Two weeks and a half ago, the group was on their fourth day of traveling.
They were getting used again to the dangerous environment of the outside world, also maintaining their senses sharp all the time, always prepared for a possible encounter.
Since they had a lot of experience already, they didn't need too many days to get used to that pace. In truth, traveling was just like breathing for them. It felt almost natural. They knew what they needed to do, and when to do it.
Because of it, in less than four days they could catch up with their usual pace and start their journey for real.
Before, they were going at a slower pace, and walking just a couple of hours per day, always avoiding the most dangerous parts of the night. They would enjoy the most when the sun was showing itself and illuminating their path, but once a couple of hours passed since it disappeared again, they would settle and just wait for the next day.
Dean was feeling kind of bored because of that slow rhythm, but nothing was helping it. Unfortunately, he himself knew that the group needed this to have a better performance once they engaged in real combat where their lives would get threatened.
After those four days, the group would spend fewer hours sleeping and more time walking at night, which also helped to increase the number of encounters that they would have along the way.
It was about this time when Dean felt that now he was able to go to the next Pillar of the Art of Ascendance, which was Density.
When the group went to sleep on the end of their fourth day of traveling, Dean took advantage of the time when he and Paul would spend keeping guard of the camping to converse with him.
"Hey, Paul. I need you to recite to me the Third Pillar of Art of Ascendance. I think it's about time to go to the other."
Paul looked at him in disbelief.
"Already!? B-but, you weren't supposed to go to the Third Pillar just once you got rank 3 in both other Pillars?"
"I remember very well that there is an exception for this Pillar..." Dean said.
'M-Man... Why does he always forgets what is important but remembers the most dangerous and imprudent parts of the book!?' Paul whined in his mind.
Although he wasn't intimate with Dean to the point of really caring about what he did with his life, Dean was still the person that could take him out of that situation. If he died, then he would need to go through that life of slave chores and punishment forever!
That's why he couldn't let Dean do whatever he wanted.
Paul was the rational type, after all. He liked to take calculated risks. If Dean was the accelerator, then he would serve as the breaks.
"I-I don't know... It is dangerous, you know? It's not something exactly suicidal, but you will need to put your life at stake to go on the shortest way." Paul had a complicated expression and was shrugging his shoulders as always.
"C'mon, Paul! I didn't make you decorate that book just for you to be a busybody! If I need to jump into the abyss of death to accomplish this task then I will throw myself headfirst! I need to get strong enough so I can fight against Rick when I discover how to overcome Emperor's Touch. The sooner the better!"
Paul hesitated for a moment. However, when seeing Dean's resolute eyes, he faltered. He also wanted that Dean got stronger and solved that situation once and for all. But it wasn't any good to die before he could even lay a finger on Rick.
"Ok, ok. I will recite this part of the book for you! But you better watch yourself. And I have some conditions to allow you to do so."
Dean rolled his eyes, seeming annoyed. Anyway, he didn't have another choice since he burnt that rare book...
After he revealed how strong he was getting, Rick got wary of him and began to try to find how he could learn those techniques to raise his ranking.
Dean knew that, at some point, they would start to bother him about it, so he was trying to find other ways to study the Art of Ascendance without them noticing.
That was when he told everything to Paul and the latter admitted something interesting to him.
Paul had photographic memory. Everything that he saw, even in a single glance, that grasped his attention or interest somehow, would stay in details in his mind.
It was a natural quirk of his that he had since birth and developed while needing to orient himself in the deserts of the Wastelands at an early age.
Paul assured Dean that he could memorize the entire book in just two nights. He told him that he did it with a lot of books, and most of them were even bigger than Art of Ascendance.
This way, Dean encharged him to be his teacher and burnt the book as soon as he got the chance.
Because of it, Rick never was able to discover how he learned all those techniques about how to develop his "Willpower".
As per usual, on that night Paul was going to recite him some important paragraphs of the text, and that was when Dean came up with his request.
"Ok, Dean, so listen well. You will need to take a grasp on the technique before I tell you how you will start to train it now, regardless of you not having rank 3 in all the other pillars."
Paul sat in a place distant from the camping, so nobody would be capable to hear them. Clay didn't let his spell Danger Sense activated while sleeping, it would spend "Willpower" until he ran out of energy, after all, so he wouldn't be a bother for the two slaves.
Dean sat in front of him cross-legged and waited for him to start talking.