After Peter stepped in and ended the 'friendly' exchange between Alura and Mary they were ushered inside Lee's house. Lee's mother poured a glass of water for everyone and started the boar stew which she was making just for Lee's arrival. While cooking, she talked to all of Lee's friends and told them of the nice things Lee had to say in the letters he sent.

Alura also talked to each one of Lee's new friends. They wanted to hear more about Lee's younger years.. She concluded them to be a very friendly and interesting bunch. Except for Mary of course. Alura liked Tom and David well enough, but she couldn't help but connect more with Amanda, Derrick and Mr. Leaf who all had a more similar background to hers.

Soon Lee's father was home and greeted him with a hug. The same questions his mother asked about how school was going were repeated. Clearly he was proud of his son and happy to see he was well on his way to a more lucrative life.

Mary couldn't help looking around the home in shock. She knew Lee didn't come from a high class noble family but this was well beyond her expectations. It seemed to be more like a dwelling than an actually home. The chairs and walls were old. There were no creature comforts. The furniture was solid wood with no padding. It made her feel like a spoiled brat by how she lived in comparison.

She wondered what Lee thought when she mentioned her great and rich Cloud house when this was the kind of place he called home. Her fingers dug into her knees and she again felt the large gap between them. She stole a glance at Alura who was sitting shoulder to shoulder with Lee. She seemed to be from a similar world to his and they'd known each other for years.

Mary wasn't stuck up about her looks but she knew she was admired. Her main concern was always growing stronger and if someone thought she was nothing but a pretty face she would be quick to correct them on the matter. But looking are Allie she suddenly couldn't help but compare herself. Something she made it a point never to do.

Lee's mother called her Alura when she first mentioned her, was that her real name? It's true Alura's chest was bigger, her eyes were beautiful as was the rest of her face. Her smile came easy and she moved and acted with a freedom that was wild and captivating. Mary's couldn't smile so freely. She had to be the representative of the great Cloud house at all times.

Many men had confessed their feelings to Mary and even have gone so far as to ask for her hand from her grandfather. Now the one man she ever wanted to desire her seemed to have his perfect match sitting beside him. She felt an ache in her heart. Perhaps she really had no chance at all. Her thoughts were broken as a bowl of boar stew was put in front of her.

She thanked Lee's mother for the bowl and tried a little. It was just as good as Lee had said. It still didn't measure up to the elaborate meals she had on the Cloud house estate with several cooks and courses. But for one pot and one meal it was rather wonderful.

“Thank you for the boar stew mother, that was great! I knew it must have put you to a lot of trouble.” Lee sat back in his chair enjoying the feeling of the stew in his stomach.

“None at all dear and I won't hear any more appreciation from you. I am just glad you are back home for a while. You said you would get to stay here about 2 months right dear?”

“That's what the plan is. We'll be training here with the old man for about 2 months before we all head back to school. Speaking of which, I hate to eat and run, but we really should see him before the day is out. I'll be back before nightfall. As for my friends, they have plenty of money and in one of my letters I asked Allie to make arrangements for them at a nearby Inn. Obviously they can't all fit here.”

Lee gave his mother and father a hug before they he left for the rest of the day. His group and Alura walked into the woods and down the trial to the old wizards house. On the way they talked about a number of topics and stories. The single thing no one brought up was Peter Leaf's hope that the old wizard may be able to do something about his mana system. Lee desperately hoped the old wizard had some kind of idea up his sleeve.

Once at the house Lee knocked three times. The old man answered. The smile on his face was ear to ear. “It's nice to see you again Lee, and these must be the friends you mentioned.” He greeted them one by one. So this was the man who taught Lee? He was certainly tall. It was rare for them to see someone taller than Mr. Leaf. But unlike Mr. Leaf who was young and strongly built, this old man was thin and lanky looking. Almost frail.

More than his looks, he just didn't give off the aura of a man who seemed to have great magic. Perhaps he was more of an academic than an actual magic user? The old man shook the hands of each of Lee's friends one by one. Peter Leaf was the last of the bunch to receive a handshake from the old wizard.

As the old thin wrinkled fingers closed around his palm. Peter felt for the mana and magical ability within the old man. His eyes shot wide open. His chin went down and his pulse quickened. He looked to the hand as if he was now holding a poisonous snake. He pulled it away and took a step backwards by instinct.

“Something wrong with my handshake, Peter my boy?” The old man's eyes locked on to his. Peter felt a pressure like he never knew in all his life. If he said or did the wrong thing. This man could instantly kill him as if he was squashing a bug. Who the hell was he? How was he so strong? Was he hiding even more power?

“No, sorry. I was just surprised is all.” Peter calmed himself. While he felt the enormous power this wizard possessed, he had been nothing but friendly to Peter. What he did just now would be considered the height of rudeness. He was about to apologize but the old man waved his hand.

