Chapter 2

I remained awake all night, Nocturne engraving in me the ‘Better’ method to assimilate which he stubbornly kept on calling cultivation. I wasn’t one to argue as he probably outlived anyone I had ever known, and by his way of a speech, he was probably the one in the right.

His explanation was rather more complicated and simple at the same time. The energy that I was harnessing was called Qi, natural energy, it exists everywhere and anywhere, some places have a better concentration of it, and some don’t, for example, this city is rather lacking in it, making those that dwell here not benefiting from it, in places where it is in higher density people might find themselves outliving others from different part of the country even if they don’t consciously use assimilation.

The source of this energy is rather ambiguous, no one knows what is it, but Nocturne explained it to be a force of nature, like the wind or the rain; it is something that always was here and will remain long after we are dead. Looking for its origin gives not the slightest benefit so why waste time.

Asking him how to manage to harness it without needing to remain still was rewarded with a statement saying that I was a newborn trying to run long before I even managed to crawl.

I needed to at least reach the second level of assimilation before I could begin harnessing the energy while doing something else. The premise of multitasking was rather alluring and I truly wanted the ability to do so.

I tried asking Nocturne about the looming darkness that he spoke about earlier, but he refused to tell me anything saying that I was far too weak to it right now. whatever it is that got even Nocturne agitated must be something to be feared… This being represented power. He fears not death but it seems that there are things much scarier than that… probably he is wise not to tell me… though I can’t understand why me of all people, why should I be the one tasked with finishing this book’s unfinished business?

No matter, once Nocturne’s lecture about the origin of Qi finished he told me to take the same position that Master Shen had asked me to do and assimilate as much as I could. I found it to be rather relaxing for the moment and I did take advantage of it, it makes the body feels better the more you live in that trance, and I forgot myself within the world of specs, the small changes that happened within me were too fascinating to draw my eyes anywhere else.

“Basara!!” cried out Master Shen who was within my room along with Melinda.

I opened my eyes and felt my body shivering. I was once again covered in that greasy sweat. But I felt much, much better.

“Yes, master?” I said

“Were you assimilating all night?!” he asked

“Yes?” I said with hesitation

“I have been trying to wake him from that position but he was rather unresponsive…” said Melinda “You look disgusting, you need to take a shower…” she then added

That woman was as stern and blunt, but deep down I knew she was a nice person so I nodded.

“Indeed, I do smell terrible. I will take a bath later on.”

“Basara,” said master Shen, “I thought you overslept from yesterday’s training but it seems that you were still training, you show great attitude towards your tasks which I appreciate a lot,” he said

These words filled me with pride hearing what master Shen felt.

“I came here to urge you to train more so that you can achieve a faster breakthrough, we only have one month left before Visania opens its doors, you need to be at least level 3 by then, I know it might sound unreasonable but you need to make it as fast as you can, you will be adding these to your limiter too. they will help”

He said as he handed me two more sets of bracelets that he attached to the ones I already had, now my arms were covered in that silver metal until my elbows. And another set to be attached to my thighs.

The weight of them was immense, to say the least.

“These will act according to your strength, the stronger your body becomes the heavier they will get, due to the slow process of gaining strength you will not feel them getting heavier once you are used to them,” he said

Which was a good thing, being constantly reminded how heavy, and how restraining these things were, would be a pain.

“Take your shower and continue on with your assimilation, you seem to be talented in that area too, you already removed a third of the impurities of your body. That is just the first level mind you, you still have a long way to go but you are doing a great job for one day worth of work.”

“Thank you,” I said then left for the showers.

Once I finished I had my breakfast and went back to the courtyard to continue on with assimilation.

‘Basara, you are far too slow, let me take over.’ He said and he did without my consent (again)

‘What is it Nocturne?’ I asked

‘The method you are using takes too much time and is impractical, you are harnessing the energy through breathing which is fine but you are not using your full potential, the body you cleanse can also absorb energy on its own, though it is easier to breathe in that energy, your skin can also absorb it. Take a closer look at how it is done.’ He said

He then began doing some strange movements with his hands, waving his fingers in circular movements

“What are you doing, Nocturne?’

‘This is meant to relax the body, yours is still suffering from the weights though you are unconscious about it, your flesh is struggling to keep itself together, these moves help stretch the body and will relax it, for the time being, it can also be used to focus.”

Once nocturne was seated in the lotus position as he called it he pushed his right hand on his left palm. Taking a deep breath the air around him changed drastically, the wind howled and the grass trembled, I focused on the change in my body and noticed a humongous change.

The tissue in my body, I actually saw it grow at a frightening rate, muscle tissue strand after strand would break and triple in number, every single one of those fibers broke and mended back three times stronger, and then those that were newly made would break once again and become more. This kept on for few seconds until Nocturne said.

‘here it is, your first breakthrough!’ he even sounded excited.

My body then exploded with energy, a shockwave tore through the grass and ground around my body rippling the ground, it created a small crater and a light beam that lasted for a few second originated from my body.

