Chương 36: Chapter 35: Do Not Disturb the Grind

By the time they returned home, the visit had caught up with Ren. It wasn't even that it was a particularly tiresome excursion, it was simply– Too much excitement for his little baby body. Ren hated it, but there was nothing to do about it. His baby limitations had become a new constant in life and he just had to accept it. Such was life. The other children scattered to play while Tessa carried him inside with the patterned ball tucked beneath one arm and the wrapped wand pressed awkwardly against her chest.

Elna took Ren from her, listened to a brief account of what went on during the visit to Little Yara, took the medicine, then carried him upstairs when his eyes began to droop. Tessa then placed the toys beside his crib. Ren watched them through the bars while Elna settled him onto the mattress. His thoughts were the only thing still active, pondering the situation. He still wanted the children to tell him about the village and the System.

They could still help him learn tidbits about the System, how the village worked, who mattered within it, and whether there was anything else they might do before the goblins came. His eyes drooped, and a yawn escaped. … But later.

When Ren woke, the toys were still waiting beside the crib. His thoughts returned before his body had fully shaken off sleep. The children were no longer the core of his plans, and he had exciting magic training to get to, but none of that stopped his mind from circling back to the same problem. He had to tell his parents about the loops. And Ren still did not want to. He feared the way they might look at him once they understood. He feared being treated like something strange wearing their baby's face.

Worse, he feared their disgust. Elna pulling away. Bren questioning what he was. Tessa losing the easy certainty that he was simply her little brother. He loved them too much, and anything of the sort would… hurt. But he wanted them to live more than he feared any of that. The previous loops offered some hope. His family had accepted his warnings then, or at least acted on them, but danger occupied their minds, and he was still just a bumbling baby pointing at things.

He had barely been able to speak and had still looked helpless enough that there had been little time to dwell on how strange he was. But now he could walk and he could talk. He was a much weirder baby. Ren's stomach tightened as every possible reaction crowded in at once. He forced the anxiety spiral to stop before it carried him any farther. His worries did not matter more than their lives. Even if they hated him afterward, they would still be alive.

Ren fixed his attention on the toys beside the crib, pushing the intrusive thoughts aside. He had magic to test first! The toys were exactly the distraction Ren needed, and the excitement was real enough to shove the Talk aside for a while. Little Yara had been far too confident when she handed them over, especially when she refused to explain what the wand would do. And Ren intended to find out why! He wrapped both hands around the first wooden section and found the nearest charm through Mana Sense.

Its presence sat tightly inside the wood, denser than the loose mana he usually worked with. Ren pushed mana toward the wand, and it entered through the handle… Then stopped. Resistance met him almost immediately, strong enough to tighten his fingers around the wood. Ren pushed harder, expecting the mana to disperse as it always did once it left him. It did not. The wand kept it instead. Ren held still, feeling the mana remain inside the handle without any effort from him to keep it gathered.

He had not shaped it or directed it along some careful path. He had only pushed, and the wand had done the rest. His excitement sharpened. Ren eased off, yet the mana stayed where it was. He tried pulling it back, and some of it followed! The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. His grin widened. Ren pushed it into the wand again, let the resistance stop it, then drew part of it back out.

The movement was crude, little more than pressure in one direction followed by pressure in the other, but the mana no longer just dispersed the moment he let it unattended outside his body. For the first time, he could experiment with it as a resource instead of losing it after every attempt. He pushed more in. The wand shaped and contained it at the handle while the first section refused to accept it any farther.

Ren pulled some back, then pushed again, testing how much pressure it took before the resistance became absolute. The charm still did not respond, but that could wait. The important part was that Ren could move mana into the wand, leave it there, and draw it back without needing the control he did not yet possess. What a great tool! He repeated the process until the warmth beneath his skin thinned much faster than expected.

His next push barely added anything to what the wand already held, and when he pulled, only a weak trace returned. Ren stopped. Little Yara had warned him not to force it, and empty mana would not reveal whatever smug little secret she had promised he might find inside. Out of mana, but not out of options, he placed the wand beside him and pulled the wooden ball into his lap. Fine grooves curved across its surface, crossing and splitting before vanishing beneath his palms.

