“All techniques have tiers you need to pass through, mine only has six tiers and Mother’s technique is more complicated and has ten tiers,” August said, resting on Roland’s head while they ran throughout the jungle. “The first tier of my technique is the Renegade Mortality in which you train using Qi Energy to cast off your mortal body by improving its whole quality and power. The main focus isn’t to improve the gathering of Essence but it can still be used as a supplementary technique to speed up the training of Mother’s technique.”

Roland completely ignored the ramblings of the turtle as he focused on not losing his precious life to the giant, brown wolf with a black spiral horn growing from its head chasing him. Its height reached at least three meters and its muddy fur concealed a lot of the scars it gained until reaching maturity.

Many would question why would Roland continue with this crazy training after two weeks, and the only reason to him continue despite being a normal person without big ambitions was because of the speed they were showing results, and that he made his masters promise him that at least one of them would accompany him to the danger. In this way, making them sharing his woes.

It was just an act of petty revenge in the end though.

“Did you know that the Polus, the organ so small that is almost in-"

The turtle's useless history lesson continued for a whole hour and even the wolf chasing Roland seemed bored as it couldn’t ever bite the arrogant human that dared to play with a ball of water in the middle of the chase.

Roland felt the adrenaline and pain from exhaustion from running over an hour without stopping being converted to the transparent energy known as Qi as he followed in his mind August’s instructions.

The Qi flowed through his whole body reforming it and giving it a new quality, and even nature.

“Good, your progress is slow but steady. One of the main disadvantages of the Timeless Emperor Refinement is the lack of attacks or true power before completing the first tier of it, causing the user to be put in dangerous situations and prematurely dying because of it. To counter that we began reforming specifically your lower body and you are now thirty percent done with the first tier.” August said in praise of Roland’s tenacity.

For starting the refinement on his legs was the only reason Roland was capable of outrunning a beast capable of using Essence and comparable to a Magus Rank 1 for more than one hour.

It would be a different story if this wolf could use any kind of ranged attack, if it could do that even if Roland had the Soul Spirit to protect him and counterattack, he would still easily die to the wolf as despite having greater speed, Roland couldn’t control himself well enough to avoid anything throw at him for more than one hour.

Of course, August knew this and took his time to find the perfect beast without any ranged attacks to provoke with his acting, and help his disciple in his training.

Albeit the turtle was still bitter his disciple whined about taking his masters to the frontline, and purposely chose one stronger than normal that at first almost bit Roland and caused him to give a beautiful scream of fear, which August made sure to engrave in his mind to always cheer his day by only remembering about it.

“Roland, I think we found a perfect opportunity to score.” August suddenly said louder than normal, attracting Roland’s attention. “Ahead of us there are a boy and girl being chased like you by a beast of Magus Rank 1 but aren’t quick enough to survive like you, let’s-”

“Where? Let’s save them by making this wolf fight with the other beast instead of us.” Roland enthusiastically said to save himself from his torture and even do a good action at the same time.

“Yeah… let’s save them.” The turtle hesitantly said, embarrassed to tell his real motives of stealing and profiting from the boy and girl. “Go to the right until you see...”

Roland received a burst of speed in knowing his suffering is nearing the end and followed the turtle’s instructions.

***

“Jimmy, I told you that searching for a lost Magic Circle was an error!” Carmen, the woman dressed in light blue robes and with an ever-present frown, screamed in terror as she used everything her grandpa gave her to protect herself in hopes of fleeing from the giant snake behind her.

“It isn’t my fault that a weak snake we ignored eat up the blessed Magic Circle and became comparable to a Magus Rank 1.” Jimmy, a blond man with his hair partially blocking the left side of his face and dressed similar to Carmen, shouted back in anger.

Carmen always found a way to blame him for whatever bad thing that happens, it wasn’t like it was his fault that he accidentally dropped the Magic Circle right into the snake and then angered it by stomping on its tail, right?

