Three weeks had passed since Conan had been bought and taken to the slave farm. During that time, he had seen other slaves being bought and taken elsewhere, some against their will and others happy to leave the farm.
Conan was now in the library, surrounded by several books, but focusing only on the important or interesting parts of them. Among the books, Conan found one discussing the basic concepts of a warrior from the continent of Murim.
"Are there threads called meridians in our bodies... and spheres called dantians...? But I can't feel them..." Conan said thoughtfully, pinching and touching the locations of the meridians and three main dantians, finding nothing. "It says they must be awakened to access the inner strength, but how do I awaken them? And what is this inner strength?" To find out, he decided to keep reading, looking for more information.
In the three weeks since his arrival, Conan devoted himself to practicing so that he would not be defeated in physical training, as he already knew how difficult it was to go without food for days on end. But even with his efforts, he was a child and the youngest among the others, as most were three to four years older than him.
After winning for the first time, he had lost for three days in a row before winning again, following a pattern of losing for three or four days until winning again, which was not much, and the lack of food was evident, even causing fatigue and severe stomach pains; hence his desire to learn more, to become stronger, and thus not starve to death.
As Conan continued his research, he felt a hand on his shoulder. Looking back and seeing Anna, one of his many classmates in his room
"It's time to go back, leave that," said Anna, walking away and leaving the library with the others.
"I should ask Anna about the three dantians. She's older, she must know more, right?" Conan said to himself, putting down the book and running after Anna.
"Anna!" Conan called out, running after her.
"What's going on?" Anna asked, seeing Conan excitedly following her.
When he caught up with Anna, Conan convinced her to spar with him, taking advantage of the opportunity to ask her about the dantians.
"Anna, do you know anything about the dantians?" Conan asked, holding his sword and standing in front of Anna.
"Dantians...? Oh, did you read about that in a book at the library?" she asked, charging at Conan and swinging her sword toward his abdomen.
"Y-yes!" he barely managed to say, blocking Anna's attack with his own wooden sword and softening the blow, but not enough to avoid being knocked back.
"That's not something you can do. Concentrate on your training," she ordered the boy, giving him no chance to rest and attacking him repeatedly.
Conan could barely keep up with Anna. Anna's attacks were overwhelming him and pushing him further and further back.
"Dantians... they help you get stronger, right?" Conan asked, tired from fending off the girl's attacks. He decided to back away, walking backwards and out of Anna's range of attack.
"Yes, they do, but I doubt you can use them," she said, seeing the state of the child. She decided to press him further, in order to defeat him.Seeing his partner attacking him, Conan decided to attack her by surprise, moving forward and lunging at Anna's chest.
"Nice try, but you're too small to reach me." As she said this, Anna hit him on the head with her sword, causing Conan to lose his balance.Upon receiving the blow and losing his balance, Conan fell straight to the ground, leaving him unprotected against Anna, who instantly kicked him in the stomach, pushing him a few meters away.
Upon receiving the kick, Conan was unable to protect himself, causing him great pain and causing him to cough from losing oxygen. Seeing this, Anna decided to attack him, determined to end the duel.
"She's going to hit me again, I have to get up!" Conan thought, weakly getting up and preparing for Anna's attacks.
Anna went head-to-head with Conan. Knowing that she would not win in a duel of strength, she hit him with her sword with the intention of pushing him and kicking him again. When Conan blocked Anna's attack, he was pushed back by her force, and seeing Anna prepare to kick, he decided to jump backward, taking Anna with him.
"It was obvious you would do that," Anna said, bending her body and striking Conan's side with her sword.
Although he took the blow, Conan did not give up. He endured the pain and, desperately, swung his sword at Anna's head, striking her with enough force to knock her down and win the duel.
"I win," he said, quickly placing his sword on Anna's neck and marking the end of the training.
"Tcht..." Anna clicked her tongue before getting up and leaving, leaving Conan behind.
<<<>>>
At night, while most were asleep, Conan went to Anna's bed, sat down next to her, and woke her up.
"Anna, wake up and teach me about the dantians," he said, shaking her in an attempt to wake her up.
"Mmm... Stop bothering me," she said sleepily, pushing Conan away and knocking him off the bed.
"Come on, get up and teach me about the dantians once and for all," he said, holding his head due to the blow.
"Even if I teach you, you won't be able to feel it," she said, trying to convince the boy to give up and let her rest.
"Teach me anyway," Conan said, shaking her without giving her time to refuse.
With a sigh, Anna got up, determined to hit the boy so he would let her sleep, but just as she was about to punch him, another hand stopped her.
"Even if you hit him, he won't stop bothering you. Teach him already so he'll stop bothering you," said Ghislaine, another of those who slept in the room and lived with the other slaves.
"Ghislaine, don't get involved, go lick the boots of the caretakers," Anna said aggressively.
"Why don't you want to teach me? I'm sure I can do it!" Conan said, looking at Anna with a smile.
"It's because she hates you," Ghislaine said, looking at Conan, who had pure curiosity on his face.
"Why does she hate me? I didn't do anything," Conan asked, looking at Anna, who was trying not to look at the boy.
"It's because they take care of you," Ghislaine explained, looking at Anna, who was trying not to look them in the eye. "You see, because you're a child, everyone treats you with care, even if it doesn't seem like it." She looked at Conan, who still seemed curious about the reasons.
"Even though I'm a child, I've seen others being beaten..." Conan refuted, his spirits sinking as he remembered how other slaves two or three years older than him were beaten to a pulp.
"It's because we have no talent," said other voices from behind Conan, these being the other slaves in the room, some even with visible injuries such as cuts and bruises.
"Talent? But I'm not good at anything," said Conan, puzzled by the others' words.
"Yes, you are. You've won many times for a four-year-old who has never trained before," said Ghislaine, looking at Conan seriously.
"I've won a few times, the first time was even by luck," said Conan, trying to make the others see his point of view.
"Even if it was luck, you're good at fighting, which is why all you do is train and read. Anyone here would give anything to do just that," Ghislaine said, trying to convince him, describing his daily routine as a slave.
"I'm in charge of cleaning, cooking, and I've even faced monsters many times, and if I fail..." Without finishing his words, Ghislaine lifted his clothes, revealing bruises and whip marks.
Seeing the marks, Conan's skin bristled, feeling an invisible pain in the places where Ghislaine had the marks.
"Why don't you try to defend yourselves?" Conan asked, looking at the expressions of the others.
"We already tried, and it didn't end well..." said one of the teenagers, pointing to two empty beds in the room.
"Four died last time," Anna said, pain in her eyes.
"Then why don't we try to escape? There are more of us than there are guards, we can defeat them all together," he said, talking about something so obvious that he was surprised no one had thought of it.