"How can that be possible? Is talent something that can be changed?" asked Flavian skeptically. He didn't dare to believe such a claim. Doesn't it mean that a random dull kid can suddenly become Einstein?
He suddenly remembered his current situation, and realized that A.I. had already used the System to perform an impossible and unheard of feat by reviving the memories of his past life. He calmed himself down and checked the System's menu that appeared in front of his eyes. He had already asked the System and confirmed that the [System Menu] was only visible to him in the form of an interface.
The menu contained many sections which were greyed out, representing that they were unavailable to him at that moment. The only sections that were available to him at that moment were [Virtual Library] and [System Store (Elementary)]. [Virtual Library] contained a single title [Concentric Mana Vortex]. Flavian had to concentrate his mind on it to access its virtual copy.
The store contained many subsections in it. Flavian continued browsing the subsections.
[Methods]
[Techniques]
[Spells]
[Skills]
[Weapons]
[Artifacts]
[Potions]
There were many more options, yet Flavian didn't bother and asked the A.I. "Where is the option for increasing the talent?"
A.I. didn't reply, and opened the [Potions] subsection and skipped to a title named [Copper Baptism Potion (Mage)]. Flavian looked at the price, and was shocked at the high price. He needed 500000 E.P to buy it! And, as the name suggested, his talent would only rise to Copper level.
Flavian then looked for an upgraded version of the potion that would elevate his talent to Silver level. He found out that if he wanted to upgrade his talent once more, he needed 5 million E.P to buy [Silver Baptism Potion (Mage)]. There were no higher potions available at that moment as Flavian only had elementary access to the store.
Flavian groaned at the high price, and asked the A.I. hopefully "Can I skip the Copper level and jump directly to the Silver level?"
A.I. didn't bother to reply to such a question. Even Flavian knew that he asked a foolish question. But he couldn't help it due to the high price required for increasing his talent. Though, he surmised that he had gained a huge bargain, and that was only due to being accepted by the System as its user.
Even though he did not know about the rarity and price of the potions, he was sure that a potion that was reality defying wouldn't be easy to come by.
He then browsed the price for [Concentric Mana Vortex] in the [Methods] subsection. After searching for a while, Flavian realized that he only had access to Scholar rank cultivation methods.
Hence, he couldn't access information about [Concentric Mana Vortex]. He assumed that this method was way higher in price compared to the two potions he saw earlier, and realized that he had gotten a bargain from the System.
He closed down the interface mentally, and fell into a deep contemplation. Even though the price was high, all he had to do was to 'create fluctuations in the Causal Cycle' to accumulate enough E.P., which seemed easy to come by.
He had long accepted a fact during his previous life- there was never a shortage of evil people. Hence, there would never be a shortage of E.P. for him. He never let his conscience overcome his rationality when dealing with low lives like Edward, especially since he was considered as one himself.
Nobody who had a crimson stain on his hand was innocent, no matter what the reason for the existence of that stain. His father in his previous life might have been under the illusion that killing for the country is called patriotism, yet he never accepted that paradigm.
He disliked the notion of taking another person's life as a form of glory, and considered such act as nothing but sheer hypocrisy. Flavian was aware that he was not a hero, but a murderer and an evil guy. It was required of him by his country to be such a person, and he complied by his own free will. He would never try to justify his actions and never blame them on anyone other than himself.
He had killed for his country in his previous life, and he would kill for himself in his present life. A cold glint flashed across his eyes as he realized his future path. However, all the things would have to wait until he got out of his predicament. Until then, he should try to strengthen himself.
Flavian grabbed the book [Tidal Wave] and began to read it seriously. He had planned to start training as a Knight first. He soon began engrossed in reading the cultivation method.
The author of the book, who had established the method, had been inspired by the tidal waves slamming on an abrasion coast. The theory behind the method was using the omnipresent mana of the world to quicken the flow of blood in the blood vessels and producing 'Blood Tides' within the body.
The high pressure from the 'Blood Tides' would produce a large strain from within the body. The body would evolve slowly to cope with the strain.
After a certain period of time, under the constant stimulation of mana, a power that was unique to the Knights would be produced, termed as 'Blood Power'. As the name suggested, it resided in the blood and would flow through the blood vessels.
However, the mana was ephemeral in nature, so it was very hard for a normal human to control it. In fact, many would just live past their lives unaware that it even existed. For a new trainee to feel its existence and control it actively was nothing more than a fallacy.
Hence, each cultivation method for Knights would start with a series of unique sensing methods that would allow the trainee to sense and passively control the mana to produce 'Blood Power'.
Taking [Tidal Wave] that Flavian had as an example, in the initial stages, a trainee had to follow a special set of movements that resembled Yoga. Some other method may start with meditation, while others may start with other activities.
Flavian read the instructions carefully and memorized the illustrations of the movements, then started slowly performing them. There were a total of twenty four movements, and the training was divided into three stages of six, twelve and twenty four.
Gaining complete proficiency in the first six movements would allow the trainee to form the first thread of 'Blood Power'.
Ten threads would be formed after twelve movements were learned thoroughly. And after mastering the twenty four movements, hundred threads would be formed that would join together to form a 'Blood Power Circuit' that would flow throughout the body.
At the time that the 'Blood Power Circuit' would be formed, the trainee would have entered the gates of the path of Knights, becoming level one Human Knight.
Flavian slowly practiced the initial six movements repeatedly, continuously twisting his body in all sorts of weird angles. He realized that the training that all the captives had gone through had heightened their flexibility. It was very easy for him to perform the movements in a quick yet smooth manner.
The process seemed easy, yet it was the culmination of over two years of hard training. Without it, Flavian's body couldn't have performed the movements at all. In fact, trying to perform the movements would have harmed him instead.
It was just like an average person trying to perform a backflip on planet Earth. The person would be lucky if he had no major injuries trying to perform such a stunt without any prior practice.
Flavian soon became engrossed in his training as he repeated the six movements. After about an hour had passed by and a large number of repetitions, Flavian started to feel that his body was heating up.
The heat within his body rose rapidly as he performed for another half an hour. He started sweating in large amounts as his clothes became wet. He seemed like he had been fished out from a lake.
His eyes became bloodshot and he felt pain in his eardrums. His heart started beating rapidly as he his head started spinning. His breathing became rapid as he started feeling a lack of air in his lungs.
However, Flavian kept repeating his movements as all of it was mentioned in the book. His abnormal body condition was nothing but a sign that the training had proceeded correctly.
Suddenly, he felt an intense pain all over his body as if a truck had passed over him, and he fell down on the hard floor. He groaned a bit as the pain slowly subsided. He felt extremely exhausted, as if he had continuously performed high intensity training in the bailey for over ten hours without any break.
His lungs hurt as he breathed in large amounts of air in quick succession, seemingly trying to make up for the lack of oxygen. After the pain had subsided greatly, his body relaxed as he fell asleep.