Gerial’s words hung in the air and a silence fell over the front yard. I stopped swirling the bottle and a chuckle of amusement escaped Gerial’s lips as he saw me stop. I knew what his words meant individually, but in a sentence, it sounded too unrealistic even for me.

What did it mean for me to have time in my hands?

"When you say the time freezes for three years. Does that include the use of our Marks?” I asked.

Gerial shook his head.

“That’s the fun part. It doesn't.” He said. “We both know the issue with using our Marks. Neither of us have activated them lately, but I don't because I like the pain, and you don't because you don't want to age too quickly. Normally it's an impossible solution, but here’s your solution.”

The weight of the bottle deepened in my hands, and I was suddenly very afraid of dropping it. He hadn't brought a gift that Andross Silver wanted. He'd given me a gift that a Marked one of Crijik needed.

I stared at him. “How much—”

“Priceless.” He cut through my question. “They can only be made by one person in the world, after all.”

“Fue.” The word escaped my lips before I could stop it.

I wasn't talking about the Divine. I was talking about her Marked one. It was the only answer that made sense since he'd just come from her church.

“Alyssa.” Gerial corrected me. “She did me a favour while I was over there. Time isn’t given to those outside the Church of Fue.

“This was an exception. The Marked one of the Crijik needed it. I just didn't tell her which Marked of the Crijik.” He winked.

My mind was racing with possibilities and questions. None of which had quick answers.

There was an itch at the back of my mind as my desire to meet the Marked one of Fue grew. It was impossible to approach her in normal circumstances. Not even Gerial could get me a meeting. I'd been waiting for her to come to Koshima this whole time.

The sight of the golden eyes I’d seen had been seared in my mind.

“By the way, this isn't meant to be taken at once.” Gerial said. “You have to do it correctly. Use up one day of time inside the bottle right before you activate the Mark, and you won't age at all. The Mark will end the effect of the time pause after the process is complete. I'm not sure why, but at least you'll age normally.”

"What if I don't want to age at all?" I asked.

A smile crossed his lips, and I could tell that I had asked exactly what he had expected me to ask.

"You can activate it every morning when you wake up if you want to. And you won't age until you activate your Mark.” Gerial said. “But that means you won't gain any benefits at all. Your body won't change. Your stats can't increase. And your skills won't level up.

"It's normally used for the elderly devotees of Fue that have leveled as much as they need to and are at risk of dying of old age. Even then, there isn't enough to go around. People are always dying. Delaying that goes against the natural order of things, and there is only one Marked of Fue.”

His words were grim, and I was reminded of a conversation we'd had when younger. People wanted to kidnap Marked ones more than anything else. Either for their mana, or for what else they could do.

“This gift is perfect.” I said.

I was always looking for a balance between living a life and improving myself for future challenges. Now there was no issue. I could do both.

Another thought crossed my mind, and my good cheer disappeared. My grip tightened around the bottle, and I held it out to him.

“You've got less time than I do.” I said. “I have twenty-two good years left. You have sixteen.”

He and I were both Marked by the Crijik, but he had been born six years before I had. His ascension would happen far before my own,

Gerial pushed the bottle back.

“It won't halt the ascension.” He chuckled. “Others have already tried. You can use it to eliminate the symptoms of using your Mark. Or stay young and halt your progression for three years. That's all.”

He was making a molehill out of a mountain, and we both knew it. This gift was more than priceless. It was literally a lifesaving treasure. I had reincarnated and used magic beyond my imagination. But I had never held time itself.

The bottle disappeared into my inventory, and I made sure to move the box into a safe spot where nothing else inside could disturb it.

Gerial’s head perked up and his eyes narrowed.

"Okay, okay." He held up his hand. "I get it.”

I glanced toward my side and spotted the person Gerial was talking to. A single figure cloaked in purple robes, wearing a mask with one eye in the center. His guard representative gave me a low bow as he appeared, and I waved at him. My informal attitude made him hesitate and I chuckled.

"I've got to go.” Gerial stepped off the tree. “Congrats again.”

"Thinks. Again." I said.

He gave me a pat on the back and stepped forward. There was a chime in the air and purple mana spilled forth onto the ground as a portal appeared in the air beside us. It took on the form of an ornate door, embellished with gold and silver carved into patterns of a giant eye.

With a final wave goodbye Gerial disappeared through the portal. Several presences vanished with him. His guards.

