The hourglass.
A one-time use item.
Its function?
To stop time.
Simply put, it could freeze time outside of a small area—for an entire month.
A month of stillness, where nothing moved except what was inside the hourglass's influence.
It was powerful. Ridiculously so.
But Arlon had no intention of using it.
Not now.
He was done training in stopped or slowed time. That kind of growth, while useful, wouldn't help him anymore.
This time, he didn't want that.
He hadn't chosen the hourglass to use it.
He had chosen it to study it.
To understand it.
So, for the next two hours, that's exactly what he did.
He sat cross-legged in the quiet room, the hourglass resting in front of him on the floor, and began to analyze it.
He observed the flow of the magic sealed inside it, traced the runic lines etched so delicately around its base, and watched the way the mana pulsed—steady, rhythmic, like a heartbeat frozen in amber.
Every inch of the object radiated high-grade spellwork.
