On the way towards the training ground his master had a multitude of questions, most of which Twig had no answers for. Amount of creatures he was able to summon. How often he was able to do that per day. If he was able to summon skeletons, and let his master take them as his own servants. Twig was certain that he would be able to answer all this in time, but only one question was asked three times. Now Teiming attempted to ask the fourth time. “About the passive… Do you know anything about the dungeon stone and how it will activate later?”

Twig felt bad at the prospect of disappointing his master due to his lack of knowledge. This dungeon stone thing seemed to be pretty important after all. “I’m sorry, master. I will try to find out.” Teiming nodded. Drifting off in thought the young prince shifted his focus towards the young recruits, staring through them more than paying attention. “Master. This one I want.” The young man, which could barely stand properly frowned upon their arrival. When he noticed the rank of Twig’s master he weakly saluted, nearly collapsing.

Twig rolled his eyes. “See? This one does it all wrong. I can teach it. He can be strong, but as long as stupid humans teach him he will not learn.” - “I am not a IT. I have a name, monster.” Twig smiled, exposing his teeth. The guy did not even blink. Huh. Impressive. “You are what I tell you to be. Call me master.” Teiming agreed. “Boy, this is your new teacher. You will obey under military law. Show respect.” Hurriedly the young man raised his hand to another salute. “Yes, Sir!”

Twig was impressed by how the human was more afraid of his master than of his own presence. It would be fun beating him up with golems later. He would fall in line eventually. Only his master was above himself. Twig eyed all the other recruits, but was unable to sense a magical force as big as before, even though a few clearly practiced strong magic. Odd. “Master where should we go for training? Or should we train here?” - “No. Twig I need you to remain hidden. No one should know of all your abilities yet, you could be something that changes the outcome of this war. I would not be surprised if someone came to assassinate you.”

Twig thought about that for a moment. “I should be fine. I can summon myself some guards.” - “I doubt that that would be sufficient. You are far too weak for now. Most of these recruits could probably deal with your “guards” just fine. No. We need you save for now. I am thinking the royal gardens in Northfrar-Castle.” The young man looked up in surprise. “Isn’t Northfrar the swamp region in the north? We would need weeks to go there!” Teiming shrugged. “I will ask father's permission to use the portal key. I can use the opportunity to recruit some followers for the upcoming war. Anyway. Follow me.”

Twigs master led the way, choosing two female recruits that were more than hyped to be hand picked by the prince himself, before heading back to the castle. On the way they also encountered a few of the guards that previously lost Twig on his way down to the city, so they had a few more men following them around. The girls kept their distance to Twig and Teiming, mostly because Twig’s appearance was hard to get used to. While walking through the city Twig kept a close eye on the boy. He gave off some sort of magic presence that constantly grew and then disappeared again in small waves.

It was odd and for sure unhealthy for the boy’s mana management. Having such a huge amount of power and unable to control it was probably dangerous. Twig knew how to manage such energy. Cultivation. Or at least imitating his own understanding of good cultivation, which was forming a flow of energy to create more or control it better. It would be interesting to see how much the boy could do after training this techniques.

The way back to the castle took about half an hour. Twig was thinking about his new minion while his master was deep in thought. Probably thinking about something important. The girls were talking to the boy, which was apparently not used to something like this happening. His red head and shy attitude gave off an odd vibe. When the small group arrived, they split up.

The guards brought the four of them downstairs where they waited in front off a large door. A very luxurious large door. Gold and silver plating draped with jewels and expensive mana stones. The Aggratit made Twig nervous and he stayed as far away from the door as possible. He did not want to hurt himself with that again. The girls however were quite excited and shifted their conversation to what they would buy if they had such riches.

Just when Twig grew impatient his master finally appeared again. “All right, we have permission. Follow me.” He opened the door with a small and long stone, that he inserted in a tiny hole next to the door. Immediately the door swung open without making the faintest sound. Magic. Twig wanted such a door too. This door on his own palace! Yes, that would be good.

The room inside was filled with different weapons, Aggratit crystals, armor and shields. “This is the royal treasury. Girls, go choose something, but don’t go crazy. Something you want for training. Twig, if you want your-” Teiming frowned. “What was your name again boy?” - “Daz, your grace.” - “Alright. Twig, if you want Daz to have something for your training, go get it.” - “Yes, master.”

