As Elaine saw the distant look in Shio’s eyes, she grew worried and asked, “Shio, what’s wrong?”

Shio suddenly realized where he was before replying with a slight laugh. “It’s nothing. Do you want to know what your souls are called?”

Seeing that Shio was fine, she hurriedly nodded.

“Yeah, tell us! I want to know if this elk is worth anything.” Theo responded.

Shio chuckled. “Elaine’s is a Skygovernor Gazellegod, and Theo’s is an Emperor Godelk. They’re both very powerful souls at the Godbeast level, which is the same as Ronin’s Flamegod Dragon. You can keep the glass if you want.”

“Wow!” Elaine said in awe as she held up the glass and looked at her soul.

Theo finally let out a wide, satisfied grin before giving a triumphant laugh. “Hahaha! I knew my soul would be awesome. Hey, Ronin, I bet if my soul and your soul got into a fight, mine would definitely win!” Theo said arrogantly before laughing again.

“Shio what’s your soul like? I bet it’s also quite powerful.” Elaine asked in curiosity.

“My soul?” She responded. Shio had long ago went into the depths of his mind to seek out his soul, so naturally he knew. “It’s a Whitemoon Phoenix. No one knows much about it except that sometimes it will appear in the night sky, taking the place of the moon. Unfortunately that leaves me with no way to judge my soul and make use of it, but I have some suspicions.”

“How mysterious.” Elaine responded. Though no one knew much about Shio’s soul, Elaine assumed that it should be very powerful. After all, Shio was only ten and he already knew magic; that must surely show how powerful his soul is.

Ronin at the side, couldn’t take it anymore as he yelled out. “Shio! Don’t you think it’s time to teach me some magic?”

Shio let out an amused smile at Ronin’s helpless expression before answering. “Unfortunately, before that, we have to get some stuff from town. But my dad doesn’t give me allowance so I have no money.” Shio replied, helplessly shrugging his shoulders.

Seeing this, Elaine decided to take advantage. “I’ll pay for it, but you have to teach me magic too.” Elaine said with a sly grin. As her parents were quite well-off, she received an allowance, which she simply saved till the day she needed it.

“Hey, Shio, you’ll teach me too, right? I should have enough money to pay for myself.” Theo said. He also received an allowance, but he has been spending most of it on gifts for Elaine, not leaving him with much. He just hoped that this stuff wouldn’t cost too much.

“Sure. Come on, let’s go.” Shio said, heading out and leading them to the general store.

They bought several candles for Ronin, a hand mirror for Elaine, and some nails and some planks of wood for Theo. Though Theo had enough for the nails and a plank of wood, he had to beg Elaine to buy the rest of the wood, which she grudgingly did after several minutes of being pestered.

Eventually they returned to the hill where Shio taught them about cultivating mindforce, before beginning to guide them individually in different methods of cultivating their mindforce. The methods he’ll teach would undoubtedly be much better than tirelessly spending weeks of time trying to lift a page of a book. Shio was helpless in this matter as he has no resources to work with during that time.

As Shio was only one person, he could only impart these methods one at a time, beginning with Ronin.

“Flamegod Dragons are considered the enforcers of the Dragongod Clan, and they would give up their lives to protect their clan.” Shio explained as he lit the candle that Ronin was seated next to. “Now, look at the flame.” He continued, waiting for Ronin’s gaze to focus before moving on. “Now imagine that your family had nothing to eat and how you’d feel about it.” Ronin’s eyebrows furrowed as he thought about it. A heat seemed to come from his gaze as he stared at the flame. Then, suddenly the flame on the candle grew many times its original size until a second later, when all that was left of the candle was a puddle of wax.

“Hmmm…” Shio said as his eyebrow raises slightly. It seems his willpower is greater than I thought. “I guess the candles are no longer necessary. Could we borrow a piece of wood, Theo?”

“Fine, but you’ll have to pay me back.” Theo replied, handing over a plank of wood.

