"Mother, didn't I tell you that my plan would work?" The turtle said after eating until he couldn't stand up and was lying down on the grass.
"O stupid Son, it wasn't your plan. It was, of course, my stomach's well-timed rumble that saved us from starving." Even the white fur of the fox seemed to shine now after she became slightly chubby with the food.
Roland groaned, feeling stupid for giving food to the talking animals. So after they seemed to forget about him, he stood up and began to walk once again to the next city, Lakepoint. "I should begin to gather money selling this endless food in the next city to finally pay everyone in my notebook. A shame I can't do that in Rongvale, those merciless guys from the Golden Society would kill me for calling too much attention to myself." He thought.
"What? Young man of the Golden Starving Endless Bag, wait a moment. Where are you going?" The fox called for Roland and thought while transmitting her thoughts to her son. "Although he had that bag and food wasn't a problem for him, he was the only one in the last month that stopped for us instead of running away like cowards. I'm thinking of using him for our resurrection and even make him my apprentice meanwhile it since I am bored. And you?"
"More or less feeling the same as you, and he is worthy of being my disciple since he saw through my perfect world-class acting and scheme." The turtle sent back, still hurt one of his best plans made since he had born was easily seen through by someone that is only twenty-two years old.
Roland stopped in curiosity and looked back at the strange pair of mother and son. "What long name did you use for my bag? And why do you know its name? It was a 'present' from a True Magus moreover."
"It is just a Celestial Rank 18 Spirit Equipment without runes, there is no way such low thing could escape from my vision without being recognized. I can't look right now like a practitioner of the Great Art of Essence Reinforcement or Equipment Formation, but before I was a master in those Arts." The fox smugly said, puffing its chubby chest and destroying any feeling of amazement Roland could feel because of the ridiculous situation of a fox claiming to be master of two of the Great Arts.
Besides the way of training Essence with techniques and mystic bloodline styles taught in recluse clans, there were several of what came to be called Arts that uses Essence and other energies to produce something from nothing or accomplish what earlier was thought to be impossible.
And above all Arts were the four Great Arts known as Medicine Alchemy, Essence Reinforcement, Equipment Formation and Soul Tampering.
The medicine Roland gave to his father, for example, was made with the Great Art Medicine Alchemy and spirit plants.
Roland decided to just call the bag of Endless Bag to not call disaster on him if someone discovers he has something so outrageous like a Rank 18 equipment reinforced to the Celestial tier. Of course, if what the fox is saying is true. Roland remembers his father reading to him a book which told foxes likes to lie and brag. "Thank you for informing about this item and to answer your earlier question, I am going to the next city beyond this jungle. Goodbye and try next time to not forget of hunting your own food."
"Like I said, where are you going when your masters are right here? Did you think we were joking about taking you as our disciple?" The fox inquisitively looked at Roland with her icy eyes.
"A talking fox and a turtle are going to be my masters? No, thank you." Roland decisively began to left the area, chiding himself for continuing in the company of those aberrations of nature which were in a disturbing way similar to that monster woman he fears in Rongvale with how strange they are.
"Wait! Don't you want to become rich?" The fox ran after him.
"No."
"Powerful?"
"Not in the slightest. Being a mortal is good enough."
"Master all the Great Arts and dominate the world with your Essence?"
"Not Interested."
The fox's eyes narrowed and her bushy tail angrily swang to the sides while chasing him. "Then what the hell do you want for your life? Where are your fucking dreams?"
Roland didn't know if it was the brash language of the fox or something tugging inside of him to stop himself of walking away from here, but with a solemn face, he out of character told his deepest desires that all the children always laughed at him. "I want my life to be tranquil. My dream is to buy a big land for the family I will make and then live there with everyone I love without being disturbed by the violence of the big cities and Societies, I want to be something like a farmer there if I don't discover a good hobby until then."
