Thanos excitedly watched as the surrounding landscape passed him by. It had been over a year and a half since he formed his core during the attack on Mysthaven.

Many things had changed during that time, such as him being able to move around and interact with the world more, but some things hadn't. His parents had yet to have another child, and he made no more progress with his cultivation due to his body still being too infantile.

Thankfully, the issue of being stuck as a child had never come to pass, with his original theory being correct. A new baseline was created whenever he changed his body positively.

Anything negative, such as an injury, wasn't added, meaning he got restored on every turn of the glass. His ageing didn't seem to be affected in any way, and it just carried on as usual.

Whilst his core provided excellent benefits, it wasn't without its issues. He still had no way of manually forcing it to start its rotation. That meant he was stuck letting it happen automatically, and that was roughly every five hours or so.

Fatigue also counted as a negative, so it had been long since he needed to sleep. This meant he had much time to focus on his cultivation, but there wasn't much to do. So, he spent much time working on training his will or experimenting internally. He could still force himself to sleep if he wanted and still did at times.

He knew from Turok that it would be a slow journey for the first few years, as his body was too young to start training properly, but he did make some improvements. He had not managed to grow his core much at all, but his control of essence had come on by leaps and bounds due to his constant practice.

He found that doing a series of internal exercises, such as moving essence around or containing it, allowed him to work on his finer control and grow the strength of his will. He practised these daily until his head pounded from the exertion before his core reset, and he started all over again.

The result was that not only was he able to affect a more significant area inside of himself using his will, but he could also project his will externally for a short time. He had only managed to do it for a few breaths, and the furthest he could cast was about the length of his tiny fist outside his body, but he was happy to see any progress.

There were no more breakthroughs regarding his self-made cultivation method, and he had already noticed some apparent issues. One problem was that the spatial essence was far less abundant than time essence.

At first, he thought with his ability to convert from one essence type to another that he had unlocked the secret of cultivation, but it seemed he was wrong.

The more he converted, the more he found that there seemed to be some strange law of diminishing returns. He wasn't sure what happened to the remaining essence that didn't convert, as it appeared to disappear. He had encountered other strange points and wished to get a genuine cultivation manual for comparison.

That was why he was thrilled to find out that his parents were taking him to the nearby city of Kallipolis, which he had also learnt was the provincial capital of the rising mountain province.

He had overheard them discussing a possible Cultivation manual they hoped to procure for him.

They had just set out a few hours ago, not long after dawn and even though he had heard the city was nearby, it was still a few day's travel by carriage.

He hoped that whilst in the city, he would convince his parents to get him some books to read, ideally ones about cultivation. The only issue was that he had yet to speak to the pair, deciding to wait more until his grown-up way of talking didn't seem quite as strange.

This visit to the city had brought those plans forward, and he decided today would be the day he said his first words.

He sat on his mother's knee on the driver's bench of one of the middle wagons. There were four in total, with the ones carrying the more precious cargo, such as children, in the middle.

His father and other legion members rode in the front and rear carts or sat on large mounted horses beside the train.

Marcus sat on a sizeable muscle-clad warhorse that he used to flutter around the perimeter as he controlled and directed the convoy. He would occasionally pull up alongside his mother and him, talking to her or pulling funny faces at him.

His father was currently near the front talking to the lead driver, so Thanos decided now he had his mother alone was the best time. They weren't entirely alone as the driver sat beside them, a portly man who seemed to keep to himself mostly.

His attention seemed fixated on steering the stocky beasts of burden covered in shaggy grey fur that pulled the wagon. These were called Vacul and reminded him of oxen but far larger and better suited to a colder climate.

"Mother, how big's the city?" Thanos tentatively asked.

He debated internally for a long time if he should play the part of an average child but decided that acting like he was far more intelligent than the standard would make things easier in the long run, even if it did seem a little weird.

Back on earth, a small child randomly asking such a fluent question out of the blue might be strange, but he hoped that perhaps it wasn't the same here with essence in existence.

He had noticed that the children did seem to progress far faster than back home, and whilst he wasn't an expert on babies, he could work that much out through general observation.

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Still, she does look quite stunned.

His mother was calmly looking around, seeming to enjoy the scenery with him sitting on one of her knees as she did, her arms keeping him steady.

She was now looking at him in bafflement, and it seemed she was trying to work out if he had just spoken. It must have stunned her as he noticed the blank look on her face before it suddenly changed to astonishment.

"Little Than, you can speak?" She exclaimed as she stared down at him in wonderment, using his pet nickname. Her eyes quickly darted to the driver and back as if trying to work out if he had also heard.

