"Three weeks, Stix! Three whole weeks and we're still in this fucking forest!"

A bedraggled young boy walked through a forest seemingly talking to a stick in his hand; he was eclipsed by the huge pack he wore, a sturdy leather backpack with various sacks adorning it topped off with rolled up hides, dirt stained rags adorned his body and a nest of tangled hair sat on his head. His bare feet slapped the ground as he trudged along.

Torrin was in bad shape from traversing the forest over the last three weeks.

"I don't understand how a forest can be so big. Are we even in the Beast Lands?! I swear if that old crone left us somewhere completely uninhabited by humans, I'm gonna be fucking pissed, man... I know, Stix! It's bullshit..." Torrin's tone was exasperated, he'd been talking with Stix about Grams for the last two weeks straight.

"Where even is she?! Why did she leave us out here for this long? And what the hell is wrong with her sixth rune? I can't comprehend it no matter how long I stare at it!"

The progress on understanding the sixth rune was not going well for him, studying it would eventually put him into a trance-like state. He'd get glimpses of the moon going across the sky, entire forests being burned to ash and regrowing, but he couldn't completely understand what else the rune was trying to convey.

'Life? Rebirth? Time passing? Change? What else could it possibly contain? This shit is endless!'

At this point he thought it had to be something to do with mana or magic, something he'd only be able to understand after forming his core or learning a proper spell. Hell, even seeing some magic might help him out.

"And why'd she not give me more information? Or at least more books or something? It has to have been at least two months since she dropped me in this hell hole! I was done with the herbology book after the first few weeks!" His shrill voice continued to raise higher and higher as he got more worked up.

*CHOMP*

Torrin looked down to his leg and saw a wolf Mana Beast latched onto his leg. The expression on Torrin's face was one of annoyance rather than pain. If one looked at Torrin's body with mana sight, they'd be able to see a thin but dense barrier of mana surrounding his entire body.

"Get him, Stix!" Torrin shouted with a manic grin, swinging his companion down viciously, mana coursing through his entire body, almost instantaneously, from his ring.

*SPLAT*

The red-core wolf was smashed into pulp with just one whack from his stick.

Torrin had not only come up with a mana shield, using his Flow intent to mold a mana barrier around his skin using a dense cloud of mana that he Condensed and Hardened into a second skin for himself that couldn't be damaged by less than a yellow-core Mana Beast. He also inscribed the stick Grams had given him, now named Stix, with the Harden rune as well, making it as strong as steel.

He also realized he could use his barrier offensively by giving Stix a mana shield! Just thinking about it had made Torrin almost cry in joy at his genius idea.

Torrin was mentally 17, and through carving his mana pathways he'd greatly strengthened his soul and will by dealing with intense trauma and surviving it. A person's will was one of the most important things when it came to using mana, it could help provide an unparalleled control of the energy. The other side of the coin was his actual mental state was very poor at this point from the same thing that made his will so strong.

Followed by two months of isolation in a dangerous area at that young of an age... Some might think he would need therapy to recover.

But none of this mattered to Torrin at this time, he was refocused on making his way through the forest, always going north. His thought was that if he was in the Beast Lands, he should head north, because Velin was one of the border villages just north of the Beast Lands.

The further he traveled the less he believed he had been brought to the Beast Lands by that sneaky, stinky old Grams. He'd stopped caring recently about getting attacked with his new shield, though, so the trip was much more bearable. He knew he had to be getting close to the border because the farther north he walked, the weaker the beasts got.

Torrin was not careless, however. He had still been training his area scan ability, he could now keep it up in a range of fifty feet at all times as long as he kept a small part of his mind on that task.

He could also now tell how strong something was with almost perfect accuracy with just his scan ability as well. The mana fluctuations at first weren't distinctive to his senses, but now he could tell what rank a Mana Beast was just by its mana fluctuations-- the ambient mana everything leaked.

This was much more convenient than having to sense an animal then go scan it with his physical eyes with mana sight to tell. In the dense forest it was hard to see through the trees and foliage, so his will was very helpful here.

"What's that, Stix? Ah, yeah, sorry buddy, let me wipe that blood off ya, haha, my bad!" Torrin excused with a sheepish smile as he wiped his stick on his own bloody, shoddy rags he called clothes. He didn't even notice his own stench anymore.

Torrin stopped. "Shhh, Stix, I think I hear some people!" he whisper-shouted to his companion, crouching in a thick bush.

Faint shouts and screams could be heard. Torrin crept along carefully, Stix was helping him clear a path. They'd learned to keep his sword aura active for over six hours at a time, now. And summoning the aura was instantaneous, they were planning to try sending out a full blast of sword light soon.

"Who you think it is, Stix? Bandits? Eh? I do hear the weapon clanging now, you're right. Yeah, could be bandits attacking people." He agreed.

