A few minutes after Jacob collapses the grand sage arrives. The grand sage notices Jacob lying peacefully near the ashes left from Kalen's body.
'From the looks of it it must have been quite the fight.' The grand sage thought while looking at the aftermath of the battle that took place.
He then looks at Jacob once more and observes his bruises. 'His wounds are healing at a rapid pace, he has improved his nature energy absorption.' The grand sage thinks this as he continues his observation.
'Wait what is this?' He questions as he notices Jacob's forearm and hand have completely turned dark. 'Judging by the pattern it must be scotch marks, but how did he receive them, better yet why is his arm not healing?' He thought.
He then placed his hand on Jacob's chest and completely healed all of Jacob's bruises instantly but the scotch marks still remained on Jacob's right arm.
'What? it's not healing, if that's the case then that means he...No, I must first take him back home, he must rest properly.' The grand sage thought this as he picked up Jacob's body in a princess carry.
As the grand sage was walking home. 'Now that I think of it, I wasn't able to sense Jacob's presence just until a few moments ago, could it be that the enemy he was facing was able to conceal both their presences...no if the enemy was that good, Jacob would have been killed without realizing' *sighs* "So much thinking yet no conclusive thought.." The grand sage says this as he enters the house.
............................
Meanwhile in the outskirts of a remote village a man dressed in a white cloak and a hood covering his eyes and nose, only his mouth visible to others approaches a massive fortress that seems to be veiled in a large sphere of darkness.
After he enters the sphere he approaches the main gates that have two stone gargoyles statues perched atop the walls nearby.
The gargoyles' heads turn towards the man and the gates open letting the man in. He then walks towards to what seems to be the main mansion.
As he approaches, the doors open and a middle age pale skinned man with slicked back grey hair and red eyes dressed in a formal butler suit greets the man.
"Greetings my Lord, How may I be of service?" the butler asks. "At ease, I'm only here to meet your master." the hooded man replied in a cold voice.
"I'm afraid the master is currently too occupied to welcome any visits."
"oh, and when will he be available?" The man asks with no change in his voice.
"I'm afraid even I do not have an answer to that question."
"Very well then inform me once he is available." The hooded man says this as he leaves.
"Understood" The butler says this and bows in respect.
As the hooded man is walking down a barren road he looks at the starry night sky.
"The day for all things to return to what they once where is steadily approaching, isn't it my Lord?"
"Regardless of what the future brings, I'll most surely find it enjoyable." He says this and then he grins like a mad man.
Back at the fortress, The butler has gone deep into the main mansion and has reached a room that is 3 times the size of all the other rooms.
The man walks down the red carpet leading to a throne in which sits a handsome pale skinned man, black shoulder length hair, has blood red eyes and is wearing an all black adventurer's outfit with a body length black cloak.
"Uh Ragnor, anything to report?" the pale man asks. "Yes, Lord Dracula." Ragnar responds.
"What is it then?" Dracula asks.
"One of Kalen's clones has been killed. Ragnor responds. "Oh? and who is responsible?"
"We are still uncertain as the killer doesn't have a mana signature." Ragnor responds. ".....I see, no mana signature huh?"
"We are also unable to locate where the killing took place."
"Really? how is that possible?" Dracula asks.
"To be honest, if it wasn't for Victoria's sensory abilities, we would have not discovered the death of the clone."
"Oh and what of the real Kalen?"
"He is currently conducting his experiments."
"Where you able to determine the last signature the clone left?"
"No my Lord, I'm afraid everything that could be traced back to the killer has been erased."
Dracula sighs. "That sage bastard must be responsible for this."
"uh, sage?" Ragnor asks confused by Dracula's statement.
"Don't mind my words, do you have anything else to report?"
"Yes my Lord, it is about the blood gem?"
"Oh, what of it?" Dracula asks in a rather delighted tone.
"It is at 30% completion, my Lord."
Dracula grins revealing his fangs. "Now that is most excellent news."
Suddenly three beautiful women barge in the throne room, all of them finely dressed.
"My Lord, we have been waiting for too long" "Yes, so much so that our bodies have begun to ache" "The only remedy being your healing touch." The women speak in rapid succession.
Dracula smirks and faces Ragnor. "It seems we will have to save this discussion for another time."
"Understood my Lord, but what of the clone?"
"Leave it, if we are to investigate further, we will only end up with nothing."
"Very well, my Lord." Ragnor leaves.
As the women approach. "How about we take this to the bedroom, yes?" Dracula asks with a smirk. The women then walk hand in hand with Dracula out of the throne room.
..........................
Back at Grand sage's place, Jacob has just woke up and found himself inside his own bedroom. Still in a confused state, he washes his face in the bathroom and heads down to the dining room where he finds his grandfather serving food for two.
"Grandpa, what are you doing?" Jacob asks as he rubs his eyes.
"Preparing to eat, young blood." The grand sage replies.
As Jacob is rubbing his eyes, he notices that his clothes have been replaced and he is currently wearing a loose brown T-shirt and black shorts and to top it all off, his right arm is completely wrapped in bandages.
'What?' is the only thought Jacob had at the moment.
Noticing Jacob's confused expressions, the grand sage taps the table notifying Jacob to sit down and have some food.
As Jacob sits he looks at the food placed on the table and furrows his brows.
"Rice and meatballs?" Jacob asks.
"Precisely" The grand sage replies.
"For breakfast!?" Jacob shouts as he forcefully places his hands on the table.
