It was just the next day, when an ancient looking booklet was brought to Lucien. It had no title on it, even if he saw it in the library, he would just skip over it.
Flipping it over, Lucien finally understood how manuals about paths worked in this world.
It was filled with diagrams, from simple to more complicated.
The explanation was that you have to control your soul to imitate a diagram pattern, and depending on the control over the soul you could go into more complicated diagram patterns.
A commoner would need to reach the peak of Soul for that rank which is 2.00, to be able to follow the most simple diagram.
The moment you manage to finish even the most simple diagram on that path, you would feel the particles. For each path a different one.
But even then now all commoners managed to get there, 2.00 is hard to achieve with no resources or methods to strengthen the soul. And even at 2.00, finishing the diagram is an uphill battle.
To get to Rank 0, just getting into contact with the particles of that path was enough. For example the moment a darkness particle, notices that you see and interact with it, it flows toward the body. Upon the first contact the soul of a practitioner, gets stronger and breaks from the common limits.
Different paths strengthen different stat, but to get into contact with them Soul is the only way.
The stronger the Soul the more complicated diagram you can accomplish and the more particles you can attract.
Even then there were limits, the darkness only makes Soul 5.00 at Rank 0, and was just faster than other paths after that, still you can only use it to temper other stats on the body. Every path, has methods to strengthen the Soul, as that is imperative to reaching Rank 1.
For example Fire strengthens Strength to 5.00 on initial contact, and then using methods in the respective manuals you can slowly bring your Soul to 5.00 and then to 10.00, which is the peak of Rank 0, and requirement for reaching Rank 1.
Of course all paths have methods to continue tempering the main stat of the path, even after initial interaction. It included practicing the method in the correct environment and long periods of time. For example if you practice the Fire Path in an environment rich of Water particles, it would take you twice the time to achieve the effect of a balanced environment. And of course in a Fire rich area, it's twice the effect for half the time.
Some more amazing manuals even offered methods to strengthen a second stat. The darkness manual in front of Lucien was one of those, it allowed him to strengthen Soul and Agility.
It might sound disadvantaged as other average manuals on the Fire path, had Soul and Strength in them, and the advanced one might include Agility for a total of 3 stats. But darkness was faster in training Soul and breaking through, and even if they were weaker on the main body stats, later on they had amazing methods to use Soul as a weapon. But at the start it was indeed weaker than other paths. This made people with less ambition avoid it like a plague.
For lower paths at least one of the stats was ignored, Fire couldn't enhance vitality, it was meant to destroy. And Darkness couldn't enhance Vitality, as it was meant to be take away Vitality not give.
'I guess All Existence made darkness particles interact with my body forcefully, bringing me to Rank 0.'
'I wonder how the Ghoul Path works then.'
'All Existence, if I train according to this method, how long would it take me to reach Rank 1 in the Darkness Path.'
-Information would cost 5 existence points-
'Sure.'
-Calculating-
-Host would require 7 years 3 months and 11 days to achieve 10.00 Soul, with no usage of other methods to increase the stat.-
-And another 3 years 11 months and 5 days to be able to keep darkness particles in his body for prolonged periods of time-
'Well that is a while, I don't plan to spend that much time for a measly Rank 1, I heard that even the guards at the palace door are at least Rank 1.'
'If I use points to upgrade the stat to 10.00 it would take me a bit more than a year using the existence points, as I first want to bring Agility to 5.00 so that is 200 points there.'
'The absorption ability of darkness at this point is negligible, I tried it on the kids, and there was no change to my stats, probably less than what All Existence displays.'
'How much would it be for a better manual on Darkness Path?'
-For the best manual on Rank 0 to Rank 1 on the Darkness Path, including notes with descriptions on how to practice and possible enhancement on Soul, Agility, Strength, it would be 1000 points.-
'Hmm so upgrading directly would cost me 10 000, but practicing by myself would be time consuming so costing much less.'
'But this manual is much better than the one in my hands.'
'First I exchange for the manual and then I start using points to speed up the upgrade of the Soul.'
'I'll practice all the other stats on the side.'
'How long will it take me to keep darkness particles in my body, after Soul hits 10.00 with the manual from All Existence.'
-Information would cost 5 existence points-
'Fine.'
-Calculating-
-1 year 10 months and 30 days to be able to keep darkness particles in his body for prolonged periods of time-
'Getting the manual would take a year of gathering points, so I'm saving 1 year like this, while also reducing the time to Rank 1.'
'Getting the manual and pushing Soul to 10.00 would take 2 years and then another almost 2 years to finish the process.'
'Much better than the original more than 12 years.'
'If I can speed up the existence point gathering, I can probably get it done faster.'
'Maybe it's time to look for a way to leave the imperial palace.'