Long awaited reunion...

"Instead of studying that petty 'submission mana circle', spend your time comprehending your first mana circle."

'Are you my teacher or something?' Aiden wanted to ask, but he ignored Mraz's voice inside his mind. A bright blue dot appeared on his palm as he concentrated.

It was just the first step, however, Aiden was already at his limit. His ear was buzzing, and his head was dizzy. Still, he clenched his teeth and concentrated.

The blue dot of mana moved over his hand as if it had the life on its own. The more it moved, the more beads of sweat appeared on his forehead. Yet, when he looked at his hand, a smile appeared on his face.

The intrinsic design left by the movement of the mana dot was similar to the slave branding iron. However, as soon as his mind wandered, the pattern brightened up as if it would explode.

Even if Aiden tried to shake it off, it was in vain. With every passing moment, it became brighter and *boom*.

A thin layer of frost covered his right palm and spread to his shoulder. Even his face wasn't spared. His already weak leg gave up as waves of fatigue stuck him, and he slumped down to the ground.

"I told you not to waste your time on this low-level mana circle." Mraz's voice didn't sound happy. He said inside Aiden's mind, "If you don't comprehend your mana circle, you will be stuck in the first circle."

"According to you, this slave mana circle is even lower than the low-grade mana circle, yet I can't even comprehend it. And you want me to comprehend something like a middle-grade mana circle?"

"You will not learn until you try. And I can help you, too."

"If you want to help me, then help me out with the slave mana circle."

"That thing is beneath me." And the voice in his mind went silent.

Aiden has chosen not to argue about the same topic every day. It's already been two weeks since he had condensed the magic circle in his mana space, and two weeks since the 'so-called' trial took place. Yet none has produced any results.

For his first mana circle, he hit a wall even before he could begin. According to Mraz, there are three ways to increase the strength of his mana essence. The first is to comprehend the mana circle.

And Aiden was helpless about it. He knew many things about mana cultivation techniques, however; it was useless. He couldn't use it to understand the mana circle.

While the second method is to use the mana circle. The more he will use it, the more his understanding of the mana circle will increase. That was what Mraz had said. Yet there was no mana beast within a few lightyears.

The only option was to train his body, the least effective of them.

"Your body is too weak. Unless you train your body, it will freeze your body to death even before you will get the chance to use the mana." That was Mraz's verdict, and Aiden had no words to refute. So…

"What happened to you? Are you okay?" The door of the room opened, and Owen was the first to come in. Behind him came Sara, and Aiden could see another girl peeping from the outside of the door.

"What the hell is this?" Owen cried in surprise as soon as he crossed the large circle marked on the ground. "How many 'g' is this?" Owen asked as he struggled to get back on his feet again.

"System, neutralize it." The frost of his skin had already been absorbed, and he shook off the remaining specks of ice.

[Terminating the three times gravity sequence...]

"Three times? Wow!" Now that the fear of death has faded, Owen became a lot friendlier, especially towards Aiden. "What the hell are you training so hard for? We are going home. It's time to relax."

"Who knows? Will could become more dangerous than Earth." As the Aiden's body became lighter, he walked towards the door. Without giving him any chance, he said, "I am tired. I need to rest." and left the room.

Owen took his hand as Aiden was about to enter the room. Before Aiden realized his intention, Owen came close and whispered, "Read it," in his ear, and hurried to his room.

Aiden, too, walked into his room before he opened a piece of paper to read it. But there wasn't much to be read. It was a contact address.

"What does he want me to do about it?" Aiden didn't know. He just remembered the address, put a mana healing potion in the healing pod's potion compartment, and laid inside the pod.

It's been his routine for the last two weeks. He had done everything in the gravity chambers for three hours, from muscle-building exercise to blade techniques. Then, fours hours of mana healing while he holed up in his mana space to continue his futile attempt to comprehend his first circle.

After that, he would eat something and rest while writing all his memories of Earth down to the last detail. It continued for three hours before he jumped back into the gravity chamber again.

[Initializing the mana healing…]

[Remaining time: 02:19:26]

"Show me the status." He had lost PADS-X a long time ago, and now that Mraz had frozen the ESS chip inside his head, Aiden had no way of checking his status at will. The system installed in his healing pod was his only way out.

[[NAME: Aiden Law

Age:16

Condition: Fatigued

Element: N/A

Level: N/A

Strength: 72

Agility: 99

Endurance: 121

Dexterity: 78

Intelligence: 175

Health: 401/401

Mana: N/A

Battle rating: Level 7

Passive skill: [Mana Acceleration(??)] (Locked)

Skill: None]

It couldn't show his rank or his innate skill, but Aiden was not too much worried about those things. Aiden had no difficulty in initiating those skills without the help of the ESS after using the innate skill on Earth many times.