*BOOM*

An explosion sounded and Torrin sent out a pulse of his will for 300 feet, and found a group of both people and Mana Beasts.

His body burst with energy, mana coursing down his pathways like a flood, he speed forward, eventually bursting from the woods into a small plain with a few hills and trees scattered about.

He saw people from his peripheral vision, but he got distracted by the sight of the sun, slowing his perception with a wide grin flowing onto his face in slow motion.

'Finally! No fucking canopy of trees in my way! I can see the sun! I'm free!!!' Torrin shouted in his mind, not caring about the battle going on just 50 feet away from him. He'd felt so free at the start of these last two months, thinking he'd finally get some fighting experience to get used to this body.

The reality soon set in however, having to completely scavenge all of his meals? Fending off countless Mana Beasts? Having no one to talk to except Stix? Torrin felt his friend was a great listener, but pretty bad at keeping up conversations. He could admit everyone had their strengths and weaknesses.

"What the fuck? Is that a kid or a goblin?!" Someone shouted nearby.

"What?" A tall woman with auburn hair asked as she fended off a bandit's blade with her own.

The fighters were making space from each other, not sure if the others were joking or had some malicious plan, they cautiously looked around slightly, trying to keep everyone in their sight.

"Focus! Get this thing off of me!" A man in full armor said as he battered away a wolf.

"Who brought a fuckin' kid out here?" One of the gruff looking bandits shouted as he dodged a shield bash and spotted the kid running out of the woods.

"Can you guys shut the fuck up? I'm trying to enjoy the sunshine!" A high pitched voice shouted back at the confused combatants.

Torrin finally glanced over at what was happening and his eyes widened as they glowed.

'These people are weak as shit. No one above Red-Core? They don't even use any technique, and that guy in armor is literally letting a wolf bite the back of his armored neck. Thing looks like a cape hanging there!'

"What are you guys doing?" Torrin asked, face crumpled with confusion, as the tall woman killed the bandit she was fighting.

"Kid get out of here! These guys are bandits! What are you doing out here? No, nevermind, get out of here! Hurry!" The armored man shouted to Torrin as he was bent doubled shaking his back like a dog drying off, trying to dislodge the wolf.

'Aw, thanks, I don't know what I'd do if those there bandits attacked poor old--ahem--young me.' Torrin praised in his mind sarcastically.

Torrin was thoroughly confused why he'd run from these idiots, but after a few moments he realized he was a six year old kid running around alone in the wilderness. He looked down at himself to try remembering his appearance and was appalled at the rags on his body.

"Stix! What happened to my clothes, man?" Torrin glared at his stick. He was pissed off that his friend hadn't even told him he looked so terrible. "I even gave you a shield, Stix. Gave you a rune to make sure you would never get hurt. And this is how you repay my kindness?"

He fell to his knees in despair. It was the straw that broke the camel's back. His glorious freedom was being trounced upon by his crappy appearance, a terrible friend, and these idiots playing around with sharp weapons and Mana Beasts.

Looking back up he saw that the armored man was down now. A bandit had beaten the wolf from the guy's back with a huge hammer covered in flames, causing the armored man to lose his balance and fall on all fours.

Since the guy had tried to be nice to him he pointed at the hammer-wielding-bandit and gathered mana from his ring. Pushing his will as hard as he could, he applied Gather, and Flow to a ball like usual but removed Gather when it became the size of an adult's head and applied Harden to the spinning mana orb.

The solidified, spinning orb of various mana types then Condensed, causing the hardened orb to become as small as a marble.

While he was making the orb, he simultaneously flowed mana from the ring down his arm and cycled it furiously through a circular pathway, adding an insane momentum to the mana before shooting it out to the waiting mana orb, shooting the upgraded mana bomb straight at the back of the bandit's head.

The armored man spun from his knees to a crouching position facing the bandit, bringing his shield up for protection as the hammer fell from the sky. He heard a sound like that of a watermelon being smashed by a sledge hammer as brains, blood, and bones assaulted his shield and face and the hammer caused him to fall to his knees.

"What the fuck?!" The armored man shouted, spitting out the gore, throwing off his helmet and retching, his stomach contents flying everywhere.

"That was a good shot, eh, Stix? Haha!" Torrin shouted in glee, jumping up and down, waving the stick.

The armored man was on his knees, staring at Torrin in horror.

Torrin scanned the field with time slow. He saw four bandits fighting a woman and man who were standing back to back. The two were surrounded and they they were slowly harried down by attacks from the four.

He didn't want to waste anymore mana so he went ahead and dashed towards the back of the closest bandit, clearing twenty feet almost instantly.

A clean slice with Stix and the bandit's sword arm was falling, two steps forward, one to the left, easily removing the lower half of the second bandit's right leg.

