Rydel’s attributes had been rapidly progressing in the two last years of constant practice. By Earth’s standard, he was a superhuman. To give an example, strength was one of his lowest attributes and he still could lift a ton like it was nothing. His strength made his muscles grow and his endurance toned them down, making him denser. That made him weigh about 100kg .

Every attribute had a correlation with a part of his body, and having a balance was crucial. A person that had a dexterity that was less than half of his strength was clumsy and couldn’t move well. If that same person also had the same ratio but with endurance, then he couldn’t use his full strength or he had the risk to destroy his muscles.

How well a person healed depended on the sum of his strength plus his endurance in comparison of his vitality. In the same way, perception had to be paired with spirit, or you could receive sensory overload.

Spirit was tricky too, if the spirit grew too much and the body stayed the same, the body would crack until it exploded and turned into a ghost. He then would die because his spirit wasn’t protected from the spiritual energy of the exterior. A nasty way to go.

There were hundreds more of little relations between the different attributes but those were the main ones.

He was good for now even with his high spirit. He was told by Galather that as long as he didn’t surpass the 200 mark, he was good to go.

Anyway, Rydel recovered after a couple more minutes.

“Can we start the training now?” Rydel pleaded a little with puppy eyes. He had discovered that acting cute was a good way to force Roshia’s hand.

“Tch, you are no fun. Kids should be playing in the forest, catching butterflies, and betting who can climb trees the furthest. Sweetheart, you already sound like a devoted ranger, so let’s keep it down, okay?” Roshia took a variety of board games from a cabinet.

“Thanks grandma! I will become an elite ranger like my father.” Ryder replied with enthusiasm and little stars in his eyes. Roshia didn’t bother to respond and just twisted his ear with enough strength to be annoying.

“Ouch ouch, grandma please, I am being serious.” Rydel tried pleading again. He injected a little bit of spiritual energy on his eyes and stimulated tears. He even made a face full of injustice.

“Do you think that you can pull my leg? You are a hundred years too early!” Roshia redoubled her enthusiasm and now tickled Rydel with her free hand.

Rydel had to admit defeat and spent the next couple of hours playing with Roshia and some neighbors that joined mid game. An elf had thought of a board game similar to Catan, it seemed that good taste remained the same even in different worlds.

He had to return to his home without having done anything. Even then, he had to thank Roshia. He had felt tired, his mental health hadn’t been good lately. He had unwound some tension, maybe he could take her offer more often. That he had won two boxes filled with home-made chocolate cookies from betting with Roshia didn’t affect his decision-making capabilities, not at all.

Even then, he had underestimated Roshia’s insistence about his need to rest. He had to come thrice and employ shameless techniques to butter the elder up. Offering back rubs, begging her to tell him cool stories from her youth, which she graciously accepted after some convincing, were just some of the less powerful inducements that Rydel used.

“Don’t need to worry sweetheart. I am just an old grandma living on her own, without anyone that worries about me. If I drop dead, someone will just put the house to sell the next day.” Roshia sighed.

Rydel swore that she was the most shameless of the elders. He had seen people coming and going from this house all the time. Selling houses wasn’t even a practice among forest elves! He was exasperated and ready to throw a fuss!

***

Roshia saw that the little elf had reached his limits and she didn’t force the matter anymore. What was the older generation for if they needed to stand behind a kid to protect themselves? Guiding and letting the younger generations fulfill their potentials was important, but so was that they had a life worth remembering.

They weren’t dark elves, preoccupied that they’d be stabbed on the back if they let their guards down. No, they were the favorite sons of Mother Earth, those that had the greater affinity with their mother.

Roshia knew that they were the most pacifistic race of elfkind, often seen with disdain by their peers. Even so, none was brave enough to enrage one of their kind. You didn’t want to feel the wrath of an entire forest.

As a reclusive community, they knew and loved each other. Hurt one of them, and you will have a thousand elves pursuing you until the end of the world. Even if you went to appeal to the High Elves, you’d probably be captured and delivered to pacify their ire.

***

Finally, Rydel was about to start his training. Roshia led him to the training room in her basement. There were dozens of contraptions spread everywhere, the room was a mess. They stopped in front of a trio of dartboards. They varied in sizes, the bigger being 1m in diameter and the smallest 10 cm.

“Your task is to go to the biggest board and score more than a hundred points with these needles. You need to step on the red mark of the floor, the one that is at a 5m distance. In the entire process, you cannot touch the needles with any part of your body.” Roshia said with a little smile. Rydel didn’t detect the touch of schadenfreude in the Elder’s tone.

