Three weeks passed very quickly since John began reading the ancient Kellar language.
John had numerous accomplishments in the literature field in his previous life. However, even as a well-known polyglot, who had learned several languages, both spoken and long lost ancient ones, he was dumbfounded by the complexity and simplicity of the Kellar language.
John learned from his mother Sitri that mortals in this continent spoke a much simpler Gyron language. And, in other continents, there were even more human languages that were different from each other, so it was a waste of time even to learn a lot of them.
His mother explained that the ancient Kellar language was one of the essential methods of communication. As you learn the Kellar language, your mind knows the intent of words.
This intent of words sounded confusing to John, but the explanation was self-explanatory.
The word's intent was just a universal meaning of a phenomenon, thing, or action. Anything you could name had an intention, so the ancient Kellar language helped any sentient being to say implications in a way that anyone could understand.
John understood that if he spoke Kellar's word flower, even a mortal would realize that he was talking about a flower. The only downside of this mechanism was that it consumed mind energy for Kellar speakers.
It also made sense that it worked so that John pretty much summed it up as using some mental energy to transform words into what the listener could understand.
"This is a magical way of speaking. But, if the Kellar language is only a basic communication, what would advanced communication look like?" So wondered John when he was contemplating his mother's teachings about the languages of this world.
John already could understand most of the words written. So, his mom told him that he would visit the library after a month when he learned even more words.
Today John was eight months old in his new body. He delayed his visit to the library, despite his curiosity. He reckoned that he should first understand the Kellar language and visit the library.
John knew that patience was a virtue that helped those who helped themselves.
Today, he was inside a spacious elevator with his mother, made entirely of golden-colored metallic substance.
"It looks like gold, but I don't know why they would waste so much of it for a huge elevator. It probably just looks like gold."
John was analyzing everything he saw as they traveled towards the mysterious library.
John was not confident in his knowledge of chemistry from his previous life memories. After all, it is a magical world. Nothing made scientific sense so far.
"Felix, in the library, you can read grey tomes to your heart's content. However, anything with different colors, engravings, or even scrolls, will consume mind energy to read."
John's new mother, Sitri, explained the rules with a soft voice.
"Why?" John didn't waste his mental energy for long sentences and asked laconically.
"We are almost there. You will understand soon." He mysteriously smiled at his mother as a soft bell sounded inside the elevator, indicating their destination.
John already could walk, with all the help of body strengthening elixirs and advanced training. Thus, he stepped out of the golden lift with a cute baby stride.
In front of him was an entrance to the library—a colossal arc entrance made of silver metal with golden engravings.
Above the arc were words engraved in the ancient Kellar language.
"Knowledge is for the strong"
These words emitted so much power that it hurt John's eyes to look at them.
"In the past, everyone had the right to know everything." The calm voice of his mother sounded behind him.
"However, we learned from the past tragedies that knowledge is power, and it was dangerous for a weak-hearted to learn the secrets of the universe. Believe it or not, it is widespread for other authorities to have no-cost libraries, even now. Only the truly ancient powers like our clan have restrictions for the knowledge."
John was confused. In his previous world, everyone had access to information on the internet, libraries, or anywhere they could find.
"Why?" Asked John as he couldn't find an answer in the short term.
"Felix, what do you think happens if you give a monkey a weapon?" He started explaining to his mom with a calm voice.
"It will eventually hurt someone. Unfortunately, that is the reality with humans as well. Though most of them are pretty righteous, many rotten apples still exist. Humans who learned to become strong sometimes created horrible atrocities in our vast history. Plagues, sacrifices, destruction, and even worse came to be, as more and more breakthroughs happened worldwide. Thus, our family lets everyone read grey tomes, but it is harder for mortals to read green ones, and the golden ones are not something a fledgling like you could read. This practice is how we control the spread of dangerous information. We don't know what people think, but usually, only evolved existences understand how fragile life is. Okay, it is enough talking, go inside and see for yourself!"
