After completing his duty as an army mage of the Mendeleyev family, Talcum felt lost. His 1000-year life was to come to him and he had only lived 50. He had grown distaste for war and combat so even if there were countless offers for him to be a bodyguard, Talcum declined them.

He sealed himself on an ivory tower in the capital Zelmja where he simply enjoyed everything that he couldn’t do before. All the movies, games and writing were read while he consumed all the spiritual stones that he could.

It was a great period of his life where there were no worries. No greater goal than just to feel.

And like all things he grew bored of it too but this time he didn’t realize until way later. The things he found fantastic were stale. The well reviewed and hyped entertainment that others spoke of in excitement, Talcum found boring, repetitive and creative.

As much as he hated it, he found them a sad mimicry of successful titles in the past. They wanted money not advance the forms. Wanted things to be easy rather than thread the painful path of the jungle untrodden of newer things.

He found it distasteful but simply continued consuming the base media for he was a mage, a soldier. He had no experience in creating art.

This monotony continued until one day, a small human child paid a visit to his tower.

She wore a little dress and wielded a rapier while alone. His spiritual sense told him of bodyguards enough to decimate him and his abode countless times over.

“Hey rock man! What are you doing here?”

“What are you doing here little lass?”

“Someone told me that there is a great evil here lurking. I plan to kill it.”

‘Is she talking about me?’

“There is only a lazy slob who lives a carefree life here miss.”

“Hmm. But I must check first! A knight can’t let an evil go!”

Talcum reasoned with the child but didn’t manage to convince her. He tried to close the door and this only made her more stubborn, waiting half an hour for him to reply.

“Fine. Check for, what you will come to understand is non-existent, lord of evil.”

The teary eyed child entered and excitedly asked about everything inside.

“What is this?”

“A stave.”

“This?”

“A mana orb. Shush. This is a research book, a catherer, miscroscope.”

She kept asking and asking so Talcum simply ignored her and resumed watching the show that was disrupted before.

Equipment that were very expensive were destroyed but he couldn’t care less. No dangerous materials were there and the mage life was past him.

At some point, Talcum didn’t notice when the noise disappeared but the small child was now watching the show with him.