One step forward, charging more Sword Energy around Stix as it whistled through the air, slinging sword light flying at the third bandit, bisecting him diagonally through the chest, and the woman finishing off the forth bandit.

*Thump*

The first bandit's arm and sword hit the ground.

"Whew! Nice job, Stix!" Torrin held Stix up into the air, imagining Stix smiling right back at him.

The screams and pleas of the bandits cut off suddenly with a gurgle, but Torrin wasn't phased in the least by the choices of the people he'd helped save. If the bandits had attacked them with the intent to kill, then they should be prepared to die, don't whine about it when you lose.

Torrin quickly turned his grin to the three he'd helped, they'd grouped together.

"Hey! Where's the nearest town? Or city! Even a village?" Torrin asked with what he thought was a very friendly tone, waving at them.

The three stared at him with wide eyes, fear clearly written on their features. The unnatural green of the woman's face stood out starkly with her auburn hair and freckles, almost matching her eyes. She looked like she was going to throw up.

"Uh? Hello?!" Torrin started to approach, waving Stix at them as if to get their attention.

Hurried steps could be heard as the three backpedaled quickly, the armored guy tripped over the wolf's dead body and was crab walking backwards on the ground, unable to catch his footing to get back up. The woman was shaking her head rapidly and her green face had turned more of a deathly pale color now.

The third member was a skinny man with a thin sword, long curling hair and a shaggy beard with a ruddy complexion. He looked like he had just lived two months in the woods in Torrin's opinion, analyzing his shaggy appearance.

"Guys stop! What kind of weird shit are you guys doing right now?" Torrin was reaching out with his free hand as if trying to grab onto them. He could have easily caught up to them but he was starting to be concerned for what their issue was.

"A-a-are you a ghost?" The woman asked with a shaky voice, eyes scanning side to side as if to make sure there weren't more of him.

"A ghost?" Torrin stopped walking towards them and stood still with his hand of his chin, brows furrowed. His mind started thinking intensively about the question.

'Huh... What if I am a ghost? How would I know?' His mind was trying to rationalize the question.

"Uhh... Lady. Excuse me," He said approaching the group once more and the backpedaling continued, "Wait, please. How would I know if I was a ghost?!" He paused, "Hey, Stix, am I a ghost?" He asked the stick under his breath, only looking at his friend out of the corner of his eye.

The trio's fear rose to new heights seeing the terrifying, murderous boy covered in bloody rags speaking to a stick as if it were alive.

"We're fucked..." The shaggy headed person said.

"Dead..." The armored man agreed in a solemn voice.

"Please don't hurt us!" The auburn haired lady squealed.

"What the fuck are you guys going on about? I just need to get to a city! I've been in that hell hole of a forest for two months!" Torrin was losing his patience and a light pressure was settling over the group, causing their breathing to become just a tad bit ragged.

"O-kay! P-lease st-op hurting us!" The woman hissed through clenched teeth.

"My bad, my bad! Please just point me in the direction of civilization." He apologized, pleading for their help.

The trio blew out a breath of relief when he released the pressure.

"We are from a city in the plains, it's called Bojien City." The lady seemed to have calmed down now, only small tears streamed down her face as she shook, but she no longer sounded scared, just resigned.

"Are you okay?" Torrin asked worriedly, 'What the hell is their problem? I literally just saved them time, if not their lives, by helping them with their bandit issue.'

"Y-yes, I just have a few cuts, I'm okay. Please let us go..." She stumbled on her words, trying to keep up a normal front for some reason.

Torrin analyzed each of them with his mana sight, seeing a few wounds here and there. He slid out a plethora of mana tendrils infused with restoration from his ring and washed them over the trio, healing their scrapes and bruises.

"See? Me. Help. You. Tell. Where. Village." Torrin spoke slowly.

The trio looked at each other with confused expressions, not sure why the ghost was helping them.

"Eh?!" The woman fell to her knees, bowing up and down furiously, "Thank you, Mr Ghost! You are benevolent and kind, please allow us to return to our families now, please kind Mr Ghost!"

'What?!'

"I'm not a damn ghost! I'm just a little kid lost in the woods! Be nice people and direct me to safety! Fuck! What is going on here?!"

Torrin was losing it, he couldn't understand why these people wouldn't just help him out.

The bearded man seemed to have returned to his senses first. He scratched the side of his face with one hand and he pointed out into the plain with the other, saying, "'Bout two days that way..." With a neutral tone. no emotions exposed at all.

"Thank you!" Torrin exclaimed, wanting to give the man a hug.

"Yeuh"

Torrin wasted no time speeding off across the plain. Only two more days and he'd finally be able to take a proper bath and eat real food again, he thought as he gnawed on a leathery piece of wolf meat.

As Torrin disappeared behind a hill, the trio sat in silence, bowed to the ground and thanking every god in existence for their life.