Stras Stroden Zahir stood in a dark room dimly illuminated by a floating screen in front of her. She fixed her spectacle as she saw Aidan on the screen, picking up a book before putting it down. He sorted a few books before taking one up and read the title for a while. He put it down on the desk.
It slammed open, making a sound of a hammer crashing into a door. The texts on the books flew out like fairies from the Ent kingdom. They morphed into mystic beasts of the north, followed by the creatures from the Silent Stream River. It didn't end there. More and more text poured out and transformed into fiends, demons with an arrow at the end of their tails, a pair of horns growing from their forehead, and a tongue full of spikes.
"It's not healthy to spy on a young man considering your gender and age, Stras." Tillre Vod, the vice dean of Bleassephere University, approached and stood beside her. "Especially when he's in his room alone."
Stras ignored his remark. "Will he be ready?"
"We can only pray that is his fate. For what has been written cannot be changed. Our only chance is to keep bringing a new page, hoping for the eye of fate to write the destiny that we all seek."
"How much time do we have left?"
Tillre looked at her before swinging his cane to rip the space beside him. "Not much." He stepped inside, and the portal disappeared.
***
Aidan wriggled around with gritted teeth as he held the pain. He looked like a worm on a hot frying pan, squirming and wiggling his body on the floor. He balled his fist and stopped himself from screaming. Veins bulged on his scalp, running through his neck and arms like a harsh river.
A few moments later, which felt like forever, Aidan stopped moving around and opened his eyes. His hands relaxed as he pushed the floor to sit. The pain had disappeared like it was just an illusion. There was a major advantage to this—it let him do it all over again.
[Hard Muscle] (Passive) (Lv1). Increasing the durability of the muscle to reduce the damage received to the physical body. 3% damage reduction.
Perfect! With this, he would have a chance in a prolonged fight and prevent himself from being knocked out. He should prioritize to increase the level of this ability, that way his survivability rate would go higher. In any world, those who survive won. If he could increase the damage reduction to fifty percent, he would have nothing to worry about.
Aidan stood up and looked for another skill to learn. If he wanted to improve his strength, he must be comfortable with pain. Pain was a warning and a lesson that we should avoid or prevent the cause, but if he could forget about the pain, then he would be more than willing to go through it the second time.
"Let's go get some pain!" Aidan chose a book.
[This is a skill book 'Powered Kick']
[Do you want to learn this skill?]
Yes!
"Ahh!"
Another round of torture, wriggling and screaming for earthling Aidan. After a few moments, he woke up and do it a couple of times again. Countless times he had thought of quitting, but the moment the pain end, he would have the urge to do it again. After a while, Aidan finally got all the skills he wanted.
Hard Muscle, Powered Kick, Perfect Uppercut, Perfect Defense, and Blinding Jab. These are the skills he picked after some sorting and consideration. First of all, these skills are specific to one movement. It didn't sound like much, but the skill book that only has one specific movement or attack was actually better than the skill book that had a variety of skills. This was because each book was dedicated only to one single idea and had a more profound understanding of the said idea. Aidan recalled a legend once said that he only feared the man who has practiced one kick ten thousand times, not the man who has practiced ten thousand kicks once. It was better to choose a specialist than a generalist to do a certain task.
Knock! Knock!
"Aidan! It's time for us to go to the training field!" Maninsov's voice came from the door.
"Come in! I haven't changed yet."
Maninsov opened the door and peek. "Don't mind if I do."
"Just wait for a few seconds. It'll be quick."
Aidan went to his wardrobe near the bed. It had two doors and was made of wood. Inside was a few clothes the school had prepared. On the left side was the hanger, and currently, a few short-sleeved leather jackets were hanging from it. While on the right side were a couple of folded clothes stacked upon each other.
Aidan took one of the jackets from the hanger. Its texture was soft, like cotton despite its leather appearance. He put it on and looked at himself in the mirror at the back of the wardrobe's door. It covered him well above the waist and was loosely tied with string at the bottom front side. The sleeves barely hid his shoulder, with extra room for sudden movement.
