'Hm! Should I just leave?'

Ryn has been just listening to his parents and Gideon make small talk for sometime now after he finished his food.

'Didn't know it would be this un-interesting.'

probably because he had a better one-on-one talk with Gideon earlier, it didn't sound interesting listening to them talk.

This means that they were consciously choosing their words and topics to ensure they were appropriate and suitable for the young one around them, even though it was Ryn who rarely gets treated like that, but they were still his parents.

'It has also been strangely qui….'

"Son." Enara, noticing the quietness of Ryn, called him, interrupting his thoughts.

"yes mom." Ryn noticed that the table was silent and both his father and Gideon were also looking at his side.

"If you are done, you can leave." Enara noticed that he wasn't much present and was just silent, probably not trying to be rude to the guest of his parents.

'He's so considerate for his age, he should just act his age sometimes,' Enara inwardly sighed.

Unbeknownst to her, what kind of interaction Gideon and Ryn had earlier in the Millennium blessed hands smithy.

"Ah,..then I will help with the dishes later."

"Don't worry son, Am here today, i will help your mom, just go."

Even though table manners weren't a thing specifically taught to Ryn by his parents, nor did they insist on it, it was just something Ryn picked up from his parents and learned it naturally.

And so Ryn thought it might come across as a rude thing to leave before the guest, even if the said guest didn't care about that at all.

"And son, check on your sister on your way out."

"Ok mom."

With that, Ryn left the lunch table, checked on Elly and informed his mom on his way out of the house, and now he was under the tree in the backyard, seated in a cross-legged position, meditating.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Just as his mother informed him that he was excused from lunch, a lingering thought tugged at the corners of his mind.

'Why is it so quiet here as well?'

It was the stillness of the Shadow Entity. He no longer felt that lingering feeling that he had in his head.

Hence, he found himself within the confines of his mind realm, where an eerie emptiness pervaded.

All that remained was the towering mirror, its reflective surface mirroring back his own solitary presence.

The shadow entity wasn't there as well.

"Hey, you there?" Ryn asked, hopeful there won't be an answer.

*EERIE SILENCE*

There wasn't an answer. Ryn was happy at first because he didn't know if he could win if the entity challenged him again, even though it wasn't time yet.

And he was concerned at the same time cause he didn't want all the privileges that come with it disappear with it.

'at least the Huge mirror is still there'.

Even if that directly didn't mean the Entity was still there, for Ryn, it was better knowing the door for it to come back still remains.

"Should I just do it here?"

Ryn glanced around, and the eerie silence greeted him again.

"I should just do it outside." Ryn muttered, opening his eyes.

As he gazed upward, the sky became veiled by a blanket of clouds, concealing the warm embrace of the sun.

In the midst of this tranquil moment, a serene silence enveloped the surroundings, with only minimal human activity to be seen.

However, amidst the peaceful backdrop, a group of mischievous youngsters emerged, mostly his own age, daringly fleeing from what they playfully referred to as their "nap prison."

"I should warm up first."

Ryn started stretching and began with his usual morning routine workout.

10 sets of straddle stretches.

10 sets of forward fold.

"Now the endurance."

10 laps around the backyard.

"Now, the stances."

Ryn then started with the stances, one at a time, and perfectly followed what his father taught him, from hunting techniques.

Then, relying on the memories he had obtained from the shadow entity and the limited techniques he managed to decipher from one of the books, Ryn attempted to recall what he could.

However, his knowledge only extended as far as the introductory stances of the first chapter in that particular book.

He had not been able to progress beyond that point, leaving him with a rudimentary understanding of the techniques.

After he was done with all of that, his body felt finally attuned.

"Now it is time."

Standing there with hands clasping into a fist he played the fight with Shadow Entity in the mind realm in his head.

He watched every clash in that fight.

And replayed.

Then again.

One more.

Every time he kept observing every action, the Entity made, every move, every technique, step to step, motion to motion.

And finally, he opened his eyes.

His body seemed to possess a mind of its own, as if a predetermined set of actions guided it.

It mimicked the fluid movements of the Shadow, attempting to replicate its intricate techniques.

Though clumsy at first, with each repetition, the pieces of the puzzle began to align.

One move after another, the rigidity in his motions started to fade away, and those once foreign movements became his own.

The repetition brought familiarity, until eventually, he felt as though he had become the creator of those precise and graceful actions.

And then he arrived at the last scene where the Shadow equipped weapons of his creation.

As Ryn replicated the movements, he couldn't help but feel the emptiness in his hands.

It was evident that practicing a technique designed for weapon usage felt incomplete without a proper weapon in his grasp.

The absence of a physical tool to complement the motions created a disconnect, diminishing the authenticity of his practice.

The weight, balance, and tactile feedback that a weapon provided were integral to truly mastering the technique.

Ryn realized that he needed to acquire a suitable weapon to fully immerse himself in the training and unlock the true potential of the techniques he was attempting to learn.

"This doesn't feel like it" Ryn looked around, searching for something to replace the lack of weapons, for now that would suffice.

He didn't want his training, which was following smoothly, to be interrupted, so he picked up two wooden sticks and continued.

"This will do for now."

Just like before, he began by crudely emulating the technique, practicing it repeatedly until he achieved perfection and could eventually make it his own.

Although it may have seemed like a simple movement, that singular action held the power to determine his defeat and potentially seal his fate.

For Ryn, one thing he learned today and perfected could decide the result of his fight with the Entity tomorrow.

For him, taking a single step forward was preferable to remaining stagnant or making no progress at all.