‘This is the first level that your master spoke of, the second one shouldn’t be that difficult to reach, use your old method and once you breakthrough again, I will give you the way to cultivate without needing to stay immobile. Take your body back the rest is up to you to handle’

He said as I got the control of my body.

What I felt was… fatigue, not like I had hoped for, my body felt on fire, my libs were heavy and my bones shook, my head was thumping and my blood pressure rose, yet somehow I felt… different. Ever so slightly different, like a weight was removed and I was able to breath better…

“Basara! You damned bastard! You broke through on your second day how in god’s name did that even happen?!!!” cried out master then who came along with Lord Ling running to the courtyard.

“It just did,” I replied to the master.

“Brother,” said master Shen addressing Lord Ling “You know the meaning of this don’t you?”

“I do,” said Lord Ling who looked in deep thought

“Basara, meet me later tonight, I have something to discuss with you… I wanted to tell you something before but looking at the sudden change, I will have to make different arrangements” he said and hurriedly walked away

“What happened?” in sked

“You don’t really know the meaning behind what you have just don don’t you?” asked Master Shen

“Not really…”

“You just managed what non of the highest families and strongest within this country could ever do. Even with the backing of the strongest families, children that chose the path of the blade even geniuses could barely mimic what you have just done. You, an orphan child managed to a breakthrough in two days, while not even the Conqueror managed such a feat…”

“The Conqueror? Who is he?”

“A tale for a different time, Listen, boy, if anyone asks you about your first breakthrough time then answer them that it took you a week, though it is a lie a week is still something amazing for anyone to achieve.”

“What difference does it make?”I asked

Then master Shen answered me with a question

“Where does your loyalty lies?”

“It lies with my Lord and the King”

“Then beware, if your secret is divulged many would want to recruit you within their ranks if you refuse you will be seen as a future threat and will be shut down once you are still weak.”

“I will make sure to keep my mouth shut then,” I said shuddering at the thought of people being sent to kill me.

I took a look at the pendant and saw that it was glowing in a surprising emerald light.

“You even broke through with the maximum purity possible, your next breakthrough should be much easier to achieve… what a monster…” he said proud more than worried.

‘Nocture, I think we should tone down on the way we learn things, else we might be sent to be experimented on’

‘I disagree, you need to gain strength and fast, though the darkness looms far in the future it will still come, and at this rate, you will never make it fend it off… you need more strength…”

Sigh…

I tried to stand up but felt unable to.

The new muscle growth has changed the ratio at which the strength and power needed for me to move with the Limiter on.

Once I found the balance I stood up and felt that my feets actually dug a bit in the ground, like I have gained a noticeable amount of weight.

“Basara, look carefully at this!” he said

And brought out his weapon.

First, he took a stance where his right hand held his sword closer to his shoulder level. His left hand was in an open palm position, and both his legs were firmly holding on the ground yet they were slightly bent.

He remained in that position for a moment, then stabbed with his right hand while moving forward at the same time, his upper body rotated and his open palm tilted backwards, once he took a full first step, he spun around and slashed in a horizontal way while changing his position to one where his entire body was at my waist level. He then finished with a diagonal pierce that rearrange his stance to one where he was standing. Right after that he took his initial stance and unsheathed his weapon.

“This is the set of moves for the first level of the lotus arts. It is designed to initiate a fight, it is both defensive and offensive, it holds great power at destabilizing your opponents, mixed in with other move sets of different levels it will make a great mean to engage upon various enemies. Now you try it” he said

Honestly, it looked like he was just playing around, the moves he used that other time we much more refined than these and looked deadlier, why was he teaching me this?

‘Respect the base, even a mountain needs a strong base to stand proud.’ Said Nocturne almost sounding like if he was defending the man.

‘Alright alright, I will try it…’

Then I began mimicking the master, what I thought to be simple, and idiotic moves turned out to have an enormous strain on my leg muscles and torso. This was incredibly taxing, it was probably due to the exhaustion from the breakthrough, but I understood that these basic moves held a lot of potentials to grow and to mold into limitless variations of moves.

“Marvelous, your eyesight is as impressive as always, it is an almost perfect imitation to what I have just done, yet you need to put more torque behind your moves, your legs are taking too much strain because you move your body mechanically, you must move in a flowing way, practice this move sets a much and as many times as you can.”

“Alright master,” I said and began rehearsing the moves.

Time flew by until I began to feel an insatiable hunger.

‘You must eat lad, the breakthrough needs you to feed more and more, just take in as much food as you can, Cultivating will make sure that the nutrients will be molded into your body correctly.’ Said Nocturne

‘I will, Nocturne, I will’

‘At this rate, you will be able to wield my weapon with ease, progress more and I will teach you how to use it.’

‘Well, I guess that a scythe has a different move set than a sword right?’

‘Not only that, don’t compare this to mortals weapons, it is a scythe designed to harvest souls and not cut flesh, it never dulls never rusts and always delivers’

‘A fearsome weapon’ I said

‘Indeed, once you begin learning about magic, I will show you the marvels of it.’ he said as his voice faded into the background

Ah I just remembered, Lord Ling asked me to join him… I wonder what he needs of me…