Lesson

Isis was initially caught off guard by her son's reaction, but after spending so much time with the boy, she felt she could guess his thoughts. How cute. He was territorial. She couldn't be upset at all, for she almost killed his vassal for the exact same reason. Could she be upset with her child for being too similar to herself?

This was impossible.

Instead, Isis found herself even more fond of this child of hers, whose height had reached her upper abdomen at some point. A soft look full of gentle warmth appeared in her eyes for half a second before disappearing. This look did not go unnoticed by the crowd, who felt stunned. They had never seen the lady of the mist make many facial expressions at all.

"Honored mother, do not be fooled! No man could look like this creature; it is a guise!"

Pfft.

Lady Isis could no longer hold it in as she let out a small series of giggles while covering her mouth.

All the guards and warriors in the area had a look of schadenfreude at the sight of this. Hughes' face darkened in what he thought would be an imperceptible manner. How could he swallow such an insult from a brat?! Unfortunately, this brat was his young master. Even more unfortunate, the wrath in his eyes was quickly noticed.

After all, since Hughes was so tall and Jody was so small, despite kneeling down, Hughes was currently looking directly down deep into the eyes of the kid. Just like his mother when she summoned her source artifact, this child's piercingly beautiful blue eyes had vertical pupils and threatened to swallow any who looked on for too long. A formless might was radiating from the kid, giving Hughes' soul some mild intimidation.

Hughes was dumbstruck at this discovery! He used to disdain the rumors circulating around the estate and even the upper circles of Saint Anubis City about this boy, but in this last month, he had become a believer!

They followed this brat all over the Outer Wilds as he embarked on random trouble-making adventures. Remembering this past week, Hughes couldn't help but smirk a bit. This kid sneaked into the cave of a level 2 Trickster and escaped with a contract beast he had claimed as his own!

This young master Josiah had the guts, that was for sure.

He honestly couldn't bring himself to dislike such a young master.

"Do not be rude, Josiah, this is my Left-Hand. Hughes is a renegade White Elf from Rodinia," Isis placed her arms around her son's neck dotingly from behind, causing Jody to look up at her face. A strange glint briefly passed through her beautiful blue eyes when Isis looked back at Hughes. Hesitating momentarily, she said, "Forgive the boy, Hughes. He is protective, as you were of Misty. He has rarely seen someone from another race before."

Hearing the lady Isis mention the true lady of the mist, Hughes nodded in understanding. He could definitely understand if it was like this. Besides, Hughes was ready to jump at the chance to avoid any potential offense caused by this young phenomenon by quipping with him. As Hughes glanced at Lady Isis, his eyes rapidly swept past her body before he looked away. Isis made no comment about this, nor did she react at all.

Jody, of course, took note of all of this. He had seen his mother create new ice sculptures out guards for doing the same. Some were still frozen...

'Would mom have an affair? Why do I doubt that...' Jody just didn't think his mother was that type of woman. He was missing something crucial for sure.

"I will bring no harm to the mistress, little man," said Hughes with a smile in a powerful and heavy bass-filled voice.

Jody was ultra annoyed. Who the hell did this pretty boy bastard think he was anyway?

"Audacious! Who gave you the permission to address your young master, I, like this?" berated Jody as he stabbed his index finger into the tip of Hughes' nose.

"I…wait…young master please for…" Hughes stammered as he was caught off guard.

Who knew the kid was so sensitive to protocol? He honestly shouldn't have addressed the young master so casually, and he was worried that the Mistress would be upset. After all, she had already been married for so many years he could no longer treat things as casually as in the past. However, Isis was just calmly watching her son with a loving and gentle look in her eyes.

"Less of that, who said this young master was afraid of you hurting my mother? Are you even worthy? No, you are not, so it is your motive itself which is questionable!" Jody tapped his index finger on his forehead as if he were trying to think while muttering a series of questions. "What are you anyway, a science experiment? Such big pointy ears. It is weird. Why are your ears more pointed than mine? That's extremely rude. Also, are men supposed to be this pretty? It's gross. What the heck did you eat growing up? Is that the make-up you're wearing? Do you have secret hobbies we should know about? Questionable, very questionable."

"Behave, little Joe," said Isis flatly.

"Yes, master," replied Jody obediently, returning to his mother's embrace.

What he would not risk was his training session.

Jody needed to learn about the serenity force!

"Hughes, please excuse my brat. He has never come in contact with your race, much less your clan. You must be very strange to him, and you are indeed a bit too unbridled," explained Isis apologetically.

Hughes paled upon understanding the hidden meaning in her words.

"My apologies, young master. Allow me to introduce myself," Hughes stood straight up and spoke imposingly. He was clearly trying to intimidate or awe the youngster. "I am Hughes Song, the Left-Hand of the Frozen Night Master."

Unfortunately, Jody was currently paying absolutely no attention to the Left-Hand of his mother as he told her about his adventures. "…and you know what was there, ma? Star grass! It was even the rare pink star grass that you told me only grew in particular areas, and finding one was something that only happened by luck! Does this not make me super lucky, ma? Oh, but then, as soon as I found the blue soul grass, I saw the level 2 Vicious Wing Falcon beast dive down to attack me!"

Hughes stood there in silence as straw blew in the wind. The warriors behind him struggled not to laugh.

"Wow, that's the young master for you. Not even the captain can handle him."

