Zareth was successful in using Mana Absorption on both of his parents, who were now sound asleep only to wake up along with the break of dawn at around 6 AM.
With some subtle and quiet maneuvers, Zareth escaped his prison of a house and began making his way to the forest which surrounded his small town.
This forest was famously called Jormount, which was a shortened version of Jörmungandr.
From what he had learned about it, Jormount was a vast stretch of narrow and long forest that carved through the entire continent of the Mortal Plains, where Zareth's kingdom, Joutenheim, along with several other kingdoms and empires were located.
Touching both shores of the continent, Jormount stretched from one side of the land to the other, splitting the expanse right in two.
And although the forest is millions of miles in length, the width of its territory is nothing to scoff at either, as it would take months to travel across it even on horseback.
Although it was so large and touched the territories of several kingdoms and empires, not even an inch of the land of the titanic forest was under any nation's public jurisdiction.
This was mostly due to the wide array of powerful beasts inside the region, many of which were still yet to be discovered.
Along with this, the forest housed rigorously cruel terrains and extremely harsh environments, those which kingdoms did not dare to approach.
The part of the forest in which Joutenheim was closely located was a rather calm one, and did not inhabit any extremely powerful beasts, so, many smaller towns were set up inside of it even though no kingdom accepted true ownership of the land.
Knowing this, Zareth had no problem waltzing right into the forest in the dark of night.
The eagerness in his soul to finally cultivate mana once again was almost too much to contain as he found himself deep enough in the forest where no one would be able to notice him.
His vision was nearly pitch black when entering the forest, only being able to see slightly because of his Foundation Creation rank eyes which granted him slightly better vision, apparently even against the darkness.
As he walked, the only sounds he could comprehend apart from utter silence were unindictable creatures brushing against the bushes nearby him occasionally, and the buzz of small critters in the darkness.
After walking through a large fortress of thick bush, Zareth found himself in a small patch of grass that held no trees.
Instead, there was a single large boulder that was placed right in the middle of the treeless plot, which Zareth found was a perfect place to cultivate.
After sitting down on top of the big stone in a lotus position, Zareth began using Hale.
Six hours quickly passed again before Zareth even noticed.
The bright morning sun had already begun to cast its vibrant orange hue over the horizon and through the treetops into the forest below, awakening any life within the forest that was not conscious already.
Zareth himself was abruptly awoken by the sudden and loud chirping of birds which seemed slightly too loud to be able to ignore.
On top of that, Zareth noticed a foul aroma that clouded the atmosphere around him.
On opening his eyes, Zareth's face immediately looked very unimpressed with his current situation, and even a hint of misery could be seen in his expression.
All around him were dozens of birds that looked to have made his body not just their home, but also their toilet.
Dried white feces covered his forehead, shoulders, pants, and torso. Nearly his entire body was drenched in the stuff.
For a couple of seconds, Zareth did not move, only looking straight forward stoically as though he was an average middle-aged man who had just arrived back home after a 12-hour shift of work and was forced to listen to his wife complain and nag about her minute problems the second he got home...
Or in other words, a look of pure suffering.
...
"Get the hell off me you flappy f*cks!!"
Zareth suddenly yelled, flailing his arms as all of the birds quickly flew away.
'And here I thought I was smelling the impurities that had released from my body...'
Despite Zareth's optimistic thoughts, the impurities released on his body were instead from a gang of birds who had decided to leave him with a certainly impure load.
Zareth slowly stood up on top of the rock before closing his eyes in order to enhance his hearing sense further.
After a couple of seconds of intense focus, he began hearing a quiet stream of water nearby.
He opened his eyes again with utmost determination on his serious face... before quickly taking off all of his clothes and storming toward the water at full speed.
'System... show me my stats.'
Zareth said in his head as he ran buck naked through the forest.
