I decided to check out the basement in the morning. I bought a new lock for the basement, but I still don't know what’s down there.

I head into my room and lay on my newly bought bed. Before I did some home renovations, I texted my family that I won’t be sleeping over tonight. I don’t want to needlessly worry them about my missing arm.

Everything that happened to me hits me at once. The constant lightning, the horrible climb up the mountain, fighting with a creature that could’ve killed me with a strike from the heavens. Meeting a literal goddess and getting scammed at the same time…

Not to mention what lay behind the crack in space. I need to look into what that place really was. The whispers sneak back into my mind, not letting me sleep.

Duchess has to use her magic on me before I can rest for the night.

~

After breakfast, I wrote down everything I needed to accomplish before the year ended.

Check out the basement and figure out why the neighbor weirds me out. Get a better/new arm. Graduate within a year, so I can gain my freedom. Level up and evolve my tamed beasts. Find out what the fuck the voices in my head are. A million dollars.

The last goal I have is one I made casually on the first day of school. Getting my parents a gift for the 10th anniversary of their taking me in is something I want to do.

There is no particular order for my goals, but checking out the basement should be easy.

~

The lock to my basement was easy enough to break. I used my good arm to pull on it until it snapped off. The old hinges creak open as the door opens inwards. There is a funny smell that I can't quite describe. It smells nothing like a dead body, so I don’t have to worry about that.

I walk down the rickety steps down into the dark basement. I stumble around for a bit until I find a light switch. There is nothing inside the basement but lines of dust that indicate that there was a bunch of stuff down. I crouch down and inspect the dust. Whatever was down here was moved recently, no more than a day ago.

Curious.

Whatever was down here was moved after I got the house. I should have the only keys to the building unless a copy was made.

The only person that I knew who had my keys was my nameless neighbor. I wonder why Winkleton left the keys in his possession in the first place. I could confront him right now, but let's look around first.

~

There was nothing that caught my eye in the basement. I tried to look for more clues that might indicate that someone was in my house. I settled for buying a security camera and wirelessly transmitting a video feed to my laptop.

I also did some research. Finding a healer who can completely regrow a new limb is difficult. I can probably find one in the capital or the border zones around the Prime Territories. I don’t know the first thing about buying a prosthetic, and I don’t want to get scammed. The only artificer I know is Master Wang's daughter, but I don’t want to see them again for a long time.

On my way to class, I buy a few sets of white gloves and wear them to hide the metal arm. Khan is a curious fellow. He likes to orbit around me and do nothing but look around. I now know Khan is a male because male guppies have wider tails than their female counterparts… not that I have another guppie to compare Khan with.

Classes at my school are a chore. The elvish language class is at least a little fun since I am constantly working on a new language to learn, but having the [Lexicon] makes me feel like a massive cheater. If it gets me out of here sooner, I don’t care if it’s considered cheating.

I went to my first physical education class since my enrollment at the institute. I remet Mr. Cobble and struck a conversation with the large man.

“Mr. Cobble, why am I in your class?”

“What changed from the other days you weren't here?”

“That is a different topic. What I meant was, why did my schedule change to facilitate you as my new instructor?”

“The other coach gave you to me since you didn’t show for his first class.”

“Is that it?”

“Yes also, since I wasn’t here at the beginning of the year, why does this class exist?”

I can’t read his emotion at all. It’s like staring at a brick wall that talks.

“Sports is good for nurturing competitiveness and companionship. It’s less about exercise and more about being active in the world in general.”

I honestly didn’t expect that answer, I was hoping to ditch with my arm as an excuse, but I stayed for the rest of the class instead.

~

If I want to ask Rain about her making me an arm, I will need to read that book Master Wang gave me. I have been putting it off since the sooner I read it, the sooner I will have to see him. I pull out the manual and feed it to my [Lexicon].

The manual only contains basic exercises and philosophy. There are no techniques between the pages, only bare-bone basics.

…

I am fucking livid. Three days of torture just for a health and wellness guide I can read off the internet for free. I calm myself down and start thinking more logically.

Master Wang is a person from before Collision times. Since he is still alive and kicking strangers, he has survived shit that I only read in books. I don’t know anything about martial arts. Maybe if I actually do these exercises, something will happen.

…

That guy is a bigger scammer than that goddess. I don’t care if he tortures me for another three days, I want answers. I rush over to Master Wang's house. I am fast enough to run on the roads rather than the sidewalks.

I pushed the intercom button three times.

*buzz buzz buzz*

If Rain answers the intercom like the other two times, I don't even need to see Master Wang. Alas, nothing is that easy for me. Instead of Rain answering, the gate doors open.

I look inside and don’t see anyone standing there. I casually walk over the hot coals and open the front door.

Master Wang is sitting on an elevated platform at the back of the room. He is just high enough that I have to look up even though he is not standing. My eyebrow twitches.

“Good, you being here means that you have finished reading the manual and are ready to continue training.”

I should play along. “Yes, Master. This disciple is waiting for the next instructions.”

“Those sheets of paper were a test. If you kept them, then I would know that you don’t know anything about martial arts. The enchantment tells me that they were destroyed earlier today.”

“Another test?!”

“Yes, as a successor, you are welcome to gain all the martial arts I have created, but we are still considered new in this day and age. We humans don’t have a long lineage of mana users to draw upon, unlike the races that migrated here. It would be detrimental to the school's health for you to gain everything and not work for it on your own.”

Stingy bastard. I should have waited at that gym and waited for a different old man to claim I have potential. I wait for him to finish speaking before asking him a question.

“Master, that is good and all, but there is an issue.”

“What troubles you, disciple.”

“I got crippled in a fracture, and I am now missing an arm.”

“...”

“I have a cheap prosthetics given to me by my insurance.”

“...”

“I was wondering if you had a way to help me out.”

“...”

“Master?”

“I should’ve waited for the second young man with potential instead of going with the first one I saw.”

I almost blacked out from his words.

“Sigh, follow me.”

~

He walks me down a restricted hallway. I don’t need any sensory skills to see that this area is thoroughly warded. He started talking to me when I was inspecting a glyph.

“During the initial Collision, there weren’t as many fractures you see popping up today. My buddies and I had to fight against monsters that wanted the little land we had left. Once everything went back to a semblance of normality, I traveled to new lands to hone my martial arts against numerous foes.”

“I found many treasures, most sold as I had no use for them, but a few I kept as an emergency in case I needed it, or a keepsake to remember the old days. I do have a way to have you regain your arm.”

“Then -”

“But I will not give it to you.”

My eyebrows furrowed at his words.

“I will give you a technique that will eventually regain your arm. However, it is the most extreme one I have.”

He opens a bamboo door and reveals a small library. He walks inside and pulls a dusty book off the shelf. He blows on it, then hands it to me casually.

I read the title. [Path of the Broken Body: Insanity]

What the fuck!?