“Hmph! Don’t mind him, Shio. Just take it; you don’t need to pay back this penniless scoundrel.” Elaine said giving Theo a criticizing look.

Shio took the plank of wood and drove it into the ground about two meters away from Ronin. “Now look at the wood and remember that feeling.” Shio instructed.

Ronin’s gaze focused once again, and flame suddenly appeared, encompassing the tip of the plank of wood.

“Keep looking at the flame, but this time imagine the expression on your little brother’s face as you give him a gift.” Shio continued. Ronin’s body suddenly relaxed as the flame on the wood was extinguished. “Good, now just keep repeating. Familiarize yourself with those feelings.”

Next, was Theo’s turn. Some distance away from Ronin, Shio placed a plank of wood on the ground and slightly pushed several nails into the wood. “The Emperor Godelk is the ruler over all he sees and his will is indomitable. Focus on a nail. Then think about how you’d feel if someone was bullying Elaine.” Shio instructed with a blank face.

“Shio!” Elaine exclaimed, her cheeks blushing slightly as she said this. But before Shio could reply he saw that Theo had already began focusing, and suddenly, Shio sensed a heavy pressure in the direction of the wood. All the nails were forced into the wood at once by that heavy pressure.

Seeing this scene, Elaine was shocked. She secretly gave Theo an appraising look. Are his feelings really this strong? She wondered.

Shio once again raised his eyebrows. “It seems I’ve been underestimating you guys too much.” Shio said, shaking his head slightly. “We need something stronger.”

“How ‘bout those rocks at the bottom of the hill?” Theo asked.

“Hmmm. Maybe, but if its toughness is too far out of your range, the cultivation will go much slower.” Shio said, rubbing his chin in thought.

“Heh, don’t underestimate me, Shio.” Theo replied before running to the bottom of the hill.

Minutes later several rocks of different sizes were placed on the hill. Shio picked up the smallest rock and put it in Theo’s palm. “Try it with this.” Theo immediately focused, and the small rock was suddenly crushed. Theo let out a satisfied grin as he saw this.

“Good,” Shio responded. “Start with the smallest rocks first. If you find that it’s too difficult, just go find a smaller rock. And remember to memorize that feeling.” Theo nodded, before continuing to train.

Shio then went off to the side with Elaine. He took some boar’s blood out and began to imprint a mandala inscription on the edge of the mirror. When he finished, he instructed Elaine to sit down before placing the mirror in her hands.

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“The Skygovernor Gazellegod is among the most noble of creatures. Its beauty, grace, and wisdom are topnotch; its words, enchanting and unchallenged. To achieve the most with your mindforce, we must reinforce your ideals and beliefs, to the point where you will never question yourself.” Shio explained. “When you look in the mirror it will begin to reflect the doubts you have in your heart. At this point you can use your will to change what the mirror reflects until you are satisfied.”

Elaine looked in the mirror and two figures appeared. One was Theo and the other was her. They seemed to be talking, and as Elaine focused more she began to hear what they were saying.

“I love you, Elaine, and I’m willing to devote my whole life to you if you wish it.” Theo said with the utmost seriousness.

Elaine suddenly felt her face get hot when she heard those words. Would he really say those things? Elaine wondered as her heart beat sped up.

The Elaine in the mirror turned away, giving Theo the cold shoulder. “You’re wasting your time. I would never love someone like you!”

When Elaine heard this, she suddenly felt a pang in her heart. Theo wasn’t a bad guy, but Elaine treated him that way. It’s just that she wasn’t ready to enter a relationship with anyone. Would I hurt him in that way?

Shio saw that Elaine had already forgot he was there, so he went to an empty space and decided to take nap. A nice day like this shouldn’t be wasted!  Shio thought, breathing in the fresh air and feeling the warmth of the sun. Shio was satisfied with his work today, and thus, he could relax.

The group continued in this manner until a couple hours later when the sky darkened and it became time for dinner. They agreed to meet again tomorrow morning.