".....No, for dinner." The grand sage says this as he points out the window.
Jacob looks out the window and notices that the sun had set. "What, it's already evening? Have I been asleep for the entire day?"
"Don't be silly, you were asleep for two weeks."
"What!?" Jacob shouts and then feels a sharp pain in his bandaged arm. He composes himself as he sits down.
"Yes as I was saying, you've been asleep for a whole two weeks. Your mother and sister had visited you for your birthday but you where nowhere to be seen."
"Mom and Lucy came? How come, I don't remember them telling me of their visit."
"Well of course not, it was supposed to be a surprise birthday party but alas things did not go to plan."
"Yeah they really didn't, huh?"
"Anyways, tell me what really happened that day."
Jacob then narrates what happened that day to his grandfather. After that, it left the grand sage with much to think about.
"Hey grandpa"
"Yes young blood?"
"That girl I mentioned was strange."
"How so?"
"I was able to heal the guards rather easily, but for some strange reason none of what I couldn't heal her at all. It's as if she healed herself."
"Oh and what's so surprising about that, some gifted magicians are able to heal themselves using their own mana."
"I know that grandpa but that's not what I meant."
"Then what are you saying?"
"While she was healing, I noticed a red mark on her nape that looks similar to the one Lucy has."
"But Lucy's mark is blue." The grand sage interrupts
"Yeah I know, but the pattern was just too similar to ignore. That and she also seemed to have an incredible amount of mana almost as strong as Lucy's."
"Almost as strong as Lucy? That is rather incredible." The grand sage replies. 'Lucy is already stronger than most adults in terms of pure physical strength and magic power. the only other child I know that has an even higher amount of mana is my granddaughter April. And coincidentally she also has a yellow marking on her left upper arm.'
'There also have been cases of kids showing incredible potential throughout the continent. It seems the number of monsters arising is growing ever so largely.' The grand sage thought.
"Oh grandpa I just remembered."
"???"
"I also had a sword with me."
"A sword?"
"Yeah if not for that sword, I would be dead, so where did you put it?"
"Jacob, there was no sword when I found you."
"whaaat, you calling me crazy grandpa?"
"Indeed I am."
"But Grand....." Jacob then grits his teeth as a wave of pain washes over him.
"Grandpa, what's happening to me?"
"It took a while but I'm finally sure of what you're going through."
"Yeah what is it?" Jacob asks impatiently.
"Your body is undergoing a process I like to call nature shock."
"Nature...shock?"
"Yes, this is a stage that occurs when one absorbs nature energy while at their physical limits. But in your case there is an exception to consider."
"Which is?"
"In order for you to go through this stage, I placed you under great physical stress and even resorted to using restrictors on you.
The idea was for your body to rely solely on the external energy around instead of your already limited internal energy.
While we did have a breakthrough as you were able to absorb nature energy, it wasn't nearly enough to cause a nature shock but it seems using sage mode while fighting Kalen triggered the shock."
Jacob remembers when he activated sage mode.
"What's so special about sage mode anyway"
"Jacob listen closely, among nature users the difference between those that use the sage arts and those that don't is that of heaven and earth."
"woah, awesome."
"And now with you having awakened sage mode we can commence to the next step of training."
"What? more training."
"Indeed, we have a long way to go before you can become a true sage. But for now eat."
"Yes sir!" Jacob says as he proceeds to eat.
"Grandpa what exactly happened to my arm."
"Part of nature shock, it seems you overused the fire element so those enchanted bandages will help to restore your arm faster."
"I see, alright time to eat."
Jacob begins to eat greedily.
"So how's the food?"
"It's delicious" Jacob says as he stuffs his face with the meatballs and chews crazily.
"Oh, so you enjoying those cow balls?"
Jacob pauses at this question and looks at his grandfather questioningly "Jij u jush shay cow ballsh? (Did you just say cow balls?)"
The grand sage nods.
"NO!!!!!" Jacob shouts as he spits out the meat.
"Ay! what are you doing? you're wasting good food. Put that meat back in your mouth immediately."
"What!? Never, you're making me eat a cow's testicles!"
"Cows don't have testicles, you fool, bulls do."
"I don't care, I'm not eating those balls."
".....Young blood, as your grandfather, I demand you eat."
The grand sage starts chasing Jacob around the house and for an old man he is surprisingly nimble.
The chase goes on for a while until Jacob gets exhausted and is then forced to eat the cow balls.
...........................
The next week, early in the morning, Jacob and his grandfather are at the training grounds.
"Alright Young blood, activate your sage mode for me."
"Okay" *inhales deeply and exhales slowly* As he does this a sudden rush of energy enters Jacob's body and then the flow of energy stops.
The grand sage stares at Jacob with his eyes subtly glowing ' He has increased his strength by only 10, huh? not bad, but it won't be nearly enough to face the high classed monsters, I guess I have no choice but to unleash his true power.' "Alright Young blood come over here."
Jacob approaches the grand sage. The grand sage then places his hand on Jacob's head and utters the word "release".
"All right Young blood, I want you to punch the ground as hard as you can."
"Alright grandpa."
Jacob readies his left arm and within a blink of an eye he punches the ground, leaving a 50m wide and 20m deep crater develops and most of trees in the vicinity have been blown away.
Jacob notices his arm has completely contorted and screams in pain.
The grand sage just stares at Jacob with his eyes wide open. 'Forget what I said about the gifted kids in the continent, this boy right here is the real "monster".