I lay against the tree, my mind gathering together the possibilities of how to best use the gift Gerial had given me.

Halting my progression was out of the question. That only left using the time to stop my aging every time I used my Mark.

“Ugh. This is going to be so painful.” I said.

The Mark was already painful enough to nearly knock me out. The only thing stopping me from collapsing every time I used it was my high pain tolerance.

I’d asked around at Koshima academy ages ago. Pain tolerance wasn't even a skill that people obtained.

That was how much the Mark hurt me.

"Andross!” A voice called out to me.

It was my mother, her hand waving at me to get back into the house. I took a final look at the spot where the portal had arrived, and then shook my head and dismissed my thoughts. My path from here was clear.

The moment I stepped inside my house I saw my mother looking at something deeper inside the house.

"Your dad is stuck in one of his trances again." She motioned toward my room. “He's been preparing your gift all week.”

I glanced through the entryway and spotted my father sitting at my desk, inscriber box in hand. That was unusual. He said it was a crutch that should only be used once my foundation of inscribing knowledge and skills was solidified.

When it was in his hands, it became a formidable force of change. If my father was given a year, he could hide me from a Divine. In a week he'd still accomplish more than I could imagine.

"Hey, champ." He waved his hand without looking away from the desk. "I thought I’d give this to you away from your friends. I didn't want it to spark any bad memories and spoil the party."

"Oh?" I said.

Gold flapped his wings and flew into the room, landing on the desk. He peeked at my father's work and then raised his wing, signalling me to come over. With a quick hug I left my mum and made my way to my desk.

"I see you brought out the big guns.” I laid my hands on the inscriber box. It was warm, and a small swarm of orange mana showed me that it had been used recently. “I'm really curious what you've made now—”

My voice died down as I saw what was on the table. It was a single big block of fleshy white material, with a texture similar to tree bark. Although it looked spongy, I knew from months of study that it was hard and incredibly difficult to pierce. At its centre lay a series of cuts and lines, which I knew were unique in the world.

It was the only piece left of the monster, Oubliez. And carved within the flesh was the symbol that had created the monster and given the monster its unique magic.

"Oh." I didn't blame my father for not whipping it out at the party.

Oubliez’s symbol had a troubled past, to say the least.

A groan pierced through the silence. My dad was leaning against the desk, bags under his eyes. His cheeks had sunk, and his skin was greasy. He looked like a man barely clinging to life. Or a zombie.

I hadn't seen how tired he was during the day. He had hidden it well.

My father saw me staring and a grin tugged at his lips.

“Get a good look at your future, Champ.” My father said. “Because this is how you're going to look at your most fabulous.”

“I didn't realise your present was to give me nightmares.” I said.

"Don't be silly." My mother walked into the room. "I think he looks handsome.”

My father wrapped his hands around her in a hug and kissed her cheek. “Don't I know it. But we have more important news than my youthful skin.”

He turned to me, and a grin spread out across his weary face.

"Behold. The culmination of months of effort!”

He stepped back from my mother, and she sat on the edge of my bed, glancing at the inscriber box on the desk.

"I've narrowed our search down to sixteen variations.” My father said. He motioned toward the desk, and I saw sixteen different disks of silver metal placed there.

Master Wilhelm, William’s father, had gifted me a batch of silver ore to work with. I couldn't control all of it yet, so we’d used the material almost exclusively to inscribe. In his words, the silver was more valuable to us as an inscribing material than as an object to sell.

"One of these should be the right symbol." My father nudged my side. "I thought I'd let you do the final unveiling.”

“You're the best dad in the world.” I grinned. Golden mana gathered in my palm, shimmering gently.

Then I injected it into the silver disks.

The first symbol didn't activate. Neither did the next nine. Each failure was like a hammer against my heart, dulling my excitement. We'd gone through this process dozens of times. If a single line was out of place or too shallow, the symbol would be incomplete and fail to activate.

“Stop.” My father spoke sharply.

I paused and looked down at the latest silver disc that I had powered up. The eleventh in line. I raised it up at my father’s prompting and let my parents and Gold see it properly.

“It looks normal to me.” I said.

Gold chirped.

Hard to see. Nearly invisible.

"Really?" I blinked in surprise and focused sharply on the silver.

There was a ripple along its surface, and I deactivated my [Mana Sense]. Instantly I saw what Gold and my father saw, or rather, didn't see.

