A few years passed by and Shao's blacksmith shop became more successful. Often, there were customers from passing troops that visit and chatted with Shao. Jiro soon learned by their stories that his father had been a hero candidate during his younger years. Despite not having any self-consciousness yet, Jiro single-mindedly trained hard to be like his father. By staying out in the yard, he made friends with some children in the village. Together they aspire to be heroes and made plans for their training. By the age of four, Jiro became the mastermind behind the Rockhill Hero-in-training squad. Having read more about how the army trained based on his father's field manuals stashed in their basement, he naturally became the one who designed the daily training regimen of his fellow hero aspirants. Jiro doesn't know yet, that in his subconscious he had faint memories of what army training is, which made it easier for him to understand those field manuals. Any ordinary man, would not understand knight level training without reading the basics first, and that type is the only type of field manuals that Shao was given when he trained his own men.

The Rockhill Hero-in-training squad is composed of eight boys whose ages range from six to eleven years old. Naturally the smallest one is Jiro. Every morning before daybreak, the small group would gather in the village square, shivering from the cold and still drowsy. Then Jiro would call out to formation in his shrill voice, trying hard to be commanding but would only end up sounding like a bossy brat. Their training needs someone to act as drill instructor. The adults are busy and nobody in their group knows how to do it, so the job came to Jiro naturally. At first, Jiro would try to lower their spirits, by calling them worms and chicken-poop, but his squeking voice and wild gestures would only make his friends laugh. After Jiro went off sulking saying he doesn't want to do it anymore, the group of friends finally agreed on treating the training more seriously. Thus, they settled on a training schedule that is similar to the army. So early in the morning, they would do army training exercises on the village square. In a line formation, they would stand straight with a tiger look, and would count off as instructed by Jiro. Then, Jiro would commence the exercise. The group would follow Jiro's cadence and rhythm in doing stretches, push-ups and such exercises. Afterwards if the group finishes early or if most of them were too tired to go on, they would rest until day break, to drink water, or cool off. Then, the group would proceed to the village entrance and inform the village guards that they would go jog outside the perimeter of the town. This was also the time that the small troop assigned by the kingdom would do their morning patrol.

Sometimes, Jiro's squad would jog along the perimeter following the knights in the distance, inspired by the figures protecting their village. Although when they do, the magnified voices of the village guards atop the tower would taunt them saying that there are monsters where they're heading. Although, they knew that the guards are just playing with them, Jiro would always stick to their agreement with the village guards. One of the agreement, is to always listen to the village guards warnings. This was also the condition that finally convinced their parents to allow them to train outside the village walls. Actually there isn't much danger outside, because there are only farmsteads spread out. But adults can be over protective. After their run outside, they would gather again in front of the village square. Jiro would run off to find their volunteer instructor for the day. Jiro would often chase after the knights resting in the barracks or one of the off-duty village guards, who would teach them a thing or two about survival, weapons and even magic. But most often than not, they would talk about their experiences with battles against monsters, or skirmishes. But there are also times when the knights are out and the village guards who were off-duty are busy with something else. 

In those instances, Jiro would come home and beg his father to spend a few hours with them. Around that time, Shao is still asleep, and nothing short of a good cup of coffee and bread would he teach them. After talking with his friends, it was agreed that the baker's son would provide them with hot bread, and the others would contribute a cent to buy warm coffee from the inn near the entrance. However, the innkeeper told them that he'll provide it for free if they take his fat, lazy son with them training. And so, the group has a new reluctant member. At first, the innkeeper's son would complain loudly and would only half-heartedly participate in their morning exercises. But after listening to the stories and the lectures, he began exerting more effort, that the innkeeper was pleased and allowed them to use the inn's kitchen when the group eat their packed breakfast.

As months passed by, the individual strengths of the group members grew. Thus, the training regimen of the group increased. They would jog several more kilometers even in the rain. They also began to go around the village doing manual labor to display their strength like chopping firewood or carrying luggage or trade goods. This earned the good will of the villagers and they started to earn the nickname Hillrock kiddie-troop. What their instructors thought as a phase, wherein children would pretend as training for an army, was finally accepted by Shao and the other instructors as the determination of the children. Thus, they began gradually introducing them to various self-defense and combat arts. The village guards would show them how to craft a simple bow, create arrows and archery. The knights would teach them beginner swordsmanship and shield formations. And Shao would teach them beginner magic.

