Chapter 3 : My luck is surreal

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It has been another six months.

I have improved my pickpocketing skill to the point I can pass someone by and steal their pouch without them noticing a thing. I have also improved my combat a great deal although I lose quite some meditating time I have learned a lot from training with my father and I seem to learn fast as in those six months I am already stale mating my father in a dagger and sword fight, of course, he goes easy on me with his strength because I still have weak child muscles, though above average because I have been training my muscle strength for some time. So let's say I stale mate him in the skill department if he were to use half ten percent of his true strength I would lose in seconds.

I also believe if he were to battle me with his spear even showing little strength I would lose miserably so I still have a long way to go, but at this point, it mostly comes to strength as I have already mastered fifteen of the thirty-two martial arts I'm trying to learn I have drilled all the moves into my brain. I don't however use my martial arts on my father, I only use the moves he has thought me because even though he might think it is cool both my parents would still be concerned to hear their four and half year old son has mastered fifteen martial arts.

I amaze myself, to be honest, I mean even if I have a mature brain and train every day It still seems impossible to master fifteen martial arts in a year or however long I trained, It's wild.

I have saved up quite a bit with my not-so-correct hobby, but I have a little dilemma at the moment. Yesterday while walking through the market with my mother I saw something in a relic shop window that would come in handy, but it costs about all of the money I'd saved up.

because I saw a pendant relic made of phoenix metal the strongest material any of the races has discovered, it is only found in ancient treasure coves. There isn't a soul on these continents that knows where the material comes from. It is also indestructible so we haven't found a way to mold it so it is always sold the way it is found, except for cleaning it up of course. So the odds of me finding one, the best I could get. My luck is honestly outrageous, anything of this material even if it were a toothpick would be impossible to find especially in such a small market show, trough the window I could see it was still a little dirty, so I have the feeling the seller doesn't know its value otherwise he would have already sold it and lived comfortably for the rest of his life. So everything in me screams to buy it only a fool wouldn't and I should buy it soon too before someone else recognizes the material, But if I buy it I do not have the money to buy a good beast core to make the formation in.

You are probably thinking what is he rambling on about, I didn't want to jinx my plan, but I'll explain. I read up on magic artifacts and relics while going through some books and saw some pictures of rare ancient artifacts to hide mana signatures using a beast core with worn runes carved into it only three have been found so far, so buying one isn't an option, so I am planning to build one, of course, no one has ever succeeded in doing so but I believe after testing some theories I will be able to make it, I just need a really good beast core and something to hold it in I knew this phoenix metal pendant was the best option there is so I should get it, but even though it is priced as just a gold luxury relic pendant it still costs about everything I have! At the rate I stealing if I buy it the best beast cure I could get would be a mid-B-grade which would be insufficient for the power I will be trying to hide. although it would be good enough for sometime after training a bit I will probably start leaking my mana signature pretty soon, which would be less than favorable.

So should I risk that?

Of course! even though I will run into problems because of that decision, if I would take the pendant I would be as stupid as my age suggests.

So after thinking of the thousands of different ways, this decision could kill me in the future I started making a plan to get to the market tomorrow with all my money without my mother noticing me going to buy the pendant. Since I started training with my father both my parents started waking up around the same early hours I do, my father to train me and my mother to make our food to sustain such intense morning training. This leaves out the option of going before my parents wake up, and I can't go even earlier because no shop would ever open during those god-forsaken hours! and through the days even when I'm just training in the garden I can't leave undetected because my overprotective mother creates detection bubbles everywhere I go.

The only way is to convince my mother to go to the market again instead of going to work in the morning. I do however believe I have a plan. For my plan I had to wake up in the middle of the night and hide my wooden practice sword in one of the trees in the garden, you see when going to the market I often bring my wooden sword and practice while walking. my mother has no problem with this as and I quote "You look like a cute ass warrior that loves his momma!". I think you know where I'm going with this, I am going to tell her I lost my sword and that I must have dropped it at the market, and with some crying and screaming she will take me there. Then I'm going to sneak into the crowd when she isn't paying attention and go to the relic shop. I already apologize to my mother, for the stress you will feel tomorrow, sorry Mom!

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The morning has come, the sun is rising and so are the decibels in what used to be a calm neighborhood. The screaming and crying began and both my parents stormed into my room in a second with worried looks asking what is going on.