Ren opened his Mana Sense and slowly turned the ball. A faint line ran beneath the carvings. He followed it around the first curve, lost it beneath his thumb, then rotated the ball until it returned. Several grooves crossed the route without carrying any mana at all. Another followed beside it for a short distance before ending at nothing at all. Ren traced the active line again. Once the false paths fell away, and the pattern looked almost simple.

It curved left, dipped beneath a crossing, then continued through a narrow bend on the other side. That was it? Ren returned to the beginning, gathered a tiny amount of mana, and guided it into the pattern. The first curve held, but as soon as it arrived at the crossing, his strand jumped into the wrong groove and dispersed beneath his fingers. Ren stared at the ball. He traced the route again. The correct path had been obvious! His second attempt survived the crossing and failed at the next bend.

The mana scraped along the edge of the pattern, slipped outward, and vanished before Ren could pull it back. Apparently seeing the path was easy. … But making his mana obey it was not. Ren shifted the ball against his stomach and began again. He used Mana Sense to feel one bend ahead while Focus held his attention on the strand beneath his fingers, keeping it moving where he wanted to go.

Looking too far along the route made his control slip, while watching only the current point left him unprepared for the next turn. He adjusted to looking only one bend ahead. No farther. The strand passed the first curve and held through the crossing before failing deeper into the pattern. Ren rested until enough mana returned for another attempt. Then he picked up the wand, worked a strand in and out until the resistance drained him again, and returned to tracing the pattern while his mana recovered.

The cycle settled naturally. The wand demanded mana but kept his mistakes from escaping too quickly. The ball barely drained him, yet every turn punished the smallest lapse in concentration. When one left him empty, the other still gave him something useful to do. During a later attempt, the active line sharpened beneath his awareness. Ren felt it continue around the far side of the ball without needing to rotate the shell beneath his fingers. [Skill Level Increased: Mana Sense Lv. 5 -> Lv. 6] Ren traced the crossing again. This time he noticed how the line did not merely pass beside the other. It dipped deeper into the wood, ran beneath it, then rose toward the next bend. He had been treating both paths as though they occupied the same layer, but there was a trick there all along. [Intelligence +1] Ren turned the ball slowly, following the route with new understanding. Little Yara had hidden depth inside what looked like a flat carving. Clever!

Ren tried again and reached farther before his control failed. He did not manage to unlock the outer shell toward the end of his attempt. The first charm in the wand remained just as stubborn too. Neither bothered him much now. Each failure showed him something he had missed before, and each rest gave him another clean attempt. Those were some excellent tools! Even if they looked like toys.

When his concentration began to blur, Ren lay back and closed his eyes instead of wasting mana on a failure he could already feel coming. He woke, tested the wand, returned to the ball, then rested again when his control grew sluggish. [Skill Level Increased: Resting Lv. 9 -> Lv. 10] [Skill Milestone Reached - Initiate: Resting Lv. 10] [Resting Initiate Bonus: Improves deliberate recovery, resource conservation, and the restorative value of conscious rest. Does not replace sleep, instantly restore depleted resources, or bypass physical fatigue.] Ren let the messages fade while the ball rested against his stomach. He had accepted by now that maximum training efficiency required scheduled breaks and naps. But it was nice to see that efficiency improving further. A growing edge against the goblin horde. Even when babyhood remained determined to humiliate him, the results were becoming difficult to argue with.

By the time evening settled over the house, the toys had stopped being enough to keep Ren's thoughts occupied. The patterned ball rested beside him, still locked. The wand lay across the blanket with its first charm just as stubborn as before. Ren had made progress with both, but every pause between attempts left room for the Talk to return. His stomach tightened. Ren ignored it and traced the outer pattern again. He already knew what waiting would accomplish. Another day would pass, then another.

And even if warned, the village continued with the same preparations that had failed before. People would store food, check doors, sharpen tools, and trust that ordinary caution would be enough. It had not been enough. The goblins were coming, and time was running out. Ren pushed a thread of mana into the pattern. It slipped at the second bend and dispersed beneath his fingers. He stared at the ball without seeing it. There was no point in waiting until he felt ready. He might never feel ready.

Fear would not become smaller simply because he gave it another night to grow. His family needed to know. Tomorrow, he would tell them.