As he closed in on the three-month mark since he climbed down the mountain at the beginning of spring, Adion once again found himself deep inside the Endless Forest. It was time for another hunt.

By now, the fruits in the safe part near the mountain had started growing, but Adion still wanted to eat some meat alongside the fruit. He was growing, after all. He would be 14 the coming winter and wanted to grow tall like his brother.

Adion had his space mana released around him, making him aware of everything happening in a sphere with him at its center, reaching about 120 feet in all directions. He had gotten better at that since he went on his first hunt. It didn’t take much Will or even focus from Adion to keep it up either, almost becoming like a new sense. He had always had a good sense of things going on around him, practiced with the help of metal plums thrown by his grandfather. But it was on a whole other level now.

As he continued his search for prey, he suddenly noticed something rushing at him from the left. Adion reacted quickly and focused his space mana between him and the approaching beast. He felt that it was a Gray Wolf but a Bronze stage one. Thankfully, only low Bronze.

The wolf was in front of Adion in just a few seconds, jumping at him with its claws and teeth, ready to tear him into pieces. Thankfully, Adion was ready and froze the space around the wolf as he struck with his sword. Unfortunately, Adion couldn’t get a good angle; the wolf was bigger than the ones he had previously fought, so he only managed to leave a deep cut on its front leg.

Adion couldn’t keep the space frozen for even two seconds, but it was an improvement from his first fight against Bronze beasts. And best of all, his Will was a lot better at freezing space, making his Will not nearly as exhausted as it used to be.

I can probably freeze space around it two or three more times without a problem. But the wolf is big. I can’t get into a good position without risking getting hit by its claws as soon as it breaks free.

Adion made a decision as he quickly jumped out of the way and started running. He then changed the pure mana around him into fire mana as fast as he could and then conjured a small ball of fire. It only took a few seconds now, as Adion had practiced this process for over a year. But a few seconds were enough for the wolf to catch up, and it quickly caught up to Adion.

Adion jumped to the side as he hurled the fire into the wolf’s eyes and Willed it to burn. Unfortunately, he wasn’t fast enough and got a long cut along his abdomen, not too deep, though. The fire landed on the wolf shortly after, and Adion Willed it to keep burning and spread along the wolf's fur. He couldn’t have that much fire under his full control, so he simply let all excess fire go from his Will. Even without Adion to influence it, fire would burn on fur. Now, the wolf needed to fight the fire spreading as well as contend against Adion's flame.

The wolf howled in pain and shook its head violently while striking out blindly with its claws in search of Adion.

Adion simply ran off a small distance away while focusing on keeping the fire burning. It took a lot of Will to fight the Will of the beast, but he held on. After a full minute had passed, he noticed the wolf’s Will weakening and his fire managing to dig deeper into the wolf’s skull with its flames. Not long after that, the wolf collapsed dead on the ground, and Adion let go of his control over the fire and put it out.

My first time killing a Bronze beast with nothing but my own power. It's a good thing I practiced conjuring fire so much. It would be a shame to waste this power just because I didn’t have any fire mana around. And I will meet more beasts like this where it won’t help much to keep them frozen just for a second. Even if I managed to close the distance and get a lethal strike, the wolf would have had no problem biting down on me after breaking free, and I would be done.

But that wouldn’t matter if I could freeze space longer. I could just walk up slowly, kill it, and then move out of the way. It will take a lot of Will to manage that, but I’m getting there.

Even if Adion had pretty much tired out his Will, he wasn’t completely exhausted. He had enough strength to bring back the wolf’s body with him. So he froze the space around the dead body, to no resistance this time, and manipulated the frozen space to follow him as he made his way back.

That night, Adion had meat from a Bronze beast for the first time since getting here. Even back home, there wouldn’t be Bronze meat on the menu every day, so Adion thoroughly enjoyed it.

After that, Adion didn’t have any more run-ins with Bronze beasts; he didn’t have to go out hunting that often, and he needed to heal the wound he had suffered. He didn’t want to waste a healing pill, so he opted to just let it heal naturally as he continued his mana training.

The days came and went, and summer was now coming to an end. Adion had spent almost half a year down from the mountain, and he had improved more than he could have hoped. The thing he was most pleased about was his new ability to teleport. Even if it still took him minutes of focus and almost all his Will to pull it off, he was taking great strides in getting closer to being able to use it in fights.

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But the day when Adion finally had to leave this safe haven was approaching, and as he sat down and meditated, he knew the time had come.

No more space mana can go into my core. It's completely full. I guess there is no use waiting. I am ready. Don’t get cocky, though. Focus all the Will you can muster, Adion.

Adion thought to himself as his peak Iron core, packed to the brim with his Will-attuned space mana, got compressed from all directions by his Will. It was almost imploding in on itself until it came to a stop at a size just slightly bigger than it had been when he reached low Iron. Now, it was much denser, though.

