After the old man’s chuckle there was a brief, awkward pause. Then he cleared his throat and continued with his evaluation.

“I’m fairly old. Due to that I very rarely say that anything is the best or the worst of what I have seen. Real extremes are difficult to come across. But, the sheer lack of talent for Alchemy you exhibited was astounding. After what I’ve seen, I have to carefully consider whether brewing tea is considered Alchemy or cooking. If it’s the former, I’m afraid that just the fumes of you brewing a cup could end this old life of mine.”

“Was I really that bad?” Wolf scratched his head sheepishly, while asking the question to which he already knew the answer. He didn’t remember the exact details, but he remembered the frustration when attempting Alchemy and Artificing.

“Absolutely abhorrent. I wouldn’t drink a potion you brewed no matter what was at stake.” The man once again laughed heartily before starting to cough like a lifelong smoker.

“Also, your idea of a metropolis and people that live in one were a great source of amusement for me. Always the same shoddily built stone house, with the exact same crooked roof. The more important the building, the bigger the house. You know, I was so curious that I had to go through your memories just to see how you ended up with that idea and it truly was a gem. Let me show you.”

Suddenly a scene from when Wolf was a two and half year old boy appeared and played out in thin air. He was in the Muddy River, listening to the stories told by a peddler, while hiding in the bushes nearby. Wolf absolutely had no memory of this. He could only vaguely remember his father telling him to stay out of sight when peddlers were around, or at least to wear a hat.

The peddler was telling a tale of some sorts. When his story came to an end a curious girl around six or seven blurted out a question.

“What’s a city like?”

“A city is like a huge village! Bigger than you can imagine! Just like your village, a city has walls around it, but city walls are much bigger and better made. A lot of people live in a city. They wear clothes just like mine. They live in stone houses, kind of like your village head. The more important a man is, the bigger his house...” The elderly peddler tried to speak with an air of mystery, visibly enjoying being the center of attention.

The scene suddenly started blurring. A moment later it vanished as the play of lights that formed it had ended. Wolf was impressed with the quality of the illusion. Unfortunately, loud hearty laughter filled the room and kind of ruined the awe the boy felt for the old man’s skill. The laughter was once more cut short by the ancient man’s coughing fit. This time the cough sounded considerably more ominous, the unseen person was seriously ill. It took about half a minute for the old man to stop himself. Instead he started loudly wheezing as he breathed. The sound was hardly any better than the coughing fit.

After a while, the man sitting in the massive chair managed to catch his breath. Wolf was worried that he would die on him before their talk was over.

“I’ll be perfectly honest with you young man. I don’t want to take you in as my student. I’ve never had any disciples and I don’t plan on taking one now. However, I would like to help you in other ways. Maybe even provide some guidance when I find it to be appropriate. Just so you know, I’ve had four such people in my care before. All of them broke the shackles of this world and went out to see the bigger world that lies beyond the sky.”

The man made a dramatic pause.

“What do you say young man?” The old man asked a question that would affect the rest of Wolf’s life. The owner of this ancient voice wouldn’t interfere, unless the boy gave his consent.

Wolf was stunned silent. He was overwhelmed with the situation he had found himself in. Not to mention that he was still overloaded by the information from his past lives, most of which he was still processing. The cogwheels turning in his head were almost visible as Wolf tried to catch up with everything that was happening. Despite the half-digested information and the overwhelmed feeling Wolf knew one thing for certain. The person sitting in front of him, the person he could not see, was very powerful and very knowledgeable.

After spending a few moments in solemn silence Wolf nodded his head. “I would consider it a great honor sir.”

“Good, good. I see that the decades you have lived through have at least improved your vocabulary. Does it feel good? Being able to express yourself better? Knowing that for everything you feel there is an approximate word and a name? It’s actually quite horrible if you think about it. Words are mere generalizations, a standardized set, but language is what it is.”

Only now did Wolf realize that his head was full of complicated words. Complicated words he understood, without having to ask his father about this or that. And that’s not all, the flood of words was still ongoing. Despite the fact that the process was not complete, the vocabulary Wolf now had couldn’t be compared to the one from before entering the world of dreams. He even easily understood the meaning of the old man’s philosophical tripe.

Seeing Wolf’s shock the old man explained.

“The time one spends in those illusory dreamscapes is nothing but a mere fantasy. However, the knowledge and experience from dreams can be very much real. People wake up with epiphanies from time to time. But they mostly wake up with memories of things along the lines of giant two-legged mice, ducks and dogs singing songs at them.”

“Don’t worry, I didn’t want you to remember all the wrong conclusions you had come up with, so I took the liberty of purging them. Things like that would muddle your head. The only thing that was inherently wrong and I decided to leave behind is your idea of what a city looks like. I think that one day you will get as many laughs out of it as I did.”

