Liam, having dedicated years to his sword training and sculpture under Joel's relentless guidance, had become a mirror image of his master. His combat style was almost the same: clean, efficient, and unadorned sword strokes. Like Joel, he didn't fight to show off his strength, but to end the conflict with the minimum number of moves possible.

  However, when his magic awakened, it did so with force, manifesting in a fierce affinity for the element of fire. His sword seemed to come alive when he surrounded it with flames, channeling its power in a controlled and precise manner. He wasn't a traditional mage, nor did he seek to launch large ranged attacks; He used fire as an extension of his weapon, but he prioritized defensive options more, to ensure he would engage in close combat with his enemies. In recent months, Joel had taken him on several hunting trips, facing everything from medium-sized predators to colossal beasts that prowled the deepest reaches of the forest. And although Joel always closely monitored the young man's every move, he had slowly begun to trust Liam's judgment, recognizing in him a warrior forging ahead with a steady stride.

  Ariel, for her part, followed a very different path. From the moment she began taking the elixirs, her magical potential blossomed like a garden under constant rain. With the additional guidance of Nana, who shared her affinity, she discovered that her abilities with water were not limited to molding it or launching it into projectiles. She could purify, solidify, and even manipulate its temperature with supernatural delicacy. But in the end, the skill that mattered most to her was her uncanny ability to understand emotions as if they were a language.

  Ariel didn't speak with words, but with feelings. Something that began with only the ability to understand, but as her magic has grown, she has begun to be able to project it to others. Even Joel was able to understand Ariel, without her having to open her mouth to say it, like a kind of telepathy, albeit a very profound one. With patience and sensitivity, Ariel managed to forge bonds with several wild creatures, establishing channels of understanding that went beyond language. In particular, one of those connections completely changed its routine after the discovery of an injured little owl among the roots of a tree following a storm.

  Against all expectations, Ariel cared for the chick with fierce perseverance, feeding it and protecting it from the hostility of wildlife. The bird grew rapidly under her care, and by the time it was a year old it had reached almost a meter in height, with dark gray plumage and golden eyes that seemed to understand more than they should. She named it Oscar, and from then on, the animal became her shadow.

  At first, both Joel and Liam were strongly opposed to having a wild creature in the house. The very idea of a giant owl fluttering between rooms, with all kinds of fragile objects, was absurd. But Ariel not only prevailed, she disarmed them with her actions. She trained the owl with impeccable patience, showing them that Oscar could be in the house without making a mess, maintain his composure, and, to everyone's amazement, behave with table manners.

  “If Liam can be at the table with that ogre-like humor, so can Oscar,” she had once said, with a smile that brooked no reply.

  But perhaps the most profound change—although not as visible as in the two siblings—was Joel's. Although he wanted to enjoy the peace of his new home, he forced himself not to abandon his desire to grow stronger, often roaming the forest's outskirts in search of beasts to fight. Thus, after years of combat, introspection, and relentless training, he had finally reached level 4 of his magical potential. This brought a significant change in his ability to use his sword's techniques, in addition to increasing his overload capacity. However, his physical strength and agility managed to reach limits beyond his predictions.

  His body was not like that of others, due to his ability related to dreams. In the span of two years, he ended up dreaming of at least 24 lives, none of them very significant, but from each of them, he ended up retaining a fragment of its physical potential, which was undoubtedly accumulated and amplified by the magical energy in his body. Now with his level up, he can't help but speculate that his strength and speed are in the physical ranges of a level 6 mage, and perhaps even greater under overload.

  These thoughts made Joel feel a little more confident, though not satisfied, as there was still a long way to go before he would be able to protect himself from the true powers that control the world.

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  Another significant change for him was that, with the increase in his mana upon reaching level 4, Joel had reached the point where he could create objects, from his dream lives, weighing up to a kilogram. This was no small leap, as it meant going from the conceptual to the practical in many ways. It allowed him not only access to a vast arsenal of samurai swords from Hoshinobu's life, but he was also able to materialize three weapons from a more modern era that his mana reserves could withstand:

  An Enfield No. 2 revolver, which he used as an officer during a colossal war. A reliable weapon, albeit one that only fired 6 shots.

  A Luger pistol, elegant and accurate, easier to reload than the revolver, with its 8-round magazines, although of a much more complex design that allows for the possibility of jamming between shots.