While Twig looked around the large room, the boy looked at him in hopeful fashion. The girls were taking Aggratit crystals and weapons, but Twig felt that would not help with training too much and the crystals really frightened him. Twig wanted armor. If his minion had none, the poor guy would most likely die in the first week, just because he couldn’t take a hit from golems. Or other stuff. After searching a few minutes through heavy armor Twig finally found something interesting. “Master?” Teiming wandered over.

“Yes? Oh, you are interested in the hammer?” Twig shook his head. “No. The material. Are there armguards and boots? For training that would be useful.” His master's face lit up. “Aaah. Yes, that is interesting. We have some yes.” After a quick search for what Twig wanted the group was finally ready to leave. Daz was not presented with the two things yet, that would be far too soon, so he looked kind of disappointed.

“Alright. Everyone in the cycle on the ground. Best if you sit down, that will make you dizzy since you are not used to it.” Teiming raised a large orb and put it in the middle of the room, before chanting a spell. Violet and dark mana left body of the young prince and burst into the orb. Then everything turned upside down and Twig, which had remained standing fell to the ground immediately.

Everything spun, one of the girls puked and his master was laughing. A few seconds later the spinning stopped and Twig noticed something else. Rain. The treasury was gone. Instead the group sat on a similar stone floor outside in a small garden. A pavilion kept them dry and a dense forest almost completely surrounded everything. Only a large house that stood idle between the trees reminded that this was more than just a forest clearing.

“Well. There we are. You can go inside to sleep, train out here, there are magic barriers so you can’t leave through the gardens and you are safe here. I will go suck up to the tribes so I will be coming by at the evenings. Have fun.” Twig blinked. His master was really busy. Never stopped doing something. The girls protested. “W-wait, who should train us then?” Teiming raised a brow. “You are self training. You picked yourself some gear for that. Prepare for the tournament. 48 days left. Enjoy your stay.”

With that he disappeared and left the girls speechless. Daz grinned. Apparently he found it funny that only he received proper training. “Stop smiling. We have work to do. Sit down.” He eyed Twig. “I am pretty sure that I am stronger than you. What can you possibly teach me?” Twig rolled his eyes. “Everything. Sit.” The girls stood around curiously and a little heartbroken but Twig just continued to ignore them. That had worked so far and they were not his minions.

Daz sat down in the middle of the pavilion with a unhappy face. Twig ignored that as well and sat down in front of him. “I saw you trying to use a magic spell at the training grounds. You collapsed.” - “Yes. I cannot use magic. It doesn’t work.” Twig summoned a golem, made of stone. His mana had been building up every since he woke up and he already had a significant mana pool. While he had summoned golems before, but if felt totally different now.

Twig was immediately aware of the current location, every movement and perception of the golem. Even the mechanical thinking was available for him to influence. Twig had total and absolute control over it and it felt like a extension of his body, more than a tool he ordered around. It felt so natural to just think his servant over to Daz and make him smack the kid slightly. “Call me master.” The kid rubbed his shoulder and nodded. He did not look happy. “Yes, master.”

“Now, please describe to me what you felt, when you used that spell back then?” Daz frowned but answered: “I gathered power in my body, then in my hand and was told to push it out while imagining a fireball. But when doing that all the power disappeared and I felt very weak.” - “Ha. He can’t even use a fireball spell.” - “Shh. Marcella I wanna know what he will teach him.” Twig rolled his eyes. Annoying humans. “Do it again. Slowly. And with as little energy as possible.”

Daz did as told and Twig was immediately able to feel his earlier observation. The energy levels were strong, like a small hurricane stirring up inside his student. But this time he was closer and able to sense it more accurately. When he released the energy it did not leave his body. It got absorbed by himself. Something took away his mana. The flow was like a spiral that steadily absorbed the kids energy. Daz collapsed on the spot again.

How was he even alive? How was this even possible? Apparently something inside the boys body constantly absorbed everything that exceeded the necessary amount of energy to survive. What would happen once Twig taught him to control the energy flow and the kid was able to sustain himself? Would it retaliate?

Twig shrugged. What was the worst that could possibly happen?