Chapter 10 - Mind Palace

Note: I would like to keep the skill panels to a minimum because it interrupts the reading process.

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The night slowly crept in; intensifying the already eerie atmosphere of the forest and in the middle stood a half-naked boy with silver hair and had a golden bear at his side. This sight looked like a twilight prince with his beast had descended into the forest. Crickets’ started humming in the background.

He had ignored the panel that had been displayed before him for now. HHis first priority was to make camp. His mind clear due to the effects of Ataraxia, he mentally mapped the resources he needed to make camp, he then faced the Murk Bear.

“Go hunt four rabbits and stay within a 100 meter radius” he said in a commanding voice

The Murk bear slowly nodded, and headed of into the darkness, during the meantime the bear was hunting he wandered around the spot looking for some twigs or some branches after a meanwhile he came upon a few of them. He had also sent the Murk Bear to get the rabbits was because that it would have a better understanding of the layout of the forest.

Quickly setting up the twigs and branches in the center, he surrounded them with evenly sized stones, so that he could place things on them to cook. The bear returned after some minutes later with the carcass of four rabbits. Setting them gently beside the raging camp fire, few sparks flew out from the flames disappearing instantly as the leapt out.

Taking the rabbit carcasses, he started to skin them with a sharpened mana dagger. However, the expected result was not the one he liked; some chunks of the rabbits were missing. Anyway, he pierced the rabbit’s stomach with twigs and set them to on the stones to cook in the flames.

“So what why did you attack me”, he said to the Bear

“be..because I thought you would kill me, like the hunters which killed my parents” , the bear said in a weak, adorable

tone

“So what is you name”, Lucifer asked

“Snuff”, the bear responded

“Snuff that was an adorable name which suited the bear”, he thought to himself

“So can you find magical and rare ingredients” he asked softly

Snuff slowly nodded his head. The fragrant scent of the cooked meat caught my nose. Removing the rabbits from the flames, he extracted the twigs from them. He then handed two of the rabbits to ‘Snuff’.

*nom* *nom*

Snuff made cute noises when he started eating his portion.

Lucifer, facing the fire lost himself in a trance. Time seemed to slow down. He thought of various ways he could strengthen his body. Entering into his mind palace, he looked around trying to get a better understanding of it, he quickly willed a chair to appear in front of him and it did. After some experiment he concluded he could customize his mind palace however he liked. He willed it into a library.

Then he commanded the Mind Palace to give him a book on human physiology. In a bright flash of light, a book appeared in his hand; skimming through the book he learned various parts of the body. It took him a few minutes for him to go through the book.

He then commanded the Mind Palace to make a projection of his body structure in front of him.

“Highlight all flaws which can be improved” he said

Various red marks were highlighted on his body, he memorized them. It felt like hours had passed by in the Mind Palace, so he exited it.

Coming back to his senses he only felt hat a few minutes had passed by in the real world.

“Guess time flows differently in my mind” he muttered

He knew what his weaknesses were, his arteries, capillaries and his heart, they couldn`t handle the huge surge of mana which passed through his blood stream. Second, his dynamic vision couldn`t keep up if he moved at high speed. His body structure needed a lot of improvement. However, he couldn`t do anything about it until he reached back home.

He also noticed his personality had changed due to the suppression of emotions. It felt the same like when he was an angel. He was satisfied with the ability, because human emotions are variables that constantly cause many problems. So without them he could achieve his goal faster.

However, this was going to be a problem, because He had to put up his Avaritia façade, which before came naturally, but now he had to imitate human emotions which was harder.

He had hardly noticed that he had finished his rabbit meat and unconsciously bit on his thumb. Looking in front of him, he found Snuff already fast asleep. Snuff looked even more adorable as he slept. Going across to the bear, he laid his head onto its comfortable fur, it was really soft, he then snuggled next to the bear, but before that he had protected himself with flame layered armor in case he was attacked

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|POV|

“I feel like I am forgetting something”, Aunt Hilda said out loud in the mansion

Aunt Hilda had just returned from a meeting with the experts from the continent, they were discussing about the threat. When she had arrived there, most of the experts were in panic. This was the first time they had encountered such evil.

They meeting had lots of screaming, shouting and was concluded with the leading expert in the continent. Sir Julian had to release his Aura to contain their panic and so the meeting was concluded.

Then all of a sudden it hit here.

“Avaritia” she shouted

She had set such training was so he would give up after just entering the first floor. Aunt Hilda knew that geniuses such as him tended to be reckless. Thinking that they are special and all and plunge into danger, she wanted to teach him to value his life and learn when to give up.

“Seems he should have learned his lesson by now”

She then teleported on the spot and in an instant she was in front of the mansion or what was left of it.

“Was the dungeon not here”, she was growing frantic as she said that.

She quickly scanned here surrounding within a 2000 Km radius, Lucifer was not even one tenth of that. She instantly spotted him, and let out a sigh of relief.

She then proceeded to teleport by his side

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Lucifer was quietly snoring until Aunt Hilda appeared by his side. He slowly got up, he knew it was here by here distinct Aura. He gently rubbed is eyes then stared at Aunt Hilda.

“W….Why so late Aunt Hilda, he said, pouting

“Seems like you got an adorable friend right there”, Aunt Hilda spoke

“Yesh” he said with a tone of a child

He was only 4 years and 10 months old, so it was better he acted like a child. The adults didn`t find this weird, because in this world children matured faster at a young age. So no wonder, they trained him when he was just a toddler. However, he didn`t know that was only half of the reason, they trained at a young age because of his genius potential with the sword.

“What happened to the dungeon?” Aunt Hilda asked in a stern tone, she seemed very cautious.

“Damn, I hoped she wouldn`t ask that” he thought to himself while mentally building various fake responses

“I…..I got out after a few minutes when I entered the first floor and came to this forest Aunt Hilda”

“And all of a sudden I heard a h…huge explosi. .ion, like boom” he made had shapes while speaking it looked cute.

“Never mind”, Aunt Hilda responded, but when he saw her eyes he knew she was very curious on what happened here.

Lucifer picking up Snuff, carried snuff on his back like a bag pack. Grabbing Aunt Hilda hand they teleported into the mansion.

In the mansion;

“Goodnight, Aunt Hilda”

“Goodnight, Darling”

He then carried Snuff into his bedroom.

He smirked, he had succeeded in imitating Avaritia `s persona, he then jumped into his bed with Snuff and slowly drowned into a comfortable sleep.

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Thank you for reading.