John's new mother stopped explaining and led him inside the hall, filled with rows of bookcases, tables, reading rooms, and learning equipment.
John soon saw an older man with a short grey beard and fabulous grey short hair. He was waiting at what looked like a reception table near the entrance.
"Ho- ho, Sitri, I haven't seen you in this place for years. What brought a blockhead like you here? " Old man laughed like Santa and asked John's mother with a sonorous voice.
"Grandpa Lyrius, you don't need to be so hard on me. You know I don't have the patience to read what doesn't help me get stronger."
Sitri said calmly, but John could see fear and respect in her eyes, which made him interested in the story behind the older man.
"Today, I brought my son, Felix, to read. Also, granny Ofelia already permitted for him to read the Tome of Mind Palace." Quickly said, Sitri looked at the shocked expression of the older man.
"Well, look at that, isn't this a surprise? A baby forming his mind palace? What is your name again?"
The older man looked straight into John's eyes and asked directly.
"Hello Sir, my name is Felix." Said John as courteously as he could.
"No need to be polite, youngster. I will help you inside the library. I always loved nature's pranks like yourself. I believe Lady Ofelia already told you how dangerous your situation is so that I won't blabber about that."
The man took a giant book and led all three of them into another hall.
"Your situation is a bit crazy, but everyone has tribulations sooner or later, so don't sulk over it, and focus," Lyrius said with his confident, resonant voice as he glanced at the tiny baby walking cutely.
"Damn, this old man looks at me the same as granny. I can't hide anything from these old monsters." John was internally annoyed once again.
"No need to get annoyed, mister Felix. You are not the only one who has to overcome deadly situations to enter the world of the strong."
Lyrius stated while sitting down on a giant chair. Only now John noticed that they arrived at a small round chamber, with a roundtable and chairs around it.
There was a familiar blue light circle in the middle of the roundtable. John remembered seeing this light on the ground when he was inside the training mountain.
"First read about Mind Palace Formation. Then, I will answer your questions if you have any, and your mother will help." The older man said and waved his hand over the blue light, saying unknown words that released that ringing noise that John already knew.
John already learned from his mom that this ringing sound is a backlash when a weak mind hears magic incantations.
The light blue circle flashed, and an old book appeared on it. The book was very worn out, but it only had twenty pages. On the surface was written: "Mind Palace Formation - by Master Nine Leaves."
"Begin, Felix, don't waste time." So instructed Lyrius with an unquestionable tone.
John opened the book and began greedily reading.
It took John over two hours to read these twenty pages, as there were many confusing explanations and diagrams.
However, as an experienced student, John understood this so-called palace formation's direction.
John's mind-space will crumble, and all energy will form into images according to the tome. These images should help John understand at least one simple magic truth, which will be the foundation for building his palace.
Mind Palace was just a fancy name for the magic runes. John was surprised by how simple it sounded. His first magic rune will help lay the foundation on which other runes will form, and this from an outside viewpoint looks like a palace. Thus it is called Mind Palace.
John imagined the foundation as a firm ground, on which he had to build a house - the Mind Palace.
Unfortunately, he learned that he first had to understand what those particles inside his mind-space were to do all of this. The energy you know about will let you absorb it and comprehend its magic when you do so.
John now understood why all those particles avoided him like the plague inside his mind-space.
This book also briefly explained how to comprehend those lights. But, first, John needed to understand the fundamental workings of the world. For example, fire was the explosive energy, and it could spread heat, light, etc.
John was quite impressed by this world's overall knowledge, but he still didn't get how this helped him.
John already had advanced degrees in physics, so his understanding of thermodynamics was exquisite. "How the hell should I understand the powers of those lights?"
John had a lot of confusion now. He knew the laws of physics from his previous life. However, these laws seemed to cover only a tiny part of the truth he had to understand in this world.
Sadly, it seemed that if he couldn't comprehend what he was missing, he would die as his head would explode.