"Yes, mother. How big's the city?" He asked again, hoping that just getting her into a conversation would stop the questions building in her mind.

"It's much bigger than back home, many times bigger." She slowly said, as if she didn't want to confuse him.

It seems this won't go quite to plan. I can ask for information, but isn't it going to be oversimplified?

He had anticipated such a variable as it was apparent that anyone talking to such a young child would do so at their level. What he needed to do now was show that he wasn't like the other children his age, but not so much that it freaked the adults of the village out.

He didn't want to get burned at the stake or whatever fearful, irate villagers did here.

"Little Than, why have you never talked to mummy before?" Valeria asked, snapping him out of his thoughts as their carriage hit a bump in the road that bounced the passengers around a little.

"I've had nothing to ask." He said, trying to make it seem like he was a little aloof as a child.

His parents didn't seem to be idiots, and he had overheard them often comparing him against other children they knew and noticing his differences.

I need to play into those differences so they see me as a unique case compared to other children. That shouldn't be too hard.

Most of the village had witnessed him forming his core back then, and those that didn't found out before long anyway. The most efficient machinery in the village was the rumour mill, after all.

Fortunately, they didn't look at him like some kind of freak. They mostly just clicked their tongues about latent talent due to having formed his core so early. Based on the overheard conversations, the average age to form a core in the village was around five years old.

"I see." His mother said as she measured him with her eyes.

He pulled a funny face at her, causing the sides of her mouth to draw upwards as she tumbled his hair.

"Little rebel. Your father has been teaching you all the wrong things." She said with a little laugh at his antics.

"Will father teach me how to fight and get stronger?" He asked.

I want to ask about cultivation, but baby steps first.

"Is that what you want? To be big and strong like your father?" She asked, and he nodded his head in the affirmative.

She looked lost in thought for a moment as she seemed to work out how to reply before she noticed something over his shoulder that caused a crafty smile to spread across her face.

"Here he comes now. Why don't you ask him yourself?" She asked, causing him to look to his side.

He noticed Marcus trotting over on a large black warhorse dressed in plain dark leather armour. The large twinblade sat across his lap, resting on the front of the saddle.

He couldn't help but smile at his mother, setting him up to shock his father by suddenly speaking to him out of nowhere. He didn't mind playing along as he thought about what to say. Teasing each other in this family seemed to be a thing.

Marcus turned the large horse around, matching the direction of travel, pulling alongside. The horse sat nearly twice as large as any horse he had seen back on earth, causing the tall man to look like a small jockey in comparison.

"Father, Mother said you'll teach me how to fight." He said, deciding to drag his mother into it.

To his credit, it didn't take Marcus as long to recover from his shock at hearing him talk than his mother had. The man looked surprised momentarily before a beaming smile adorned his face as he hurriedly spoke.

"Little Than, you can speak." He exclaimed loudly as his horse shook its head slightly in a neigh at the outburst.

Marcus looked at his mother and then at him as if he had finally registered the words.

"You want me to teach you how to fight?"

He nodded to his father, who stared into his eyes briefly as if searching for something.

"Okay, if that's what you want, we can train once we return. You'll have to learn eventually. It'll be painful, do you understand? It will hurt." His father said, adding the last bit as if trying to clarify to a youngster.

"I understand, father," He said.

He had been watching the training sessions for a long time, seeing how the other children got trained, and he knew it wouldn't be easy. An arduous path lay before him, and there would be no shortage of blood, sweat and maybe tears.

"Can we buy some books when we visit the city?" He asked as the three of them sat silently for a short while, enjoying the ride. He noticed his parents exchange an odd glance before his mother replied.

"Little Than, don't you need to learn how to read first?"

Stupid, they don't know I can already read.

"How can I learn if I have nothing to read?" He said innocently.

Looks like I will have to get someone to 'teach me' how to read.

"Okay, why doesn't mommy take you to a store in the city, and you can pick out some books, and then I'll teach you how to read?" Valeria asked as she brought him in, cuddling him from behind and letting him see to the front.

"Okay, mother." He dutifully replied.

The trio sat silently, enjoying the sunny weather as they took in the surrounding mountains. The only noises heard were the clips of hoofbeats and the slow turning of wheels.

"Say, little Than. When did you learn to talk? Why is it you have never said anything before?" His father asked, steering the horse closer as he looked him up and down.

"You're always talking. It's hard to get a word in."

"..."

Twinkling laughter erupted from his mother at the offended look on his father's face as the convoy carried on its leisurely pace across the bumpy landscape.

Smiling slightly, he looked into the distance, anticipating visiting his first city. He just hoped the journey there wasn't too dull.

He should have been careful what he wished for.