“Don't worry about it. I quite understand.” The rest of Lee's friends were confused on what just happened. Lee was not in the least bit confused. The old man turned to Lee with a playful smirk on his face.

“I read your letters, you've grown since we last saw each other. You even have gone so far as to challenge me to a rematch. You remember how badly I bet you before you left. Now you want to come to me after so little time has passed and act as if you were my equal? How arrogant. I see I didn't beat you badly enough last time!”

“If you think I'll be in your shadow forever you're mistaken. I've practiced my skills everyday! I've grown more than you could ever imagine since our last match. If you wish to see your student surpass you then hurry up and let's begin!”

The old man crossed his arms. “Very well, but I doubt your ego will be able to recover from this beating. I'll be right back” With that he walked inside the house. Lee' friends nervously stood behind him. Peter was the most nervous.

“You are challenging your teacher right now? But you just got here?” Tom couldn't believe how quickly they moved from a fond meeting to a match. It seems this was a strict teacher after all.

“Lee, I felt what kind of power your teacher has. I would ask you to withdraw and not make him angry.” Peter didn't want his dear student to face such a monster.

“This is a long time coming. I need to show him once and for all I'll not be in his shadow the rest of my life.”

The old man walked outside holding two boxes. “You may pick the box you want. The tools within are exactly the same. I'll even allow you to make the first move. Aren't I the kindest teacher any student could ask for?”

“If you'll be so generous then I'll act without hesitation!” Lee quickly grabbed a box and in a flash it was open. His hands began to move like lighting. The old man did the same. The needle moved effortlessly through the fabric. Both used great skill and speed as the sewed 2 pieces of cloth together. Lee's friends and Peter were dumbfounded. What the hell was all that build up for?

Both finished and held up the 2 pieces of cloth that were now tightly stitched together.

“Haha, didn't I tell you? You're 100 years too early to face me. That stitch work is so ugly not even a mother could love it!” The old man sneered.

“Like hell! What is with your inconsistent distance between stitches? Are your hands starting to get a bit shaky with old age?” Lee was not backing down.

They looked at the rest of the group as if to get some sort of verdict. Lee locked eyes on Amanda. “Amanda, you said you sewed in the past. Who did you think won?” Both Lee and the old men held up their works in total confidence.

Amanda put here hand to her chin. “I'm not sure who won. All I know is that it's the rest of us who have lost.” She laughed a bit nervously and put her hand behind her head.

The old wizard looked at his cloth and then at her. “Obviously she's biased and that's why she didn't name a winner!”

“I think you're just being a sore loser.” Lee stuck up his nose.

Peter seeing this was going to go on far too long stepped in. “Thank you for having us over by the way. All of us appreciate it. Lee has told us so many nice things about you.”

“Haha, did he now? Well I guess he wanted to be sure not to scare you all away. In any case, I'm up to date on what's been going on. Lee has been very good about sending letters to me at least once a week. It seems he wishes for me to temporarily oversee the training of your students and take a look at you as well. Do I have that correct?”

Peter was surprised by how direct the old wizard was being. Being direct would save time and they couldn't afford to waste much of it. Peter preferred it that way. “Yes, but I'm a secondary concern. If you don't wish to trouble yourself over me I would more than understand. Above all these children must be made stronger so we can prevent a chain of events that would lead to a lot of misery.”

The old man waved his hand in the air. “Yes, yes I’m aware.” The old man didn't need anyone to tell him how important winning this tournament was. The reasons Peter had for wanting to win were comparatively minor compared to the reasons the old man had. The barrier had grown even weaker in the last 6 months and the process was speeding up. If nothing happened then in less than 2 years it may break down completely.

The old man motioned Peter forward. “First, I wanna to take a look at you.” Peter walked to him and the old man put his hand over Peter's mana center. He looked into one eye and then the other. He then put his hands over Peter' palms.

“Go ahead and gather some mana for me in your palms. Tell me, how old are you Peter and since when have you felt your growth really start to slow down?”

“I'm 28 years old and since 3 years ago.”

The old man nodded. “And I see you have been doing the mana control techniques Lee taught you.” It wasn't a question. But Peter felt he should say something.

“Yes, he taught me some mana control techniques.”

“That' good. If not for that your mana system would have settled completely in place and there would be nothing I could hope to do.”

“Does that mean you can fix it?!” Peter couldn't hide his excitement.

“Maybe, it depends. At this point it's nearly settled in place. Even if I did try to fix it there is no guarantee it would work. Also, there is great risk to attempting it. If I were in your shoes, I wouldn't try it frankly.” The old wizard let go of Peter's palms and stepped back, his hand moved to his chin pondering the possibilities.

