Zin soon arrived with Silver, appearing in his office. The room was too plain for a Grand Elder, but Silver never had the intention to change. The chair and table were made out of wood with long white strokes on them. Silver when to his seat and starts to sip his tea again, completely ignoring Zin’s existence.

By now Zin had already regained his composure. He was filled with determination to get stronger and find his parents. Silver notice this but said nothing. The silence continues to go on as Zin’s patience starts to waver. ‘Why isn’t he saying anything? Doesn’t he want to teach me?’

Zin's patience was at its limit, after two hours, Silver had yet to say a word or move. “Hey! Aren’t you suppose to be my teacher? You know that if I want to meet my parents, I would have to get stronger! Why aren’t you doing anything?” Zin blurted out angrily, he’d been standing on the same spot eagerly waiting for enlightenment for two hours already.

Silver merely looked at him and went back to sipping his tea. Zin was dumbfounded at this sight. “Why take me as your disciple if you’re gonna teach me?! My parents are waiting for me!” In Zin’s mind right now, he thought of nothing but getting stronger to find his parents.

Soon another young man barged into the room. The excited man blurted out without any constraint in front of a Grand Elder. “Old man! I’ve got interesting news for you! The serious Ren had seriously taken the little miss as his disciple!” He was Ivan Lenard, the one that watched the phenomenon with Silver.

“Serious Ren?” Zin blurted out as he was caught surprised by the sudden intrusion meanwhile, Ivan haven’t even noticed him till he talked. Ivan looked at him awkwardly and embarrassed. ‘Shit, is this some young lord of a royal family? I didn’t even notice him since he was so small!”

“Eh… Hi, my name is Ivan Lenard, but you can just call me Ivan.” He was being polite with Zin mistaking him as some big shot. This made Zin even more confused because Ivan was at least 20 years older than him. ‘Why’s being so polite for?’

“That boy’s name is Zin, and also Ivan will be your senior from now.” This was Silver’s first time talking after coming back. Ivan was even more confused about how he suddenly became a senior.

“There’s no need to think. Zin is my second and last disciple.” Silver reassured him. Ivan faced quickly went from confusion to a creepy smile.. Ever since Silver took him in, he’d always been bullied by him. Now that Zin is here, he can take out some frustration on him. At this sight, Zin had a bad feeling and quickly hid behind Silver’s desk.

“Ah! Lil Zin, there’s no need to be scared, I’m also his disciple. So, whenever you need help with anything you can always ask me.” Even though Ivan had some bad thoughts, he has mostly good will toward him. Zin took this chance and asked the question he’d been pondering about.

“Then can you tell me why he isn’t teaching me anything?” Zin looked at Ivan curiously. Ivan’s face quickly went solemn as he answers. “Little Zin, I’m afraid this is the only thing I can’t help you with. This is something you must overcome yourself.” Zin had never expected this type of answer. There was no hint, no task, no teaching at all. What was his purpose waiting here?

Silver was watching them converse while making more teas. The two stopped talking when Silver waved his hand and an old bookshelf appeared from the wall. Silver took one and sat back down, one hand with his tea, the other with a book.

Sigh…

“Lil Zin, good luck to you, I’ve many things to do so I'm off now.” With that Ivan dashed out of the room with a hurried face. He knew that if he’d stayed any longer, Silver would’ve punished him. Silence once again envelopes the room with the two at the same spot. Zin was a stubborn child, so he stayed. Silver was known for being an unreasonable and shameless character.

In the past, he had tried to take in a group of students, but only one succeeded and that was Ivan. The topic of the test was patience. This was an easy task yet a hard one. Silver had never told any of them what to do, but merely doing what he’s doing currently. After a long time, all his potential students left since they all thought that Silver never even cared about them.

Ivan was persistent and was the only one left. His family wasn’t rich nor powerful, so this was his only chance of improving his family’s situation. After a whole week, Silver finally got up and declared that he’d passed. After news of this came out many students were angry and frustrated. This was also the origin of Silver’s wicked character. Now the same task had been given to Zin.

“Hey, can I read some of these books?” Zin was greeted with silence, but he didn’t falter at that. ‘Since you're not gonna answer me nor teach me. I’ll learn it myself.’ Zin’s resolve wasn’t easy to be broken. He walked over to the old shelf that had about 40 books on them. Zin quickly snatched five in his embrace and went to the couch.

The first book he decided to start on was ‘The Basics of Magic’. Zin opened the book with interest and the first part was on how different types of mages were ranked. ‘Every human start out with a grey core even unawakened ones. When you awaken your soul will automatically become red. The stages for soul magic are Red, Orange, Yellow, White, Purple, and Blue.’