Fortunately, the book explained what helps to understand the lights. But, first, you had to find a connection between a light you see inside the mind-space and the world phenomenon. For example, the book said that natural lightning is composed of lighting energy.
John already absorbed some of the lightning energy. Now he only needed to comprehend how it worked in real life. Then, his understanding will let him absorb that energy in his mind-space.
"So, how can I comprehend the energy ?" John asked while looking at his mom and Lyrius with eyes filled with worry.
"Boy, do you think everyone is a mage in here? Of course, only a true mage can answer this without hurting you. After all, we are from a different school of cultivation. Still, we have to understand energy, so I'll tell you how I do that."
The older man said with a booming noise, and without waiting for anything, he stood up and waved his hand. Soon John felt his stomach churning, and the familiar dizziness of jumping through space hit his nerves.
"This is a room for experimentation. Clan members use it to train their combat moves, spells, and other powers. I will show you my most basic energy control, no fancy bullshit, so focus." Lyrius said and looked at John with a smile.
John was impressed by this man quite a lot. The older man didn't hold back and wasted no time with unnecessary chit-chat.
Lyrius held his hand in front of him, and John could see that a small ball was forming atop the palm. This ball reminded John of the first time he noticed that small vortex spinning inside his mind.
The older man came closer and made the ball of light more significant and more translucent. It was easy to see how the energy was floating inside the ball.
"Felix, I believe you saw something similar inside your mind-space. This light is just pure energy, nothing else. We perceive it as light usually. However, it exists everywhere. For example, when you meditate, you see colored lights. They are this same energy, but with a different attribute."
John listened to this explanation and tried to recall how the light looked when he meditated.
"You can think of it like this, Felix. When energy has the attribute of fire, it has the color of fire, meaning red lights. If it's water, then blue. The wind has no color. The earth is usually brown. You get the gist of it, don't you?"
John nodded and looked at his mom, who sat down in the lotus position near them.
"Felix, what is complicated for you now, is to separate the light with similar colors but different meanings inside," Sitri said. At the same time, a massive amount of red bubbles appeared around her.
"Kid, think quickly and tell what attribute those bubbles have?" Asked Lyrius with a bitter smile.
"Fire?" John said with little confidence.
"Do it, Sitri." So commanded the man with seriousness.
John suddenly saw all the bubbles separate into two groups. Lyrius waved his hand and made a red permeable bubble around one group and a small hole in the ground beneath the other.
Sitri held her hands in a praying position, then suddenly, all the bubbles exploded.
The group inside the bubble burst in flames with spectacular heat. However, John could see how the next group dissolved into pungent red liquid, which he quickly recognized as blood.
"Child, as you can see, the same color doesn't mean the same law. The world is full of natural energies, like elemental energies. It also has natural powers of time, space, gravity, and even more complex ones. However, living beings put some artificial points and polluted natural energies. Now we can find something like blood or bloodline energy everywhere in this world. There are many others as well."
John became more confused. "I am dead, this explanation makes sense, but it also has no way of helping me to form a palace."
Lyrius saw the depression in the child's eyes and sighed gently.
"Kid, you only began to learn. If you expect to do it in one day, you are not thinking straight."
This voice took John out of his stupor and made him relax again.
"This is true. I can't give up now." John took a deep breath and looked at Lyrius, expecting the man to continue.
"Now that you know what lights are, you should know that your trial is challenging."
"Son, you have a chance to become stronger very quickly if you pass this trial, but it never is so overpowered. Balance requires a price. Now, read grey tomes and train your mind and understanding as much as possible."
John's mother stroked his cheek and said what he should do now.
"Okay, mom." John already considered Sitri his mother because he could feel the warmth and love she gave him every day.
Lyrius took John into the library and sent him to a reading room where he could browse and read as much as possible. There was even a bed inside a room and a maid if he wanted food or other help.
John began reading grey tomes and learned more about this world.
His family lives in the Purple Sand Sub-Continent of Boundless Star World.
