A cold air blew into the old man’s face, and Simon noticed the peculiarity of the old man’s demeanor.

“Old man you look strange… and you smell like the witch,” Simon said as he was following the old man, they were about to go out of the red forest.

“Is that so… let’s just say I faced a very hot night last night that we got mixed up” the old man said with a resolute face while nodding.

“Tee-hee-hee,” and a laugh resonated on the whole forest.

“You are weird,” Simon the innocent cannot comprehend.

“I will open up the trees… you are almost there,” the voice of the witch that was guiding them out of the forest sounded a bit lonely.

“See you again!!” the old man said so but there was no reply, the red trees opened up. Four sticks were hanging behind Simon’s backpack. The old man was quite in a good mood.

“We will not see each other again,” the witch's voice resounded, it seemed that she knew something about the old man.

“I see,” the old man said smiling fiercely as he nodded. 'Then that would be a good memory doesn't it?' the old man thought.

The 2 finally came out of the forest, the air was again ‘cold’ as the 2 described it at the same time. Simon did love smelling the air and some memories from the mountain hut came back to him “I’d like to eat some deer” the boy muttered.

“Yeah… but not raw okay,” and the unusually good mood of the old man made Simon wonder what happened last night.

<--->

They were already down the mountain, in a forest opening just near the main roads, sadly a deer was already on the fire pit that Simon prepared. The boy was rotating the deer, while the old man was making the side dishes, and the old man was humming himself.

Some of the glass bottles Jedi left them were opened up, they were going to have a feast tonight, and Simon was happy that the old man was happy evident from the bustling hum that was getting produced by the old man’s mouth.

The old man could notice the boy’s gaze “The hell are you staring?” the old man asked.

“You are making a sound in your mouth,” Simon told what he noticed.

“Let me be boy,” The old man said as he quickly finished his preparation continuing his hum.

“Okay… let’s eat!” the old man urged Simon to eat.

The deer meat was seasoned with pink salt, pickled cabbage from Jedi’s bottles, and some of the sweetened fruits. Even the old man wondered how that little girl got her hands on sugar since it's considered a luxury product.

“I bet Jedi could cook something better now,” Simon suddenly muttered remembering his friend.

“Give her years and she would probably own some eatery or a restaurant,-” the old man said. Eatery was for commoners and restaurants were a place for nobles. “-Or probably become a Royal Chef,” the old man added.

…

It's been a long time since Simon had a meal like that, although he was already feeling a bit sleepy, the old man’s training was preventing him from sleeping, habit was winning against his nature.

The boy just finished cleaning their wooden bowls, there were still leftovers of the deer meat that had already been removed from the fire pit to cool down, the old man was planning to pack up the parts of the deer that could last a bit more for their travel consumption.

“Check this out boy,” the old man said, he then lined up the pieces of wood coming from the witch’s woods.

“What do you think? You’ve been carrying it ever since,” the old man asked but the boy wasn’t particularly very perceptive.

Simon just stared at the sticks. “It's heavy although it's small,” he said. He was right, the old man thought but it was not that.

“What happened to the vibrations that you feel?” the old man asked this like he was complaining.

“...OK? I remembered,” Simon nodded, still the boy couldn’t tell anything about it and the old man was sure Simon was saying this in a question mark.

“The witch was nice enough to give us 4 different kinds of sticks,” the old man explained as he gave up.

The Witch’s Oak was one of the types of wood that could be used as a magic staff. Not only it is a good catalyst for magic after a while the wood would get soaked with the magic of the user and it would become more efficient.

The wood would adjust and tune itself to the elements.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

One of its properties too is that it would become harder when magic was supplied on it.

“Take a stick and fill it with magic… I mean transfer the vibrations inside of it,” the old man instructed Simon.

The boy of course followed like it was the normal thing to do. He held onto the first one to the right.

“It's warm,” Simon said.

“Try swinging it,” the old man urged the boy.

Simon tried it on a few swings. The old man watched carefully as the boy did it, he was watching the stick.

“Is it already filled with magic?” the old man asked just to be sure.

“Yeah…” Simon nodded.

“Okay the next one then” the old man encouraged Simon to continue.

“It's cold” Simon inputs his comment.

“Swing it,” the old man said and Simon followed.

And then continued into the next.

Simon: “It's too light”

And next…

Simon: “This is the best, it's heavy”

….

There should been an effect when Simon swung, an element should have been produced when he swung it but nothing happened, even some kind of manifestation out of the 4 basic elements but there was none. It seemed that Simon’s element was some kind of a void.

(Warm: Fire, Cold: Water, Too-Light: Wind and the Heavy: Earth)

“That’s really weird,” the old man said. Not even a trace of an element, he made the boy do it one more time cycling the sticks.

“Which one do you fancy?” the old man asked after Simon did a round on the sticks the 2nd time.