Zin was becoming more intrigued as he reads the book. ‘So am I qualified to be called a Red Soul master now?’ Zin started daydreaming about how proud his parent would be. ‘Ah! I can’t slack off now. Hmm? Mana cores? Why didn’t dad mention this to me that night?’ Zin had come across a section of information about mana core.

‘Mana cores are ranked similarly to our Soul…’ As Zin kept reading more questions barged into his mind. The book was talking about how many awakened neglect their Soul and mostly train for their core. It almost seemed like the book itself was mocking them. ‘ People of the same rank can be differentiated by the clearness of one’s core/soul… There are 3 stages to each, dark, light, and translucent.’

Unbeknownst to Zin, Silver was watching him with a small grin. ‘Seems like this boy might be able to complete it…’ After a few reconsiderations, Silver waved his hand and more books went over to Zin. By now, Zin was too absorbed in the book to even notice.

‘Ones that primarily trained on their core were mostly referred to as, Battle Mage. When one’s soul improves, the container that holds the core will also expand. But when a core improves, the mana inside the core would be purer and more destructive.’ Zin came to an understanding of why so many people would rather train their core.

When one trains their core, their power will grow exponentially. Their mana capacity would still increase, though not as much as a soul master. You can say that when a Battle Mage evolves to the next stage, they would be taking a step up the ladder while soul master takes a whole jump. The same thing applies to Soul Masters on the power side.

Soul Masters are known as untalented ones that are mainly used for daily work like transferring heavy things. Because of their immense mana capacity, they could use more magic, hence why Soul Master made up 50% of the Human domain’s workers. The only other thing that improved with a Soul Master, is their mentality. When one’s soul is tempered, their spirit improves overall.

Zin beamed with excitement. ‘This book is much more detailed than what dad told me!’ With that, he quickly searched for a way to get stronger. He suddenly came across something that made his expression solemn. ‘Each stage of a Soul Master contains many requirements to evolve, while the Battle Mage only needs to comprehend the meaning of Mana.’ Zin had already made up his mind about being a Battle Mage since he wanted to find his parent quickly.

While Zin was still immersed in reading, Silver had already bought his dinner. Seeing the four-year-old was like this, Silver couldn’t help but chuckle. For the first time in several hours, there was a sound in the room again. Zin wasn’t bothered by this and ate while continuing to finish the book.

After reading a set of books, Zin discovered many more things about the world. The Human domain had five main provinces. In the North was Ismarouth a province that’s known for its immense and powerful army. In the South was Perion a place known for its auction house and many private businesses. A province that’s known for its secret arts, sought out by many, was Lastian which was located in the West. The East was occupied by a province that’s famous for their Mana Crystal’s mine was, Lavander.

In addition to this Zin also found out that, unlike humans, Beast only has a core. Their core was ranked from Black, Grey, Green, Jade, Cyan, and Azure. In the book, it showed that beast can be classified as any race except the human race. Zin was shocked at this. ‘How come we're the only race that can improve our soul?’ Zin was about to ask Silver about this until he realized, Silver had already left.

“Seems like I’ll have to ask Ivan later…” Zin thought out loud as he puts another book on his lap and opens it.

***

Somewhere on top of a ruined entrance seated a figure with white hair and a long beard. The person was Silver. He was currently deep in thought as he list the possibilities. ‘How can a four-year child do that? His mind clearly surpasses any child I’ve ever seen… Not just his thinking, but his comprehension level seemed to be extraordinarily as well.’

Sigh…

Silver had never encountered such a kid like Zin. He has a mind that a four-year-old shouldn’t, and this was really suspicious to Silver. Normally, people would them a genius but in this case, Silver didn’t think so. His suspect started when he saw how Zin quickly recomposed himself after leaving his parent.

At first to Silver, Zin was just a talented kid that triggered a phenomenon but now it was different. From Silver’s perspective, no child can recover like Zin when they leave their parent at such a young age. “Seems like I would have to do some research about this kid. There’s something inside him that influences both of his emotions and actions…”

SIlver jumped down and walked toward the forest with his hand clasped behind his back. At night was when many beasts come out to hunt, so going in alone would be suicide. At least, that would be applied to normal people. But who was Silver? He was one of the Grand Elders of the Human domain, meaning only other Elder can pose a threat to him.

Crack!

Thud!

Thud!

Many beasts could be seen laying lifelessly on the ground. They were mercilessly killed by Silver, who seem to be taking a stroll. In fact, right now Silver was preparing a training spot for Zin in the future. ‘This seems like a good spot. With all the threatening beast dead, I can throw him in here now!’ Silver grinned at the thought of this, he’d also done this to Ivan which left him a trauma for 6 months!