Max woke up early, tearing the sheets off his bed like they had wronged him. He quickly jumped out of bed, starry-eyed with the promise of adventure. He ran off to the living room, finding his parents awake, like always.

People as strong as Leonhardt and Althea rarely needed to sleep, though they would still accumulate exhaustion. Only in cases like the incident after Max awakened, did they have a normal amount of sleep. Most times, a two-hour nap could sustain them for a few days.

Leonhardt looked up from the couch—his territory in the house—and was somewhat shocked Max had gotten up early, knowing he liked his sleep.

"Max, up so early? You'll have to wait longer to go outside then!" Leonhardt laughed, going back to pondering the philosophies of his sword style. "We can't go earlier, but Mom should be happy to teach about how to survive and look for stuff out there."

Leonhardt muttered this under his breath, his face plastered with a placid expression, as he looked off into space.

Max noticed how his dad seemed to be in the middle of something and decided to not bother him anymore. While he was immature in most ways, Leonhardt and Althea would talk about how he would occasionally do some surprisingly mature things.

"Mooom! Can you teach me how to do things in the forest? Dad said you could teach me!"

Max hadn't even walked into Althea's room when he had said this, though when had, he saw her bent over her table, writing down… something. As she did so, she would occasionally make small spells, or magic circles, making nods of approval and disapproval.

However, she looked rushed, as she did them quite fast, then stopped to talk to Max.`~

"Hmm— Max? Up so early? And sorry, ask me again, I wasn't listening." Althea stood up from her chair, her eyes glistening with excitement—whether it was from a breakthrough, or for the hunt, that was unclear.

"Can you teach me things to help on the hunt? Please?" Max looked at Althea with the trademarked "I won't take no for an answer" face. A slight pout, his eyes being somewhat open, was all it took for Althea to cave in.

"Alright, yep, come sit down in the living room, your dad needs to help a little too. Theory versus Practice!" Althea made a pointing gesture and walked over to the living room.

"Leo, you're helping with today's lesson. I may know a lot about the beast forest, but so do you, and it's a different type of knowledge than mine." Althea talked with her hands on her hips, like she was scolding Max, and not her husband. Though Leonhardt did find it cute.

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As they sat down Max, talking about the myriad of things that needed to be known about the beast forest.

One of the surprising things—to Max at least—was the fact that the beast forest was surprisingly safe compared to other danger zones, only called as such due to creatures like the dragon that had tried to kill Leonhardt.

After some lessons on how to spot plants, over a few hours, Zenith had arrived, and they could go out.

As they left the door, Max found himself in a world of wonder, his eyes wandering, finding there was only more and more to look at!

The lush trees were swathed with natural colors—natural to the forest. They were painted with hues of red, blue, any color Max had seen, there were more just from the colors of the bark in the trees.

Not only this, but he could see cool creatures flying up above them… or around them, for whatever reason; Max looked at Althea.

'Woah… It smells nice, it looks like the stories Mom shows me!"

"Are we gonna see a dragon? I really wanna ride one!" Max jumped up and down, waving his hands.

Althea and Leonhardt both laughed, upsetting Max.

"Well, maybe if they wanna see us, though those dragons are pretty rare."

Max pouted, but they kept on walking through the forest. Though, to appease the little overlord, Leonhardt had a fun plan.

"Thea, if I move at full speed with Max, if he has the barrier on, he'll be fine right?"

Althea looked at Leonhardt with a slightly disapproving gaze, though she pondered it, regardless.

"Should work. Take him for a joy ride!" Althea decided that the trip could have a little fun; she was confident in her workmanship anyway.

Leonhardt swept up Max.

"Turn on that barrier! And don't blink."

Max turned on the barrier; Leonhardt grinned, his body gearing up to lunge, his center dipping, and his legs flexing…

BOOM!

They shot forward at speeds Max couldn't dream of before. And they sped up again, and again! For Max, it was exhilarating, for Leonhardt, just another day, just with the smiles of his kid. Which was enough.

"Haha! You think your Dad is cool now right? Pun intended." Leonhardt shouted through the wind, though Max wasn't focusing, more on the landscape whizzing by him, and the noises of the wind rushing past him.

The looks of the animals, who were understandably scared of the creature moving at speeds they could barely see, and the plants, undisturbed, tirelessly working on their own goal—to survive.

Max had a certain realization, at that moment. The world slowed, as the time mana around him grew dense for a moment. Despite how incredibly fast they were moving, it still seemed slow.

Time. Eventually, these animals would forget, or move on from this experience. Like the plants, unmoved. In the end, all of this wouldn't amount to anything, if it wasn't remembered. If it wasn't studied.

The sands of time would wash away anything, unless Max, as its keeper, would protect it. While Max had a good memory before, with this, it became eidetic, unable to forget, forced to keep the burden of remembrance.

Max had triggered a breakthrough in his time mana, deepening his philosophical image of it, resulting in its quality reaching a new stage.

Though with this, unbeknownst to the family, Max had stepped forwards too far, and had reached the cusp of enlightenment, a process all manaborn would come up to, but certainly not as early as Max.