{Year one}
Shortly into my first few months at the library, I found an empty dining hall. There the food would appear as if from nowhere, while the plates would spontaneously clean themselves. For some time, I'd assumed that there might be someone else in this library, so I tried peeking about; I was just like some kid who had been kept waiting for Santa Claus. However, at each moment I took my eyes away from the dining hall, all of its food would be replenished.
To pass the time, I started to read books while training my inner energy. I quickly came to learn that this library had books from throughout the entire universe. There were magic books, close combat manuals, and tomes on cultivation. These all spoke of a vast universe, and they offered many different methods to obtain power.
What drew my attention the most were those tomes that detailed 'cultivation'. Unlike magic's chaotic nature, cultivation seemed to be far more logical; there was simply no way around it. And yet, to me, a soul which had been locked between constant fights and physical training, cultivation still felt like a thing that had been far too tedious.
Though despite this, and once I'd gotten used to it, everything started coming together rather quickly. Depending on their progress through each stage, an individual could gain all sorts of abilities: be they spiritual, demonic, or even those similar to magic. This meant that I had many options, so long as I didn't give up... And this thought is what kept me going during my long days within this library.
After about a half-year had passed, I established my core foundation. From there, I continued on my journey across the library, setting out to explore my new knowledge. I had attempted to read many different books about those physical and spiritual refining arts. But at this point, the one that had appeared as most helpful was a book titled "The Void Demon's refining art".
Should you know the kind of body structure you desire, then this cultivation will become much easier... In order to conduct the inner energy's flow through your meridian system—a process that can affect how the body either grows or shrinks—a strong understanding of one's self is essential; however, this is never so easily achieved.
It took much of my practice and patience before I had begun to see some results. That being said, the days in my lone library became those of drudgery and isolation. And while I greatly benefited from this seclusion, I could not but hope for a soon return to Eyluania. I wanted to be summoned back there at the very closest possible instant.
{Year 2}
During my first year in seclusion, I managed to reach the middle of level 6 during my body and spirit refinement. Though at first quite unfamiliar, this meant that I was now able to refine myself from the ground state of existence to a slightly higher one. And, as far as I knew, this was quite a fantastic achievement among beginners.
Then came that day when I decided to go to the training hall, as I had sought to test out my newly achieved skills by challenging a few of the dummies that were there. These dummies had been set to react to me once every day, and when I destroyed one, it would pop back into place as if nothing ever happened. During those that lost, these dummies would simply ignore me for the remainder of the day. They were always of equal power to their challenger, granting a good reason for me to block my own magic during each of these visits. If I had not, these dummies would have certainly reacted to my more prominent magical capabilities over those powers drawn from my recent cultivation.
I walked through the large entrance to this training hall, moving towards the center of the room. There, three human-shaped statues stood before me. At the moment these golems felt me approach, their eyes lurched wide open. And yet, despite this show, they produced no noise at all. The air around them shimmered with energy, each statue turning itself towards me.
I cracked my knuckles and neck in response, then I strode into the middle of the gym while I spoke, "Bring it."
Upon the instant I took my own fighting stance, each statue quickly charged its form toward me. This was just another one of those basic exercises that all those students who passed through this library would have been expected to undertake at least once. During their training against such strong opponents, there would be no concerns over the use of any dirty tricks such as curses or traps.
I quickly made calculations as the statues were moving in regular patterns. 'Six statues... I can do this."
With just one step forward, I kicked one statue hard on its chest. It flew away several meters before hitting the wall and falling down on its backside on the floor below. However, it quickly stood up again, still without making a noise!
It's all about positioning! Once you get used to it, you'll start to understand what kind of power you need for a kick to make a difference. With a little more practice, you would be able to win most of the fights using only fists alone.
In order to defeat the second opponent who was getting closer with speed, I grabbed it from behind while dodging the attack from his left hand. In the same move, I threw him toward the third enemy and pushed myself into motion. As I was running towards my last target, I jumped and spun around so I could hit both hands onto its head and push it away from me. My movements were flawless and there wasn't even time for the dummy to react. As soon as he got up again, I moved in fast and gave him an elbow strike straight on the face, causing his mask to crack. He fell over backward as if dead.
The remaining three enemies stood in front of me, but they didn't move. I had to look a little further into their eyes to see their true intentions. "Is this all you can do?!" I yelled, now very pissed off by their behavior. They knew better than anyone how weak they really were; therefore, they should've attacked with everything they had! This time, no one was going to escape; not them or me!
As I charged toward them at lightning-fast speed, two dummies tried to grab hold of me at the same moment. One pulled on my arm and the other tried grabbing my waist. It took less than half a second to knock both of the guys away. However, when the second dummy stood up again, it started chanting something... which made my mind go dizzy. My body went through several different stages: confusion, terror, and then paralysis.
"Magic?!" I exclaimed in shock as I assumed they would only be able to use martial arts. The power that came from these statues' mouths was beyond anything that I could have imagined. It felt like I had just gotten punched with an iron ball; I could barely move any more! And before I could even take out any offensive moves against the new enemy's attack, he sent me flying backward into the wall behind me with a single punch. That's it—I lost the match!
'Damn it!' I thought as I punched the wall. After a year of fighting the dummies, I forgot what it means to fight creatures that may use cheap tactics to fight and kill. These dummies reminded me that the fight wasn't just calculations and strength; there were many factors that could determine the winner of the fight.
I leaned against the wall while taking a breather and watched as the statues went back to their original places on the training grounds. Once they were gone, I sighed in frustration and walked out.
"Damn it. I got too comfortable." I muttered as I walked through the hall. I paused for a moment, wondering what I should be doing for the rest of the day. Then I remembered seeing a garden with a bunch of different mystical plants around six miles away to the left from the center of the library. "How about, learning to refine pills?" I thought about it for a moment and shook my head. "Pills and elixirs would do wonder for my cultivation. But if it took too long to learn and I will be summoned... maybe I should focus on training instead?"
I walked toward the center of the library, still thinking about what should I do. When I reached the library, I picked up an ancient book about herbs. The moment I opened it up, all sorts of information appeared inside its pages; pictures, diagrams, ingredients, medicinal uses—even the best season to gather each type of plant was listed clearly. I quickly went down the list until I found something interesting. A small amount of a specific herb was required to make a potion that can strengthen the body or enhance one's internal energy.
"Well, time to give it a try..." I exclaimed as I started walking toward the garden.
As soon as I entered the magical place filled with various mysterious plants, the green light surrounding me changed color and slowly covered me from top to bottom. This happened every time when I entered this room. I opened the book, and I walked around the plants, checking their characteristics and effects against what they were described in the book. It didn't take very long for me to figure out which ones were suitable for my purposes. In no time, I gathered several types of herbs, put them in my pouch, and came back to the training hall where I could practice making the elixir.