Dawn passed as Mikhail continued reading through Section Sixteen, and before he realized it, hours had passed.
He closed the textbook with a sigh.
'Information on what Michael did after Chief Cazadora stopped acting as an eyewitness became scarce. He was noted to have shown up here or there in the occasional battlefield as well as several raids on different merchant caravans…'
'But he didn't do anything substantial until after something called the days of destruction… Some time period that happens once every hundred years or so, give or take. He was a major player in the Wasteland War, slaughtering close to a thousand tribesmen and women…'
'And it was there that him and this Chief Cazadora lady had the first of many intense duels.'
He then took a deep breath, before letting out an even deeper sigh.
'And that was just the tip of the iceberg.'
He went to go drink some more water, continuing to compile all the information he had just read with a frown on his face.
'Following another long period of silence, decades long at that, he suddenly appeared in the public eye once again in a stunt known as the Red Rivers Incident… A stunt wherein he slaughtered the entirety of a single Demon Clan settlement, including that Elder Sarah lady.'
'And the only reason we know is because a caravan happened to cross the ruins' path. Finding rivers of blood flowing all across its desolate streets.'
Mikhail closed the lid to the drinking water pot, having drunk up more than four cups of water in one go.
'A century-long period of silence after that incident and he suddenly pops up at the Human Tribe after yet another bunch of days of destruction had come to pass. And this time, in an event known as Tai Takedown, Michael fought and killed the previous Grand Elder, forcing Grand Elder Maya to assume that position.'
'Which is fucking nutty, because you need to be a Sage Realm Evolver in order to take up the mantle of Grand Elder… Which means Michael killed a Sage Realm Evolver while only being in the Late-Metamorphosis Realm.'
He smirked to himself.
'Who am I kidding though, all of that means nothing to me. I don't even have a solid grasp on the Metamorphosis Realm, let alone the Sage Realm. Though, I guess I sort of understand it to a degree…'
He couldn't help but recall the hours he spent arguing with other hot headed teenagers over power scaling when he was younger.
'Suffice to say… Shit be crazy, yo.'
After giving himself a sniff and recoiling from the stench, Mikhail took the time to wash himself, moving his belongings away from that corner of the tent as he let the cleaning water splash both onto his body and all over the ground.
'Some time later, a sickness capable of affecting even Late Metamorphosis Realm Evolvers spread throughout the world… It killed countless numbers of mortals, a shit ton of Evolvers, and left several more with long lasting injuries.'
'In an event known as Project Rot…'
Mikhail closed the cleaning water pot and put its ladle back on top, letting the intense heat dry him off as he paced back and forth inside his tent.
'And I really can't help but notice how all of these events roughly correspond to the timing of the days of destruction… What the hell is it about those time periods that makes the world so prone to facing his wrath?'
With another sigh, Mikhail shook his head.
'I probably need to go back and study the rest of the textbook to make sense of all that… But I think I'll skip that for now and take Atticus up on his advice.'
Mikhail quickly got ready for the day, throwing on black tassled pants and a white t-shirt.
'Judging by the light pouring in through the tent, dawn has passed and morning has started. People should definitely be out and about by now…'
But before he left, Mikhail reached over to the fruit basket and picked one out at random, finding in his hands a spiky blue thing. The spikes weren't really spikes though. But rather, more like big bumps.
It was a bumpy blue fruit.
He eyed it hesitantly before bringing it to his mouth and biting down on it.
Its skin was thin like that of an apple, while its juicy flesh was somewhat soft, and somewhat firm. As his teeth broke through the skin and then squeezed that flesh, a strange taste spread throughout his mouth.
Like a mix between a blueberry and an orange.
It wasn't bad, but Mikhail didn't really enjoy blueberries…
So, with a bit of reluctance in every bite, Mikhail quickly chewed up the fruit and put it in his stomach.
After that, he washed his hands of the sticky residue left behind by his efforts.
And then, he left his tent, tied up its entrance, and then jogged over to the nearest alleyway. He could already hear the bustling community of the tribe, a cacophony of different voices and conversations getting carried by the wind.
He looked upwards and had the thought to jump on the rooftops…
'I dunno, should I? I feel like I'd end up getting into trouble with some grumpy ass…'
And as if on cue, he saw a group of young adolescents pass by overhead, jumping the distance with practiced ease.
'...Fuck it, that looks fun.'
Mikhail crouched down and swung his arms back behind him before throwing them over his head. And then he stretched out, letting the momentum of his swing carry his torso up. He didn't put power into the jump, so he didn't leave the ground, but that brief test made him nod silently to himself.
So, he repeated the process, but rather than sticking to the ground, he shot up high into the air, breaching past the building's roof and rising up to a quarter of the height of the surrounding wind towers.