Gregory entered Aetius’ house right after him, not wanting to be rude. Aetius then opened a portal to his Protected Space, which it seemed was required when not entering a combat room in the Protected Space. He also discovered that there were two types of combat rooms in a Protected Space, a forced entry and non-forced. The first required permission of the non-owner party and would not leave damage, the second would force entry and could kill whoever lost.

As they entered the protected space, Aetius began speaking about the basics of temporal magic. ”Time magic is one of the most powerful forms of magic, a neutral form of magic for all except those that are born with space magic. This means that the two types of magic conflict with each other, preventing both from being learned under normal circumstances. Only one person I have ever known managed it, and they were considered a true genius. Before we get started, I thought I’d let you know this. Time magic allows the movement through time, invulnerability to time, and allows one to perfectly view the past. Of course, there is also a restriction. There must be some sort of anchor when travelling in the past. To visit a time, you must have something in mind, which will be used as a marker.”

He paused, letting Gregory get this before he would go on to say more. Gregory responded back with a quick reaffirmation of what he just said. ”So, I need to have some form of mental marker in my mind of when I want to be? Then once I have that marker, I can use it as a way to travel back to the time? What about times I’ve been?” Aetius smiled, it seemed Gregory caught on fast to this concept. ”Times you have been can be visited at will, so long as you cast the spell. Only times you have not been require you to have a marker in place. Also, it is possible for temporal sages to transfer their ‘times’ to another person, allowing the second to visit all the times the original temporal sage had visited. Does this make sense to you?”

Gregory responded back quickly, not wanting to waste time. ”So, you are saying that you could duplicate all the times you visited to my mind, body, or magic, and that would allow me to visit any time you have visited? The anchor then only needs to be in place when visiting a time you have not yet been in then. Also, will it be possible for me to learn temporal magic? My father still ages, so he wasn’t able to learn it.” Aetius shook his head slightly before responding. ”Your father tried, but his mindset was not in it to learn temporal magic. In addition to that, his magic was not diverse enough to learn it. Temporal magic requires a magic that can bend and twist in ways that your father’s couldn’t. Already though, it seems yours has. You seem to have another element aside form ice and its compositional elements.”

This time, Gregory looked started, how did the teacher know that just from standing close to him? ”How did you know that, and is that really the reason you think I can actually learn it and my father could not?” Aetius smiled again, showing that he had an ability that Gregory didn’t know about amused him. ”All sages can sense another’s flow of magic, and the elements being given off. However, it takes time and practice, two things that I have had more than enough of. In case you didn’t know, the protected space of a temporal sage is also immune held outside of time, so that inside time does not pass. This makes a diversified temporal sage one of the most dangerous magical beings in the world. Although, a skilled Spatial Sage is still something we need to worry about. They are some of the most powerful because of their ability to teleport and launch attacks that cannot be anticipated without also being able to use and feel spatial magic.”

Gregory was about to ask one more question, realizing that Aetius had said at first that temporal sages become immune to time. ”If a temporal sage becomes immune to time, what is to stop them from appearing the same age all their life from the point of learning onwards? If that is the case, wouldn’t it be hard for me to ever fit in with normal people looking like a teenager forever?” Aetius expected this question, and answered it with the truth. ”The day that a temporal sage stops aging depends on their potential power. The youngest ever has been 19 that I’ve seen, and they were almost as much a genius as you are. It is possible you’d stop aging sooner but it is never earlier than the day you learn the magic, so if you want to wait until you’ve aged some, we can do that.” Aetius knew that this was a valid fear, and one that many temporal sages had to deal with. It was not easy needing to relocate constantly to avoid detection by others.

”Now that the questions are over, if you want to get started, you will need to learn what temporal magic feels like. All magics are all around us in the world’s atmosphere, we just need to be able to feel and take them in to learn how to use the magic. The best way to do this would be to take a meditative stance, and focus on bringing in the magic around you. This also requires you to know what the magic feels like though, so let me have you feel my magical energy.” Holding out his hand, he channeled magic energy into it and let it flow out slightly. As Gregory reached out, he could feel the magic, and knew what he needed to bring in now, but didn’t know exactly how to absorb it. I was able to gain fire magic, but that was through a skill book, how am I supposed to absorb temporal magic from around me? As he crossed his legs to meditate, he closed his eyes and focused on just absorbing mana.

It was hours, and Gregory didn’t seem to be getting anywhere with absorbing the temporal magic. He could feel different kinds of magic entering his body, but he didn’t know what they were. He wasn’t focusing on the kind of magic entering in. Then it hit him, he wasn’t focusing on bringing in temporal magic, but magic in general. He needed to filter out the temporal magic, and bolster his supply with this instead of bringing in whatever magic that was in the atmosphere. At this, a new skill was created, entering his mind’s vision since his eyes were closed.

SKILLMANA ABSORPTIONPASSIVEAfter entering a meditative stance, the user focuses on bringing manga into their body. This has two uses; the first brings mana in to restore the mana they have used, and the second is to absorb new types of mana that the body has felt but does not yet possess. Absorbs mana at a percentage rate of 10% of total WIS.[/td1]LEVEL = MAXCOST = N/A

He dismissed the window quickly, but the skill just reaffirmed what the though, that he would need to focus solely on bringing in temporal magic to gain access to it. As he was meditating, he could tell that the time was passing by, but he couldn’t tell how much. His meditative state was near perfect, probably due to the skill, and he was learning better how to focus on the temporal magic the history teacher had him feel. It was difficult to bring in just the temporal magic, which is apparently what he needed to do. Such a task required immense focus, determination, and the ability to block out all other sensations. Such concentration was hard for him, since he was always used to doing things. Even in games, the task of gaining new elements was not this hard. Although, the element of time was never in games; while space was, it sounded like it had far more use on earth than in games.