“Completely unrelated to me erasing all of the wrong conclusions you made… I had to wipe away almost everything from your life as an Alchemist. I was tempted to leave some of the poison recipes you had come up with, but I was afraid you’d have an accident trying to brew them. A decent portion of your experience as an Artificer’s nephew is also gone. I hope that one day you really get to figure out how to hammer in a nail into a wooden board without bending it… Multiple times… But, don’t be discouraged, having horrible talent for something is just as natural as having great talent for something else. It all balances out in the end.”

Thinking about what the man just said, Wolf found himself stumped. If what had happened inside the dream could be turned into reality… Well, a limit must exist. Probably only things related to mind and soul could be made permanent. But if that’s the case…

“If you can influence what was happening, why didn’t you…” But Wolf decided to shut up before finishing his question.

“Well, well. Look at the boy asking for an arm after being given a finger. Quite a greedy wolf, aren’t you? You wanted to say why I didn’t teach you about everything I know? Or something along those lines, correct?”

The old man asked, but continued without waiting for the answer.

“As I have already said, I don’t take in students. Never did, never will. Since that’s the case, I don’t find it appropriate to teach anyone anything. Whatever you figure out on your own is your own gain. If you look at your Mind Hall you will see that I was already very generous by letting you keep a portion of your effort. Come on, feel free. Such action might be considered rude in the presence of others, you have my permission to be rude.”

Wolf thought for a moment before shaking his head. “I can do it later.”

“Good. I like respectful youngsters. You don’t have to worry. I completely wiped out all memories you made in the dreamscape. Especially human interactions… That way those fake events won’t influence your personality. And trust me, dreams can change a man. Oh, and while on the subject of things influencing your person... I didn’t touch any of the lingering information left behind by your past self.”

“If you think about it, your situation is kind of a mixed blessing. You have big juicy clumps of Soul Force just lying around your Mind Palace. It’s just that they want to take over and eat another big juicy clump. That thing is your own mess and you should sort it out on your own.”

Now that the coughing fit was over, the man was now having a talking fit. He was literally bombarding Wolf with problems and issues he had found.

“Oh… Right… Speaking of messes. Are you insane? You practiced a Body Refining art before even turning five years old! Even normal Body Refining arts can cripple your physical growth or cause abnormalities if practiced from childhood. And you most definitely did not choose a normal Body Refining art. Star Body Body Refining art is very particular. Do you have any idea what kind of consequences you will have to bear for getting tangled up with something like that from a young age?”

Wolf was completely caught off guard by the question.

“Consequences?”

What kind of consequences could there be from practicing a Body Refining art? They are used to make your body stronger, that’s it. Why would it cause abnormalities?

The old man sighed. “Magma Marrow, which is the main ingredient for the elixir of Magma Marrow, is an inorganic substance. You used an inorganic matter to substitute your bone marrow, which turned it into inorganic matter. In fact the purpose of Star Body is to turn your body into an equivalent of a living star. Do you see the problem?”

Wolf thought for a moment, but shook his head. He had no idea where this was going.

“By turning your bone marrow into an inorganic substance, your blood will also be transmuted into an inorganic substance over a period of time. In fact, the transformation is already complete. Then, muscles nourished with such blood will also lose the growth attribute over the course of two to three years, maybe five, if you’re lucky. Meaning that after you turn eight or ten years old your body will stop growing as you age.”

“I won’t go into details. Suffice to say that if the growth of your flesh is stunted so too is the growth of your skeleton. To put it in simple terms you’re now one-zero-nine meters tall. Which is quite a lot for your age, considering one of your parents is an elf. However, by the age of eight you will only hit one-twenty-five, one-thirty at most. And even that might be stretching it, pun intended.”

“Just so you know, based on your bloodline and potential, you should’ve grown to be around one-ninety, one-eighty in the worst case. Now, thanks to your own error you will stay a midget for the rest of your life.”

Midget? No! No, no, no! I want to be tall like dad! Big and tall! With strong broad shoulders!

Completely ignoring Wolf’s silent screams the old man continued talking.

“On the bright side, your muscles will stay lean no matter how strong they grow. So, despite all the weight you will gain in the future on account of changing your body’s composition, you will stay slim and small. Thanks to that and your half-elf, half-human ancestry, you should be able to pass for a halfling quite easily. You’ll never grow a beard either, so that makes it even more convenient, since those little buggers are all baby faced. So, all you have to do to lead a normal life is to settle down in the Empire of Halfling.”

Archibald's lessons:

The environment in the Empire of Human isn't suitable for Sword-Sages, since the areas in which a Sword-Sage could gather Internal Energy are relatively few and lacking in World Energy.