The giant, venomous snake with piercing red eyes knocked over trees while chasing its aggravators, hissing at the two teenagers that were ignoring it and arguing between themselves instead of falling in despair.

The snake didn’t eat them until now with its superior speed, and it wasn’t because the objects thrown by woman were slowing it, it actually wanted to them cower in fear and fall in despair before dying so it was only toying with them until it gets bored or they reach close to the paper talismans at the road.

Carmen and Jimmy had only come to this jungle because they heard from their elders about an intact Magic Circle of an expert from beyond the walls that had fallen down near here , and how it was possible to extract its Essence to advance directly to the Magus Rank 1, ignoring all the rough training between the eighth-layer of Essence Reformation they were and the barrier to the next realm.

The people from their Society, Kirin Renascence, tried to search for it days ago and couldn’t find it. However, Jimmy knowing how lucky Carmen was convinced her to search for it with him and soon enough they found it near a cave nobody went to search for.

But unfortunately, when they were in the middle of the extracting process Jimmy dropped the blessed Magic Circle in the snake and they ended up in this situation.

“I swear to you, Jimmy. If I die here, I will haunt you for all of your poor life and ruin any chances of you getting a girlfriend by exposing all your 'accidents' as a child.” Carmen said with a thick grudge in her voice and finally using the last item her grandpa gave her, a burst of azure lightning hitting the snake while the statue became dust.

“Come on, don't be so ruthless. Aren't we friends?” Jimmy cried as he slashed vines at their front with his blueish enchanted sword.

“Let's see if you would still be able to say that when I tell everyone you pissed yourself-” Carmen's voice cracked when she began to feel an intense fluctuation of Essence coming straight to them in a speed completely inhuman.

Despair finally began to appear in her ugly face and the prospects of her really becoming a ghost seemed higher than ever as the powerful Essence coming to her for sure didn’t come from a human capable of saving her and Jimmy, though the World's Fate only she could sense was getting restless.

“Finally, salvation!” An energetic shout cut through the dense jungle and from the nearby trees came two figures who made Jimmy, Carmen, and the giant snake widen their eyes in disbelief.

An adult man in the worst possible clothes, full of holes and dirt, with bright blue eyes, and surprisingly only in the fourth layer of Essence Reformation was together with the scariest looking wolf they saw in their life. And the wolf’s realm was moreover the same as of the snake, but it was more advanced in the realm, being already at the middle stages.

How was it possible to the weak man endure the pressure of such a mighty beast? Despite having many questions in their minds, the man and wolf didn't give them time to think as the man in a speed impossible to his current stage quickly held Jimmy and Carmen’s hands and began to drag them off through the jungle with him. “Don’t struggle, I am saving you two.” He warned.

Even in pain of having her knees and legs scraping at the ground, Carmen was still capable of seeing Jimmy completely stunned at this situation and the outcome of the wolf and snake meeting.

The wolf felt his complete superiority over the recently advanced snake, but he also felt a tremendous power inside of the snake that was still being absorbed. It had two options, or it risked killing the snake now to the reptile not become a threat later on, or it combined efforts with the snake to chase the humans and make friendship with the probably next jungle’s overlord.

The two beasts glared at each other for only a moment before the malicious and arrogant snake couldn’t endure more being sized up as if it was inferior to its fellow beast. It was tired of the feeling of being in any way inferior to the other beasts like it was before absorbing the Magic Circle, it made the first move and put the impertinent humans out of its mind, it couldn’t care less about Essence Reformation humans now.

The wolf roared in defiance when it was bitten by the treacherous snake and decided to do whatever it is needed to kill this youngling overlord, no mattering the sacrifices it needs to make as they rolled through the trees, toppling them down and acid raining on their arena of battle.

Carmen wanted to see the rest of the fight, but the man dragging her was just too quick and they were already far away from the beasts.

Jimmy and Carmen tried to warn their supposed savior about their predicament but the man was so concentrated in fleeing that he didn’t hear them.

