When Ryne opened his eyes, he saw a pair of eyes staring back at him.
"Master?" he asked, still a little muddled.
"Child, you finally woke up. Really made your master worry this time." Golver replied with excessive concern.
Ryne stayed silent as he couldn't process the overwhelming emotion pouring over him suddenly. 'Is master alright? Is he being so nice because he wants to punish me later?'
"I'm sorry master... I didn't know how to reach out with my spirit." Ryne twiddled with his fingers and looked down, waiting to be berated after coming clean.
Golver benevolently waved his hand, "Oh, that's no problem, child. It's quite simple. I'll teach you that next time, let me just make something for you now, you must be hungry."
Ryne panicked even further when he heard that as he recalled how his father's words used to be oozing with sweetness before his punishment.
As he was searching for ways to avoid pain and suffering, he felt a strong hand touching his back. 'I'm dead, this old fuck is going to kill me.'
"Eh, why are you shivering child? Are you feeling cold?" Golver said while patting his talented disciple's back.
Ryne nervously opened his eyes that he had forcibly shut just now and looked up to see his master's face.
He noticed him staring back at him with a motherly, doting smile, 'What!?'
His little brain short-circuited for a moment as Golver, too anxious to give all his love to his talented disciple, took out another grade-2 mana reinforcing pills and gave it to his pupil.
Ryne, on the other hand, recalled his mother's warnings about strangers who kidnapped kids after feeding them drugs and took two steps back at his master's obvious excessive affection.
'What is this old thing plotting, he shouldn't be trying to drug me… right?'
The awkwardness continued for 2 days with the misunderstanding progressing.
Golver noticed how his new disciple seemed very fearful of him but recalling how he was far away from home, an untold distance dividing him, it seemed right that he was fearful of everyone here.
Some time passed for the 'fearful' Ryne as well who finally realized that perhaps, his master was just too kind to everyone, otherwise, he'd have to be deranged to be behaving like that with his disciple.
Hence, both the master and the disciple came to a misunderstood conclusion and while Golver didn't focused on creating Ryne's training schedule, Ryne kept trying his best to 'uncover' his master's 'devious' plans.
Golver didn't notice any of Ryne's anxious thoughts, he was too anxious about Ryne to do so. He plucked the finest herbs from far away and hunted magical beasts for Ryne's food.
He sat beside Ryne as he practiced, continuously asking him about his feelings. It wouldn't be wrong to say that he was very jealous of his disciple's talent himself and wanted to know more about it one way or the other, but his underlying intentions aside, he truly devoted his heart and soul to nurture Ryne.
Normally, kids that were able to perceive the natural flow of mana and interact with their element were already grade-0 mages. For them to become a low Grade-1 mage, they needed to open their sea of consciousness and after that, all that mattered was expanding it.
The mana stored within a mage's sea of consciousness would act as the fuel of the magic spells a mage would cast and runes would be the language and the medium of the spell.
Usually, a mage would only be respected and feared after they advanced to grade-2 and formed their mana core. A mana core was the essence of an individual's personalized mana. This mana would never be depleted as it worked as a catalyst or an anchor to guide the surrounding natural mana into an individual's sea of consciousness continuously so that it is continuously reinforced and its quality improves as well.
The gap between a Grade-1 and Grade-2 mage is even more huge than the gap between a mage and a commoner.
To Ryne though, this gap meant little, as, unlike other elemental mages, Ryne was a mage of the Divine Element of Time.
There was only a single problem that accompanied his divine elemental affinity.
Although its rarity and potential could not be doubted, there were just no magic spells of the time element available to him.
Without magic spells, Ryne would have little to no combat power in his earlier stages.
Golver knew this, therefore, he was extra intent on hiding this from him for some time as he believed it would make him paranoid and arrogant simultaneously.
"Master... dessert?" Ryne peeped towards Golver at the bonfire.
Golver's heart and pockets hurt at the same time but he clenched his teeth and took out two Grade-2 mana gathering pills before giving them to Ryne for 'dessert'.
While Ryne and Golver were trying to adjust to each other's company and Ryne was starting to feel gratitude for the benevolence of his master, somewhere on another side of the tribe, a child's shrill scream broke the tranquility of the deadly forest.
It was Daney, who was running away from a frog-like creature that was chasing him from a set distance unhurriedly.
Unable to cause damage with his fists and magic, he was forced to use his vicious mouth, "Goddamn you pig, I swear in the name of 18 generations of my ancestors, I'll make you eat shit once I'm stronger than you."
His esteemed master, whom he lovingly referred to as a pig, had an impassive expression that soon turned dark upon hearing his disciple's words.
His speed doubled at once as he caught Daney by his ear and whispered, "If you advance to Grade-1 before one month, you'll have only 10 whips, otherwise 50 as usual."
After saying his piece, he twisted Daney's ears as another shrill outcry echoes the lonely woods.
Ever since Lumien took Daney as his disciple, the pair of master and disciple didn't have a single good night's rest. Daney kept trying to humiliate, and offend his master while Lumien kept trying to discipline his disciple.
Only 2 days had passed and Daney was whipped twice within this time, but he still refused to practice magic and took on beatings while refining his body and vicious tongue.
Even Lumien was forced to think of new ways to make Daney practice magic when threats and beatings didn't work.
Daney, who didn't know that his master was about to apply some more lenient methods of teaching from then on only had a single source of consolation - that was the news Lumien told him yesterday to motivate him.
'So Golver took that traitor as his disciple, hehe no matter how bad I'm faring here, that traitor is definitely facing it much worse than me with that old ghoul as his master.' Daney shivered as he thought of Golver.