There were five needles, and the dartboard was divided into three rings. The bullseye had a 50 points mark, but it was tiny, barely 1cm, the inner ring gave 20 points, the middle ring 10 and the outer ring didn’t give anything. Rydel thought that it was unfair, he had to aim for the inner circle if he wanted to pass the exercise. Even then, he was motivated as he now had an objective.

Rydel knew that he had to throw the needles with his spiritual energy, but that was easier said than done. His control has increased a lot since his first duel with Galather, but not to the point of creating a spiritual hand. He could coat his sword in an instant and keep it going for a couple of minutes until his reserves ran off. He could also make a rudimentary armor to cover his vitals.

Injecting a burst of spiritual energy in a part of his body to augment his capabilities was his latest achievement, but that was the extent of his abilities.

First of all, he took one of the needles and put it in his hand. It was a couple of centimeters long and weighed almost nothing. He coated the needle, like his sword. That was the easy step. He concentrated and willed the needle to move. Nothing.

Rydel’s spiritual energy was intangible, it gave a minor durability buff when coated, but that was because it increased the mass. A spiritual-coated sword was just a bigger and denser sword, therefore it made more blunt damage.

Spiritual energy was an extremely complex subject with limitless capabilities. Rydel had to somehow give this unruly energy the ability to affect the material world.

Rydel stared at the needle for an hour with bloodshot eyes, still nothing. Suddenly, he had an idea. He asked Roshia for some string and she curiously gave him what he wanted.

He lost no time and tied the needle with the string and attached it to the ceiling in the direction of the dartboard. He needed a couple of tries as the needle kept moving, so he just put more strings around it. He looked satisfied when the needle was finally nice and secure.

“SORYEEEE” Rydel shouted next to the string and infused spiritual energy in his throat, he saw how the needle shot directly to the dartboard and landed in the inner circle. He couldn’t directly move the needle with his energy, so why not just propel it in a roundabout way?

Rydel at that moment radiated so much smugness that you may think that he has reinvented the wheel and electricity all in the same afternoon.

He repeated the process with the other four needles meanwhile Roshia just blankly stared. Thanks to his dexterity, he was able to hit the target five times in a row and get a hundred points. Rydel excitedly looked at Roshia.

“That’s cheating! What nonsense is that with the weird shout?” Roshia was fuming. She knew that it was next to impossible for him to overcome the exercise, his spirit was too low to affect the physical realm. The little brat just didn’t quietly give up!

It’s not that Roshia didn’t want to teach him. She knew that the best method was first to humble the little rascal, and then even if he aced the rest of the training, he’d remember that he still had the first exercise to overcome and will stay motivated and not grow complacent.

“It’s not cheating, I did exactly what you told me. I didn’t touch the needle with any part of my body and I scored a hundred points.” Rydel calmly said like he was teaching a little kid. Roshia accepted her loss and pretended that it had never happened.

“Fine, fine, let’s do it your way. Let’s try this little thing.” Roshia then took a cube. The cube had interwoven lines, it looked complex.

“For this cube, just put your spiritual energy on the starting line and keep going until you have illuminated the whole thing.” Roshia unceremoniously threw him the cube. And just went back to the upper floors of the house. Rydel knew when he was being dismissed.

Of course, even if Roshia was mad, she didn’t forget to put a basket of food in the entrance so he could pick it up on his way home. He shouted his thanks and went back home.

Rydel spent the rest of the day with his family. He told them what happened at the Elder’s home. His father couldn’t stop laughing.

“It’s good for her to take a loss from time to time. She took pity on you the other day in the board games, but the old hag is ruthless when betting. Half of the rangers have had to bring her specifics plants or flowers just to pay their debts at one point in time.” Edyrm said while still laughing.

“Yes, it’s exactly because of that the Elder has nicknamed your father as errand boy.” Thalia rolled her eyes.

“Cough, I am one of the leaders of the Elite Squads. I, of course, had to take the blame for the boys sometimes, or I risk an insurgence against the Betting Demon.” Edyrm said with honor in his eyes.

“Insurgence my arse! You just love the Elder’s firehoney wine and keep going to get your posterior kicked.” Thalia pointed at Edyrm with accusation.

“Guilty as charged!” Edyrm didn’t even try to defend himself and had his eyes illuminated with desire. He even had the guts to lick his lips. Thalia stood up and went to the cupboard, she made a hand gesture and murmured something.

“What a pity, I still have enough for a cup of firehoney in my secret stash. I’d have to indulge myself, alone.” Thalia sighed with remorse and mirth in her eyes.

“Noooo, traitooor!” Edyrm looked heartbroken and tried to snatch the glass. Thalia dodged and swallowed the entire glass in one gulp.

“Good stuff.” Thalia strutted satisfied to her seat. She ignored the soulless look of her husband.

The family spent an enjoyable evening before going to bed.