  The Mills hand grenade, a weapon with a fairly simple principle and very effective for its purpose.

  Those first three weapons represented a significant evolutionary leap for Joel, and his aspirations for when his mana would allow him to create more modern and more powerful weapons. He manipulated them, except for the grenade, like a child with a new toy, giving them proper maintenance from his memories and testing the mechanisms again and again.

  Ironically, having those weapons at his disposal made him feel like he was able to use a kind of ranged magic, obviously different from his ability to project slashes with his katana, much more like a regular mage.

  Joel, however, wasn't fooled. He knew perfectly well that the pistols and grenades he had brought were no real threat against high-level mages. Against a level 3 mage or higher, with their mana-enhanced skin or enchanted armor, a bullet of that caliber would hardly penetrate beyond the skin's surface. But that wasn't the true value of those weapons; what mattered to him was their tactical nature.

  First, they were instantaneous. They required no magical preparation or concentration. They could be used without emitting any aura and without alerting the trained senses of the sorcerers. They didn't vibrate mana, emit any magical pulses or signals. They were silent until the moment of firing... and by then, it was too late.

  Second, anyone could use them. They required no magical training or special talents. He could teach Liam or even Ariel to fire them accurately in a matter of months or weeks.

  Third—and perhaps most importantly for Joel—the bullets were fast, incredibly fast. For a mid- or low-level mage, dodging them was practically impossible. And with their highly developed physical abilities and senses, shooting at the eyes or critical areas of an unsuspecting enemy was just a matter of practice. In the world of mages, where many felt untouchable thanks to their power, the idea of dying from an invisible piece of metal was as absurd as it was terrifying.

  And then there was the hand grenade, which, while not a lethal weapon per se, was a tool of chaos. Its deafening sound, due to the explosion, and the smoke it released were elements that could destabilize any confrontation in his favor. No mage would expect that a non-magical object, as inert as a rock, could trigger something similar. All it took was to throw it at the right moment to disorient, confuse, open a space, or create an opportunity for escape or attack.

  Joel didn't need the world to understand his methods. In fact, he preferred they didn't. Because the more they underestimated those "non-magic" weapons, the more devastating their effect would be on the battlefield.

  He wasted no time. As soon as he finished making the two pistols and the first grenades, as well as a generous supply of ammunition, he began basic practice, firing at static targets: marked rocks, logs, and carved wooden figures, all to hone his aim and get used to the weight, recoil, and behavior of the weapons.

  Then, he took the tests to the forest. There, amidst the dense undergrowth and the constant danger of wild animals, he found the perfect environment for experimentation. At first, hunting birds and small animals, but later actively seeking out larger and more dangerous prey.

  The pistols performed impeccably. Their mechanism was simple and reliable, and they never jammed or failed during the sessions. However, their firepower had clear limitations: they barely penetrated the hide of most medium-sized or large forest animals, except in vulnerable areas. But there was one objective that always worked in Joel's favor: sight. Shooting into the eyes of animals became his main goal, and with prolonged training, he was able to easily blind almost any creature.

  However, the main problem with the pistols was their effective range. Only within a 50-meter radius could Joel consistently hit targets as small as the eyes, and even then, if the animal was moving, that required extreme calculation and focus. They weren't truly infallible weapons, but in his hands, they became key pieces of a lethal strategy.

  Grenades, on the other hand, proved to be much more versatile. With Joel's physical strength—amplified by his unique physiology—he could throw them hundreds of meters with ease, ensuring they detonated in midair or on impact, before the critical four seconds. In most cases, the blast didn't kill… but it did stun, confuse, and break the will to fight in many of the animals, leaving them open to a swift sword thrust.

  Even Liam was able to hunt on his own thanks to this advantage. Joel only needed to throw a grenade and stun a beast, allowing the boy to spring into action with his sword and take down enemies much stronger than him. If the animal was too large or resilient, several grenades in quick succession were enough to do the job, leaving Joel open to confront many monsters he had previously avoided.

  For Joel, it was all part of the same approach: tactical efficiency. Every experiment in the woods, every shot and every explosion, wasn't just training... they were calculated steps toward a new way of fighting, one unique to him, and one with which he hopes to surprise many of his future enemies.