“Damnit! That took longer than I would have wanted! Can’t you go any faster man!?” Artian complained to Sylvester who was currently out of breath right behind him.

“Shut up you muscle headed freak. You’re the abnormal one here.” He replied fervently, trying to defend himself. “Anyway, we reached the cave in record time. We still have 3 more hours before we need to go to bed. “Though I don’t think this is gonna be enough, although hopefully, we can pick up the information we need quickly.”

“I just hope we can get back early enough. I don’t want to miss jogging sessions with Estelle.” Artian replied as the two made their way inside the cave. Thankfully the torches that lit their way during their last visit were still lit up, making the cave look a little less frightening amidst the dark forest.

Quickly they walked deeper inside until they found the large open area faintly lit up by the moonlight. Inside it was the Grom-Ilk, the goblin of unknown origin that was extremely proficient in what looked to be martial arts. Sylvester and Artian both knew that Grom-Ilk was using magic, as the two of them have at least seen these kinds of arts once or twice before in their lives. But the relationship between magic and martial arts is something unknown to them.

Grom-Ilk stood under the moonlight as if he knew that the two of them would be appearing soon. The two took notice of this, but they really shouldn’t be surprised that someone of his caliber can tell if people have entered his home or not. Trying to not make things awkward, Sylvester opted to be the first one to speak.

“Uh, Master Grom-Ilk sir. We have arrived to learn more from your wisdom!” Sylvester said in his usual flair.

“Yes, and it would seem that you two took your time. Although I do understand it is probably because of that magic school of yours.” Grom-Ilk paused before beginning to ramble again. “Times certainly have changed. You folk have a lot of things to think about, I do often wonder where you find the strength and energy to concentrate on so many tasks.”

“Well your commentary on modern life makes it sound that our lives are more shitty and depressing than they are but I digress. If anything we are mostly expected to balance a lot of things at the same time, but sometimes you just have to stand up and face it.” Artian replied, seemingly agreed with Grom-ilk’s sentiment.

“Balance huh? Funny you should say that.” Grom-Ilk said as he turned his back away from Sylvester and Artian. “Funny that the two of you said that because that is exactly where we will begin. Now put down those heavy-looking bags with you and take a little rest before we begin.”

“Yes, sir-uh” The two’s voices then trailed off, as Grom-ilk stopped in his tracks and turned around.

“What is it?”

“We, we kinda don’t know how we should address you? Should we call you Master Grom-ilk?” Sylvester asked in a rather sheepish tone.

The small green goblin seemed to ponder for a short while until a smile formed on his lips. He then looked at the two men who stared back at him before he gave his reply.

“Grom-ilk is just fine.” He then turned around and started walking, but before continuing his words in a very low voice. “After all, I am not qualified to be called a master, not yet at least. I still have a lot to learn.”

---

Sylvester and Artian then did as they were told and placed their baggage down on the floor. The two carried their toothbrush and toothpaste with them and one sleeping bag each. Once everything was in place, the two went and approached Grom-ilk once more. “Are you two done?” Grom-Ilk asked.

“Yes, uh Grom-Ilk sir,” Sylvester replied, still in a meek tone for some reason. Like he was trying his best to reign in his comments just to make sure he doesn’t offend their new teacher. Artian however was a bit laxer.

“So, Grom-Ilk. What should we be doing now? The sun may have gone down but if you leave us a few exercises I bet we can do them while you’re asleep.” He said as he thumped his chest with confidence.

“I see that you are an impatient man as I expected. At any rate, I’m not here to fix your attitudes so I will cut to the chase. But first of all, sit down here.” He then beckoned the two men who towered over him due to his natural stature.

Artian and Sylvester did not say much and simply sat down in front of Grom-Ilk, eager to listen to his wisdom. “Okay, the two of you have a lot of things you need to work on. But that is understandable since the two of you are very young. Let me make it clear now that I will not teach you everything that you need to know, but I will help shape your foundations even more.” Grom-Ilk explained as the silly scene of two young men sitting down to a small green humanoid continued to play.