With which I react in a not-so-calm manner "Mmmy swoorrrdd is gooonnne, I lost it iiiin tthe market!". My father tried to calm me down by saying we'll find it while my mother rushed to get her things to go back to the market. So I and my mother went on the journey to find the lost sword, when my mother asked me where I think I lost it, of course, I directed the journey towards a street near the relic shop while looking for a crowd which wasn't too hard because even though it is pretty early it is still the capital of one of the most populated countries in the human continent.

After finding a crowd to get lost in I walk towards it at a slow pace and when we were closer and my mother wasn't paying too much attention to me I ran for it! I saw my mother panic in the distance, but I ran to the relic shop and felt relief wash over me when I still saw the pendant in the shop's window. I walked into the shop and the owner immediately asked if I lost my parents. A good question to ask a four-year-old who walked into your shop alone, I responded in a serious tone despite my squeaky child voice " I would like to buy the pendant displayed in front of your window.". The shop owner looked at me weirdly and chuckled a little before responding "That is an expensive relic pendant made out of pure gold, I don't think a four-year-old can afford it?"

I dropped my backpack pulled out a big bag of gold and silver coins with the exact amount on the price tag of the pendant and dropped it on the counter while responding " It's all there.".

The shopkeeper dropped his jaw and handed me the pendant after assuming I was a rich kid running an errand or something. he watched with a confused as the four-year-old walked out of his show while putting the pendant in his pocket. He still spent some time worrying about a young child who walked around the capital with that kind of money, although he wasn't wearing expensive clothes it was still very risky, I mean who even lets a four-year-old walk through the capital alone, he could have been kidnapped by some slave traders. But after some time he stopped worrying and was just happy he could get so much money for an empty pendant he found in the forest on his way to the capital, haha!

I put the pendant in my pocket and walked out of the shop, then I stopped realizing I'm not the only pickpocket in town so I put the pendant on the bottom of my backpack and I started to look for my mother. After a few minutes of walking around, I heard my scream mother and I ran towards her, when got next to my mother I could see the relief washing over her just like the tears on her face and the brooding rage inside of her. she lashed out on me about how I can't just run away to find my sword but she soon hugged me tight, then she picked me up and walked towards our home she kept repeating I can not run away like that and that she'll buy me a new practice sword when we arrived home my father was standing in the garden with a wooden sword and a smile on his face when I saw the frown appearing on my mothers face, so I jumped out of her arms and yelled "Ohhh, he found it, we'll go train then, sorry mom!".

I ran to my father telling him we'll start combat training now and he asked what was up with Mom while looking at her staring toward me with a frown.

After angrily staring at me for a few minutes my mother walked to the kitchen and prepared breakfast because it was still morning! my parents had to work of course so the training was cut short so they could still eat breakfast and rush to the library to prepare for opening.

after my parents left for work I took the pendant out of my pocket and started fiddling with it, after admiring this beautiful treasure I found for a few minutes I started meditating with the pendant still in my hand. When I started meditating I felt a powerful mana coming from the pendant. It only showed when I put a little mana into it. I can put out a little mana and put it into objects, this mana is very weak and useless, but I do it often because it slowly opens the mana channels in my body which won't do too much, but it will be a nice help when I awaken this will help my mana flow after awakening and most people around my age are too oblivious to mana to feel it and slowly course I trough their bodies but it will help in the future as it widens the mana channels.

The best benefit is it is like training to learn to channel mana to precise parts of my body which I want to do future tests on to prove some of my theories of improving the current magic system.

Back to the pendant, it feels like it wants something to get out of it but it needs a lot of mana to do so and currently can not give so much, even after awakening I think it will take some time till I can put so much into it. This is very interesting, though I can't help what is in there to get out I will still use it while meditating from now on because of the pendant's need for mana it seems to be pulling mana towards it but it can't absorb it. However I can absorb it, so my luck strikes again. Not only is the pendant an expensive treasure I need for the future, but it is also a mana magnet that lets me meditate in thick mana-filled air which improves the efficiency of meditating by about six times at much, people would kill for this pendant, countries could start wars over it, so I better hide it well! I feel too lucky like I have used all of my good karma in one day.

This pendant will improve my growth an exponentially amount, despite the feeling my calculations were wrong even if the lowering of the threshold isn't linear, with the pendant I will still awaken earlier than my previous calculations!