He sighed, waiting for the mocking to come. "Laugh at me if you want, I know how strange and paltry my dream is in comparison to someone that studies in the Great Arts, but this is my only wish after being terrorized by the violence around me when young. I just want to be left alone with my family and live tranquilly."
And the laugh Roland was expecting didn't come, what came was actually understanding. "While it's true your dream is simple, I don't it is something I would laugh at. It actually is a sad dream because it shows how bad your childhood was. You must come from some horrible place and even had to something you didn't like for survival, right?" The fox's eyes were compassionate and the turtle behind them was looking melancholy to the sky, remembering a far away past.
Roland began to like more the serious parts of the talking animals than their joking and exaggerate parts. "My grandpa once said, 'Although it is true some people are badly shaped by the environment they live, some grow in the exact opposite direction of the environment around because of how clear the environment is bad to them.' But I don't think I have this dream just because of the place where I grew up. I think that maybe I would have it even if lived in the 'superior' part of the town."
"Then why not long for power? I swear to you, if you train with us it will be easier to buy the land you want." The fox tried to negotiate and her eyes shone. "You must have something you regret and needs power for, don't you? Let me see your past." The fox lunged at Roland's feet.
He tried to back off, but the fox was too quick and as soon as her paws touched his legs, he felt an intrusive energy entering and violating his Essence and brain.
"Interesting. Your father was kidnapped and you want to travel between strata to meet him." The fox laughed.
"You saw my memories?" Roland jumped backward in fear of the being at his front.
"Yeah, and stop minding about minor things, little Roland." The fox's voice contained a malice and temptation bordering a Devil's offer. "What if I told you that I know at least four ways to you do that, but you need to become powerful while being our disciple?"
Roland's whole body trembled and he looked suspiciously to the fox with still a small amount of fear mixed with curiosity. Would the information he was prepared to search for fifty years suddenly appear to him just after two days searching? What's the deal with this incredible coincidence?
"Stop looking at your teacher in this way." She rebuked. "The first way to you travel between strata is to become one of the Wall Guardians which is only possible if you have power enough to reach the realm of True Magus in your training; the second way is to become the leader of a society which also needs to you become really powerful; the third way is to you show considerable talent and power to one of those behemoth entities in the Existence to them recruit you; and the last way is to you train to the fourth tier of my and my son's techniques to go there without being noticed using our special magical ability."
The turtle and fox went to close each other and mimicked each other. "What's your decision? Will you become our disciple or not?"
Roland thought with indecision. "What am I doing here, even considering to become the apprentice of two talking animals? What's wrong with me? Am I that desperate? But all the ways she said with exception of the last one seems possible and plausible, however, I need to be powerful to do each one of them. Can I really do it? I don't think I am that talented or that I will find someone in the city to teach me any technique to dilute and mutate Essence.
And what if this is all a complicated scam? How can animals really teach me something? But will I really get another chance to find the path to the middle stratum…?" Roland felt as if the slimmer trace of hope was escaping from his grasp with each second of indecision, the straws of hope were disappearing and he hated that feeling of impotence, so he sighed and decided to throw caution and common sense to the wind. "I don't care if this is all a lie, if I don't take risks how will I find Father?"
The determined look of Roland was all that the fox and turtle needed as answer. "From now on you are our disciple, little Roland. My name is Lucy and my son is August II."
This was the beginning of a relationship Roland come to regret to begin.
***
"I hate you two!" Five days later a scream of rage and regret tore through the dense evergreen jungle next to the Lakepoint.
At distance was possible to see Roland holding in his hands a miraculous suspended small ball of water, defying all laws of physics while being chased by an enormous hungry animal in form of a yellow tiger with its fangs and stripped lines as more recognizable marks. "Since when this jungle had tigers?" He shouted to the skies, crying in fear of dying.
"Come on Roland, just five more meters."
"Little Roland, put more force in your hips and stabilize the Soul Spirit, it is deforming."
The turtle and fox shouted encouragements and tips meanwhilst being completely in safety and out of danger of becoming tiger's food in the 'road'.
