While the training of the kids continued, some changes were being made to the tribe, changes that would go unnoticed by anyone not noticing them with prying eyes.
First, Danulo's hunting squad was disbanded and people present within took different roles in the tribe. Most of them joined the group that was continuously exploring the eastern region, some went to the Ro-han city to assist another elder there with miscellaneous tasks, and the last two of them, the most inept ones, were assigned on guard duty.
Danulo himself stopped being his outgoing self and spent most of the time with Hans, working on something that no one could make any heads or tails of.
Other Elders didn't care much about it, after all, they were busy with their own tasks.
The second change though affected the lives of every tribesman. Under the order of Hans and Emeritus, everyone, from the reserved mages to the resting warriors, was utilized to clear a wide area around the tribe for any magical beast or adventurer, so that the tribe could permanently settle in the location where they were currently in.
For the first time in the lives of many tribesmen, 'stability' and 'peace' could be seen. It was a novel experience for many old folks, cheering their spirits and increasing their loyalty.
The only thing that felt odd about this grand change, was how secretly all of it was done. The wiser ones inexplicably smelled a conspiracy, an underlying reason, but no one cared enough to speak out against it.
Overall, it was a very welcome change, the leaders were proud and happy, the people were happy too but the happiest out of all of them was undoubtedly the three folks looking at an aged map in a massive treehouse, many meters above the ground, almost piercing the clouds.
This was the place where Senior Emeritus lived in seclusion, controlling all the mages present within the tribe to do his bidding, even teaching them some simple things in his free time. Although those so-called simple things were obviously grand teachings in the eyes of amateur mages.
"Those on the outside must not have a hint of our plans, otherwise, it would all be for naught." Hans's eyes glowed as he spoke in a low voice to the two people sitting in front of him.
Emertius nodded his head offhandedly, his attention elsewhere.
"Don't worry, chief, at most, they would notice how we've set our base for quite some time near the eastern section of the forest but nothing else, I'll make sure of it," Danulo said calmly.
"Then I'm relieved, so we need to recheck these two areas to make sure we didn't miss anything, after which we–"
RUMBLE!
Hans was about to continue but he got interrupted by a boisterous sound outside, dark clouds carrying thunder and lightning casting an ominous shadow on beings down below.
All three of them kept their mum while their brows furrowed. Soon, the clouds started clearing away, as if it was a mere illusion. Hans clenched his fist as he mumbled, "It feels like an ill omen. It happened 6 months ago as well but it is stronger this time. We need to quicken our pace."
…
While Hans was worried about the omens from the Gods, the source of these so-called omens was breathing heavily and continuously swallowing recovery pills in an obscure cave to the south of the 'permanent' location of the tribe.
Golver kept rubbing his disciple's back, slightly worried over the disturbance this time around as Ryne broke through to the Grade-2 and formed a mana core.
As soon as it was formed, the dark clouds appeared and rumbled out of nowhere, and a trace of aura that made him feel minuscule in comparison appeared around Ryne, only surrounding him and not actively harming him.
But even a trace if it was enough to cause internal injuries to the kid.
'It's been 6 months and his progress as a mage has been phenomenal. He's already able to cast so many Grade-1 spells instantaneously. I guess his battle training can be brought forward a bit.'
Ryne, on the other hand, didn't have time to think of anything else, as he felt untold changes happening within his sea of consciousness and newly formed mana core.
The symbols that were present there were shining brighter than ever, revealing an aura of their own as they continuously shifted in an attempt to ward off the trace of aura revealed by the heavens.
The change in symbols or runes was slow but it was the primary cause of his internal injuries.
Ryne wasn't able to see it happening but could perceive his sea of consciousness mutating into something unknown and since he couldn't pinpoint the cause, he didn't bother asking his master and only assumed it happened because he possessed affinity with a divine element.
When Golver found out how quickly he learned the basic fire spell, entirely by using his imagination, he was exhilarated, in fact so much that he gave Ryne another… 'gift', a book that contained all the Grade-1 chants and spells of the fire, wind, water, and earth element that Golver had. A handwritten manual with his own notes and ingenious remarks included.
Although he felt cheated in the beginning, soon he was able to get a hang of it and put it behind him as he focused on increasing his power quickly.
After only a single month of non-stop grueling casting with barely any rest other than his sleeping time, he reached the Mid-Grade-1 and felt an increase in his clarity and the growth of his sea of consciousness made him much more active and full of energy all the time.
Fire-elemental spells quickly became natural to him as if it was the affinity he naturally had and a few of these spells he was able to use even without chanting out loud.
[All Grade-1 spells basically require the same power outlet, just with different methods of casting and different sizes and shapes of the spell. Like different forms of clay that were molded to form different tools. Casting these spells over and over again, I figure, is just a way to use this 'clay' to form pointed 'weapons' that cause the most lethal and piercing damage to my opponents.]
Golver guided his training in such a way that Ryne was quickly able to see the similarities in all the Grade-1 spells, even those of the different elements. This also made him aware that there were only so many ways that such a limited amount of mana could be utilized. Basically, Grade-1 spells were all about getting a feel of the environmental mana and using it in ingenious ways.
The only problem with this line of thinking was that of the chanting. The very foundation of chanting made it seem like the mage was requesting someone to allow them to cast magic and without that permission, it was impossible for a mage to change the shape of their spells freely.
For example, the chants for all Grade-1 fire elemental spells had the same wording other than the last part where the name of the spell itself was shouted out. The same was for the Grade-1 wind elemental spells that Ryne later practiced.
Ryne asked his master about this seemingly odd trait of chanting runes and was then told by Golver that runes were still just a translation of the simplified runes to the common tongue. Remembering the rune itself would solve that problem.
Chants were like the bridges utilized by common people to have their prayers heard by their Gods. These bridges were made of the simplified runes that were offered to attract the attention of the 'Gods', which were simply the ancient runes of fire, the children of all fire elemental mana. Even though ancient runes of fire were not present here and so they couldn't be collected by the people within their mana core, simplified runes made it possible to indirectly utilize them this way.
This made Ryne realize why Golver was so saddened whenever ancient runes were mentioned, after all, they gave far too much of an advantage to all the mages utilizing them.
Ryne didn't even know that ancient runes integrated themselves within the mana cores of the mages utilizing them and hence, didn't require chanting at all until then. It was a pity though, that he didn't know he possessed a small amount of them.
After fire elemental magic spells, he kept practicing wind elemental spells as the continuous show of Golver floating and levitating made him want to have a head start at learning wind magic so that he could utilize it to learn to fly quicker.
A stream of breakthroughs soon followed that led him here, in this obscure cave his master found and he formed his mana core following the advice of his master and improvising on his own after learning from all sorts of books his master offered him.
It felt natural to him as if it was something he should've done long ago. The origin of his mana core being his very origin energy that was extracted when his sea of consciousness got condensed to the same size as it was when it was opened, the rest of it being turned to raw energy and rotating around the center of his origin energy, forming a stable grey mana core that was mutating slowly while being in contact with ancient runes.
Now, Ryne was ready to learn Grade-2 spells, which would have a much greater mana requirement and hence a lot more ways in which it could be utilized as well.
He also wanted to know if he was as strong as other mages and warriors in a fight. Unbeknownst to him, his master was just about to help him find that out.