“Were back” Zane said as he entered the gathering room with Sophie and Jason.

“You came back fast” Auntie Sharon stated. She was relaxing by the fireplace with a few children “Did they cancel your match?”

“Yes, and Sophie wasn’t able to change her class.”

“What happened, did you change your mind?”

“I can’t tell you why,” Sophie answered. “Uncle James told us not to speak about it before dinner”

“If Brother James told you not to speak about it then I’m sure he has his reasons.” Aunt Sharon said after Zane and the others joined her by the fireplace. “Then does that mean you will be going to the starter village”

Sophie gave Aunt Sharon a firm nod. “Even though I would prefer to stay here I think the best decision for me is to go with Zane and Jason.”

“If your certain then I won’t argue with your decision. Do you know what to prepare for the starter village?”

Zane watched as Sophie was left stumped by this question. He had trained in the wilderness with Teacher Isabelle often which made him a little more informed. Seeing her expression made Zane lips transform into a small grin.

He watched as Sophie turned to Jason only to see an expression similar to her own. When she finally turned to Zane his small grin morphed into a large smile. He could see the realization appear in her eyes a moment before she began to roll them.

“Does the great King of Weapons know what preparations we should be making?” Sophie asked in a sarcastic voice.

“Could it be that my great and powerful big sister needs my help to figure something out?” Zane asked in mock surprise. “I remember someone saying that a little brother like me should be obedient and rely on his big sister who has more experience.”

Zane felt like he obtained another victory in the endless verbal war between them. Watching as her face turned red from anger or embarrassment, he decided to land the finishing blow. Zane tried to calm down and look serious.

“Could it be that you my big sister have less experience than me?”

“I can’t bother to care about the nonsense coming out of your mouth.” Sophie answered with a red face and neutral expression. “Tell us how we should be preparing and stop embarrassing yourself in front of Aunt Sharon.”

Zane turned his head and saw that Aunt Sharon and Jason were both holding in laughs. He immediately felt embarrassed, but it did not take away his feeling of victory. He lost many verbal battles due to his ignorance about things unrelated to combat. This caused Sophie to treat him like a child despite having battle experience from the wilderness and the Stadium. Today he proves that his lacking knowledge did not mean he lacked experience.

“Since you begged me for my help-”

“I never begged you,” Sophie interrupted.

“-I would be more than happy to enlighten you. The three thing we need to do are train, gather supplies and have a full night’s rest.”

Zane admired Sophies glare knowing she was dissatisfied with his brief explanation. Zane could be very patient but decided not to keep her waiting. After all, I’m an extremely mature person.

“We don’t know what to expect so that means we need to prepare supplies for survival. Food, water, travel equipment, a space bag for each of you and any item that we have here that you think we might need in the wilderness. We also need health, stamina potions, mana potions and any other potion that could help.”

Zane watched as everyone nodded at his explanation. His multiple trips into the wilderness gave him ample experience and now that experience was helping his family. This fact made him thankful for the harsh training he experienced under Teacher Isabelle.

“I will get food and water supplies when I head to the market to get ingredients for dinner,” Aunt Sharon offered.

“We can go together and gather all the other item Zane mentioned.” Sophie agreed before standing up. “We should go right now before others get the same idea.”

“Good idea,” Aunt Sharon said before standing up as well. “Let’s talk to others and make sure we gather all the items we can on the first trip.”

Zane watched as they walked away and discussed the different items needed. They also started suggesting who they should bring on their shopping trip as they walked out the room.

“I guess that leaves you and me,” Zane said. “We should get started on training right away.”

“We? Who’s We?” Jason asked while sounding confused. “Whoever We is I hope that you have fun training with him?”

After speaking Jason started walking to the door leading to the stairs. Zane stood up and calmly followed. He smiled knowing Jason was joking, and he would participate in training. Jason was verry diligent when it came to magic training but dreaded the physical training warriors needed. He would eventually participate because it would help improve his foundations toward becoming a powerful mage. When that wasn’t enough motivation Zane would use tricks to motivate him.

“If you won’t participate then I will have to give away this magnificent hat,” Zane said.

Jason had already started walking up the stairs when he paused after hearing what Zane said. Zane smiled when Jason turned around to look for the hat that Zane took of his head at breakfast. Zane put the hat away and started walking away.

“Make sure you change into proper training clothing. I don’t want to hear any complaints when your clothes get dirty.”

Zane walked away without turning back to confirm if Jason would be coming and stepped through the door that led to the backyard. The backyard was a large area given to the orphanage by the town. In the past many children became orphans when their parents died fighting for the town and the town created an area for the children to safely play. Over the years the number of orphans and battles decreased but the town did not take away the land.

“Hey everyone, I’m back.” Zane greeted the children that had gathered in the backyard.

