Wushan Town was an ordinary town in the Fenlai Kingdom, west of the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts, the greatest mountain range on the Yulan Continent.
The morning sun had just risen, and a trace of the early chill still lingered in Wushan Town. Even so, almost all the townspeople had already come out to begin work. Even children of six or seven had left home for their customary morning exercises.
"Father, Mother, I'm going to the clearing to train with Mr. Hillman." A child's voice rang out beside the dining table. Hathaway was about to say something, but the boy, about seven years old, had already dashed outside.
"Honestly, that child. He should eat a little more before going off to train," Hathaway complained to Rhodes, who was eating breakfast.
"Haha, don't worry about him. Let him go!" Rhodes said with a slight smile.
In the clearing east of Wushan Town, the warm morning sunlight filtered through the large trees along its edge, leaving dappled patches of light on the ground.
A large crowd of children was already waiting in the clearing. At a glance, there seemed to be roughly one or two hundred of them.
The children were divided into three groups, each arranged in several rows. They all stood quietly in the clearing, their expressions solemn. The children in the northernmost group were around six to eight years old, and the little boy who had just run from Rhodes's dining table now stood among them.
The children in the middle group were around nine to twelve, while the southernmost group consisted of youths aged thirteen to sixteen.
Before this large crowd of children stood three brawny, middle-aged men, all wearing short vests and coarse cloth trousers.
"If you want to become a great warrior, you must train