"I wonder what type of young warrior master Josiah will be? Did you see the way he stared down Hughes? I definitely couldn't do that even now, much less as a kid."

"I hope the young master doesn't become arrogant or complacent…"

"Have you already forgotten who his mother is? Today, he is even her fifth disciple. Someday, that kid may surpass all of us."

After that, Hughes and the other warriors marched towards their supplies and started working. The rest of the crowd slowly dispersed to finish their own things, leaving only Jody and his mother behind.

"Come, Josiah," said Jody's mother while holding her hand out.

Jody naturally grabbed her hand without hesitation, and his mother brought him into the sky. A mana film protected him from the wind while Jody marveled over the feeling of soaring through the air again. After but a moment, they had already traveled for two miles as his mother, and he landed next to a little lake.

In the milky white waters full of origin forces swam two mid-sized fish. One fish was black with all-white serenity runes on its sides in a pattern that looked like a white comma, while the other was the opposite of this, being white with all-black calamity runes on its sides in a pattern that looked like a comma. Jody instantly recognized these as the Neodawn fish he caught at Lake Nicaea about six years ago!

"Hey, it's Milly and Trilly, the Yin and Yang magic fish! I haven't seen them in so long, ma. Why are they here?" asked Jody. He was truly very curious. However, lady Isis popped his hand. This made Jody yelp in shock and pain while rubbing his hand. "What did I do, mother?"

"Starting from today, I am your teacher, master, and mother. If you do not refer to me as Master, Sensei, or Mother properly, you will be punished. Is that clear?" Isis' voice was indifferent and left no room for argument.

"Yes, Sensei! Please accept this student's apology!" said Jody crossing his arms in salute, and bowing slightly, displaying the perfect etiquette that his mother taught him.

Isis rolled her eyes as she was unable to take this child seriously.

"Well, well. It would seem that even you, my handsome little devil, can be sincerely respectful. Good. Today you will learn about the first level of the laws of serenity, ghost force! So do listen close," Isis strolled around the lake as she spoke. "To comprehend true serenity, you must first understand stillness. Ghosts and apparitions are great mediums to study, as they exist in a state in-between life and death. Their bodies have entered eternal rest, but their spiritual forms are unable to rest. Ironically, this is the opposite of the living. Our souls remained locked in our mortal forms, but our living bodies stay in constant motion."

Jody's eyes shined as he listened to his mother discuss ghost force. He remembered the pale blue light component of his d-grade serene crystal, finally understanding a bit of its principle. He lifted his left palm and concentrated with his eyes closed.

Isis paused and observed her son with curiosity. Was he...?

Suddenly his youthful hand seemed to contain an inhuman chill, but it quickly returned to normal. Jody frowned, feeling like he almost understood but was still missing something. Meanwhile, Isis was stunned. Her son had nearly used ghost force on his first try! What kind of freak was this?

Jody was clad in an all-white training tunic, staring at his hands and following behind his mother as he listened attentively. "All creation is based on the existence of a creative pair of supreme legend rank laws. Namely, the very masculine Pure Dawn Calamity Laws and the very feminine Pure Neo Serenity Laws. These two creative principles pervade and facilitate all of life's existence and its many forms. That includes you and me and everything you know."

Jody had his source artifact [Pharaoh's Law] active, and an origin gem from the twilight store was in his hand.

With Pharaoh's Law active, Jody's spiritual force increased from the second level to the third! However, consuming his mana when using this ability was still as outrageous as ever. At the third level of spiritual force, the range of his spiritual sense nearly tripled! It was currently at 150 meters! At this level, his Mind's Eye technique transformed into Mind's Lamp.

With Mind's Lamp active, the sensitivity of his energy vision increased substantially, and he could see up to three planes of existence simultaneously! This was far better than before, when he could only switch his focus when he wanted to peer at different things.

After rediscovering how remarkable this source artifact was, Jody committed to improving his origin formula fully. Without origin force, he couldn't even sustain using his source artifacts for more than fifteen minutes unless he had an origin gem! Even though this was admittedly far better than when he was at the orientation rank. Jody now had plenty of ways to train, so he needed to buckle down and power up most efficiently!

Today origin force, tomorrow the world!

"Responding to Host's misconception: [Pharaoh's Law] can be activated using the forces of the heavens. This includes Origin, Astral, Source, Quintessence, Mystique, Ancient, Infinity, and Celestial Light," interjected Trippy mechanically, interrupting Jody's train of thought.

"What!? Why didn't you say that before!" Jody shouted out loud.

Lady Isis stopped her lecture and glanced at her son.

Seeing the 'deep in contemplation' type look in his eyes, she chuckled and responded gently, "Honestly, I didn't believe you would benefit from any of this information yet. Let us both be glad you are paying attention and benefiting now. As I said, the neo-life force naturally incarnates in a female body and a dawn-life force in a male body. I'll tell you a truth of all intelligent life: Our spirits correlate to the positive dawn principles, while our souls themselves correlate to the negative neo principles…"

Jody temporarily dedicated only 30% of his focus to listening to his mother's lecture as he was still conversing with Trippy.

Apparently, another benefit of third-level spiritual force was that he could pay attention to his mother's lecture and maintain a conversation in his head at the same time. His level of focus was outstanding, and he was not missing out on anything.

Well, maybe a phrase or two, but so what? That was by choice!

Not only that, Jody could feel that his charisma had somehow increased at this level. This was a hard feeling to describe or understand, so he asked Trippy.