An opulent palace, a monolith of greed. Two stood, an estate made of rose quartz, with parts gilded, and adorned with rubies. Another, a bastion made of blue steel, with obsidian finishing. Despite their stark contrast, the scene was more of the same.

Two patriarchs sat, talking to a being beyond their realm.

"We have a job for you."

Shimmering letters tore themselves into existence, detailing the job.

Their brows furrowed upon reading, their expressions contorting in an odd mix of nostalgia, and anger.

"It's not worth the hassle. Unless you can give us something worth it, I'm not doing it."

"We can pay for anything you need to do the job. As for after the job? Anything. We have funds."

Their eyes sparkled with desire, despite their wealth being enough to last a lifetime. Because it was for the family, right?

"Anything?"

"Anything goes, just try not to use brute strength." Leonhardt coached Max on how to fight the robot; he had also gotten strong enough to fight its adept stage.

A year had passed since that fateful encounter, and things had changed in that period.

Max had grown considerably, from about 60 centimeters to around 100 centimeters.

A/N: 2 feet to 3'4" for my Americans. All 8 of you.

And one more thing. Leonhardt looked a lot older, mostly due to Althea's request. After they had returned to the camp, got Max, and nursed each other to full health, Leonhardt still felt guilty about having to put Althea in danger.

After the death of his brother, Leonhardt had been left with a deep trauma of survivor guilt, making him vehemently go against putting anyone in danger but himself. Althea knew this, so she tried to get him to forgive those feelings, despite the difficulty.

Though, as a result of those feelings, Leonhardt had an idea.

"Althea, I feel terrible for putting you in danger," Althea could see the frown marks on his face, and the stress hidden behind his eyes, "Do you want anything? I'll get you a gift."

Althea had to accept, not for her sake, but for his.

"Can you… grow out your hair… and beard?" Althea said this softly, giggling like she was talking to her crush—well, she was.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

For mages, or at least older women among them, a man with longer hair, and a beard was highly attractive, which was why many older mages had long beards and hair. Nothing could stop a man from trying to experience some... magic.

If before, Leonhardt looked like a rugged, but green and young soldier, he looked like a battle-hardened general now.

Before, he had dark blue hair, that would shine cyan at moments, cut to a finger's length. He also had a bit of stubble coating his sharp jawline. His resolute face had small scars and wrinkles, making him look all the more imposing.

Yet now, his hair was long enough to be tied in a bun, with more hair around it. His beard was a bit longer, past the growing phase, just enough to look good.

Max had also grown a lot, other than his height. His facial features had started to become more pronounced, straying from a babyish look, more into a childish one.

Yet the greatest change was in his intelligence, and his knowledge. Max, ever since the incident, had made an astronomical improvement in his language, swordsmanship, and magic. Thanks to his eidetic memory, Max was almost on the level of Leonhardt and Althea in language.

Max's swordsmanship had improved by leaps and bounds—lunges, and stabs. Leonhardt noticed his situational awareness and ability to respond were some skills that were especially better than the others.

When Leonhardt asked Max what his thought process was, he simply said something along the lines of 'I remembered doing that before, so it should work again.'

Althea had also started to work on teaching him spells, like small cantrips, such as the basic missile spells.

Earth, air, fire, water, and every element had a missile variation, though some were much more tangible, and they had different shapes.

"Max, repeat after me, Pyrrus." Althea enunciated the word, slowly saying it, as to let Max say it perfectly.

"Pyrrus," Max replied, in the same tone.

"Good, now circulate some mana to your eyes.

Althea decided to also resonate with the mana, on top of using mana vision, and what she saw left her flabbergasted

From children, before their awakening, since their mana was unguided, simply a controlled, but still raw mana, it let out a chaotic resonance—more akin to a cacophony, than anything that sounded pleasant.

Affinities, in their basic form, simply meant one had a better hand when it came to handling a certain element. Though in their true forms, they would guide the mana to a purpose, to a more robust, and personal mana.

So what would happen when one was on the cusp of awakening their true affinity? The cacophonic mana would still be there, but underneath, a resonating mana, directed by an ideology, though Althea wasn't smart enough to figure out that much.

'He… Is about to enlighten.' Rare was it to be speechless inside your thoughts.

"What next?" Max asked this impatiently, as Althea had already taken a bit to process the information.

"Hold on Max, you don't know it, but you did something… nigh-impossible." Althea had yet to come to terms with this.

Enlightenment was a turning point. It meant one had lost their childish dreams, and had built their foundation towards their philosophies.

Althea was feeling odd. Yes, her son was a prodigy, one that could shake the world. But she could only call him her son, not her baby—though that wouldn't stop her—deep in her heart, she knew her son had become much less innocent. Much too early.

However, her feelings had to wait.

Enlightening was a fickle, and dangerous process. Extremely so. When one was enlightening, their mind would be in a fragile state, and if they were disturbed? Their fate would be death or at least a death of the brain.

There were signs of an enlightening right before it happened, such as a resonance growing incredibly loud.

Luckily, Althea had accidentally already made a great place for Max to enlighten: The training room.

Its stark white interior and soundproof walls made it the perfect place for Max to enlighten.

So now that the hard part was done… they had to wait.