Lars looked at the old book and felt a strange sense of pity, why would the system reward him with something that he cannot use. Just as he felt that a system prompt popped up near him.
Detected, the user is the seventh son of a seventh son, Anima circuits are compatible with technical manual, would user like to learn technique from manual, Y/N.
If anyone were to catch a glimpse of Lars, he would look like a goldfish. It is a common concept in folklore that the seventh son from an unbroken line with no female siblings born between that is a child of a similar seventh son would inherit special powers. In some beliefs, the special powers are inborn, simply inherited by the virtue of the seventh son's birth order. Such is his birthright, even though humans had a pitiful affinity to manipulate Anima, Lars was born as an anomaly. A human with a very high natural affinity for Anima, one that would only get stronger if he decided to undergo specialised training. Lars really felt that he was exceedingly lucky in this reincarnation to have such a birthright.
All this while, Lars never did place much thought on the circumstances of his birth, the fact that his mother died giving birth to him also meant that his birthdays were a taboo. Only his father and Keith were willing to celebrate the day with him, his other siblings shunned him. In their hearts he would always be the younger brother that they didn't need, the sibling that killed their mother.
With a solemn look on his face, he tapped the Y on the system prompt.
Lars lost control of his body, the system guided his every action, sitting down and starting to take in Anima from the surrounding. After enough Anima was collected in the base of his body, Lars felt the system direct the flow of Anima through his meridians and acupoints. Every where the energy went, Lars felt a weird but comfortable sensation. It felt as though his body was being purged of impurities.
After one complete cycle, the system stopped, now that Lars knew how he should direct his Anima, it would be up to his own efforts to practice this circulation. Although it may have been just one cycle, the first cycle was usually the most dangerous part when cultivating. Having the system's precise guidance ensured that such a young cultivator like Lars did not suffer from any internal injuries due to unfamiliarity with the cultivation technique. As such, not only was his body purged of impurities, Lars also had his Anima circuit strengthen. If one was observing carefully, they would also notice that all seven of his chakras were spinning faster, and that the aura Lars exuded was substantially brighter.
Lars finally woke from his state of stupor. Concentrating on moving the Anima within his body, he managed to complete two more cycles before he felt his meridians and acupoint ache. Lars also felt that his anima circuits were getting too hot and could overheat. With a burp, he exhaled a mouthful of turbid gas.
With such an advanced system being his guide, it naturally felt as though Lars had a small advantage when practicing cultivation when compared to other cultivators. To ensure that he could get ahead of the rest, consistent practice is the only way to ensure that this advantage is not squandered.
Lars understood that at his current level of practice, he would only be able to circulate his energy three times a day, although it will take a while to fully master this technique, with enough practice, he felt certain that he would master it. What Lars did not know was that normal humans would struggle to even complete one circulation of their imitation technique in a day. Even accomplished cultivators would stop at two circulations.
The sound of a new notification interrupted Lars's train of thought.
"Quest: Knowledge is Power"
The quest felt simple enough, Lars had to read up and record enough data to progress from scribe third class to scribe second class. The requisite amount of Book Points (BP) was ten points. The reward was the unsealing of another function within the AEGIS system.
As he had already spent quite a bit of time, Lars decided to exit the database mode. Looking around, he saw Alfred outside, perched on the window sill to his left. As though the bird knew he was spotted, it moved forward and pecked the window afew times. Lars quickly moved over to open the window and let the bird into the library.
Remembering the system quest at hand, as well as the promise he made to the shopkeeper, Lars picked up a few books on astral projection, and began to study. The heads up display function of AEGIS was really helpful as it help Lars understand and learn words and concepts that he struggled to understand as a seven year old. Although he reincarnated, it didn't mean that he would be able to access all his skills and talents from his past life. All of it has been sealed to his soul and would only surface when he has learnt enough to control and use those powers properly.
Upon closing the book, Lars checked to ensure that the system has successfully recorded the data and noticed the progress bar for the quest had increased by one percent.
Such a thick book and it's only one percent… That means I have to read ten similar books just to get one Book Point. How long would I take to finish one hundred books?! It felt like the system would never give him a simple quest.
A new notification popped up.
"System Tip: Book Point accumulation is based on quality of content, User should not entertain thoughts of scamming the system as number of books recorded does not correlate with amount of Book Points accrued"
Lars clenched his teeth, extremely vexed at this point.
"So that's where you have been hiding all this while! You should know that you cannot escape from me." The echo of a loud voice boomed from the aisle.