There was no longer any mood to spar, as everyone's interest in raising their own strength surfaced. Now that everyone had tested their strength it was now time to improve upon it. Red Cloud Palace was more than just a place that looked grand, the resources available there were legendary. From medicine, techniques, armor, and weapons you could buy at the shops, to the special training environments that could be rented out.

But for Akata, Swordlife, and the other Dragonknights, it was much better for them. Not only did they get unlimited access to all of these resources, they could even ask for pointers from the top Elders of the sect. This would be a dream come true for anyone that lived in this world and Akata and the others would definitely not waste this chance.

“I have much to work on so I will take my leave.” Mindlife was the first to excuse himself. And after that Akata followed suit. Everybody bid farewell to each other. They wanted as much time to improve their strengths as possible.

“There’s not much time until the war starts so I can’t improve my cultivation by that much in so little time. The most important thing to work on is my knowledge of everything; especially runes. If I can control even a bit more of my runic abilities and maybe even unlock the secrets to them, I should be able to increase my strength greatly!” Akata’s eyes blazed with anticipation.

He had a feeling that if he could increase his knowledge of runes he would be able to unlock many secrets his runes hid. Akata was already aware that his runes weren’t normal and that they held great power within them. This could be seen from his Astral Obliteration skill and its heavenly might it brought upon others.

Akata headed straight for the Red Cloud Knowledge Hall. This place contained many books that covered a diverse array of topics. Topics that included legendary places, people and even treasures. Although, there weren’t any books on martial techniques. There were books, however, that could help enlighten the path of cultivation; the knowledge in this place was broad and something that couldn’t be found anywhere else on this planet. After all, it was knowledge from the true super sect Red Dragon Cloud Palace.

The reason Akata came here first was because he felt like knowledge that was considered sacred information to him and even the top sects of this continent would be like basic tutoring to those from the outer world. He felt as if he could learn a lot from this place.

And as it turned out, he was right. Akata ended up spending half a day within the Red Cloud Knowledge Hall. Even though it was basic knowledge taken from the true sect of Red Cloud Sect, to him, it was world shaking knowledge. He even lucked out and found some “basic” knowledge about the path of cultivation.

“So there’s a perfected realm for each rank of cultivation! Luckily I’m only at the First Rank Grade 9, so I can still reach it. If I was at the Second Rank already, I would’ve lost my chance to become a perfect cultivator.” Akata heaved a sigh of relief. He wanted to reach the pinnacle of this world and become the strongest cultivator. To do this he had to find every way possible to become strong. Reading about the perfected realm of the Ranks of cultivation he saw a brand new road to walk on to reach his goal.

“Heh heh.” Suddenly, however, he let out a self depreciating chuckle. This was just considered basic knowledge to the people of the outer world. Or at least to the cultivators of Red Dragon Cloud Palace. If this was basic knowledge there then that meant that he had a ways to go before he could catch up to the disciples of that sect. But he wasn’t discouraged, instead, he was anxious. He was aware of how weak he was but that just made him want to work harder to become stronger faster. Just thinking about how he could one day be standing over everybody and nobody would be able to threaten him or his loved ones again, brought a fiery desire to increase his strength.

Akata was very casual in reading. Although it was casual to him, in reality he was flying through many books on the shelves. His mental energy was beyond monstrous and so was his memory. It only took him about 5 mins to read and memorize a whole book. Then he would get up, place it back on the shelf, and look for another interesting book to read.

After some more time passed Akata caught a title on a book that caught his eye. “The Profoundness of Runes?” Akata read the title aloud to himself. It was a clean book that had a white cover and the title was a dark gold that seemed to have a tinge of red in it. It looked incredibly mysterious.

Akata picked the book up and inspected it further. The cover was a soft plain white that didn’t stand out but the letters were bold and respectful. They took in all of the attention. Akata flipped open the cover and looked at the first page. The pages in the book were a deep glossy black. No words could be seen on them. He flipped some more but still couldn’t find any words.

