Inside a certain mountain range, near a small river, a wood cabin could be seen along with a small yard and a stone path. The vegetation surrounding the cabin and the yard was bright green and of sizes that could be considered anything but small. Even the grass was almost a metre tall, not to mention the massive trees which easily surpassed a hundred metres.

It was a beautiful spring morning now and the rays of the sun were struggling to get past the lush vegetation to reach the ground. Even so, many of them still passed through the gaps, creating the illusion of looking at a beautiful painting.

The cabin door slowly opened to reveal a young girl dressed in a short white silk dress. She had long black hair and green eyes. She gave a big yawn while looking around the yard.

"Bro!! Are you here?" she shouted while scratching her eyes.

"Pff, he is out hunting again." she pouted while walking towards the huge grass on the left of the cabin.

She stopped and knelt while both of her hands touched the grass in front of her.

"Now, now, where are you.." she murmured while her face showed a look of concentration.

Several hundred metres away, a young man was hiding in a huge bush. His eyes were squinted as he looked at a three-horned deer just a few meters away of his hiding spot. He slowly moved his hand forward. As he focused, a formless energy was slowly taking shape into his hand. He then made a throwing motion towards the mutant deer.

A second later, the deer felt the danger and tried to run away. However, it was already too late. Its movements were now way slower than expected. It was as if the body was suddenly so far away from the mind that every command took a lot of time to be communicated across the distance. The next moment, the young man jumped towards the helpless animal with a huge knife in his hand.

Not so helpless it seemed, as the deer's horns suddenly started heating up and three small fireballs shot towards the man. He frowned and softly exhaled. Along with the air leaving his lungs, his body suddenly sped up. He bypassed the fireballs and arrived in front of the deer while his knife accelerated towards the animal's throat. A clean strike, not followed by any other sound as the animal collapsed, signifying the unusual strength of the man.

"Boy, that was close." He scratched his head while sighing. This young man was of course Andrew.

It has been 10 years since "Uncle Coral", as he and his sister call him, took them both out of the Heavenly Eye Guardian City and into the wilderness with the promise of a lot of food waiting for them.

Well, at that time Andrew agreed without a second word. Not entirely because of the food promise, but mostly because Coral has displayed certain strength and abilities which were far beyond his imagination. This has sparked a certain desire in him, the desire to grow stronger. After all, imagine all the food he could gather if he became as strong as Uncle Coral.

The reason for their departure, however, Andrew came to realize it when he grew a bit more. Uncle Coral has always been adamant on teaching him how to cultivate and how to control the mana in the air. He always rambled about how he was the only one with an affinity for the Time Element and now he has finally found a successor to his inheritance.

Of course, that was a good thing for Andrew and he quickly realized that. He also became increasingly fond of the old man. He only came to realize how important the man became to him when he left 3 months ago. He said that there is a great turmoil brewing and that he is needed. He also said that it was time for the brother and sister to leave the nest and gain experience.

This greatly saddened the siblings, however both of them were mature enough to understand. Moreover, in these 10 years Andrew cultivated under Coral's guidance and while he was only a peak Mana Apprentice, the amount of control he gained over the Time Element was not at all negligible. In fact, Coral didn't mention this, but Andrew has as much control as he had when he became a Core Formation Mage. Coral always lamented how Andrew's grade 5 mana affinity did not match his element at all. Grade 5 affinity could only be considered a bit below average, nothing more. Having such an affinity is literally a waste of such a great element.

But, he was the first one in many years that Coral managed to find, so he had to make do with him. Coral also quickly realized that the boy was by no means dumb. In fact he could be qualified as a genius, albeit barely. The problem was that Andrew's advancement in cultivation proved why grade 5 mana affinity was considered below average.

When Aisha was 7, Coral personally tested her mana and elemental affinity. Andrew was shocked to discover that his little sister was a monster. With a grade 10 mana affinity and a rare Life Element, she would probably be fought over once they went back to the Cities. Even with the difference in age, Aisha was already a peak Refinement Soldier.

However, the difference in control was obvious and in a fight, Andrew would still be able to best her, at least for now.

"Found ya!" Aisha said as her Life Trace was able to see at great distances through the connections the plants had with each other. With another thought, a small blade of grass extended from the ground behind Andrew.

*Smack* it ruthlessly hit Andrew in the head.

"Auch!" he then turned around alarmed. He quickly calmed down when he saw the blade of grass.

"She's awake heh. She always insists to have breakfast together. Alright then." he started dragging the corpse of the deer towards the small cabin.

"My control increased again." said Aisha smiling. She was now able to see and control plants at almost a kilometre away from her, albeit with great difficulty.

"Wait, no, what is that?!" she suddenly asked terrified. Through her connection she saw something akin to a tiger running at unimaginable speed towards Andrew, who was still about 400 metres away from her. In a second, the beast reached Andrew.

"Watch out!!" she screeched while sweat formed on her forehead. Tens of blades of grass rose to Andrew's left and pushed him to the right. It was right in time, as the black shadow brushed right past his left arm, leaving a big claw wound on it.

"Shit!" Andrew rolled to the ground. The pain from his arm made him very alert to his surroundings. He looked to his left and spotted his attacker, a black three-eyed tiger. But as soon as he prepared to attack, he froze in terror. He could not feel the presence of the tiger! That meant it was at least at the Core Formation Stage!

[I can't let it get to the cabin!] Andrew decided. He knew his sister's power, while her advancement speed was amazing, her combat power was too small, she was weaker than him. A Core Formation Beast is too much to handle even for him, she would be crushed in seconds!

With this thought in mind Andrew threw the deer from his back towards the tiger and then strongly exhaled as his body made use of the time element present around him to accelerate way beyond what it is was capable of. This was one of the advantages of having the time element, it could be found everywhere. While elements like water, fire, wind might be very scarce in some places, time was everywhere.

He jumped and accelerated away from the cabin. The tiger seemed to not care about the deer corpse as it quickly run after Andrew.

"No!" Aisha screamed as she started running towards them. Unfortunately, she was at least two times slower than Andrew even though she was an entire stage above him. She quickly lost sight of them.

Andrew could feel that he was being slowly overtaken. The distance between him and the beast decreased to only 5 metres. The slow debuff he was continuously throwing on the tiger did not have much effect, probably because of the difference in strength.

[Barrier!] he screamed in his mind. The air behind him suddenly froze in place and became solid as a rock. Too bad the tiger's power was too strong and it just swiped its claw to break apart the barrier. It wasn't even slowed for a second.

[Shit, shit, shit, shit, BLINK!] the tiger was just behind Andrew and swiped its massive claw at his head. Just before what would have been certain death, Andrew disappeared from the path of the claw, only to appear where he was almost a second ago, a few metres behind. He then sped off to another direction.

The tiger was confused for a second and then its eyes suddenly turned red. The speed of the tiger tripled and the next second it was again behind Andrew. This time, however Andrew was not expecting this. The tiger's claw hit him in the back throwing him a few meters before he crashed into a tree.

As the dust cleared, Andrew's bloodied figure was revealed. He was lying in a pool of blood which formed from the wound on his back. His clothes torn, the huge bruise on his chest suggested massive internal bleeding.

"This is how I die huh...." he said with difficulty. He let out a strained sigh and was just about to resign himself to his fate when he suddenly heard a woman's voice in his head.

[System booting...]

[System started successfully. Welcome, host!]

[Huh?]