After he was knocked unconscious by the mysterious figure, the boy "slept" for half a day straight. His overuse of mana brought about a great deal of exhaustion, one which obviously needed several hours to replenish from.

Worse than that was the fact that his overuse of mana did not protect his body from being overtaxed, and due to that, he strained his body quite a lot and ended up receiving some internal injuries that would take quite a while to recover from.

Some of his limb bones were cracked and his skin was scraped at the places he fell on. And although it wasn't apparent, his overuse of mana surely left some inner damage which only when he woke up he would be able to notice the effects.

When he was knocked out, it was a bit past noon, so by the time the boy finally woke up it was close to half past midnight. The sky was dark and the stars above made it seem like the heavens were made of an endless dark river full of precious rocks inside, and the protagonist of that splendorous starry river was the planet's natural satellite that shone the brightest among all the stars.

"Ugh.." The boy groaned as his consciousness returned.

Before he had time to even open his eyes, his body's numerous alarms hit him at full force and made him wince in pain.

"Sh*t!" He cursed out loud.

But even speaking made him feel pain so immediately he regretted his decision to rant. He couldn't even bring himself to open his eyes due to the numerous waves of pain that hit him non-stop and made him shift in the place he was laid upon constantly.

As that happened he figured that at least he could find solace in the silence of his mind, and so, he decided to calm himself and analyze his current health status. He knew that the events that took place a few hours prior took quite the toll on him and he had to figure out just how much of a price he had to pay for his reckless abuse of his body's limits.

When he was just about to focus on that task, the memories that his brain had repressed to allow him some time to stabilize came rushing back and immediately tears found their way into his eyes, he couldn't open them but he could easily feel the bitter sensation of warm tears flowing on his cheeks. Several remembrances flashed through his mind in mere seconds as grief built inside of him, but it didn't take him long to toss all of that aside.

It's not that the boy was unfeeling and cold-hearted to the point he wouldn't grieve his family's demise, but he knew that he was quite wounded had to prioritize his recovery before he could allow himself to suffer. The sorrow of losing everyone he had ever loved and known the most in a single swoop was quite heavy, however, he knew he needed to thoroughly heal himself, otherwise, he would only leave himself open to hidden dangers in the future should he not recover completely.

He forcefully stilled his mind through great efforts to suppress his raging emotions. After adjusting his body to lay down in the best and the most comfortable position he possibly could in his current state, He began to breathe slowly and slowly try to circulate his inner mana to check the current state of his body.

At first, he felt just how low his inner reserves of mana were inside his core. The mana core was the supernatural structure existing inside every being on the planet that allowed them to absorb, store and use the world mana as it's own. It was a crystalline organ existing right above the stomach and right below the heart that varied in size and toughness depending on genetics.

The boy grimaced as he checked his core and noticed the bad development that happened during his reckless overuse of mana. His inner reserves were at a measly 10%, and not only that, his body was having an extremely hard time refining world mana into inner mana to refill his core due to the next set of problems the boy noticed after trying to circulate his mana through his body.

"F*ck! This time I truly screwed up!" The boy cursed in his mind.

Physical damage could be quite easily recovered with the use of mana, but damages to mana related organs and structures were immensely harder to heal and if one were to be damaged beyond a certain extent in that area, one could lose their ability to use mana forever.

As his weakened mana circulated through his body he noticed his core had slight signs of cracking, and as the mana exited the core and entered his meridians, his already foul mood took a turn to the worse as he discovered that his entire meridian system was damaged. To make matters worse, the meridians on his legs were especially damaged as the region showed signs of being dangerously close to snapping.

The boy calmly willed the weak mana to finish circulating and then return to his core as he breathed slowly.

"That's just fantastic..." He grumbled.

He was dispirited. His body was in bad shape and at the moment he really didn't want to deal with that issue. As the mana circulated his body he felt bitter at how weak he was. If it were his father, that bit of running wouldn't have caused that much damage, in fact, considering how strong his father was, he even doubted his father would be strained at all.

He had no idea how he looked right now as his eyes were still closed and his mind was fully focused on enhancing his other senses. Even though he was doing a thorough analysis of his body's condition, he also knew he was at an unknown location and anything could cause him harm at any given time, so he had to be ready to react as soon as possible.

It was exactly at the moment the thought of danger passed through his mind that he heard footsteps coming his way, they were muffled so he figured he must be inside of a room or something similar that had its door closed. his mind began racing as he thought as fast as he could about how to escape his current predicament.

Suddenly he heard the muffled steps get ever louder. He was sure that in the next moments it was all or nothing, as such, his body painfully tensed up and he prepared to fight. his breathing remained slow as if he was still sleeping and his body remained immobile, he had to catch them by surprise if he was to escape this place.

"Creeek...."

The boy heard the sound of a door opening really close to him, his heart sped up enormously and adrenaline began to work it's magic as his pain began to lessen. He knew that his body wasn't healing, but being able to move was better than being immobile like a dead fish about to be chopped.

"Calm down....you can do this...when they lower their guard...you strike!" The boy screamed in his mind.

The footsteps came ever closer and they were louder than ever now. The boy could feel a presence right above him, observing him attentively. He had to do it now! it was his best chance! he was about to move when a very familiar voice sounded from above.

"Hey hey killer, how about you dial down all of that bloodlust and relax, I know you are awake"

The sound of that voice struck the boy's mind like a lightning bolt. This was the one that knocked him out all those hours ago! his rage immediately multiplied as his eyes shot open and his mana began to revolve furiously causing him immense pain.

"YOU!" He shouted, "It was you who knocked me out isn't it!?"

"Calm down and stop circulating your mana, do you really want to cripple yourself?" The figure replied, "Also, is that how you thank someone that treated your wounds and saved you from further harm in that horrible event?"

The boy calmed down significantly and his reason finally kicked in.

"You...saved me?" The boy inquired, "how exactly did you save me old man?"

"Old man? now that's quite a bratty way of referring to your savior kid" The figure chuckled.

Although the figure before him was quite aged indeed, he looked far from being old. The boy looked at the figure carefully and identified his traces correctly as his body relaxed and the pain made him wince slightly.

Before him was a man that looked to be in his early 40's. He seemed to be a scholar judging by his long robes and the glasses he wore, his whole self emitted an aura of wisdom and knowledge. The man's face had light wrinkles, however, it didn't make him look older but only enhanced the feeling that he was a wise man.

He had a head full of black hair but his sideburns were gray colored. His eyes were of a deep green hue and when one looked at them they gave off an unfathomable feeling as if the man hid untold mysteries in his mind. His body seemed quite frail as it was thinner than most men his age in Halley village. However, he didn't seem weak as there was one aspect that made him far scarier than the whole village population combined, he had an enormous amount of mana in him, he certainly was not one bit weaker than his father, in fact, he seemed to be far stronger, and that put quite a lot of pressure on the boy's mind.

"you..." The boy said with a frown on his face, "exactly who are you?

"What manners are those kid?" The man laughed lightly, "Asking someone for their name without giving yours first? that's quite rude" The man shook his head as if he was disappointed.

A shade of red took hold of the boy's face as he corrected himself.

"My name is Ventus Astriss" He then glared at the man, "your turn old man"

"Ventus huh?...quite wise to name him that way" The man mumbled to himself.

"What are you spacing out for old man?" Ventus inquired.

The man let out an embarrassed cough and then replied.

"None of your concern kid, now, as you've been polite enough to speak properly, it is my turn to do so," the man said "My name is Richard Weise, and I'd like to make you an offer kid"

"An offer?" Ventus inquired, "What kind of offer?"

"How would you like to be my apprentice?" Richard spoke.