He shrugged. This would be fine for swift motion. Below were a few folded pants for him to use. Bending his back to take one, Aidan wore the pants and looked at himself again. The pants were simple and a loose fit, reaching down right above his knee.
With the jacket and pants, Aidan thought he looked pretty good. He bent down again to pick a pair of shoes.
"Don't bother using shoes. Instructor Bunti will just tell you to take it off, anyway."
Aidan stopped halfway, his hand almost reached the pair of shoes. "I guess he didn't want the students to leave with broken shoes."
"That could be one of the reasons. Are you done? If you are, then let's go. We don't want to be late for Bunti's class."
"I'm ready. Let's go."
Maninsov stood from the bed and leave the room with Aidan. Walking along the hall, they saw a couple of students walking around with the same clothes as them. One of them brought a thick book. Holding it with both hands on his chest.
"Should we also bring a book?" Aidan asked as they walked along the hall.
"We don't have to. Most of us that went to the training field daily learn directly by fighting. Though some people like to observe and analyze each and every movement before writing it down in their book. They provide logical and practical advice sometimes, but sadly, they are not good fighters."
"So they wanted to be a coach?"
"Not really. I guess they just like to break down the theory about fighting and loves to share it with everyone. You can bump into one and ask them any question. As long as the question is within their field, they will gladly tell you about it."
"Have you asked them something before?"
"Of course, they are the second most reliable group after the teachers. Anytime me or my friend have a question, we would go and look for one of those guys. If you want to find one, just go to the library. That place is like their habitat. People around here called them the thinker. So you can ask around about them and what they do."
"Maybe I will. I want to know if there are any good skill book that I could learn."
"Skill book? Ohh, you mean technique? What skills do you have now?"
"Hard Muscle, Powered kick, Perfect Uppercut, Perfect Defense, Blinding Jab, Knockout Punch, and Internal Healing. I would like to learn more. But I can't find anything good from the book they gave me."
"You really are a prodigy. No one could learn those skills in one day. In fact, I don't even think anyone could learn it within a year. With that talent of yours, maybe after you graduate, you will be invited to become one of the emperor's blessed guards. The Fortis Praesidio. Anyway if you want to learn more techniques. You can just go to the library."
"I don't think so. I'm planning to explore the world you see. So protecting the emperor is not on my bucket list," Aidan said as he climbed down the stairs to exit the building. "I think I will check out the library after the training session."
A wide brick road separates him from the lush, green grass of a vast garden with fountains, pagodas, and rows of flowers set up the pathway that went onto a small hill. The pathway went higher with a bed of white flowers below. A few meters away was a small lake with a bridge that led to a small pagoda. A few humanoid creatures that look like fish, frogs, and butterflies sat down together. Chatting and laughing as they enjoyed their tea while admiring the view.
"Wow! I can't believe a place like this exists within a campus," Aidan said.
Maninsov raised his hand and beckoned to a three meter long half plate shaped shuttle. The shuttle whirred as it approached them. It hovered above the ground with no wheels or wind. It was as big as a recreational vehicle, with purple fate energy spinning around it. With a click, the door of the shuttle opened by itself and a staircase slowly fell from it.
"You can get a girlfriend and enjoy yourself in the garden any other day. But now we have a sparring session to catch. Quick, get in the contritum."
Maninsov pulled and pushed Aidan into the shuttle. The staircase pulled itself inside before the door closed. The interior of the shuttle was similar to a house, with sofas, a table, a lampstand with eelball on top, and a floor to ceiling window veiled by a pair of curtains.
"Sit down, Aidan. Even though the contritum is known for its speed. It will still take a while for us to arrive. Go sit down and look at the menu on the table. Don't worry, it's on me today."
Aidan sat down and look at thick menu. Images of food were on it: a small plant with huge pointed leaves and a few bronze nuts that sprouted from its stem. Under the picture was the name of the plant. Cunninghamia Intergrifolium.
He flipped the page, and all the image was about plants. Aidan flipped it a few times until he finally saw meat. They were all varied in color and sizes, and a lot of them are interesting such as this blue colored long meat from the tail of a creature called Icy Genies. Aidan wanted to know how a genie taste like, but under the blue meat was thick red meat from the gut of his nemesis—the Recpeodatyl.