[Status]
Name: Zareth Vanaheim
Species: Human
Bloodline: Unknown
Age: 10 Years
Level: 1
Exp: 3/5
Combat Power: 11
Vitality: 100 Years
Health: 26.0/26.0
Stamina: 31.0/31.0
Strength: 24.0
Agility: 28.0
Defense: 20.0
Body: Basic Earth Bound
Rank: Foundation Creation (34.6%)
MP: 40/40
-
Skills:
Godly Constitution (Passive) Immune to most toxins, poisons, venoms, and diseases.
Worlds Polyglot (Passive) Ability to comprehend, read, and write most languages through magic translation.
Stamina Regeneration (Passive/Active) Ability to increase stamina regeneration rate.
Stamina Absorbtion (Active) Ability to absorb stamina from something else that holds stamina.
-
'It looks like I have gotten some exp from random sources, but my level is still just one. It seems I will need to do more than body-weight training and mana cultivation to increase it. Possibly, I will need to kill things.'
As Zareth thought this to himself, he arrived at a fair-sized river in which cool, blue water rapidly flowed.
The water was see-through and quite shallow, only reaching to about Zareth's belly button, so, he immediately took a plunge into the water without thinking twice.
The water around him became murky white for a moment before the flow of the river quickly washed away all of the gunk.
After cleaning himself, Zareth floated on his back for a moment and heaved a sigh of satisfaction.
Looking at the morning sky above him, his eyebrows suddenly curled in anger.
Immediately, he got out of the river and began making his way home. This was no time to relax in satisfaction.
No, that time was yet to come. Only after gaining enough power and severing the heads of his enemies and bathing in their blood would Zareth allow himself to be truly satisfied.
For now, however, the closest thing he could get to true satisfaction... was nothing other than a warm meal of meat and rice.
Thankfully, his home was located away from the town center, so no one saw him nakedly sneak back into his house where he dried himself off before putting on some clothes again.
Eventually, his parents also got up and both noticed him training his body outside from their window.
On seeing this, Freya looked at Drufus and said
"I... have realized that we only became adventurers because of the tough lives we had to live." She said in her soft-spoken voice.
Drufus looked slightly confused as to what she meant.
"What are you trying to say, Freya?"
Freya looked back at Zareth who was rigorously training as he awaited his meal.
"He... doesn't need to live such a life of danger. He has us to protect and provide for him!" She spoke, trying to convince Drufus.
Drufus was taken aback by her words.
"Do not tell me you are serious." He questioned with bewilderment.
Freya did not speak.
"You-- you're serious... You want me to accept my son, who is a god-sent prodigy, to just die as a bag of shit who lays at home and does nothing?"
A hint of anger arose in Drufus' voice.
"What if his so-called god-sent gift is a curse instead? What if it puts him in danger!?"
Freya tried to make sense of her point of view.
"Don't you see the ambition that he holds? Look at him, it is only the break of dawn yet he is already training! He is talented beyond measure! So what if we can protect and provide for him? We will not be alive forever Freya."
As Drufus spoke, Freya looked back at Zareth who still had the same determined and serious look on his face.
"I understand that you want to protect him, however, when he comes of age, I cannot promise to do anything to stop his passions." Drufus finally claimed.
"But Drufu!-" Freya was promptly cut-off.
"Freya! It is his life to lead! Not ours to protect!" Drufus said in a raised voice.
A silence uttered itself in the room.
"Fine..." Freya looked away. "Do as you wish."
She was still clearly upset, and Drufus' funny attempts to make her happy once again did not seem to work this time around.
After an hour of exercising, Zareth made his way back into the house expecting a beautiful aroma of meat to blow him away into a seat where the meat would already be inserted into his mouth.
But to his dismay, there existed no such smell.
He was distraught... in disbelief!
Drufus looked to be gearing up in his leather armor to go and train once again, and Freya looked to doing nothing in the kitchen, only looking out a window somberly.
"After all this waiting... whe-- where is my meat!?"