“What the hell? Where are the words or pictures or something?!” Akata was at a loss. He had already read some books pertaining to runes and his knowledge expanded greatly. He even tested some new theories out while he was reading and his efforts didn’t go to waste either. But this book that was clearly about runes was much different from the books he read before. In fact, this book was different from most of the other books in the library.

“You have a good eye. First it was the Bludhaven Scythe and now it’s this book, The Profoundness of Runes.” A voice that was filled with might floated into Akata’s ears. Akata was all too familiar with this voice and as he turned around he gave a respectful greeting. “Hello First Elder.” He said as he cupped his hands.

First Elder returned his greeting with a nod and continued on, “This book was written by a legendary figure. He goes by many names but most people know him as The Dark Runic Overlord. He was one of the top two geniuses when it came to runes. That title isn’t baseless either, if he is considered number two in rune knowledge and use, then there isn’t a number one. There is only one other person that can match him in the use of runes and that is the Light Runic Monarch. She and him were actually disciples of the same master and both became legendary figures as well.

You might think because of the names that the Dark Runic Overlord is evil but it is actually the Light Runic Monarch. She is wicked and ruthless and would slaughter millions just to test one of her runes. They got their names from their background and abilities. It’s too much to explain so I’ll just tell you a bit about The Dark Runic Overlord. He’s actually a demon and because of his upbringing, a lot of his techniques incorporated dark elements. Thus became of his name. He was definitely a genius, demon or not, and the knowledge he possesses is top-class. That book actually isn’t a book at all, it’s his personal notes that he wrote while he was studying runes. It contains some of his theories and ideas from when he was still a mortal all the way until he reached the Realm of Gods. Hell, it even has a few of his own creations and much more. You see, The Dark Runic Overlord…”

Akata paid close attention to what First Elder was saying. All of this was news to him that made his heart shudder with anticipation. Right now, he was holding the personal notes of a legendary figure that mastered the use of runes and reached the Realm of Gods. The knowledge that could be contained within was immeasurable and limitless. This was simply a priceless artifact Akata was holding in his hands.

After listening for an hour Akata finally grew restless and couldn’t hold back his question any longer. He waited until First Elder paused and asked, “First Elder, how do I read his notes? All the pages are blank.”

First Elder paused and then let out a laugh, “The pages aren’t blank they’re just locked. You think he would just let anybody read his notes? These notes are precious, any sect would fight to the death, even risking annihilation just to get their hands on them. There’s only three ways to unlock his notes. One, you could have outstanding skills in runes and unlock them with your abilities. Two, you can use the key that was personally made to unlock the notes. Three, you can gain the notes approval.” First Elder explained.

“You don’t have the skill to unlock it yourself so that’s out of the question and we don’t have the key so that too is not an option you can use. In fact, its because we can’t unlock it that I could even bring it here in the first place, because it’s useless.” First Elder said as he shrugged his shoulders. “But who knows maybe it will approve of you. Take it with you and try it out. If you unlock it then it’s your fortune but if not then it wasn’t meant to be.” With that he vanished instantly. His words still echoing out.

“If First Elder didn’t think I had a chance of the notes approving me then he wouldn’t have said give it a try. So that means he believes that I can possibly gain approval of the notes.” Akata’s eyes shone with glamour and anticipation. “But he didn’t say how to gain its approval.” Akata instantly let out a sigh. He took the book and then began to walk back to his room.

He had gained a lot of knowledge regarding cultivation, the world, runes, and more. Although he learned about the perfected realm of cultivation, he didn’t have any techniques to reach it. Most of his focus had been on runes.

After getting to his room and sitting on his bed, Akata closed his eyes as a book surfaced in his mind. In the Red Cloud Knowledge Hall he didn’t really read the books there, he just scanned and remembered their contents. Now that he was back in his room he would begin to digest and truly study the books he copied into his head.

Many more books about runes began to pop up in Akata’s mind. Rune Theory for Beasts, Elemental Rune Traits, Magic and Runes, Ancient Runic Philosophy, etc. All these books contained knowledge regarding runes and together they would set up a grand foundation for Akata.