"Hey, Roy, let's stop holding these kids back, shall we?" an old man said as he sat inside a remote courtyard hidden deep within the Crimson Forest. The courtyard was quiet, surrounded by trees and plants that had grown undisturbed for years. The two elderly men had spent a considerable amount of time observing the younger generation from the sidelines, allowing them to develop without interfering too much. However, they both knew that the time had finally come to safely break through.
"Of course," Roy replied with a sigh. "They have been more than considerate in taking care of us over the years."
His voice carried a mixture of gratitude and guilt as he thought back on everything the family had done for them. The Sonnenbergs had provided them with resources, protection, food, housing, and the freedom to pursue their own interests without forcing them to take responsibility for the family's larger affairs. While the younger generation often treated it as a natural duty to care for their elders, Roy understood how much effort and sacrifice had gone into making that possible.
"Don't sigh so much," Nico said cheerfully. "If the roles were reversed, we would do the same for them. So let's stop feeling guilty and do our part. We should become the kind of ancestors they always talk about in cultivation novels."
Roy turned toward him with an amused expression. "It is good to see that you have never lost your youth."
"Why would I deliberately make life boring?" Nico asked, sounding genuinely delighted by the idea. "The best part of this entire arrangement is that we don't have to run the family. We only need to show up when the family is in danger, and otherwise we can spend our time doing whatever we want."
He looked incredibly pleased with himself as he leaned back in his chair. Since mana had arrived, Nico had spent most of his time either making bows, practicing archery, or experimenting with the various skills connected to both activities. He had no interest in becoming involved in politics, managing the family's finances, or dealing with the endless problems that came with interacting with the outside world.
"Exactly," Roy said with satisfaction. "Finally, no one gets in the way of me caring for my plants."
His expression softened as he glanced toward the greenery around the courtyard. Roy had always been passionate about plants, cultivation, and maintaining the natural balance of the forest. Being responsible for the family would have forced him to spend much of his time away from his interests, but now he could focus on what he actually enjoyed.
"Yes, that is another advantage," Nico said. "We also don't have to deal with outsiders. I certainly don't envy Karl. The position of patriarch was already difficult enough when we could simply remain hidden in the forest and avoid most of the world."
A faint shiver passed through his voice as he considered the responsibilities Karl had taken upon himself. The patriarch was no longer merely responsible for protecting the family and ensuring its survival. He now had to deal with governments, corporations, ancient families, religious organizations, foreign intelligence agencies, and countless people who wanted access to the Sonnenbergs' knowledge.
"That is true," Roy said, his expression becoming more serious. "But we have achieved wonderful results for the family. We have spent our lives developing our crafts, and now it is time to make sure that effort becomes something the younger generation can rely on."
He slowly closed his eyes.
"So, let's do our job and become the last line of defense for our family."
Roy's words were not exaggerated. The two men had lived for a very long time, and they had reached an age where most humans would either need enormous amounts of resources to remain alive or possess extraordinary talent. The Sonnenbergs, however, were not ordinary humans. Their bloodline, training, environment, and natural talent had allowed them to reach a level that most people could never hope to achieve.
They had spent years quietly accumulating strength while avoiding unnecessary attention.
Now, with no other pressure placed upon them except the expectation that they become powerful enough to protect the family, the two old men were finally ready to advance. If they were ever forced to take action, the world would discover that the seemingly harmless elderly members of the Sonnenberg family were people who had to be taken seriously.
Neither of them needed to say anything else.
They simply began their breakthroughs.
When Arin woke up the following morning, the first thing he noticed was that the entire forest seemed to be in a good mood. The sensation was subtle, but it was impossible for him to miss. As someone deeply connected to the Crimson Forest, Arin could usually sense the general condition of the trees, plants, and animals around him, and the forest's emotional atmosphere had been noticeably gloomy for the last several days.
That made the sudden change especially strange.
The secret realm was still close to bursting open, and the forest had been reacting to that danger. The mood had not been bad enough for ordinary family members to notice, but it had been present in the background of everything Arin did. The animals were more restless, the natural flow of the forest felt tense, and the overall atmosphere carried the subtle pressure of something dangerous approaching.
Yet that morning, the forest felt happy.
"Why is the forest in such a good mood?" Arin wondered as he sat up. "That makes no sense."
He could not think of anything that would explain the change. The secret realm had not disappeared, the danger had not passed, and there had been no obvious improvement in the surrounding environment. If anything, the situation should have become more stressful rather than less.
Far beneath the surface of the Earth, Gaia was also experiencing something unexpected.
She had been concentrating on tracking the known corrupted humans and cross-checking them against individuals whose behavior had recently become suspicious. Her attention had primarily been focused on North America, where the number of possible connections to the Void continued to increase. The work required her to monitor countless threads of faith, movement patterns, emotional disturbances, and unusual changes in human behavior.
Then something caught her attention.
