The silence did not last long, yet it felt as if the garden itself were holding its breath, waiting for the sky to fall.

  "Adam, you having such high potential is good, especially seeing how unbothered your body is after checking your aptitude. But it is also a curse." Berto said. His voice carried a weight that seemed to press down on the garden air, making the sweet scent of blossoms feel cloying and heavy, like perfume in a tomb. "You are still a kid, so you remain oblivious to how brutal this world truly is. Tell me, do you think the king or the nobles of this country would let some nameless brat without a background climb for the power they have held for centuries?"

  The mage’s eyes were piercing, digging into Adam’s spirit like a physical probe, searching for a crack in his resolve.

  Adam watched his mentor with a cold, sallow terror taking root in his chest. He had not expected such a dark reaction and found himself unable to respond. He could understand the logic behind an enemy kingdom’s aggression, but he struggled to comprehend why his own country would turn against him. He wondered if the growth of a kingdom’s strength was not a desirable thing. He had always known that politics was a messy and scary place, but the reality was far more sinister than he had imagined. Perhaps this was the source of that strange, hollow feeling he always had regarding the Inner District, a place built upon secrets and silence.

  One question surfaced in his mind. "Master, don’t you have Tier 3 potential as well?" he asked, his voice sounding small and unsure against the rustling of the leaves.

  Berto offered a dark, hollow laugh that didn't reach his eyes. "Adam, I might be someone of importance right now, but the truth is, the only reason I am alive is that my potential ends at Tier 2."

  Adam’s shock deepened. The idea that his mentor remained alive only because of his limitations felt like a direct assault on logic. "Master, how can you be sure they would do that?" Adam asked.

  Berto’s expression grew even darker. A stretching, suffocating silence fell between them, the garden's blossoms seemingly losing their color in the deepening gloom.

  "You see, Adam, my friend whom you call your great-grandfather, or rather your great-great-grandfather, used to have Tier 3 potential, just like you. No, that would be an understatement. To be honest, I do not understand how it works exactly myself, but you probably have even more talent than him, judging by how effortlessly you made the stone turn pure white. Anyway, let us just say the day your grandfather Amon’s potential was made public was the day his fate was sealed. By our own nobles, nonetheless."

  Adam felt as if his very soul had drifted away from his body, leaving only a cold void behind. "Wha... What do you mean, Master?"

  Berto looked at the boy with a flicker of pity in his eyes. "Look, Adam, I know you are only ten. Even if you are brilliant for your age, I know that telling you all of this is a lot. However, with potential like yours, I don't see any point in hiding the truth. Nobles will only accept such high potential when it comes from someone with a proper background. Someone who already means something in their circles. They will not allow some brat with no political chains to bind him to reach Tier 3."

  The mage paused, his eyes fixed on the white stone as if looking through it into a different, bloodier time.

  "The King might have let you live if you were bound for life as his servant, but that is a poor fate. Your grandfather Amon was given such an option, of course, though it wasn't stated so bluntly. They will never tell you the truth to your face. They will smile, say kind words, and stab you in the back when you expect it least. That is exactly what happened to my friend." Berto stopped speaking and gripped his robe so hard that his knuckles turned a ghostly white. For a moment, he did not look at Adam, staring instead at some distant, painful memory that seemed to materialize in the dry garden air.

  "They didn't just kill him, Adam." Berto said, his voice cold and trembling with a fear he could no longer hide. "They erased him. They made sure that no one would ever mention his name again. I saw the light go out of his eyes because he was simply too strong for them to control." He looked back at Adam with a terrifying, absolute seriousness. "If they find out about you, they won't stop at killing you. They will kill your parents and burn this house to the ground to make sure no one like you ever exists. They will not repeat their mistake by leaving your family alone. One anomaly they could accept, but two in the same family? They would never."

  Adam could feel a cold, heavy sweat drenching his back. The terror of what could happen was overwhelming. The silence between them stretched into a long, agonizing pause.

  "What will happen to me, Master? Will I die?" he whispered, his voice laced with pure, raw terror. After a moment, he added in a voice that was barely audible, "And if that’s not the worst, then what is?"

  Berto played with his beard, looking completely lost in the labyrinth of his own thoughts. Finally, a look of extreme resolution appeared in his eyes.

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  "Of course, I will not let you die, Adam. I will not lose another one to them. What we have to do is simply hide your potential. After all, only we know the truth. That is the reason I have always checked your family’s potential myself. But going back to your question, do you think tier limitations can be broken?"

  Adam thought for a moment, his mind still heavy with the weight of the previous revelations. "I don’t know. But if it were possible, wouldn't there be more Tier 3 mages?"

  Berto nodded slowly. "Well, yes, there would be, if it were any normal method. If you could break limits that simply, they wouldn't be called limits at all. You see, Adam, it is possible, but the way to do it is... well, bloody and cruel. Even nobles do not dabble in it. It is truly a demonic path, as you have to grotesquely sacrifice hundreds of people with potential just to break your own. And that is the biggest enemy we are facing. Dark Mages."

