"Move along!"

"Time waits for no one brats!"

"You there, stop talking and start moving! Even a cow moves better than you lot!"

"Argh!"

With a groan, Taku woke up from his sleep, the loud shouts outside making his ears feel like they were being bombarded by supersonic sound-waves.

When he came to, Taku realized that he was in a small hut with a bed made out of straw on the floor and a table with a pot.

Where the heck am I? What time is it?

Taku had completely lost his bearings and couldn't even remember the last thing he did. Whenever he tried all he got were flashes of the bloody nightmare he just had. Just thinking about it gave him shivers.

I've never had a dream like that before, it felt so real.

Taku shook his head and slapped his cheeks to focus. He quickly got up from the haystack and left the hut. Outside was quite the sight. Many huts were placed adjacent to his, forming a neat line of huts. Taku looked back and saw that multiple rows of huts were behind him.

Ahead of his hut was a booth, and multiple children were being herded to it like cattle, by brawny men barking orders to and fro. One of them looked toward Taku and pointed.

"You! What the heck are you-"

When the man noticed who Taku was, he swallowed his words and took a step back, almost tripping in the process. The unfinished sentence made others follow his line of sight. Once the children and the men saw Taku, gasps and screams started spreading among the crowd like wildfire.

Taku noticed that most of the eyes looking at him were showing signs of fear, some showed awe and some had mixed emotions. Whispers quickly followed the screams, and many pointed at Taku the same way one would point to a dangerous beast…with caution.

"Silence! We are not a bunch of women who gossip."

The cool and calm voice belonged to an old man wearing robes. No one could tell where he came from, as if he had come from nowhere, but there was a boundless pressure emanating from him that made everyone quiet. It was so quiet one could even hear the sound of a pin drop.

Taku was even more flabbergasted because he knew who this old man was. It was the Envoy who came to his village!

"Honourable Envoy!"

Taku immediately went on one knee and started clapping his hands, each hand forming a concave shape resulting in a muffled clap like sound. This was the ultimate form of respect one could show to a human in the Gutu Empire except kneeling and pressing your head on the ground. It was only used on Elders or those far higher than you in status.

The moment Taku saluted the Envoy the crowd mimicked him. "Honourable Envoy!" They also saluted him the same way Taku did. What was an Envoy? A highly respected being with the permission to roam wherever he wanted whenever he wanted! It was one of the most respected positions in society. Even District Chiefs, beings who were in charge of hundreds of cities, towns and villages had to show a certain amount of respect to an Envoy, let alone mere children.

No one doubted that Taku was telling the truth about the Envoy's identity. Doing so surrounded by members of the Elephant Foot Guard was foolhardy. It would lead to serious punishments, with death being a possibility.

"Come to the booth and register, be quick about it!"

The Envoy's body exuded an aura that left no room for negotiation. Thus even though Taku was still confused, he ran as fast as he could to the booth. Even though there was a queue in front of him, no one dared stand in his way in fear of angering the Envoy, and Taku did not refuse their gesture of kindness.

When Taku arrived at the booth he did not see what he was somewhat expecting. After hearing the word 'register', Taku was shocked. As far as he knew there was no alphabet or method of writing. Back in his village, everything was communicated via word of mouth. Thus before he arrived at Madhara Taku had no idea that scrolls were used. When he saw General Shaya, the wind manipulator who transported him and the other children to the savage battlefield, use a scroll, he was somewhat shocked, but too much was happening at that time for him to dwell on such a matter. Nevertheless, Taku was no different from a frog in a well, looking up and thinking it can see the entire sky, when really it only saw a small portion. He underestimated the Gutu Empire, both in terms of strength and social development. Thus he was expecting to see some more scrolls, yet he met something else entirely.

A rectangular stone tablet with markings on it was all that was in the man's hand at the booth. The man himself was dressed in casual robes that seemed to be made from linen and had a scholarly feel to him. Even though an Envoy had arrived, the scholarly man behind the booth was far from being flustered.

"What's your first name, house name, age, place of origin, totem, ability grade and ability?"

Taku was somewhat annoyed, because he still had no idea what ability he had, not to mention he had no idea what his grade was let alone what a grade is.

"His grade is red, his ability is a unique body transformation." The Envoy had soundlessly arrived next to Taku and answered for him. Taku's eyes went round from surprise because he never suspected he would have the ability to transform his body into something. At this moment he remembered something odd. In his dream he saw a child turn into a stone giant and squash others with a single fist.

Wait that wasn't a dream? Then that means I…