He could activate [Zone] on the first try, and could maintain it for almost 12 seconds, but was immobile for 20 minutes after that. The other three skills didn't change by much, but he found a glaring problem about them.

[Blink] and [Skill Mine] had developed unsuitably. [Blink] which had been traceless before, now leaves a thin line of ice from the initial position to the final position.

It wasn't bad, but the problem with [Skill Mine] was that every time he implanted the skill on a foreign body, it leaves behind a thin layer of frost.

Mraz had confirmed that this was because of his lack of control over the ice mana. But for the time being, Aiden couldn't do anything about it. So he chose to put his mind in the training of his body, and the results are in front of him.

Out of the six stats, Aiden was most concerned about Agility. He had realized one thing when he was on Earth. Agility is life-saving stats, and [Blink] had proved that multiple times.

He remembered that ESS had mentioned that he could initiate [Blink] because his Agility stats exceeded 100 during [Zone]. So he was trying to raise it to one hundred.

Absorbing Mraz's essence had improved his body. And he's been able to increase it by 7 in the last two weeks of training.

"One more point and I will be able to initiate [Blink] without [Zone]." Thinking about it, Aiden decided to train harder at the next training session.

He closed down his status and tried to get in touch with his family. It wasn't just today. Every time in the healing session, he always tried to get in touch with his family first and then with Lucas. Yet not even once the call had passed, however...

There was a door in front of him. The unexpected change stunned Aiden, but he did not dare to waste any more time. He opened the door and walked into the private domain.

It did not change by much. There was the same green meadow under his feet, and there was a little child at the opposite end of it.

"Brother." The cry caused Aiden to skip a beat. He found that it was Aaron who was running towards him. He jumped up on Aiden even before Aiden could look at his face.

"Where were you?" His voice was shaky. "I missed you so much. Why didn't you call me? I hate you…" and soon it ended up with a puddle as Aaron poured out all his grief to his brother.

Although he wanted to help, Aiden chose not to talk, fearing that he might not be able to control his emotions, and broke down. His brother's inconsistent complaints, however, did not allow him to succeed, and he ended up crying.

Aiden didn't know how long they stayed like that, but when Aaron released him Aiden was stunned. It was natural that Aaron's eyes bulged up from all the crying, but it was the black bruised spot under his left eyes that infuriated Aiden.

"How are you?" Aiden wanted to ask, but looking at the bruise at his brother's face, Aiden couldn't control his temper. His voice was especially angry when he asked, "What happened to your face?"

Aaron was quick to avert his eyes and looked down. In an almost inaudible voice, he said, "I fell."

Aiden's nerves were on the edge for the last two weeks. Thinking about what might happen to him has made it harder for him to sleep. That is also one of the reasons to train like crazy, hoping that if he exhausted himself enough, it would be easier to sleep, but...

"Don't lie to me." Aiden's angry voice made his little brother shudder a little. In the moment of rage, Aiden didn't notice it, and his voice increased a notch. He shouted, "Who did this to you?"

When Aaron looked at him with his big eyes filled with fear and resentment, Aiden realized that he had done something he shouldn't have. But it was too late.

"Ahhhhhhh." Aaron's voice resounded in the virtual space, and tears continued to flow out of his eyes without control. Aiden was quick to hug him, however, this time Aaron didn't hug him back.

"I am sorry," Aiden said in a soft yet shaky voice. His emotions were also in disarray. Tears kept tickling his eyes as he continued to mumble, "I am sorry, I am sorry, I am…"

None of them knew how long they had stayed like that, but Aaron was the first to speak out of Aiden's embrace.

"They said you are a murderer. You are a criminal." Aaron stopped for a moment, and added, "I punched him, and they hit me, too."

"They?" Aiden tried hard to remain calm.

"They're my friend…"Aaron choked on his own words, but said, "they are not my friend anymore. I hate them. They're bad."

Aaron tried his best to let Aiden understand that he had no intention of staying friends with the children from his academy.

As he looked up to see his brother's angry face, his little nose twitched again. His red eyes were about to let out another flood as he said, "Don't hate me, brother. I will not fight again. I'm not going to…"

Aiden didn't let Aaron finish his words and took him back to his embrace. He was not sure why he did it, to calm his brother or to hide his tears that had escaped his eyes again.