Beginning the journey was much anticipated by Samuel, from their domain to Miles a travel of six months was awaiting him. A road not devoid of dangers, but with his travel companion if they didn't deliberately entered known forbidden places, nothing unexpected should happen.

Galloping full speed along the way, green and calm scenery near civilization gave it place to wild land, the dwelling and nest to monsters, but since the clean up had been the day before, it had no trace of the monster, much to Samuel's dismay.

(damn it, I wanted a test on living subject…unfortunately, can't do anything about it, maybe in neighbor noble lands, the hunt haven't been commenced yet…)

Putting his hope on a chance to find an opportunity for battle, he busied himself with Holding ring his father had handed him.

“hm, pattern is unsealed, father wanted me to make one myself, huh.”

Inspecting it's content, he found sixteen engraved magic stone, five medium sized pouch, three ripe grey mangrove fruit, two bottle, a book and a latter.

Mana radiating from magic stones were warm and comforting, all of besides on which had a mighty feeling to it, one he knew too well whom the creator was.

Father, you too worry a lot about me. The magic stone was disposable and it could be used only once, as it was a completed magic beforehand with mana stored inside, it was very easy to use for nearly anyone, only finding material for production and a skilled mage at engraving was the hard part, resulting in high price on them. Though it could be interpreted as an heartwarming act from a caring father, it carried a second meaning to Samuel as well, a proof to his weakness. Same was for remaining fifteen, which where healing magic, as he was tend to get hurt a lot.

Inside pouches, he saw a total sum of a thousand gold coin, a rather big amount which he believed to be for his tuition. Passing on them he took out letter and the book.

Opening the sealing on the letter there was a small card inside the packet, reading their content left Samuel with a wry smile.

“well, this is going to be somewhat challenging…”

Letter was brief and had given him five piece of interesting information.

One; the money should be used with discretion as the amount provided was only his tuition for 5 year and any fund for separate expenditure such as lodging and daily necessity should be provided by his own ability.

Two; the magic stone and fruit were measures for emergency situation, whether in combat or to be sold for finance, use them with caution.

Three; the bottles were Ocean breeze, a souvenir wine of their territory, one was to be presented to Haco and the other was for Harold. However his father had explicitly warned him not to hand it to Harold himself.

Four; a fake identity is created for him to use before reaching your destination, a guild card is inside for identification throughout the Empire. 

Five; in Miles he should take care and not seek any trouble but if, if ever someone sought to harm him, he was permitted to use any mean necessary to keep himself safe., even if it meant to take whoever lives it was. However try to do it as secretly as possible, if otherwise, any further consequences would be handled by him.

“…that's bad advice to give to nine-year-old dad.”

It was a bit shocking for him how easily his father adviced him to kill and hinted him to keep it under wrap, it wasn't first one either.

“let's hope it doesn't get to that point. And now for the book…”

[Manual of Solitary War Gear] was what written on the cover. This was the name Edward had given the artifact he had created but after him it was called as [Edward's Water Dragon equipment set].

“both are rather unsuitable names…”

“agreed!” the deep voice of Pontus responded to his muttering.

“Oh? We can talk like this?”

“When I'm awake, yes. Anyway I just wanted to remind you not to forget your first day payment that's all, goodbye.”

Shamelessly pointing his demand and escaping after, what was that again, not greedy? yeah, for sure.

Skimming through the manual, he marked few part he needed and could use, putting back along with letter in the ring.

“let's pay today share.” calming his excitement, he went to a 30-minute sleep on moving vehicle.

As his reserve had increased, amount of sleep required to replenish had increased as well, making his flaw more and more obvious, as discouraging as it was it didn't stopped his endless desire for more. in an hour and half he completed his task and fully recovered.

His actions was summarized in one word for Harold; weird. Even though him not having a system was public knowledge, his way of recovery wasn't.

“if you're tired or anything, we can camp earlier or stay in one of villages on the way.”

“no, it's all right, it's better if we ride more distance daily, then to waste time for rest.”

“is that so? I'm fine either way, just say when you need to rest.”

They'd set out in afternoon but since road was clear they could still be on move even in night.

After a short while Harold faced the right side of road, gazing trees doubtfully, but he didn't stop themselves and moved onward.