“The heavy one,” the boy blatantly answered.

“Let's try a spar,” the old man took a stick too.

Simon took the Earth-Stick as his weapon since it was the heaviest when it was filled with magic.

“Simon, try spreading the vibration (Magic) to just coat the wood, the intention is to increase its efficiency and durability,” the old man instructed.

“Isn’t what I’m doing the same?” then Simon asked wondering what was the difference.

The old man was quite surprised by the question, at least the boy was thinking “You are just using the property of the material, it is not enough, real magic must be a part of the will of the user manifested through a miracle… that’s what is magic edge,” even though after explaining, Simon scratched his head… of course Simon couldn’t understand.

“Okay… just attack,” the old man gave up, it would be understood due to time and hard work.

Simon landed the first strike.

“Oof!!! Heavy!!!” The old man received it even using his knees to cushion the attack.

Simon instantly knew that the old man was using something different than the one that he was using. The old man smiled, something was on his mind.

“Old man… what are you going to do?” Simon asked upon seeing the old man’s face.

“This…” From the sword lock the old man guided the weight of Simon’s sword into the side, then shifting his stance with a pivot he used the wood with magic edge to cut Simon’s wood, he specifically targeted near Simon’s handles.

“Magic edge is different, although you have a hard weapon if it's not coated with magic it wouldn't be enough,” the old man explained, he showed his wooden sword to Simon.

The boy instantly noticed that the wood coated with magic edge had some kind of extended form. The dim red, a part of the magic edge had a blade on it made out of the magic.

“See that?” the old man smiled.

“I… can see but how to do it?” Simon asked.

Pouring magic through his hands was simple but as the old man said it, imagination and the will of the caster were also important, that thing that he called visualization.

The old man stared at Simon… his face told it all. “…From now on you have to do the flow until you can’t,” the old man could teach Simon the sword by showing but magic is different, he didn’t have enough skill to teach it.

The old man learned magic and understood it through instinct and self-taught. His magic is one of a void nature, the element of light was quite rare so there was almost little to no one who could teach him.

“Old man… you shouldn’t have broken it,” Simon was quite sad as he stared at the wooden stick.

“… Don’t worry about it, it's still on a good length, start your Flow training,” the old said.

“Magic is hard!!” Simon muttered, still, he went into an Indian position and started it anyway.

The old man smiled, he took the broken Red Oak Wood and started carving it into a better shape for a sword.

“Better make it 3 of it,” the old man said.

<--->

The journey of the two continued, they were now on their way to a donkey road going into the south.

The donkey path passed through the west and into the south of the Farmlands this small path was usually safe from summer until the early start of spring, the sky hounds would usually hunt intensely during spring (Mating Period, more spoils more girls).

The donkey path’s southern part would always cast in shadow, the Farm Land Stone wall on the north side, the Craig Mountain Range south, a solstice peak called the Sun God’s Peak to the east, and the western Mesa where the Sky-Chime Plateau.

Some of the travelers they met knew the place of the underground arena. Day by day their training increased in intensity but the old man today wanted more.

“Lead the attack, you can use the feint in the first move, eyes, feet, the stance, everything is possible,” the old man was instructing the boy in an open field near the roads.

“How’s the new sword?” the old man asked.

“It's good… the magic that makes it hard is working,” Simon said.

The old man then kicked Simon on his stomach, and he flew with an “Oof!!!” the boy needed a few seconds, still the old man dug his wooden sword into the ground and used it like a shovel to send some ground flying into the boy.

Still, the boy didn’t relax, he cut up the soil that was thrown into him while kneeling.

“That’s the face…” the old man said, Simon although was in pain he was still calm. “You think I would only use the sword? In a life and death situation, anything is viable as long as it increases survival,” the old man smirked.

Simon stood up “That’s cheating, Oof!!” the kick in the stomach really hurt.

“Let’s stop for a while and…” Before the old man finished Simon attacked, “Thwack!!! Thwack!!!” this time it was a stronger attack. “You getting feisty boy? You are open here!!!” the old man commented and Simon continued attacking and dodging still getting hit with some.

The spar continued late into the twilight.

Simon was totally beaten and battered. His stomach and sheen especially hurt since those were the openings that the old man kept on targeting. It was annoying but it was his fault and he knows it.

“It seems that you're really into it. Aren’t you?” the old man looked at the boy, still on the ground.

“Old man… my body hurts,” of course Simon would say that. The motivation of getting back to the old man made Simon really go out.

“Let’s rest here, we still got some of the deer meat… oh, it's getting cold,” the old man said and he started making camp.

The old man smiled, they should have arrived south a bit earlier. “Hey boy-” he was going to ask Simon something but Simon was already doing the Flow in the Indian position again. “-Make sure you still have magic, we are still going to eat,” the old man said.

“Yeah…” Simon answered.