After eating dinner, he told his father he was going to bed before stealthily sneaking out of the house using magic. Shio went to the forest on the outskirts of town, where he challenged a 4 star iron-ranked beast to test his abilities. After a fierce struggle, he managed to defeat it, and sent its soul to a better place. Then he collected its remains.

And since he was there, he decided to go to the nearby meadow to pick the herbs that the healers in town wouldn’t require, practically clearing out most of the small meadow.

He then went deeper into the forest and started building a watchtower-like building with a simple platform, and without a roof. Shio also drew a two and a half meter mandala inscription in order to gather all the moonlight energy within half a kilometer. He spent all night there, absorbing the energy from the moonlight, until he sensed the sun right around the horizon, at which point he snuck back into his house, and immediately entered his mind portal to prepare some pills for his friends. Afterwards he took a nap in the king’s bed before returning to his room.

When Shio heard his dad walk into the kitchen, he also got up and walked there. As Shio walked in the kitchen, he saw his dad sitting at the table, a stern look on his face.

“Where were you last night?” His dad asked seriously. Seeing his dad like this, Shio’s heart became conflicted. He didn’t want to lie, but he absolutely couldn’t tell him about the knowledge he learned beyond his mind portal. Shio was no fool; if it somehow spread, he would likely be tortured with magic and dissected.

“I was cultivating under the moonlight.” Shio replied semi-truthfully.

Rio’s eyebrow raised. He already knows how to cultivate? “I checked on you last night but you weren’t there. How did you leave without my detection?” Rio asked. He was an experienced mage, so even though he wouldn’t be on guard against his son, he would still be able to sense him leaving the house.

“I sealed my surroundings from letting sound escape with magic, and I also retracted my aura.” Shio responded.

Rio was once again surprised. “How did you come to learn these things?” Rio asked, immediately causing Shio to feel some dread.

Shio’s face twitched slightly as he struggled to keep his face straight. “I learn- I learned it at the… library.” Shio finally said, hoping that small tinge of truth would make it believable.

Rio’s mouth curved slightly into a small grin. This kid is so bad at lying. But he would not lie to me without reason. Let’s trust him for now… Rio nodded, not saying anymore.

Shio heaved a heavy sigh of relief.

They then ate in an awkward silence, before Shio hurriedly left to meet his friends.

Shio continued to guide his friends in training their mindforce, increasing the difficulty of their practice every time their mindforce reached a sufficient level.

At one point, Ronin felt that the difficulty was too light for his tastes, as he was used to pushing his limits. At the time, the only practice method Shio could think of at the time was a harsh method of repeatedly breaking down his mindforce forcefully, before continuing to cultivate it. Though this method was extremely painful for the mind and even caused Shio some strain, as he was in charge of carefully breaking down Ronin’s mindforce, Ronin still urged Shio to do it. This caused Shio to cringe every time he saw Ronin crumble to the ground in pain, but he had to admit that it was quite effective. Ronin even was even the first among the group other than Shio who had completed the first step, Desire, in cultivating mindforce.

As everyone’s mindforce reached a sufficient level, Shio began to teach the group some actual magic. Although Shio couldn’t directly guide them in most of the magic he taught, as he wasn’t suited to those types of magic, he still taught the group incantations which help to guide their mindforce in accomplishing its task. As the group was quite talented, they learned quickly and were able to absorb a lot of magical knowledge. Shio was quite embarrassed by this fact, as he had to struggle through much failure to learn his magic.

After a couple of months into this training period, Shio took the time to copy several Body Essence Arts from the library within his mind and gave the group several which were suited to them to choose from. Theo chose the Heavenpiercing Mountain Art, and Ronin chose the Eternal Flame Art. As for Elaine, she chose the Golden Comet Art.

Along with this they also started practicing some martial arts and they all chose their weapons. Elaine chose both the rapier and the bow while Ronin took a liking to swordplay. Theo chose a two and foot war hammer, which he decided to dual-wield.

During this time they fought many beasts, moving up in rank as they got stronger and sometimes challenging much stronger beasts as a group.

Two years later…