Aetius entered the room with Gregory inside, and looked to see if he had obtained the magic yet. It seemed that it was rather difficult for him, although he did wonder how he gained ice magic, as well as whatever other element he felt floating around inside him. Just to learn conflicting elements was difficult, which is why even Aetius had never learned fire or earth, and in turn didn’t learn lava element. Such magic was “impossible” for him to learn. Well, not impossible, but difficult without compare. Of course, Gregory would have had to learned fire or earth already if Aetius couldn’t tell what element he had. This fact made Aetius wonder just how powerful Greg could be. The ability to learn conflicting elements was extremely rare, and usually not doable until very late in life. This boy though had conflicting elements, and not only that, he was just a boy. 16 year old and he was more dangerous than most people as much as three times his age in regards to current skill.

Teaching Greg time magic was something Aetius feared, but knew that Gregory was a decent person, since he didn’t attack him either. A person in the magical world that wants power will attack to get it, he had never seen even one that would ask like Gregory did. John Frost’s son made him curious, curious as to why a sage like that would ever be so willing to offer assistance and ask for help in growing stronger. Just then though, Gregory opened his eyes. Temporal mana was swirling about him like an ocean, and it seemed he was just about ready to start absorbing it. If this worked for Greg, he would have access to temporal magic from here on out. Still though, it would take getting used to the new type of mana, since time magic was the hardest, equal to spatial, to learn. It wasn’t as easy as just using or creating a spell, it required mixing mana with memory. This was something else that not many could do, even so, he would at bare minimum not age anymore from the time of his gaining it.

On Gregory’s end, he felt like he was suffocating, surrounded by a mana that he had only felt and still seemed foreign to him. Merging this outside mana with his current mana felt impossible, and it seemed like it would kill him; he needed something he could use to begin mixing this mana, but it seemed to difficult. He was trying to think about what the skill said, but knew it said nothing about this feeling. He could hardly think straight, wondering how he would ever be able to learn elements without using a book like he had for fire. Just then, he could feel something in his subconscious pull the time magic in, pouring all his existing mana out and merging it there with the time magic before bringing it in that way. The immense suffocation was lessening, and he could feel that magic inside him. These next few moments would be crucial though, he couldn’t let the rest get away, he needed to completely fill he reserves before he would be over. He was sucking it all in, trying his best not to let any escape and totally fill his reserves. Then, Greg fell to the floor exhausted. He felt as if he had just used all his mana ten times over, and as if he had just nearly died without activating a restore point. Such a sensation had knocked him out of it, but Aetius still smiled.

Carrying Gregory out of the protected space and into a couch in his house, Aetius waited for him to wake up. He could feel the time magic swirling inside of Gregory, and it seemed as if his potential with it was even greater than his own. Of course, this made some sense; Gregory has of the highest class of sage, the ‘Legendary Great Sages’, whom were said to be capable of the most powerful and unique spells ever created.

An hour later, Gregory shot awake. He looked at the message, telling him that he had been fully recovered for sleeping in a bed, which seemed to have a very loose meaning considering he was on a couch. Regardless, it didn’t give him the home bonus, which made sense considering this was another person’s house, and he didn’t even pay to sleep there. I can feel the time magic inside me. I think I can use it now, but I can’t seem to just channel mana like I did with ice or normal magic to create a spell. Perhaps there is a missing step that I can’t understand going on. Calling out for Aetius, Gregory got up off the couch and began walking toward the kitchen he had passed on his way to the basement earlier.

Aetius was currently looking at a video he was streaming of Gregory to see if he would develop one of the passive abilities. As he was doing this, the camera stopped recording, seeming to have everything pause. Of course, Aetius knew better, it was that Gregory’s magic had stopped time in his immediate area. Temporal mages were immune to the ability, but it wasn’t as powerful as it sounded. The main use was gaining experience since time did not pass and one could train until they completely ran out of mana.

On Gregory’s end, he looked at his skill list, seeing the temporal magic mastery at the bottom he decided to view it.

SKILLTEMPORAL MAGIC MASTERY[INTERMEDIATE]PASSIVE/ACTIVE[td3]The user has gained the ability to use and control time magic. This ability grants two abilities, you will never age, and time can be paused in your current area for a cost. One can also remember all the times they have every experienced in their life on a subconscious level, which can be used to travel through visited or anchored times.[/td1]LEVEL = 3COST = N/A(PASSIVE)/98(ACTIVE)

This is the end of the chapter, hope you all enjoy it. Following is his current status window.

NAME[TD3]GREGORY NEAL FROSTCLASS/CLASSESTHE LEGENDARY GAMER, LEGENDARY GREAT SAGE, LEGENDARY LUCK MASTERTITLENOVICELEVEL9HEALTH190/190MANA3340/3340STAMINA250/250STR21VIT19AGI25INT167WIS230LUK517UNSPENT STATUS POINTS45