“Zane is back”

“That was fast. Did you win?”

“How was your match?”

Zane did his best to calm down the small army of children gathered around him. There were twenty-eight children surrounding him with ages between fourteen and eight. After the children calmed down Zane talked about how his morning went. As soon as he finished speaking, he saw Jason walking through the door.

“Now that Jason is here it’s time for us to start our training. By a show of hands who wants to throw rocks at us?”

Zane smiled as his younger brothers and sisters cheered. Zane organized the children around a black stone running path bordering the black stone walls of the backyard. The children were staggered on opposite sides of the running path. The children were familiar with this type of training, thrower and runner. Of course, the children had something softer than rocks thrown at them.

Zane and Jason began to put on their training equipment that they would use. A black leather vest and multiple black leather bands designed to have several buckle pockets. The leather bands would be placed on the forearms, biceps, thighs, and claves. The pockets could fit small, weighted rectangular stones that were created by Teacher Isabelle.

“Let’s start with a run around the backyard. Next will do some sparring and finish with personal training.”

Zane walked to a pillar at the beginning of the running path. He took out three baby fist sized blue stones. They gave of a light glow as Zane placed them in small holes on the pillar. Once they were in the slot the running path started to glow.

Name: Mana stone

Description: A stone infused with mana.

Name: Body Training Path

Description: A running path created to train the body by using mana stones.

With the use of the mana stones Zane was able to operate the running path created by Teacher Isabelle. Zane remembered when Teacher wearing her usual rainbow cloak and silver mask entered the backyard and transformed it with a wave of her hand. The grass became greener, the trees became larger and most importantly she created the black stone wall and running path.

“I hate this,” Jason said.

“Teacher said that training the body is important for mages.” Zane told Jason as he joined him on the running path.

“I still think this is a waste of time. I could rely on the system to reward me stats and boost my physical body”

“Teacher said that the system isn’t perfect and its not good to be dependent on it.”

“So what? A mage ultimately relies on the four metal stats and finding unique ways to train my body isn’t important.”

“Teacher said that the Body Training Path is helpful toward training willpower. We can also train our perception when the others throw rocks at us.

“That’s only two mental stats. There are better training methods for all four mental stats.”

“Teacher said-”

“Teacher said! Teacher said! Teacher said! Is that the only thing you know how to say?” Jason questioned while waving his arms in exasperation.

Zane grinned as he saw how annoyed Jason was. “When Teacher Isabelle talked about magic you would treat her words with reverence. Now that I’m using her words to say something you don’t like, you become doubtful of her words. Enough talking if you want your hat back you better start running.”

Zane started running not caring if Jason followed. As Zane ran, he quickly adjusted to the weight of the training equipment. The other children were waiting for Zane and Jason to pass the pillar a few times. The running path would cause the mana in the air to be become denser increasing the pressure that all runners on the path felt. At that time, it would be harder to notice and doge the rocks.

Zane easily made several laps around the running path. After several laps the mana in the air became visible and started condensing into a blue mist. After the mana became more condensed each step became more difficult. The mana added pressure to Zane’s body down and restricted his movements.

Zane raised his hands and caught two rocks thrown toward his chest. He casually tossed them to his left and right without stopping. As he continued to run Zane dodged or caught any rocks that were thrown at him. Zane also took note of Jason’s training as he prepared to pass him on the path. He had shaped his mana into a small shield that blocked any rocks thrown at him. The shield was slightly smaller than his head and was could move with a thought.

The mana stones eventually ran out of energy and they both stepped of the track to replace them before getting back on. The path would not start while a person was on it and would not take more than three mana stones. This was a safety precaution created by Teacher Isabelle to prevent any accidents.

After several laps and replacing the mana stones once more Zane called for a rest. Although the dense mana on the path allowed Jason to maintain his mana shield for a long time Zane could tell he was reaching his limits. Even if he was not reaching his limits Zane was. Zane’s stamina was below twenty-five percent and was barely recovering even when he stood in place. Zane also felt that he lost a few health points and mana points.

Zane stepped of the path and told the children to get their training equipment. Next, Zane sat beside Jason who was sprawled out on the grass. At the end of the training Zane saw Jason taking a few steps every minute.

Zane knew that Jason’s physical stats were below twenty a few months ago and his mental stats were in the thirties. Jason struggled to endure as much as Zane physically but could make up for it by using mana to support himself. After judging Jason’s performance Zane guessed that he had experience growth in his stats once again.

Zane slapped Jason and got into a meditative position. Meditating allowed a person to recover their stamina and mana quicker. Zane focused on the mana around him and coaxed it into his body. Zane felt his mana and stamina recovery speed up by a tiny amount. Zane was satisfied with the slow recovery speed since he did not have the meditation skill.