About a mile outside of the village, following along the twisting river, Lowen, Nia, and Ben made their way to old man Sid's place. As they followed at the edge of the river, behind them was an old ragged wooden wagon. Together the three pulled the wagon, being careful not to slip and fall. In the back of the wagon was around 140 lbs of rabbit meat.

Following a long day yesterday, Lowen had made several trips to and from the forest, collecting the rest of the rabbit meat. Altogether he had ended up with just over 350 lbs of meat.

With so much extra meat he decided to trade with some of the villagers. With 5 older ladies, Lowen gave them 85 lbs of meat, in exchange they would make some new clothes for Lowen as well as 2 new blankets. It would take them around 2 weeks to finish the blankets. Normally if it were one person making a blanket it could easily take them 2-3 months, Lowen didn't wish to wait that long so instead he opted for an easy trade. To him, hunting these rabbits was almost as simple as shooting fish in a barrel, the only difficult thing was transporting all the meat. That's why with a large bulk of the meat, he managed to trade for an old wooden wagon, that was another 90 lbs worth of meat gone.

With another, 30 or so pounds of meat, Lowen traded for more spices as well as a few wooden cups, wooden plates, utensils and 2 clay jars the size of a human head. With that, there were only 140 pounds of meat left but it was more than enough. As the three traveled, Lowen noticed Nia and Ben's body, he saw how much they've both already improved. Now Ben was finally at the appropriate weight for his age and had even put on at least 2 pounds of muscle, Nia as well, was looking more toned. The two were doing a lot better than anyone else their age. Now that a month had gone by since they started exercising, their endurance was gradually improving, so it was just about time to increase their load and expand their regiment.

After pulling the cart alongside the river for a little over 20 minutes, the three came to the foot of a mountain. In front of them laid a small dirt path leading up a somewhat steep trail to someplace unseen. Nia looked at Lowen and pointed down the path.

"This is the way, we just follow the dirt path and we'll find old Sid's place."

Lowen nodded at Nia and started to pull the wooden wagon but before he moved even an inch, Nia had grabbed his shoulder.

"Wait, are you sure you want to meet Sid?"

Lowen looked slightly puzzled.

(If I didn't want to meet him, why would I have come?)

"Of course I am, what's wrong?"

Nia slightly shook her head.

"Like I said he's weird, I haven't met him but most people believe he's not right in the head."

This didn't seem like a real reason, to Lowen, he didn't really care.

(Weird, who isn't weird in some ways.)

"Weird or not it doesn't really matter, as long as he can help make jerky who cares."

Ben didn't even hear the two's conversation as he was too busy looking at a strange hair poking out from Lowen's clothes. Lowen had told him how it came from a huge monster and that it was as tough as metal. Ben had wanted to play with it yesterday but was too distracted by all the meat and simply forgot. It was only now when he saw it again did he remember, but before he could ask to play with It he suddenly felt a nudging elbow from Nia. With that, he once again forgot and continued to help pull the wagon up the steep path.

As they made their way down the path there were no trees in any direction nor were there any bushes or grass, instead there were odd statues made of rock, very odd. Each statue was completely different from the last. Some looked like mishappen animals, while others were of people in deformed states. Whether they had limbs in the wrong places or multiple heads, these statues were quite irregular and unnatural, there was even one with 10 breasts. For some reason when they came upon that one, Nia not only covered Ben's eyes but she tried to cover Lowens as well, of course in doing so the wagon slipped and began to roll backward. Immediately realizing her mistake, Nia tried to grab the wagon but it was already too far out of reach. Lowen using his Shadow Steps could easily catch up to the wagon and grab it but with its weight and momentum even with his ki, it would only drag him with it. The scene that would ensue would be that of a young boy getting dragged away by a wagon full of meat, just thinking of it made Lowen laugh inside his head.

With no choice, the three could only watch from the sidelines as the wagon sped rapidly down the steep path towards one of those unnaturally shaped statues. With no one to stop it, the wagon would soon crash into the statue breaking it, turning it into a pile of rubble. Just when the wagon was about to slam into this odd human-shaped statue, something utterly surprising happened.

*Bam*

Incredibly, the human statue punched out with amazing force. As the punch landed, the brand new old ragged wagon that Lowen had just traded for, broke into many wooden fragments causing the meat to fly up and land on the ground. The statue then went back into its original position and went completely still, as still as a, well, statue.

Lowen, Nia, and Ben all stood there with mouths agape, this was simply unimaginable.

(How, how could a statue move?)

Lowen's thoughts were in a tailspin. A solid rock statue had just come to life before his eyes and destroyed his wagon. Nia as well looked on in disbelief, she just stood there frozen, not knowing what to do or say. Ben, however, only had one thought on his mind.

"Awesome, awesome, awesome!"

Ben then raced toward the statue wanting to grab it. But how could Lowen let little Ben touch something so dangerous? Right before Ben made it to the statue, Lowen had already used his Shadow Steps and arrived in front of him. This happened all too quick and Nia had no time to react at all, thankfully Lowen had stepped in. This though didn't change how quickly she became angry. Running up to Ben, she grabbed him up hard by his arm, pulling him away from the statue she started shouting and scolding Ben to the utmost.