This world's name is Boundless Star because it was huge and had numerous continents, massive seas, and even underground layers.
Purple Sand Sub-Continent was too small to be considered a continent. However, it was already huge in John's opinion. It spanned almost 25000 kilometers, with thousands of islands around it.
John was baffled by the size of this world. He clearly remembers scientists judging too massive planets uninhabitable due to enormous gravity in his past world.
"Well, I guess the magic world doesn't comply to simple thinking of mortals," John concluded with a bitter smile and excitement.
"Just how large is this world?" John was fascinated and quickly tried looking at maps.
Sadly, he was quickly disappointed, as there were too many maps of different islands, subcontinents, and continents, but he couldn't find a complete map of the world.
John inquired the maid about his confusion and was left with a bitter taste in his mouth as she said he needed at least golden scrolls for a complete map of the world.
He was quickly attracted to a new tome that depicted the stages of strength, so he quickly opened it and began reading.
John realized that grey tomes had only the most straightforward explanations, meant for the education of mortals.
There were several schools of power for cultivation. They were demonic cultivation, Buddhism, Taoism, body cultivation, etc. They all were extraordinary and powerful, based on the accumulation of energy and its transformations.
He quickly skimmed through explanations of cultivators and found out that the first stage of power was called a Warrior, second stage Supreme Core, third stage Soul Transformation, fourth stage World Class, the fifth stage was Demigod and the sixth stage was a Titled God.
John also found an explanation that only Titled Gods had qualifications to know what comes next.
There was also information about different talents, for example, bloodlines, bodily constitutions, blessings, mutations, etc.
Bloodlines were inheritances from ancestors. It seemed they gave bloodline traits, abilities and could even transform the body. For example, the forest centaur bloodline gave aura traits that helped healers.
John also found out that there were demonic bloodlines, dragon bloodlines, and even unheard ancient ones, he could not even imagine.
His interest was piqued with bodily constitutions, as he heard his big sister and brother had them, though he didn't know what kind. There are a plethora of constitutions in this world that were useful in all kinds of schools of power. For example, John read about elemental bodies that helped absorb their attribute energy. Also, divine, guardian, or even demonic and poison bodies.
John was thoroughly impressed by the variety of information in here.
Unfortunately, his curiosity was not satisfied with these grey tomes, as they were just too basic. This need gave John a call to read green books to satisfy his hunger for knowledge.
He asked the maid to bring him the green book about mage cultivation.
"Yes, young master." The maid hurriedly left the room and returned with a green book filled with engravings.
John touched the book and instantly felt a tremendous suction force devour his mental energy. He reckoned he only had half an hour until he kicked the bucket and entered sleep mode.
The book said that Mage was considered a cultivator from the school of magic power. This statement meant that mages used mental strength to control their comprehended power, so they differed from other cultivation schools.
The book stated that Mind Palace Formation mage was called Earth Class Mage, and they were equal in power to Supreme Core stage cultivators. This power-up occurred because mages before palace formation were pretty much as useless as mortals and couldn't use any abilities.
The record also explained that the difficulty of becoming a mage is offset by the powers mages receive when they succeed in palace formation.
The second stage was called World Law Stage and classified as a Heaven Class Mage.
Star Class Mage, Law Integration Stage.
Grandmaster Mage, Inner World Creation Stage.
Titled Mage equaled Titled Gods.
John was quite happy that his trouble now would be rewarded by a full stage power up. However, he couldn't stop bitterly smiling when he thought about dangers coming along.
John never felt so tired before. He understood that this way of knowledge safekeeping was very secure as no mortal had this much mental strength to keep reading every day.
"Let us get some sleep. I also need to begin comprehension of those damned lights, no time to waste." John chose to leave the library and went to his mother's courtyard, as he still didn't have his own.
The next day, John began arduous training and meditation while traveling back and forth from training mountain to a library to solve his questions.
Time passed quickly, and five months went by.
John received a summon from his grandma and prepared for his first tribulation in this life.