I am a Bronze mage. I can barely believe it. Not only did I reach Bronze, I am not even 14 yet. The top geniuses on the continent can only dream of reaching Bronze by age 16 or 17, in time to join Cyalis Academy.

But how am I this fast? It’s ridiculous. Sure, space mana is everywhere, which is good as there is always plenty to bring into my core. The mana is also much denser here than back home. I guess my mana control has always been better than my peers, a lot better. And my Will is really strong for my age. But even with all this, it just seems too fast.

Or have I overestimated the geniuses of the continent? Are they maybe lazy? I know I train a lot harder than most people, but the top youngsters of the continent surely have to train at least as hard as I do.

Oh well, I won’t complain about a good thing. I’m not planning on slowing down just because I’m ahead.

But this means it has finally become time for me to leave. I could stay for a while longer, I have enough food, and I could hunt food for the coming winter, but I might not even reach middle Bronze by next spring, and I don’t know how long it will take me to get out of here. I don’t think staying here any longer will do me much good. If anything, I will probably increase my strength faster if I leave. I will have to fight a lot of beasts and constantly keep my guard up. It will be challenging, but it will definitely temper my Will.

Adion got up and stretched his body, trying to feel his new strength.

It's an even bigger difference than when I reached Iron. I feel a lot more powerful. Let's make sure I have a good grasp on my new strength before leaving.

So Adion spent the next few days testing his new limits and getting used to the power of a Bronze mage. Eventually, he climbed up the mountain for the last time and brought the pills and elixirs with him. He decided to keep them in the same metal case he had found them in, as he couldn’t feel them inside even when he held the case and focused on the contents. So he took his chances that even a powerful beast wouldn’t feel anything unless they specifically looked.

He wrapped a wolf pelt around the metal case with the pills and put it in the bottom of his self-made backpack. It wasn’t any piece of art, but it was sturdy and did its job well enough. He then filled it with dried meat, fruit, and some water he collected from the nearby creek. He had fashioned a water pouch from the wolf skin he had collected. It took a few tries until he managed to make one that didn’t leak any water.

Hopefully, there would be other sources of water along the way. Since beasts survived here, there should be. And push comes to shove. He would have to spend a few hours trying to conjure the water himself. He was nowhere near as proficient in water mana control as in fire mana control, but he should at least manage to survive.

He checked the contents in his backpack one last time before looking around, saying a quiet goodbye in his heart as he promised to return one day to see what else was buried beneath the rock in that old mountain palace.

Then he started his journey in the warm summer sun, heading south, as sapi had almost the entire south coast of the continent under its control. His plan was to fight all beasts Bronze or lower, and if he stumbled onto a Silver or stronger, he would try to strike a deal: a soul pill for a way out. It was a risky venture, but Adion hadn’t been able to think of a better plan.

Oh, well. I can only do my best. Worst case scenario, I throw out some pills from my backpack and run.

Adion walked all through the day. He had gone through the area with the Gray Wolves, but he didn’t get attacked even once. Beasts seemed to sense him better than he could, even with his space mana. And considering he was now a Bronze mage, he guessed that any Iron Gray Wolf would steer clear. So it wasn’t that surprising that the first day passed without incident.

As the sun started going down, Adion got a little nervous, though. He had never spent a night in the forest before, not the part where beasts roamed. But he knew that even if he could go a few days without sleep now, he would never make it all the way home that way. So he might as well try to get a few hours every night.

But as this was his first night, he was a little reluctant. He just hoped that his space sense would warn him in time, even if he were sleeping. He decided to just put his back against a tree and sleep half-sitting. He had thought about climbing up the tree, but the thought of those Fiery Monkeys quickly discouraged him from that possibility.

Adion meditated for a while until darkness slowly fell, and Adion drifted off to sleep. It didn’t last long, though, as he woke up with a start a couple of hours later. He had gotten a feeling much like how he felt when that metal plum his grandfather threw was about to hit him. But this time, he felt something else, the feeling of a beast with hostile intentions.

He quickly tried to sense his surroundings as he grabbed the hilt of his sword and realized a high Iron Gray Wolf was slowly approaching. It probably thought it could get an easy kill while Adion was sleeping.

But it seemed that the wolf noticed that Adion had woken up as it turned around and ran away as soon as Adion noticed it.

Adion's heart was beating fiercely.

Thank the gods that my grandfather honed my danger sense, as he put it. Even with my space mana sense, I don’t think I would have woken up otherwise. But with the two working together, it seems like it's hard to sneak up on me. That’s good. That will make me able to sleep with some peace of mind.

I don’t think I will get much more sleep tonight, though. I will just meditate until the sun goes up.