"Ben you dummy, why would you do that. You could have gotten hurt or even killed. That statue is clearly dangerous. Look at me, don't you ever do something so stupid again, do you understand me!!"

Ben's face went from joy to fear in a quick 180, his eyes started to tear up. He had been so excited he had lost his senses and rushed for what seemed like a big toy to him. But when Nia yelled at him, he knew just how incredibly wrong and stupid he had been. Looking up at his sister's angry face, Ben couldn't help but cry as he apologized.

*Waaaah* *Waaaa*

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

*Hic hic sniff*

"I didn't mean to."

Nia's heart quickly melted and softened as she hugged her baby brother. Looking at his small face filled with tears, she began to gently wipe them away as she said in a soothing voice.

*Sigh*

"Its ok little Ben, I just didn't want you to get hurt, who knows what could have happened. If your hurt, then that hurts big sis too, so you have to be careful ok."

Ben's tears gradually stopped, he looked up at this big sister of his that cared so much for him and smiled at her.

"Ok."

As the two were having an emotional moment behind him, Lowen almost didn't even notice. Standing in front of the statue, Lowen looked at it cautiously. He could feel earth energy coming from the statue. Normally there was earth energy all around moving gently throughout the world. Only when you absorbed it or used it for magic did it move around rapidly. Right now the magic earth energy flowing through the statue was racing around as though someone had just used magic, of course seeing the statue move earlier, Lowen knew it was from magic but he had been shocked because it was still something he had never witnessed before.

Knowing this was from magic, Lowen was on full alert. Besides him, couldn't only Mages use magic and wasn't Roland the only Mage around. Could this be from the old man named Sid, was he a mage as well? Lowen looked around, he could sense that the activated earth energy from the statue was moving in a nearly straight line, from the statue to the end of the path up the hill. As he turned and looked up the path, he focused ki into his eyesight increasing his visual range. Looking far ahead into the distance, he could see a large stone house. In front of the house, he could see an old man sitting in a rocking chair, rocking back and forth. As Lowen looked at the old man, the old man too looked back at Lowen with an evil grin. Suddenly a chill went down Lowen's spine and Nia quickly shouted.

"Lowen look out!"

The statue had once more moved, punching out towards Lowen. Lowen's mind raced and his body moved instinctually. Using his Shadow Steps, the punch that was coming towards his back completely missed. Lowen had jumped into the air and had done a backflip over the statues fist. With two hands he grabbed the top of the statue's forearm. Using his momentum, Lowen filled both legs with ki and drop kicked the statue directly in the head but even with both of his feet, the damage was very minimal, only a few chips of stone had flaked off the statues head. Lowen landed on the ground and the statue again punched at Lowen. Nia and Ben both wanted to do something, but they both knew there was nothing they could do and could only stand helplessly to the side. As the statues fist came flying at his face, Lowen continued to use his Shadow Steps, easily dodging every punch. Although this stone statue had a lot of force, its movements were stiff and slow. So slow in fact that Lowen didn't even need to use his Shadow Steps, he only did so as a precautionary measure.

(Damn it, if only I could use the second form of Snake Fist.)

Lowen continued to move around like a blurred shadow. He didn't bring any weapons or anything of the like for self-defense. At the time he didn't believe he needed to. His simple thoughts were that they were so close to the village that there shouldn't be much danger, who knew there'd be magic statues just a mile away ready to attack. With not many options left, Lowen continued to think and dodge.

(Once again I have underestimated this world, there seems to be danger everywhere you go. That old bastard rocking in his chair, this is definitely his doing. There really is something wrong with him, dammit, how can I beat this thing, think, think.)

Lowen's mind continued to race when finally he thought of something. Reaching in his clothes he pulled out a foot long hair. It was the hair he had picked up from the Mammoth Boar just the day before. As he pulled it out, the old man's eyes suddenly lit up. Lowen didn't notice this, instead, he once more dodged a fist from the statue and stepped forward. Using his ki and all of his strength he jumped up and stabbed the hair down into the statues collarbone. With his strength, the hair sunk in halfway causing cracks to form all the way up and down the statue but still it wasn't enough. Jumping backward, Lowen dodged another fist and his eyes flashed with tenacity.

(One more time.)

With this thought, Lowen filled his legs with ki and raced at the statue like a cheetah. Right before he got to the statue, with his Shadow Steps he jumped up high to his maximum, nearly 15 feet. As he descended he did an ax kick, landing it perfectly on the hair. With his momentum and his forceful kick filled with ki, the Mammoth Boar hair completely sunk into the statue's body. The once thin cracks now exploded out with full force causing the statue to finally break apart into big chunks. As the statue fell to the ground, it crumbled into a pile of rubble, the only thing that was left was the head. Lowen let out a breath of relief.

*Phew*

Lowen turned to look at the old man, from this distance he could see the old man wording the word.

"interesting"

Immediately after, Lowen heard the statue behind him say the exact same word.

"Interesting"

Hearing this come from the statue's mouth sent a chill down his spine. As Lowen turned around, the broken statue started reforming piece by piece. Its broken body completely put itself back together and after only a few seconds it had formed a brand new body with not even so much as a scratch on it. With its new body made, it leaned its head back and started to laugh uproariously at the sky.

"HAHAHA interesting, hehe, this is very, very, interesting."