“I sense eight presence there and they're heading to our direction.” Samuel revealed what he had detected earlier.

“…?! you can tell from here? quite sharp, aren't you?” the distance they had with the unknown group was ten-minutes, so it wasn't expected that Samuel could detect them, at least Harold didn't.

“Thank you, but what should we do about them?” 

“let them be, they wouldn't come at us anyway.”

Hearing his assured reply, Samuel didn't say any further.

But contrary to Harold's belief, the group entered their field of view and wasn't backing away either. A pack of wolf, with light gray fur, lead by one of rather medium size, they didn't seem threatening or especially strong, more like a coward bunch who had survived the hunt by hiding.

Pulling the rein, Harold watched the bunch who stood in their path.

“what the…, are these guys for real?starved or something?” Harold voice conveyed his disbelief of what he witnessed

“is it really that unusual, uncle Harold? doesn't monster attack people on roadside frequently?” Samuel replied with his book understanding of monsters behavior.“anyhow, can you leave them to me? I want to test my strength on them.” Samuel said as he unsheathed the short sword with great enthusiasm.

“…all right, do what you want, but I'll interfere if I see it necessary.” 

“thank you.”

Jumping down, he moved to front, looking at the pack as he closed in toward them. They were growling and clawing at ground, eyes ablaze with hunger and desire toward the duo, but they wasn't moving closer from spot they were standing.

“well, if you guy were afraid, why step up, in first place?” they were fearful of Harold and that was bright as day for Samuel but it wasn't his business to care for them.

Channeling his mana to his left hand, a magic circle formed .“ have a taste”

A red bolt was shoot off of the circle, heading straight for pack. The bolt was neither fast or loud, seeming a bit calm even. But misleading tranquility and inaction proved deadly fast.

Upon the impact the bolt exploded, turning ignorant creature into meat paste in matter of second.

The pack who saw one of them die gruesomely, was both fearful and infuriated.

“Aooo.” their leader howled and pack opened distance between themselves and charged at Samuel from three side, uncaring to their instinctive warning,

Samuel seeing their tactic didn't wait for them and sprinted to right side, with a sudden gush of wind at his feet, he reached right at wolf's nose, making a stab at it's gut.

Though a creature of meager strength, in term of body speed, it was still higher than a book-worm who rarely exercised. Dodging his attack, it attempted to bite off his head whole, but Samuel had expected the outcome. Slamming his left hand on his chest a circle formed and pushed his upper body backward.

Not expecting the result, jaw of wolf closed on empty air and the sword targeted lower jaw of off guard beast, nailing it to upper one with ease. Whimper of dying beast arouse no feeling in boy's heart, proceeding to send a strand of mana into the core of now dead beast.

Pulling sword out, he shot out another red bolt at nearest beast, and took distance from them, going toward the right again. Fully aware of the red bolt deadly nature, the beast avoided with haste, merging back with rest of pack.

As group passed their fallen companion body, Samuel grinned happily. Body of dead beast tremored and mana spilled out of in rapid pace, the leader noticed and backed away thanks to it's superior intellect, other weren't so lucky though. The mana escaping the body held two line of red and blue color in it, colliding and creating a devastating blast that teared through their bodies, killing them outright and using their mana as fuel to keep the momentum.

This was one of his researches, using mana of just deceased being for himself, for this he had sneakily picked up a few of  E and D-level core he found on mansion to try it. The mana in cores of long dead was stagnated and peaceful, but those with less than three days elapsed from their death had agitated mana in them and were unstable and unusable. Stimulating them with  any type of energy especially fiery or explosive would result in rampage of pure force like this, and each death would only increase the intensity of force.

“you survived, huh. But it won't be for long.” Samuel said looking at big wolf left after dust settled, the beautiful landscape became a mess and big dent was left on ground.“here it came!” Samuel's body glowed with a grey halo, invigorating him in visible rate.“…I don't like the pain it'll bring but at least I can crush you with it.”

Same as boy, the leader wanted no more than his foe's bloody demise. A pack who had hidden in time of hunt had been lured by delicious and appetizing aroma they had smelled. Wary of almighty aura of one of two human, they'd kept themselves back. Planning to hunt the feeble one, they wanted take him and flee, just to be surprised when he stepped up himself, broke his plan and made a powerful strike he didn't foresaw. Forced to make a new tactic on spur of moment they sought to separate him from other one, to be surprised again by being baited by boy once more losing his underling, and his opponent made a sharp increase in power.