“What kind of risk?”

“In the best case, it would work. You may even grow a bit stronger and then you'll be able to continue your growth. In the worse cases, you may be unable to gather mana ever again. It may even cost you your life.” The old man let that hang in the air. He wanted to make clear how risky this would be.

Peter gave a smile and hearty laugh. “I'm not afraid of a little risk. If I wanted to live like that I would've never became a wizard in the first place. Playing it safe is one of my dislikes after all.”

The old man smiled “Then we should start today. There's no point waiting. The longer we wait the lower the chances of success. First things first. Until we're done, you can't use your mana for any reason. If you do, you'll almost certainly damage your mana system beyond repair. I'll need to give you daily mana treatments. It will forcefully push my mana throughout your mana system and attempt to correct the errors within it.”

“Will that be painful?”

“It will no doubt be excruciating. We'll need to do this for 2 to 3 hours a day. Once we start a session we can not stop until I've finished and it must be done every single day or your mana system will completely settle and we'll be unable to ever try again. Once your mana system is where we want it I'll need to forcefully set it in place. This will be the most dangerous and painful part. Also we'll need a special medicine with help it stay just as I set it. A medicine from a flower I currently don't have.”

Lee stepped towards the old man. “Where's the plant? Can we go buy it?”

“No, it isn't something that's sold. There's nothing to do but to go and pick it ourselves. That's the problem.”

“How big of a problem? Where is it?” Peter had a worried look on his face.

“It's native to somewhere in province 6. It's called the black rose and looks exactly how it sounds. I have a picture of it in one of my books. Once you see it there is no mistaking it. Which is a very good thing, as Lee will be the one to go and get it.” Lee and Peter were both shocked to hear this.

“But Lee needs to be here to train to so he can defeat Vladimir Star. If he leaves to get this it could ruin everything!” Peter wanted desperately to fix his mana system but he knew he was not as important as the goal of winning. He hated it, but this plan would need to be put on hold until after the tournament.

“Let's forget about it for now and then do it after the tournament in that case. I want Lee to train to his fullest in the next 2 months.” The old man shook his head at Peter's words.

“This simply can't wait that long. Doing the mana training Lee taught you can extend the time to fix it but not by much. If not for that this would have already been impossible. If we wait another few months your odds drop dramatically and the risk goes up even further. I wouldn't even attempt it at that point. This is now or never. If you want any reasonable chance to succeed we need to act now.”

“Then I guess it's never. There are matters too important to risk over me.”

Lee patted Peter on the back “I'll be going to get the black rose no matter what you say. I'll just train as best I can on the way. There's no way I'd lose to Vladimir. In any case, if I knew the old man as well as me then you'd think by the time he's done with everyone else, you won't need me to win.”

Before Peter could say anything else Lee asked the old wizard “Let me see what that rose looks like. I'll also need a map. I've never been out of province 0.”

Peter was about to object but the old man interrupted. “Save you're breath. If you know anything about this young man, then you'll know once he make up his mind about something, it's pointless to try to talk him out of it.”

The old man went into the house and came out with a map and along with a piece of paper with a picture of the black rose. He folded it up and handed it to River. “I circled on the map about where you want to be to find it.”

“Thank you. I'll be setting out to get it first thing in the morning.”

The old wizard smiled. “That's what I hoped you'd say. I'd hate for your family and friends not to get a chance to have at least 1 dinner with you before you left.”

Peter was planning to try to talk Lee out of going so he could to stay and train. He saw it was pointless though. As a teacher he would have to make sure to be worthy of such a student. He would also need to be sure to do something in the future to make it up to him.

The old wizard took the rest of the afternoon to lay the foundations for teaching Lee's friends. He gave them some new training exercises to practice tonight. Once they were under way he started his work with Peter. Peter now would not be allowed to his mana again until this entire process was over.

After the old man was finished with Peter for the day they all left and went back to Lee's house to have dinner. Alura and Lee's parents were sad to hear the news that Lee would be leaving them after just getting back to go on a trip to province 6. They understood the reason and Peter Leaf apologized to them for cutting their reunion so short.

After the food was eaten and the conversation began to die down it was clear that it was time to call it a night. Alura made Lee promised he would see her again before he left. With that she lead Lee's companions to the Inn she had prepared. Mary paid for the rooms 2 months fully in advanced.

The following morning all of Lee's companions and Alura had breakfast at the inn and went to the old man's house for their first full day of training. Lee gave his parents a hug and said his good byes to them before going to the old wizard's house. The old wizard estimated it would take at least 6 weeks total to make the round trip. Lee said his good byes to his friends and promised to be back before 2 months were up. He set out towards province 6. There was no time to waste if he was to make it back in time for the tournament.