Child of Destiny

...…

Shin was currently sitting on the ground right beside Professor Plum. It was near lunchtime, so his Martial-Arts training for today was already coming to an end. Though, he was not satisfied with his current progress.

Five minutes was his longest record before he made another mistake. That was not the worst but it was also not even good.

"Tch! I don't expect that getting rid of my battle habits is this hard," muttered Shin as he stared at the wooden blocks hanging in the branch of the tree.

A moment later, Professor Plum opened his eyes a little before saying to Shin. "If you already rest enough, then you can go back inside now and take your lunch before that Old Fatty comes here personally to pick you up."

He took a brief pause to close his eyes before continuing. "You don't have to come at me tomorrow. You can just redo what I told you earlier."

Shin nodded his head after hearing that. Then he immediately stood up and turned at Professor Plum and took a bow before leaving.

While he was walking away, Old Plum slightly opened his eyes once again and stared at Shin's back as he walked away. He squinted his eyes a little while looking at Shin as if he could see something that couldn't easily be seen. And after a quick smirk, he closed his eyes once again before going back to sleep.

...

After taking his lunch, Shin immediately looked for Grandmaster Benn. He heard from David that Old Benn was already training Laura.

Shin was quite curious what kind of training did that Old Fatty prepare Laura. She was still a young girl and didn't have any kind of training experience. But what he saw was entirely different from what he was expecting.

After arriving, his eyes immediately saw Laura sitting in front of a wooden table and seemed to be drawing something.

Shin knitted his eyebrows for a moment before walking towards her to take a look at what she was doing. He didn't disturb her when he arrived; he just stood behind her and watched her draw silently.

At first, he thought that she was only drawing some doodles on her paper since what he saw on it were seemingly random things. But he suddenly discovered something the more he looked at what he was doing.

"This!" Shin became shocked when he finally realized what she was drawing. Then he looked at Laura with a astounded look on his face as the little girl was seemingly enjoying what she was doing. In fact, she was even humming and swinging her legs back and forth while drawing.

He continued to observe for quite some time before turning his head around to look for Grandmaster Benn. It didn't long for him to find the old man as he was currently meditating underneath the shades of the tree not far from them.

He took one last look at Laura before walking towards Old Benn. And right after arriving, he tried to open his mouth to say something but no words came out. It was because he didn't know how he was going to address Grandmaster Benn.

He knew Professor Plum long enough, so they quite 'close' at each other. And due to that, he already got used at calling him Old Geezer. But Grandmaster Benn was quite different – they only met just recently so he was not sure if it was alright to treat him just like how he treated Professor Plum.

While Shin was still caught in a dilemma, Old Benn suddenly smirked as if he could read what was running inside Shin's head. "Just call me however you want. I don't really mind. You can also call me Old Fatty like your master. After all, it is a nickname that I choose for myself."

Shin was slightly taken aback after hearing that but he immediately recovered himself not long after. And after a brief moment of hesitation, he suddenly said while bowing. "I understand, teacher."

Hearing that, it was Grandmaster Benn's turn to be surprised. He even opened his eyes slightly to look at Shin.

A moment later, he started chuckling for a moment before muttering to himself. "This is quite unexpected."

Shin knitted his eyebrows for a moment when he heard that but he didn't put much thought in it. Instead, he raised his body once again before asking with a polite tone. "Are we not going to start our training yet?"

Hearing that, Grandmaster Benn couldn't hold himself any longer and started laughing heartedly. "That Old Monster really described you very accurately. You are always eager to learn more."

It took him quite some time to calm himself down before he could continue. "You are not even asking me about that little girl. Are you not interested in how she was doing?"

Shin stared at Old Benn for a moment before responding. "I am not sure about that. But from what I can see, she seemed to be really talented in terms of that thing."

"She is not only good at Mentalism Runes. She even has a potential to become a 'Great Formation Master' in the future. She is not aware of it now, but sooner or later that potential will grow stronger," said Grandmaster Benn almost instantly.