  "Dark Mages…" Adam murmured to himself.

  The idea of sacrificing hundreds of innocent people to break a personal limit felt profoundly wrong. It was a betrayal of everything he believed the path of a mage should be. What was the point of being a mage if not for the pure pursuit of learning and understanding? To him, that was the true beauty of the arcane. He felt a sudden, cold premonition. He wondered if this cruelty was related to the rumors of children vanishing from the slums. If no one cared about those people, they would be the perfect targets for someone looking for easy sacrifices. The thought made his stomach churn with a sickening rhythm, the air itself feeling tainted and thick.

  His mentor interrupted his grim thoughts. "From now on, your potential will end at Tier 2, just like mine. You must never tell anyone the truth until you are strong enough, not even your parents, as there are ways to read through the weak minds of mortals. And that is only one of the possibilities of the Dark Mages." His eyes were fixed on the boy, and Adam could see the absolute seriousness of the matter. "I understand, Master. I will not tell anyone. But how am I supposed to hide it if there is ever a moment when I have to use a Magic Stone again?"

  "That’s a good question, Adam, and luckily I have prepared for this moment. The first thing you will have to do is reach Tier 1, which we call the Mana Foundation." Berto’s voice was now calm and instructional, though the undercurrent of urgency remained. "It is the easiest tier to achieve. All you have to do is not only feel the mana but start to get a grasp of how to channel it. You will have to spend your days meditating, trying to feel the flow and learning how to merge your will with it. First thing, sit in a lotus position and close your eyes. You cannot see mana with them, and the input will only make it harder at the start. Try to feel the energy surrounding you. Remember what you felt when using the magic stone and go from there."

  Adam adjusted his position into a lotus pose and closed his eyes. He tried to recall the otherworldly feeling he had experienced during the test, remembering how the world had seemed to resonate with him back then. Minutes passed in silence. His breath calmed, settling into a steady, rhythmic pace. He could feel himself getting closer. There was something in the air, a presence that was barely escaping his senses. No, it was not just in the air. It was everywhere. The grass, the worms beneath the soil, and the very air he breathed, everything around him possessed it, a primordial current flowing through existence.

  The moment he finally grasped it, the first thing he felt was his Master. A heavy, profound aura surrounded the man like a vast shadow, a spiritual weight that felt ancient and deep. It did not feel like something that intended to harm him, but the sheer pressure on his body was undeniable. After that, he felt the less oppressive mana that permeated everything else. He could also hear barely audible whispers everflowing around him, drifting from the edges of perception like the rustling of unseen wings. The entire experience felt surreal and breathtaking.

  He opened his eyes after a moment. "Master, I did feel it! Your mana which was heavy on me and the one that is everywhere! It was so breathtaking! But there is one thing I do not understand and it felt odd to me. I heard some whispers, I think? Is it normal?"

  Berto looked upon him with an expression of pure shock and disbelief.

  "I must say, I did not expect you to take the first step that fast. It took me two days to even feel mana." The mage looked at him as if seeing a ghost. "Nevertheless, I am happy that you succeeded so quickly. But Adam, I honestly have no idea what you mean by those whispers. It certainly is not normal. Can you describe it more thoroughly to me?"

  Adam felt a prickle of unease. If his mentor had only felt mana after two days, was the Tier 3 potential truly that much stronger? He had expected Berto to have an answer for the whispers. "I do not think I can say anything more about them, Master. I can try again and listen to them."

  "No, don’t!" Berto instantly interrupted, his voice sharp with alarm. "Do not try to listen to them. We have no idea what exactly you are hearing, and listening to it is extremely dangerous!" Adam decided to trust his mentor’s warning, seeing the absolute seriousness on his face.

  After contemplating for a moment, the Master spoke again. "Try to meditate for a bit longer to get used to it. It is an extremely important part of a mage's path. You must completely ignore those whispers if you hear them again. We will finish with that for today. In the coming days, we will get you so accustomed to it that it will become second nature. Then, we will move on to merging your will with mana and channeling your first spell, which will be a light flicker. After you reach that, we will begin learning how to hide your potential and mana output. Only then will we actually study basic subjects."

  "Understood, Master." Adam replied as he entered a meditative state once more. He ignored the whispers completely as he was told, focusing on familiarizing himself with the sensation of mana surrounding him. A few hours passed in this quiet communion, with Berto sitting silently beside him, lost in his own thoughts.

  "Okay, that is it for today, Adam. Let us see what your mother has cooked for us. I hope it will be as tasty as breakfast." his mentor laughed, the sound breaking the heavy atmosphere of the afternoon. Adam stood up and followed his master back toward the house. Just before they stepped through the door, Berto whispered, "And remember our biggest secret, Adam." The boy nodded as they entered, greeted by the amazing scent of food.