One-Eyed Monster

The six professions of the Kayne Empire are the fearless Fighters, elusive Hunters, Wizards, masters of nature, incomprehensibly profound Scholars, visionary Politicians, and transformative Alchemists.

These six professions act as supporting pillars of the Kayne Realm. They also form a significant part of the elite forces of the Guardian Army of the Kayne Empire.

Because of these six professions, the Kayne People are naturally divided into two major categories: Adventurers with Class and Non-Adventurers.

In the Kayne Empire, Adventurers with Class hold a special status and are regarded with respect by most people. They are exempt from farming and industrial jobs and can freely access all markets. Non-Adventurers, on the other hand, can only engage in the empire’s most fundamental work—mining, cultivation, and planting—and are forbidden to enter the Dusk Market and the Night Market.

Adventurers with Class are exempt from imperial tax burdens, while Non-Adventurers must pay annual taxes to the empire. However, Non-Adventurers do not have to serve in the Guardian Army, whereas Adventurers with Class must answer the empire’s call at any time.

The empire’s treasury is filled by Non-Adventurers, which in turn sustains Adventurers with Class, who then protect the entire empire.

This division of labor has allowed the Kayne Empire to gallop rapidly across the Yowein Continent like a swift horse, leaving Wensi and Mantai behind. Consequently, the Kayne Empire quickly shed its previous identity as the weak.

However, the process of creating these six professions was quite arduous.

For years, the Kayne People hid behind the perilous natural barriers of the Bess Mountains and the Star River, facing constant humiliation. The Mantai People referred to them as talking lambs, and the Vero People dismissed them as insignificant fish that only knew how to flee. The Kayne were considered the recognized weaklings of the Yowein Continent, looked down upon by both the Vero and Mantai.

Even now, with the Three Great Empires standing in a tripartite balance on the Yowein Continent, the Kayne People are still seen as the weaklings.

Legend has it that the Kayne People were the outcasts of the Mantai and Vero. They supposedly originated from the dregs of various tribes, driven from their communities during an era where survival of the fittest ruled. Forced to fend for themselves in unfamiliar territories, they became outcasts.

However, these rejects possessed a stronger will to survive than those deemed excellent and strong. They discovered basins, reclaimed wastelands, and established more bases for survival. Yet, due to their weakness, they were unable to protect the homes they had created. These newly established homes were soon occupied by members of their original tribes, forcing them to search for new ones yet again.

It could be said that the Yowein Continent’s territory was mapped out step by step through the ceaseless flight of these weak tribal rejects. Without them, the Kayne Plains would not exist today. Furthermore, without them, the Mantai People would never have known of the stubborn Vero madmen in the distant south, nor would the Vero People have learned of the savage Mantai fanatics living where the sun sets.

However, the Kayne Empire was not built in a day. Simply having these vulnerable people constantly reclaiming land was far from enough. After reclamation came slaughter by their original tribes, which not only deprived them of the fruits of their labor but also took their lives.

The vulnerable lost everything, but there was one thing that their original tribes could not take away: hope.

Hope could not provide them with much food, nor could it grant them great power. Hope only gave them the will to continue surviving. It showed them that even if driven from their homelands by the ”superior,” even if stripped of everything, they could still endure, albeit in a manner that was helpless and filled with suppressed frustration.

This humble state of life gradually shaped their character of forbearance and resilience. At the same time, years of oppression and exile planted a seed of hatred in their hearts, a seed that sprouted and grew within them until it became a towering tree.

The first to climb this tree and harvest its fruit was a king of the Kayne Empire. He led these downtrodden people in their first act of resistance. Despite being crushed by Mantai cavalry, they successfully repelled the plunder of their original tribes, protecting their homeland and the wasteland they had reclaimed.

In honor of the first king, these people decided to name this originally desolate land after his surname; this land later became known as the Kayne Realm.

And the homeland they established was called Kayne Country.

The transformation of Kayne Country into the Kayne Empire marked the emergence of the six professions.

The first resistance surprised the original tribes. But neither the Mantai nor the Vero took this resistance seriously, for they had warriors in abundance. This failure, they thought, would only lead to a new round of slaughter.

The strong knew that the resistance could not be allowed any respite. So, on the third day after the rebellion, the Mantai cavalry came again, this time even more ferocious, more brutal.

However, to the astonishment of the original tribes, these vulnerable people did not resist. Instead, they handed over the land.

These downtrodden people bound themselves and impaled the heads of the former Resistors on sharpened spears, displaying them high. They knelt upon the earth, begging forgiveness from the strong.

The strongmen of their original tribes mockingly accepted this ”grand gesture,” then cut off the leader’s hands as a warning to others.

The pride of the strong blinded their once clear vision; they should have killed the leader who offered the tribute, for he too was a Kayne.

This was the second ruler of Kayne Country, the brother of the Kayne crushed by Mantai Mounts.

He used his intellect to guide these vulnerable people away from the brink of extermination, also winning them a chance to breathe.

Some say this Kayne ruler was the first Adventurer with Class on the entire Yowein Continent.

And his profession was Scholar.

He discovered hidden patterns, stripping the once high and mighty strongmen of their mystique.

Although he lost his hands, he possessed a brilliant mind. He used his wisdom to compose a magnificent symphony for future generations.

This grand symphony was the rise of the six major professions.

The discovery of these patterns gave the weak a way to change their fate. Through these patterns, the weak could gradually imitate the strong. Although initially unable to fully contend with them, they managed to withstand the strong’s assaults.

Soon, these principles were continually refined. Under the efforts of the third-generation Kayne king, the nephew of the second king, the vulnerable tribe finally began to show some improvement.

The Vero tribes were surprised to find they could no longer easily seize food from that group of vulnerable people. If they wanted it, they would have to pay a great price.

The mounted warriors of the Mantai tribe could no longer run rampant as before; those vulnerable people now actually possessed their own mounts.

The moment the Mantai and Vero lost their innate advantages was the moment Kayne Country transformed into the Kayne Empire.

Although hundreds of years have passed, these accounts from a bygone era still make every Kayne person’s blood boil.

The seed of rebellion sown by the first generation; the aggrieved forbearance of the second; the solid defenses of the third; the tenacious strengthening of the fourth; the high-profile legacy of the fifth; and the resolute expansion of the sixth and seventh generations...

This is not only the history of the development of the six major professions but also the history of the development of the Kayne Empire.

Later generations all agreed that without these six major professions, there would be no Kayne Country. Conversely, without Kayne Country, the six major professions would never have emerged.

They complement each other.