004| The Training Begins

Later that week, Max found himself in front of a wooden door to a shop almost the size of himself but a little bit taller. He walked into the shop and asked around the store to find a person by the name of "Leonard Dipinwell".

One person speaks up from the back of the store overhearing him asking around. "I know him... but why are you looking for that old bastard? He's in his 70s I get he caused a lot of trouble but isn't there anything you can do besides beat an elderly man to get money back?" The woman said in the background. Max spoke up after hearing this and quickly let her know of his situation of magic. "Well you see here miss, I'm looking for him because I heard from another person that he was one of the greatest magic teachers of the past few generations. I was hoping to learn something from him as it's really important for me currently."

After a few moments of the store floors being creaked as people walk by while the wind blows inside the store from the door being opened, the woman spoke up, "Oh.. I see very well I'm sorry that I have confused you with the dark guild people. I've been looking over my shoulders the past few weeks as they're getting bigger lately for some reason and far more chaotic than they were a year ago. Anyways, my name is Misty Dipinwell, Leonard is my grandfather. Before I take you to him for this "magic training" or whatever it'll be called.. is there a way to verify what you said?" Max looked down at his belt and pockets then he pulled out a crest of the royal family to verify his identity of being with the kingdom.

Misty quickly saw the crest and began to apologize a bit longer for thinking he was part of the dark guild. After the apologies were out of the way Misty took Max to her grandfather.

"Well here we are Max, this is where my grandfather lives." Max looks at the shack that looked as if it was built within the past couple of weeks and still being built and then suddenly he saw someone appear from inside the shack coming outside standing at 6'5, old, yet had a strong aura to him.

Leonard looked at Max for a few moments before opening his mouth to speak. "Misty where did you find this child?" Misty replies almost immediately, "I find him in old man Zane's workshop asking around for you to teach him magic and he had a royal family crest so I took him to you." Leonard looked around and began to speak again after a few moments and the only words he said were "Hm... you have quite a lot of potential." He motioned Max to follow him and Max did instantly as he knew he was a great magician.

While Max and Leonard was busy learning and teaching magic, Jax had another idea and went off into the forest to stay for some time to learn spiritually and not teachings from another. Jax wanted to learn how to use magic surrounding the world, and use a connection between all of it to use magic and not be restricted to only learning from another person who had been a great magician in the past unlike Max had wanted to do.

Over the next few weeks Jax had been getting accustomed to the forest around, extremely slowly gaining a sense of magic from the world around him. Max on the other hand had already learned the basics of 2 different type of magics that includes Fire, and Healing. The most common to learn first, Max had been under the teachings of Leonard Dipinwell over the last weeks learning more about the world and not just the places he had been or never heard of before but also the culture behind each and everything new he learned about.

This period of time between both Max, and Jax was special in different ways, and how they were learning, absorbing knowledge, laying around, and most importantly being independent from one another without having the need of relying on each other for things they couldn't do before.

"I just need to breathe, I need to calm my senses and focus on everything around me instead of what I want." Jax said to himself while a light purple energy starts to surround him after hours and days and even a week of working on his own self mind.

Meanwhile back with Max and Leonard. "Teacher... I do have a question if I may ask?" Max said to his teacher of magic Leonard. "Mmm, alright go ahead and ask." Replied Leonard after a moment of thinking of what to say to this sudden question by his student.

"My friend Jax went into a forest towards the South and I'm curious as to why he did that instead of coming with me to learn from you..do you have any idea on why he went there?" Max asked his teacher being extremely curious and confused but at the same time curious to see if his teacher knew.

"Hmm..." Leonard took a few minutes scratching at his chin in thought then he spoke again. "Oh, now I remember. If it's the forest I'm thinking it is, it's called "Violet's Bloom". It's basically a forest of highly condensed mana overflowing springs with mana, basicslly everything in there is mana related. That's where I went a few years ago to recharge my mana after my fight with ... anyways that's not really important at this moment. Is there any specific information you want of the forest though?" Leonard said to Max before going back to sitting down in the chair he brought outside of his shack. Max responded after processing the sentences Leonard said, "Oh no, I don't have any questions or anything specific I just was curious as to why he went... anyways can we continue training now?" Max said happily as if he's ready to get straight back into training his mana and magic compatible with.

Jax who had gotten completely surrounded in this purple energy by this point of which looked like a thick layer of mist, he woke up yet he wasn't in the forest it was pitch black, an echo from all around when he spoke aloud. "Hello!" Jax said loudly while listening to the echo of his own voice as he's looking around the area and suddenly he woke up again in the forest. The purple energy that was flowing around him vanished, and he strangely felt stronger then he did previously though all he did was hold out in the forest focusing on honing his self awareness, inner self, and not focused on physical training nearly as much.

Jax had gotten up from the floor faster than he had ever gotten up from anything before. He looked around the forest noticing nothing had changed around him in the slightest besides the once cool breeze was now a warm breeze blowing through the trees going right past him heading towards the kingdom of Finspell. Jax however decided to go in the opposite direction, he went more into the forest with a medium sized stick he picked up once he got up.