Mana swirled near the wolf's claw as it released a powerful flash.

Avoiding the attack by another wind push, the beast closed the gap between them in an instant, not giving the boy any leeway for anything.

Releasing a spell hastily with nearly all mana left to him, this time orange colored spark sprayed out his hand, halting the beast's advance.

Striking at beast's neck, he envisioned himself the victor. 

But his sword got stuck in his foe's flesh cause of insufficient force in it, and in close distance the beast, despite pain it felt moved it's head to finish up his opponent.

won't make it.

Neither his magic nor sword was fast enough to help him in time, he had underestimated the intelligence of the beast.

But in next blink the beast wasn't in his sight, as if wasn't there at all.

Blinking in confusion, he surveyed left and right, just to find it ten meters away from him with hole in head.

“your skill in magic was something, boy.” Harold praised , capturing Samuel's attention. “ But your body reflexes were horrible to say the least. you were totally reliant on your magic rather then doing it on your own.” followed by a criticize.

But Samuel was listening attentively to either, center of his attention was few pebble which fell from Harold's hand.

He take that out with a pebble? 

The power and magnitude of skills this uncle of his had was nothing he could fathom, but even seeing was a valuable chance.

“…it's better if you make some work out before we reach, not to drop off from exhaustion in the first day of attending the sect. What do you say?”

“I'm glad that you'll be guiding me master Harold!”

“don't mix up the stuff, I will not be taking you as disciple, only basics.”

“thanks anyway uncle Harold.” 

Though he felt it was regrettable lose of chance to make himself junior disciple of his mother, there wasn't helping if Harold wasn't willing. He was neither apt in combat nor he had any special talent outside of study material, so it was understandable why Harold wouldn't choose him as disciple.

“for now let's be on our way, we would stay in a village a bit after sunset.”

Retrieving his sword, they resumed the journey.

As he attempted to take a rest ‘Leakage’ began, the grey light receded and pain engulfed his organs as expected, but it was much more tolerable than past. In midst of it, his head grew dizzy and world spun around in his vision.

He saw a pack of wolves gathering together, ambushing an elk, or going separately for small game and similar images in succession. The image were vague, their color was hard to recognize and were fleeting fast, escaping his grasp. 

“Samuel, wake up.”

Shaking him awake was Harold.

“ugh…” waking up with a bitter taste in the mouth, he dazedly got off the cart, sky was darkened and moon was up high and they were inside a town .

“…how long was I sleeping?”

“around five hours, since the hunt in afternoon.”

That long? for him it was no different from usual short nap but it apparently was much more than that.

“what about the gates? did they asked for any identification for me?”

At his response to him, Harold laughed and said.

“why would they? they kindly let this mournful father to pass in.”

Mournful father? the what?

To confused Samuel, he hinted by pointing at him. A look at his state give him all response he needed.

With clothes bloodied in his hunt and a sword besides him in carriage, he was like a unlucky young man who got himself killed in delusion of becoming strong and his father was retrieving his body.

“this doesn't seem like bad idea to go on unnoticed.”

“nah, it won't work everywhere, this time blood was fresh and they didn't get close to inspect either, so, this won't work very well if security is tight.”

“em, good point, you seem well versed in this, any suggestion?”

“try to be natural as possible, I guess? I'm not that expert in either. Well, leave it, I'm hungry, you?” getting a positive response from the boy.“ good then, let's go grab a bite, and rest for the night.” he pointed to the inn near where they had rested the carriage.

“what about your stead? Is it fine to leave it in stable?”

“don't worry she isn't cannibal, and had a fill, so both horses and people are fine.”

Had a fill? when and what did she ate? 

Looking at mentioned creature, he found it's mouth with bit of just-dried stain of blood.

“It was a few encounter with monsters after you slept. so she had a great time for herself.”

Walking to doorstep of inn, they found there a bit crowded so they chose to a table side.

“welcome to our inn of the Passing River customers, how can I help you?” the waitress politely welcomed them. 

“we want two of your best serving, and a mild drink.”