"Well, what do we have here?" Gaia thought as she shifted part of her attention toward Europe.
Her awareness settled over the Crimson Forest, and she immediately noticed the positive energy radiating from it. The forest was not merely healthy. It was unusually harmonious, as though something had changed in the relationship between the forest and the Sonnenberg family.
"They are really lucky," Gaia thought. "And this is only possible because of the bond the family had with the forest before mana arrived."
Humanity already knew that luck was real. The System had made that fact impossible to deny, but people still had very little understanding of what luck actually was or how it functioned. They knew that some individuals seemed to encounter fortunate opportunities more often than others, but they generally treated it as an abstract concept rather than something with practical rules.
Gaia understood it much better.
Fortune was essential for a faction to flourish, but it was also unstable. It did not naturally remain in one place forever. Fortune drifted, spread, and gradually flowed toward other people, organizations, or locations. A faction that accumulated too much fortune without taking steps to contain it would eventually lose part of its advantage.
"That is going to become a problem for them in the future," Gaia thought. "Eventually, they will need to create artifacts capable of suppressing their fortune and preventing it from flowing away."
If they failed to do so, the outflow of fortune could destabilize their progress. Their opportunities would become less consistent, their growth would slow, and the benefits they had accumulated might gradually spread to others. Fortune was not something that could simply be stored forever without maintenance.
However, the Sonnenbergs had done something unusual.
Their entire profession revolved around taking care of the forest. Their skills, traditions, and way of life were all connected to maintaining the natural environment. Over generations, they had developed such a close relationship with the Crimson Forest that their fortune had gradually become intertwined with the forest itself.
The family and the forest were no longer entirely separate entities in that regard.
"And now they have taken another step," Gaia thought.
The moment Roy and Nico broke through Stage One and became adults in the eyes of the System, the relationship between the family and the forest changed. The breakthrough had acted as a trigger, officially cementing the connection that had already been developing between them.
Neither the Sonnenbergs nor the forest consciously understood what had happened.
The bond had simply become real.
"The Sonnenbergs and the Crimson Forest are now officially partnered," Gaia concluded.
She did not consider this a bad development. In fact, she was extremely interested in the phenomenon. Humanity had just achieved something she had not previously known was possible, and Gaia was eager to understand how the process worked.
She intended to study the forest more closely in the future and determine whether the same result could be replicated elsewhere.
"As humanity grows, they keep discovering things even I did not know were possible," Gaia thought. "I really should investigate this properly."
However, she knew the other planted avatar was still somewhere on Earth, and Gaia had no intention of letting him notice she had discovered something unusual.
Before he could detect her attention, she withdrew it and returned her focus to North America.
"Hey, does anyone know why the forest is so happy today?" Arin asked as he entered the dining area.
He sat down with a bowl of yogurt and oatmeal, still looking confused by what he had sensed earlier. The entire family was currently gathered around the table, enjoying breakfast, although his father was absent because he had gone to investigate something. The others immediately looked toward Arin after hearing his question.
"No," Teun replied, intrigued. "Why do you say that?"
"I don't know," Arin admitted. "I just woke up, and the forest felt really happy. It was strange because the secret realm could burst open at any moment. The forest has felt gloomy for the last few days, so I wasn't expecting such a sudden change."
The rest of the table became interested. Arin's connection to the forest was not something they ignored, especially when the secret realm was involved. If he said the forest's mood had changed, there was probably a reason, even if none of them could immediately identify it.
Before anyone could ask another question, Karl entered the room.
"Good news, everyone," Karl announced with the biggest smile on his face. "They have broken through. Everyone can stop suppressing their breakthroughs and become adults in the eyes of the System."
For a moment, the table went completely silent.
Then the meaning of his words registered.
"Wait, seriously?" Arin asked.
"Yes," Karl replied, still smiling. "Roy and Nico have successfully crossed the threshold."
"Well, then, it's time to go," Arin said immediately.
He began inhaling his breakfast at an alarming speed, barely taking the time to swallow before shoving another spoonful into his mouth. The moment he finished enough to avoid choking himself, he jumped up and made a beeline for the exit.
The rest of the family was not far behind.
Several people hurried after him, equally eager to see what had happened. The news meant that the family no longer needed to suppress their own progress, and that alone was enough to make everyone impatient. They had been forced to hold themselves back for a long time, waiting for the two elders to complete their breakthroughs safely.
Now, that restriction was finally gone.
"What?" Karl asked with an amused expression as he watched nearly everyone rush away. "Are they in a hurry to beat me or something?"
He shook his head with a smile and sat down to eat breakfast.
As he relaxed, he allowed his control over his mana to loosen slightly. The suppression he had maintained for so long slipped away, revealing his true condition to anyone capable of sensing it.
Karl was firmly at Stage One.
The patriarch calmly picked up his breakfast while the rest of the family hurried toward the Crimson Forest, completely unaware that Karl had just revealed his own breakthrough as well.