“But first let me give you a little bit of context on what you two are about to do. Long before my unfortunate encounter with that rainbow-colored thing you call a headmaster, I suddenly found myself in a strange land where I was taken in and trained under someone who was more befitting of that title. My then master taught me all sorts of knowledge but the most were the concept of Chi and the concept of Yin and Yang.”

“Strange land you say. I wonder where he’s from.” Sylvester thought to himself. “So Grom-Ilk is using some form of Chinese martial arts but wait. Isn’t that whole concept widely accepted as-”

“And before your thoughts start questioning my words.” Grom-Ilk suddenly interrupted Sylvester’s thoughts as if he could read minds. “Yes, I know that this whole concept is now considered outdated. Even I figured it out myself as I pondered over it over the years and maybe that is what my master wanted me to discover all along. But I digress, let’s continue before I get distracted any further.”

“So even he figured it out himself. It is funny how everything seemed to just be hinging on mana.” Sylvester quietly commented in his head as Grom-ilk continued his talk. To him, it was really interesting how all those past mystic practices from different cultures had different names for the same thing, and it was beautiful to see such progress happen. Yet this still poses a lot of questions it seems.

“But with that said, I still call what you call Mana Chi. So if I slip up and call it that you should know what I mean okay?” Grom-Ilk declared, two boys then nodded in agreement.

“I fail to see how this little tidbit is going to be helping us though.” Artian rudely interjected and prompted Sylvester to elbow his abdomen. “Oof-”

“I’m getting there. Now let’s talk about Chi, I think the two of you should be familiar with Yin and Yang right? Chi- I mean Mana has two ways of control or storage according to your teachings. Internal condensation and Capacity refresh. While their concepts are wildly different you can still view those two different systemic concepts as the same. We live in a reality of never-ending contradictions and this is simply one of many.” Grom-Ilk explained much to their confusion.

“I don’t understand. What do you mean?” Sylvester questioned, his attention now being drawn even more towards Grom-ilk’s lesson.

“I’m saying that you need to learn to view Ch-I mean Mana as two components while also accepting that it is simply one whole and with no parts. While it is true that Mana has very stringent and strange rules, it can and will react to how we, the user, perceive it. Now I am not saying that you forget what you have been taught because let me tell you right now it doesn’t matter what you think is correct or not.”

This very contradictory piece of information only served to confuse the two even further as more and more questions flooded their heads. Grom-ilk stood up and walked towards the river inside his cave and beckoned Sylvester and Artian to follow him.

“Now for your actual problems. The two of you have been taught two different methods of storage each. This impatient one over here is dense and very solid, while you there move like water.” He said, pointing to both Artian and Sylvester respectively while picking up random stones and throwing them away until he happened upon almost perfectly circle one. Which he gestured to the two to move closer to him.

“Now, young man. Hold this rock for me.” Grom-ilk said as he handed over the round stone to Sylvester. Not thinking much of it Sylvester reached out and took it but was immediately greeted by a great and heavy feeling like his body suddenly weighed several times more than it should. He also felt his arms and legs stiffen like they were made solid on sight as the ground below him cracked and splintered.

“Sylvester! Are you oka-” Artian immediately realized something was amiss, but before he could tend to his friend Grom-Ilk suddenly appeared beside him and kicked him into the river. He immediately recovered but the river’s current suddenly strengthened like torrential floods were pouring through the waterfall. He wanted to get out but found himself stuck, overpowered by the strong flow yet he was not carried away.

“Wha? What is this!?” The boys asked in confusion over their sudden predicament.

“Now, you two need to understand the other half. You two need to accept these two as a whole. While the revelation you will reach afterward will not drastically improve your abilities, it will pave the way for your complete mastery over Chi- I mean Mana.” Grom-Ilk then started walking away, with the two completely unable to even utter a reply.

“Oh, and because I am reasonable, I will be letting the two of you free of your current state in three hours after all you still have other responsibilities to attend to. Now, please. Concentrate on your task.” He said as he sat back down facing away from Sylvester and Artian. Closing his eyes and basking under the moonlight once more, Grom-Ilk went back to meditating.