“my apologies, but we've have ran out of liquor, I can replace it with a non-alcoholic drink if that's fine with you.”

“it's fine, please do.” though he said it was fine disappointment was clear on him.

 Is it that important to you?

“kid, can I ask few thing from you?”

“of course, go ahead.” 

“feel free to not answer them if you don't like though. Who taught you magic? What was with this different color on lightning you used? What was that grey light? And if you're talented in magic, why do you plan on getting trained in Miles as warrior?” 

Harold was actually quite surprised when he saw his execution of magic, there was not bit of leakage and his control was near perfect, something you would only see in genius magicians and power of them for someone of Samuel's situation was higher than expected. And then there was some unnatural light on him which empowered him visibly.

“hmm, I've learned basics under grandmother's tutelage and trained for rest with brother. The color of lightning represents their property, in order of consumption would be purple, red, blue, yellow, azure, green and finally orange and their corresponding effect are unknown, explosive, strong and loud, fast, long-range, magnetic and paralyzing. Grey light is unknown, but it appears when I kill monsters. And I believe you are already aware of my reason to be warrior.” he came honest with the Harold since he was trusted fully by his family and there was no need to keep anything or lie about it. 

“such detailed explanation, you have worked a lot on it, am I right? Also how does intelligence state work for you? I mean that determine strength of magic, and since you don't have it…”

“my hypothesis is that it might be based on my understanding of magic in general or something like that, which in the end it's nothing more than few month for the rest, isn't it?”

Not being able to refute his gloomy words, he glanced to side seeing a big gathering of adventurer that had returned from hunt with their table brim with mugs of drink, resulting in him getting in bad mood as well.

“here is your order, fresh meat from hunt, taste twice better, enjoy.” waitress brought their order with a refreshing smile.

“hey come here, and refill it for us.” one of those who had reserved all drinks for their celebration of returning from hunt call out to waitress.

“yes, yes, coming right away.” 

Harold's face was darkened a bit, but cleared soon after. Samuel eat his meal in silence eyeing their surrounding.

“haha, what a hunt it was, the monsters number were in thousands.”

“I thought we were dead for sure, but made it this big instead.”

“you guy think it's good thing that monster are multiplying this much? I'm getting concerned a bit.”

“what concern,huh? Didn't you see that little boy fighting prowess? you think monster gonna get threatening around while that's here?”

“y-yeah you're right, that guy is pretty much of monster himself. The way he burned them down or crush them with his weapon at this age was down right horrifying.”

Hearing their conversation Samuel could easily say how the boy they were talking about was.

He have gotten himself famous among the masses already…

“they're right, he's indeed hold a tremendous power as he say, I can attest that.” Harold testimony followed as well.

“…I've heard it's cause his cursed brother that monster are growing in number, though, what do you guy say?”

One of the bunch suddenly said freezing the air in silence.

His buddies looked him appalled and nervous.

“hey, hey, hey, do you have a death wish? don't drag us in it, dammit, you know how it work around here, don't ya?”

“sorry, I just said what I've heard.” sobering up a little, he noticed what he said looking around with fear.

Harold observed Samuel reaction but to his surprise boy held on and didn't lose composure.

“you love to grapple with them if you could, no?” so he tested him.

“yeah, if I could…maybe I would, But it won't be resolving it, violence isn't the answer.”

“then what is?”

“Value. Proving my worth I can make them shut up and acknowledge that they're wrong.”

It wasn't first time he was deemed cursed or ominous. His father had hid it from him and attempted to silence it, but he had managed to get a few word out of Zeth. At first it hurt him, but it wasn't a matter to solve it by force, and his father strict rule didn't leave much space for rumor to grow. With all factor it didn't changed the fact he was central reason for it, if his problem was unsolvable, then he had to earn something to fill the gap, in whatever way he could.

“and that's main purpose of you leaving home?”

“half of it.”

“half?! then what the other half?”

“to survive.”

Survive might seem like heavy word for a child but he had experienced danger of all type, whatever human or demon, his last concern was monsters, for this he wanted power, by any mean he could. He still vividly remember the voice of his dream telling him to survive.

“all right, I'll get us rooms, rest well, we'll resume early dawn. From tomorrow you'll have more hunts ahead of you.”