The silver disk had disappeared in my hands. Gold tapped the space with his talons and the sound of a talon scratching metal hit our ears.

I can feel. I can see/partial/sort of see.

He chirped up a storm and backed away.

"It's not as strong as Oubliez’s magic.” I peered at the symbol carefully. “I guess that's to be expected.”

Unlike the monster, I could see through the disk with little effort. Part of it was the materials being used, and the fact that it was only a lone symbol.

“Try telling that to every smuggler on the continent. Your symbol is their wildest dream.” My father gripped the disk. The moment it left my grasp the effect finished.

My father didn't have any mana to inject into it,

He examined the disk carefully, his fingers caressing each line and his eyes memorising every detail.

"It'll take a while for the symbol to be copied into the system library.” My father tapped the side of his head. “But when it is, we won't need the monster’s flesh anymore.”

"Should I ask the guards to dispose of it?” I asked.

I glanced up at the ceiling, the open air drifting through the large cracks in the wooden planks. I’d half expected to see someone looking down at me from the roof.

"And waste perfectly good materials?" My father had never sounded more offended. “The flesh of the monster that birthed the symbol is the perfect medium to use it. No, no, no. We need to fix this fella up so that we can use it.”

My father’s eyes shone, and he sat back down at my desk. This time I knew that I wouldn't be able to get through to him. He had entered one of the trances that he always did when he found something new and exciting in his work.

"I think we've lost him.” My mother’s voice floated out from behind me. “Let’s clean up and hopefully he’ll break out of his trance before bedtime.”

"He’s going to get more use out of my present than I am." I joked.

We began clearing the table, tendrils of earth rising from my inventory to carry the dishes to the sink.

"So, you're aiming for access to a holy land.” My mother said.

I paused and the earth around me stopped as well. I hadn't spoken too much about school to my parents, but I'd told them about my goal to rank up in school fights.

In truth, I wasn't sure how they would react to hearing that I'd be fighting every single day. My old self back on Earth would have had a heart attack at the thought.

"You should try and find Chrysalis grass. And the Ice Gems they grow underneath. Both are good for ice attuning if you're going to give it a try.” My mother said. "Oh, and steel worms. Those little buggers are rare but they're really helpful for metal magicians.”

Gold and I stared at her.

My mother’s eyes brightened as she saw our expressions and she dismissed our concerns with a wave of her hand.

"Don't give me that look, mister. You're not the only person with an education in magic. Give me a material and I could identify it from a mile away.” She pointed at my bag. “Knowledge is my gift to you. You should get a book. There's a lot to take in.”

I brought out one of my textbooks and a pen, and my mother’s smile grew.

Ever since I had returned from Gesti Sky she’d been positively glowing with joy. I hadn't told her what had happened there, but apparently just the knowledge that the immortal family didn't care about me was enough to celebrate.

Time passed quickly as we ate and explored the various ways to find riches in the holy land I'd be visiting. The book I was writing in was quickly becoming full.

Ice Gems. Steel worms. Phoenix tears. She spilled out detailed descriptions of each material that could help me. Including details on what they look like, and how to spot their habitats from afar.

“—if there are pockmarks of metallic brown dirt in the ground that are letting out small trails of smoke, that's likely the roots of a budding rose-fire flower. The flowers themselves hide underground for most of their life. Those can help you attune your fire. Or buy an entire island.” My mother’s eyes glazed over as she thought of the money involved. “Whichever you feel you want to do first.”

Finding even a single one of these materials and plants would push forward the advancement of my magic and scribing skills by months or years. However, each and every one of them was highly contested and extremely rare.

“The chances of me running into one of these is a million to one.” I said. A simple glance at my book showed me dozens of different materials I'd likely never lay eyes on in real life.

"Just because something is rare, doesn't mean you shouldn't prepare to encounter it.” My mother leaned forward. “Half the battle is already won if you recognise a material for what it is. You don't want to be the person that walks by an ordinary tree only to realise later it was ghost wood in disguise.”

"Absolutely." I nodded. Gold chirped in agreement beside me.

The puffer couldn't take notes, but his eyes were glued onto the pages as he memorised every single word my mother said. He had every intention of exploring the holy land with me and earning riches.

"Good." My mother beamed. "Because we are not anywhere near done."

I grinned and opened up a new textbook to write in. The night went by quickly.

The month went by even quicker.