Fleeting as ever, time passed without informing the mages, commoners, beasts, and warriors and everyone adjusted their distinct way to the change brought about by time.
Some attracted misery, some found love, some found more motivation to live, some lost everything they had, but none of them attempted to subvert it, to rebel against it, and to fight it.
And while everyone was learning to adjust to the fickle nature of the world and the impassive tread of time, one little child and a benign elder were discussing its complexities and paradoxes.
As such, in a plain and cold wooden shed, the advent of defiance of the natural order began with the understanding of it.
Ryne, after 4 years of training and practice, was already a High Grade-2 mage. All he needed was a slight push and he would reach the peak of Grade-2, ready to break through to Grade-3.
The mana core within his sea of consciousness was like a constantly rotating grey woolen ball. If anyone could peer inside Ryne's sea of consciousness, they would find it dark and empty, but his mana core would still draw their attention in completely as it appeared to be present there since the origin of the world, timeless and mysterious.
Although it was grey, it wasn't dull, but glowing from time to time. This happened because when Ryne advanced as a Grade-2 mage, the ancient structured symbols that illuminated his sea of consciousness flew of their own volition and started an unknown process of getting condensed together, huddling within the mana core formed by him.
This evolved mana core was complete after another year and not only was it much more durable and rotated faster than usual but also made Ryne much closer to the natural mana of the world, helping him cast spells much more quickly. That he still couldn't cast any useful spells was a different matter altogether.
Physically, Ryne's height grew but he didn't have any other significant changes. Mentally though, his whole world transformed. If his father looked at him now, he would certainly be shocked senseless.
His little skinny self appeared to be at ease, one with the world, in a self-sustained rhythm as he sat upright on his stone bed talking to his master.
"Master, we try to measure time by observing shadows of the sun, incense sticks, or hourglass, and it demonstrates time through division." Ryne opened his palm, showed 5 fingers to his master, and followed up, "If I say there are 5 divisions in a day, then we'll call them as such and try to divide our memories as such without knowing that it's impossible."
"Isn't that normal?" Golver inclined his head and whispered.
"No master, it only seems normal because we have always been doing it but actually we perceive time differently, as a seamless flow, without any division."
"..so what?"
"I'm trying to play with that perception. If I manage to learn some more auxiliary simplified runes, I might just be able to create a unique magic spell that would slow an individual's perception of time." Ryne tried his best to pull off the most adorable expression he could perform as he said that.
Golver let out a light chuckle as he understood his disciple's intentions, "Child, you should know by now how hard it is to gather knowledge about runes. I've already given you everything that our Zaputa tribe had regarding runes. All of these runes are very very precious kid, you can't just fish them out from the stream."
Ryne felt guilt biting a corner of his heart as he felt the sincere bitterness of his master at being unable to fulfill his disciple's wishes. Suddenly, his expression turned odd. Golver's words reminded him of the letter he had found back when first appeared here.
He recalled that the letter contained some kind of runes or symbols that he couldn't identify but after knowing so much about simplified runes and understanding a lot of them, he realized with a start that still couldn't recognise any of the symbols even those he still remembered a lot of them as if he had just seen them in the morning.
'Could it be… Ancient runes!? Or something else? How could I be so dumb and forgetful. Well, no regret, I can ask him now.'
If it was back then, he would've wanted to study it for himself but over time the honesty and integrity that Golver managed to chip away a little bit of the mighty wall that he had put up around his heart.
Although, he did throw him off the sky a few times, kicked him off the cliff 2 times to better perceive wind elemental mana, and forced him into that claustrophobic cave that somehow led him to barely avoiding the scythe of the grim reaper.
Still he realized the honest concern and selfless care without many underlying intentions in Golver's actions and became even closer to him than he was to his family gradually. Therefore, as soon as he recalled the mysterious golden opportunity, that he still didn't know had already transformed his mana core, he mentioned it to his master.
Golver thought about it for a moment before shaking his head, "We can go there tomorrow child, you still need to do your physical training for today."
Ryne's composure instantly melted as soon as he heard the words 'physical training'. He knew it as well that unless he magically found some magic spells of Time Element by chance, he would need to rely on his martial training to fight his enemies.
But knowing it didn't mean understanding it. Without any direct threat, Ryne couldn't perceive the necessity of physical training to him. Moreover, his talent as a warrior was just too abysmal for him to do anything with it.
Even after training for 3 and a half years, he still couldn't advance as even a Grade-1 warrior. Golver even gave him precious pills and medicinal baths but nothing stood a chance in front of Ryne's low talent.
To advance as a Grade-1 Warrior, he needed to temper his skin through a physical manual, in which 3 sets of exercises were given. It took him two years to find the rhythm of the exercise. Even now, he didn't believe he had any chance of advancing anytime soon but both master and disciple knew that it was the only other choice he had and therefore he gritted his teeth and started punching a thick tree.
It was the same exercise he saw Daney doing 4 years back, the first set of the three arduous training exercises to temper the skin and make it as durable as a flexible iron shield.
Golver sat in the wooden shed, thinking of the mysterious letter Ryne told him about just then, 'Ancient runes? Mysterious letter? Ro-han' treasure? Is it the much-coveted Ro-han's treasure map that Chief and Danulo have been searching for all this time? What should I do? Express? Hide? Take it for me? ugh, this child trusts me too much, I shouldn't betray his trust. But can I afford to betray my tribe for that? ugh, my head hurts.'
In a dilemma, Golver blanked out as 2 hours passed. A creaking noise soon woke Golver from his reverie as Ryne popped his little head in and flashed a smile, "I broke through, master."
"That's great, you're finally a warrior! Let me fetch you a Grade-2 manual now." Golver said cheerfully as he put the dilemma on the back of his mind.
"Ugh, Master, it isn't like that. I broke through... to the Peak of Grade-2 as a mage.
"Oh —.—"