The worst of this situation wasn’t their grazed knees, it was the strange turtle on the man’s head holding a wondrous ball of water that was looking condescendingly at them, the scorn and mockery were so thick in its eyes that they could perceive them even though they were of different species.

Infuriating, was a word too light to what Jimmy and Carmen were feeling right now.

Thankfully to their knees and mental health, the shabby man found the road before they tried to kill his pet in anger.

“Mister, thank you for saving us.” Jimmy and Carmen said when they were dropped at the road, albeit the man was probably really poor and only at the fourth layer, he was older than them and also the reason they were alive until now with his superb and unbelievable speed.

He deserved their respect.

“No problems, I was needing to outwit that wolf anyway. My name is Roland, what are your names?” Roland couldn’t lose the chance of using the leftover Qi after he left the previous situation of fear and excitement, so he immediately took the Soul Spirit from August and began to train Water Incantation while talking with the teenagers.

Although he was reaching close to the next layer of Essence Reformation because of the amount of Essence gathered by Lucy’s technique, he wasn't really advancing in the technique’s first tier, Formed Spirit, itself.

Lucy’s technique was much more complicated and confusing than the simple August’s technique where he just needed to put himself in danger and hope to survive to advance on its first tier.

“Mine is Carmen and this clumsy boy who almost killed me is Jimmy.” Carmen smiled, still not letting go of her grudge. She will probably take it to her grave, but won’t act on it to make the life of her friend hard.

Jimmy bowed in embarrassment and didn’t say anything in answer, when Carmen is angered it is best to not talk.

Roland eyed in curiosity both of the teenagers.

Jimmy seemed introverted and timid with how his blond hair covered the left side of his head, and Roland could see bulging muscles on him which made a contrast with the initial impression of the teenager, making someone wonder why didn’t he with his strength leave Roland’s hand when being dragged off.

Carmen had an average face in Roland’s opinion. In the slums, he had already seen many other people uglier than her with her ever-present frown. What was unusual of her was the hair that made even August doubt it was genetically possible to exist, she for sure dyed her hair since she had greenish eyes.

It was a light pink hair arranged in a twintails, a strange combination.

“Roland, I must ask you one thing. Were you using some kind of Magic Item to be so quick?” Carmen said, being formal with Roland despite his weak Essence’s fluctuations.

“No, it was just my normal speed.” Roland titled his head as he began to feel the differences of energies used by his masters’ techniques.

The transparent Qi made of extreme emotions was unyielding and forceful, he couldn’t try to perfectly guide it. He must instead just nudge it in the correct places and in the correct order for it to obey him and go to the places he wanted.

On the other hand, the azure Vital Energy made of the connection with his Soul Spirit was so gentle and warm that was too easy to guide it, but difficult to make it go through all the way and the form Roland wants because it is sometimes so fragile it ‘breaks’ before doing its job.

Roland now understood why August said his technique could be used as supplementary to Lucy’s technique. Only combining the two, the hard and soft, the rough and gentle, energies would he have the best results.

His gathering of Essence increased with this new knowledge but still wasn’t enough to go the next layer, only to put him next to it.

Carmen watching his answer and training was stunned by how strange it was, principally because of the ball of water and the feeling of two different energies struggling against each other. She wanted to talk about how incredible his speed was and about the World's Fate she feels from him, but Roland suddenly perked up in surprise.

“I forgot about her afternoon lunch.” He dusted off his clothes and began to walk away from Jimmy and Carmen. “Sorry, guys. But I remembered I have to do something. Goodbye, until we meet again.”

Just as quick Roland entered into Carmen and Jimmy’s lives, he left them.

Jimmy wanted to say thanks when Carmen finished talking but the sudden Roland’s departure took him by surprise and he wasn’t able to say anything before Roland’s figure disappeared in the horizon.

“He is really quick, isn’t he?” It was the only thing Jimmy could say in his bewildered state.

“Yeah… almost as if he isn’t human or from the Essence Reformation realm.” Carmen slowly said with a mysterious glint in eyes, considering innumerable possibilities in her head about something related to Roland.