It was during his father's first lecture on magic that Jiro had been utterly shocked that he had no affinity for manipulating mana. Considering that both magic affinity and talent runs in the bloodline of Shao and his wife, it could only be that their son has been so unfortunate as to acquire a recessive trait, that would only occur once in every tenth generation. Almost everyone in the village can do magic, except perhaps the kid with the down syndrome. Well, they never really knew because the kid never tried... but well. It's a shock for Shao. However, Shao set this misfortune aside when he thinks of his son's overwhelming intellect. Shao is very confident in his son's abilities. The sight of his son's teary eyed face as he looks at his friends conjuring specks of fire above their hands, moved Shao. He called out to Jiro and talked to him about other ways of using magic.

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"Now, now. You shouldn't feel too bad about yourself. Everyone have their own talent. In this case, yours just isn't the standard type of magic."

"But Pa, even Kyla knows how to use magic. You and mom, too. Am I not your child? One of the kids say that they found out he's adopted because he's hair color is different. Isn't that the same as me?"

Shao looked at his child, a mere four years old, yet already worrying about such complicated things. Shao coughed and look at his son seriously.

"You shouldn't worry. You have the same eyecolor as me, and you have your mother's hair color. At best, you should have been adopted from one of our relatives."

"Pa!!!" Jiro cried out in frustration at his father's teasing.

"Jiro. I will teach you something only our family can do. You must promise never to teach it to anyone else... Well, even if you do, other people won't be inclined to learn it anyway because it's too much of a hassle if you have mana."

Jiro's eyes sparkled at what his father said. For the young child, anything that could make him create fire out of thin air is already enough to make him happy. After all, he doesn't want to lose out to his sister and to his friends.

"To learn this, it will take more effort from you. You must study more things, read more books and write more notes. Can you handle it?"

"But dad, I've already been doing that..." Jiro mutter skeptically.

Shao paused and thought about the collection of notebooks that his son has amassed. The villagers would often bring an old or unused book to gift to Jiro to get Shao to give them a better price for his services. Of course, Shao was particularly weak to seeing his son hop around in joy at receiving something, so it only served to encourage his customers more. As a result, Jiro's room had become filled with books. Most of these were children's book, although some were actually long forgotten textbook stashed away and no longer passed down. Despite being advance, Jiro had easily grasped the contents of the book and even began to joyfully answer the exercises and problems presented in those books. Shao was actually surprised when he looked at scrappy notebooks Jiro made out of washed-out newspaper. Such a resourceful and smart kid.

"Alright, son. Perhaps its better for you to have an early start. Let me tell you about Heraldry."

"Alright, son. Now, I will first show you the concept of heraldry. First, there is the symbol." Shao drew on the ground with a long piece of branch he picked from a nearby tree. A simple symbol of the sun was enclosed inside a circle.

"This symbol only represents the idea of the person writing it. Often it is necessary to activate the spell's incantation." Shao wrote a nine phrased word that Jiro couldn't read. Its letters were different from what he had learned. The letters surround the circle enclosing the symbol. After completing the words, Shao drew a another circle around the incantation.

"These circles represent the structure of the spell. Different types of magic have different type of structure. In this case, this is a simple structure for fire. Last, but not the least, are the parameters."

Shao wrote another strange set of symbols around the outer circle. Unlike the previous set of letters, these symbols do not cluster together like the words do. But they are written in a continuous way. The symbols spike out from the outer circle like vines and leaves upon a branch.

"The parameters are not really necessary. However, they provide a greater degree of control on how the spell will be released. In summary, this spell array is for creating a small pillar of fire that doesn't burn. The parameters for this is to make the fire small, concentrated and doesn't burn."

Shao extended his branch and tapped the center of the circle where the image of the sun was.

"The final part is to activate the formation. When you activate, you need to picture in your mind the activation and the deactivation of your spell. This requires for you to impose your will by using your soul force to activate the formation. Look carefully."

Shao tapped the circle once again. From the center of the circle, bright red, orange flames rose up like a snake climbing an invisible tree. This flame seems to dance about and filled a invisible cylinder.

"And there you have it. That is the type of magic, you can do."

Jiro's eyes were shining,then he suddenly thought about the whole process and his head drooped down trying to imagine the amount of work he has to do to create a flame others can do in just a few seconds.

"Dad, it sounds tooooo hard and complicated." Jiro whined.

"Relax, it's not that hard once you set out to doing it. Now, do you know why this is advantageous?"

Jiro could only wrinkle his brows and look at his father, confused for a moment. 

"Because I can use it??"

Shao chuckled, and began explaining it further.

"Well, other than that, think about it. I'll explain it further in detail. Think about it more..."

Shao began drawing a few more examples.

And so, the father began training his son not only in blacksmithing, but also runic magic. Little does Jiro know that this knowledge would overlap later on with his past memories to create something this world has never seen before.