Roland's masters didn't only send him into the jungle for seemingly no reason, they also never put their lives in danger when their disciple could die at any moment.
Before Roland could curse them more, the tiger roared and plunged at him when he was only ten centimeters from safety in the 'road'. "Will I die here?" He thought and his body shook in defiance to the mere mention of that. The first lesson from the damned fox went to his head and his body reacted in pure instinct.
The almost deformed ball-shaped Soul Spirit shone as Roland's left hand encrusted in Vital Energy tapped on it and drew from it two drops of water which began to spin and coil around his fingers before shooting by themselves to protect their master.
Both Roland and the tiger looked in disbelief when the small spinning drops of water hit under the tiger's body, not powerful enough to penetrate its fur but powerful enough to make the tiger recoil high enough to completely miss Roland and end up striking head first in the piece of paper protecting the 'road', provoking a forlorn scream from the tiger as it activated the talisman and a series of lightning bolts rained on it until it got stunned and went to the land of dreams full of regret of chasing the man with interesting smell.
Heaving, Roland entered the safe 'road' with adrenaline still pumping on him. The fox and turtle couldn't lose this opportunity to make Roland advance in his training and they immediately ordered him before he began to complain. "Began to circle the Essence through your body in the way we taught you before the adrenaline disappears."
Roland perceived the opportunity after being remembered and let the Lucy take care of the Soul Spirit in form of a ball of water meanwhile he used the techniques he was taught to gather and harness Essence inside of himself.
Lucy opened her mouth and engulfed the Soul Spirit, Roland couldn't still understand how she was capable of doing that and returning it to him without a single problem.
All these little escapades and the hatred going inside of him for his masters was because of how strange was to train Lucy's Vital Water Energy technique, Eternal Water Spirit Incantation, and August's Body Qi technique, Timeless Emperor Refinement, at the same time.
Roland reminded of what Lucy said on the first day of the training. "You are currently at the third layer on the stage of training Essence known as Essence Reformation or as others call Magus Rank 0. Only after passing the tenth layer and gathering enough Essence to make your foundation, your first Magic Circle, you will be able of calling yourself of Magus, an Essence's user. So give me your blood already to you start my technique."
The process of gathering Essence without diluting or mutating it with any kind of energy is actually an automatic and slow natural process which causes someone with at least seventy years reach the seventh layer of Essence Reformation without training but with a lot of impurities and diseases inside of one's own body, thus being the principal cause of death of the elderly together with the decreased longevity.
His masters' techniques more or less complemented themselves by having him make Vital Energy by using all his mind to control the focal point of the Eternal Water Spirit Incantation, the ball of water, while making him pass for extreme emotions like pain or fear to create Qi Energy and reform his body using Timeless Emperor Refinement. So he is forced to go to situations beyond the limit to make him better at controlling the Water Spirit without it deforming while using the adrenaline or fear to advance in making his body stronger.
He is at the same time training in two different techniques that creates energies capable of diluting and mutating Essence, causing him after only five days be already near to the next layer in the realm Essence Reformation.
Right now Roland is using the Vital Energy and the leftover Qi Energy made by the adrenaline to non-stopping refining Essence to inside of his body in the smallest organ of the human body, Polus, to breakthrough to the fourth layer in Essence Reformation.
In accord to Roland's instructions, the two energies are melding and calling forth pure refined Essence to spread it through his body in a cycle before gradually accumulating in the Polus, and filling it past the barrier of the fourth layer inside of it, the Essence Organ.
"So this is how someone properly training feels going to the next layer?" Roland felt so refreshed and for lack of better words, 'alive', that made all his suffering worth it.
"Now that you are the fourth layer let's increase the danger since we will reach the city in the next days. How about you go angering a beast capable of using Essence and at the Magus Rank 1?" August the turtle sinisterly said, yearning to see his disciple cry tears of blood while watching everything with a smirk splattered in his face.
Roland laid down, exhausted. "Okay, maybe it wasn't worth it."