awakening..."