Then he turned silent for a moment before adding with a serious tone. "But your Mentalism Talent is no way weaker than her. In fact, there is a high possibility that yours is way greater than her potential."

Hearing that, Shin became quiet for a moment and didn't immediately respond. And when Old Benn saw that, he immediately asked. "So, what do you think? Do you want to train like her? From what I can see, you are probably going to become an 'Advance Talisman Master' at the very least by the end of this training."

Shin became even more quiet after hearing that. He thought to himself for a moment before shaking his head while saying. "No, I prefer focusing on solidifying my Mentalism foundation for now before anything else."

He then turned his head at Laura's direction and said. "Laura is still young so she doesn't have any idea of what she is actually doing. In fact, she may even think that those things that she was drawing are some random scribbles."

"Given that, she is going to build a very solid foundation at creating talismans and setting up formations without having any kind of pressure."

After that, Shin took a short pause to take a deep breath before continuing. "On the other hand, my case is completely different. I already passed the age where I can be trained in the same way as her, so training me with the same method will only put more pressure on me which is only going to slow down my progress."

"Instead, it is better for me to focus on building up my Mentalism foundation step by step and make it more solid so that training on the other aspects is going to be much easier in the future."

"Maybe it is true that I am going to become an 'Advance Talisman Master' if I take that shortcut. But I am sure that my Mentalism Attainment is going to lag behind due to being stuck at a certain bottleneck."

The lips of Grandmaster Benn suddenly curved into a satisfied smile after hearing all of that. He already heard from Professor Plum that this kid was very sharp and always considering the bigger picture during his training, but he didn't expect that the degree of Shin's understanding already reached this level.

Due to that, he became quite excited at teaching him. But before that, he needed to check Shin's current progress. "How was your control over your Mental Energy."

Shin knitted his eyebrows as he thought for a moment before replying. "I am not sure how much improvement I made. But when I am doing the 'Control Training', I can at least do 8 different revolutions up to 12 at most."

He then paused for a moment before quickly adding. "I can do it with an alternating clockwise and counterclockwise direction per revolution. The stones also have different sizes on each revolution with different speed at the same time."

When Grandmaster Benn heard all of that, the smile that he was wearing suddenly turned stiff as he thought to himself. 'Monster! He only started training his Mentalism not long ago yet he already reached that kind of level? Most of the Mentalists in his level are already struggling at doing the 7th revolution with '2 restrictions' yet he is already doing the 12th with '3 restrictions'?'

Seeing the expression on Old Benn's face, Shin misunderstood it as him not doing enough. So, he immediately bowed his head while saying. "I will do my best to improve myself better! So, please guide me!"

Grandmaster Benn already recovered himself after a second. But when he heard Shin's additional words, the corner of his mouth couldn't help but twitch uncontrollably as he didn't know what to say anymore.

Old Benn took a deep breath to calm himself down before standing from the ground and said. "Come with me."

Seeing that, Shin immediately fooled after him without having any hesitation. And after a couple of minutes, he arrived at the bottom of the mountain.

Shin was quite confused at first why they walked down this far. But he still chose to turn silent and waited for Old Ben's instructions.

When they stopped, Grandmaster Benn turned his head around to check the soundings before nodding his head "This should be enough."

After that, Old Benn tapped his foot on the ground a couple of times.

Shin felt a faint ripple on the ground before a mini-earthquake occurred. And before Shin could even react, a huge rock boulder was suddenly lifted from the ground and appeared in front of them.

That boulder has a spherical shape. Its height from the ground was at least twice as Shin so he looked like an ant in front of it.

A moment later, Grandmaster Benn turned around and looked at Shin with a smirking face. "See this 'rock'? Your task is to push it up towards the mountaintop within three days. You are forbidden to use your physical strength at doing it. I need you to only use your Mentalism Energy alone."

"If you failed to do that at the given deadline, another boulder with the same size is going to be added. And we are not going to proceed on your next training until you finish this task."

"So, if you want to learn more about Mentalism, then finish this task as soon as possible," he added while tapping the huge boulder.

...…