The first thing that he noticed was that there were many more pages than before, it seemed infinite as when he flipped a page a new one just appeared and the old one disappeared.
All of the pages that he flipped through had the runic text all over them, some even had diagrams on them, but no matter how he looked at it he couldn't understand anything written on them. Even the pictures looked blurry to him.
"Why can I understand the title but not the contents of the book?" Confused, he flipped to the first page. "Oh, I can understand this part."
Written on the first few pages was an introduction of some sorts to the Jin clan's Golden Overlord Physique. There were a lot of words written that he could read but didn't understand, but there were a few things that he could gather.
The Jin Clan seemed to be a somewhat famous ancient clan native to the new world, he wasn't surprised by this because humans were aware of many intelligent species that inhabited the new world long before humans entered. Any species that were in the new world before humans were called native, even if they entered 1000 years before or only a few days before.
He hadn't heard of the Jin Clan before, but there were many things that he didn't know that he probably should so he just assumed that it was another one of those.
The Jin Clan were identifiable by the golden color of certain features, like eyes, hair, bones, etc.
The Golden Overlord Physique was separated into 3 parts, The Golden Overlord Body, Mind and Soul. It sought to cultivate these 3 parts to the point of indestructibility and perfection, or something close to it.
Because of the strain it puts on the mind, body and soul, the book gradually reveals itself to the learner so that they do not cripple themselves in an attempt to gain power quickly. The book was compiled in a certain way to ensure a proper foundation and increased future potential, if done out of order there was no telling what would happen.
It is meant for a child of the Jin clan to obtain a copy of this book when they learned how to walk and it should accompany them for the rest of their lives
Anyone can theoretically learn the Golden Overlord Physique, but in practice not everyone's body is compatible with it. In any case the technique is a heavily guarded secret of the Jin Clan and this fact was repeated multiple times.
The book was made by the Jin clan, and every one born of the Jin clan is capable of learning it. Even if only 25% of your ancestry is Jin clan related, you shouldn't have any problems with learning it.
And lastly, the golden features of the Jin clan are a side effect of the Golden Overlord Physique, more specifically the Golden Overlord Body. And while at the later stages one can control whether or not some of these features show, members of the Jin clan use it as a sign of honor and superiority.
"That's a lot to take in, but I understand the gist of it. The question is do I learn it? The Jin clan seems powerful, but I can easily hide any of the changes in features if I read correctly."
He looked over to the golden skeleton, which he now knew was a member of the Jin clan or at least someone who got their hands on the manual and was able to learn it, and instantly made his decision.
"If their body can get to the point of being so injured and their skeleton, or what's left of it, can still stand strong after who knows how many years, then there is no reason why it can't work for me. Also, I didn't steal the book, I just found it."
He had no doubt that he could learn it even if as far as he knew he wasn't Jin clan related solely because of his talent.
While it didn't make him fly, or turn him into a powerful beast, or allow him to summon a familiar, when it came to learning things it was unparalleled.
He was near certain that a major factor to his learning flow had to do with the fact that his body was purified by his talent.
From what he understood many people had tried to achieve what he had but couldn't, all of them more powerful, wealthy and knowledgeable than he was.
The only advantage he had over them was his at first seemingly useless talent.
Even his somewhat simple version of body refinement led him to trust in his talent more. While he hadn't read a body refinement method before, he was certain that it wasn't as easy as he had made it out to be.
Otherwise they wouldn't be such heavily guarded secrets in the modern world. Even if you had the money to buy one, you still wouldn't be able to. That's a competitive advantage no one would be willing to let go of.
Now that he was committed to learning the technique to increase his likelihood of returning to the old world alive, he turned to the first chapter.
In the introduction of the Golden Overlord Body, it stated that because of how high intensity even the basics are, one's body needed to be of a certain standard before attempting to learn. If you skip this step, you will explode because your body wouldn't be able to handle the first influx of power, and if you were lucky enough to survive the first step your body would be permanently injured and you would struggle to live, much less continue learning.
He wasn't arrogant enough to believe that he was so special that didn't need to strengthen his body, unlike every member of the Jin clan whose bodies the technique was built around, so he wasn't going to even attempt to skip this part.
There were many ways to strengthen the body, with things like exercise, and medicine among them, but using drugs to increase strength was not a safe or stable method and exercise can only go so far.
Thankfully, the Jin clan included a solution to this problem with another one of their tailor made techniques, and from what Ray could understand, this was the first bottleneck that most non-jins stopped at.
It was called the Jin Clan's Golden Body Refining Technique, and like every other body refining technique it used mana to strengthen the body in an attempt to lay a proper foundation and increase strength. But that's where the similarities ended.
There was a limit to how much mana a body part could hold onto, much like when forging a weapon. The limit is affected by age, gender, height, weight, species, and many other things, but what was common is that when the limit was reached, the body part had a significant change in appearance.
He knew this because he had saturated his bones, muscles, ligament and internal organs. His bones turned blue, his muscle and internal organs bright red and his ligaments a radiant white.
This level of strengthening may be enough for normal people, but the Jin clan was famous for a reason. The Golden Overlord Body was so demanding that this surface level refining was far from enough.
One might wonder, 'If there is no more room to put mana, how does this allow you to go further.' and the answer is compression. When forging a weapon, it is constantly hammered to compress the mana to make room for more.
This is the same principle that the Golden Body Refining Technique used. By using the force from enemy blows, one can increase both the strength of their body, as well as their combat experience.
This was an extreme and dangerous method, which is why many non-jins couldn't progress past this step, but from what he understood it was built from necessity. The special characteristics of the bodies of the Jin clan makes it difficult for them to use magic like humans and other species do.
They can cast spells and use seals and send curses, but their body just isn't made for it. It takes a long time for them to learn how to use mana like this and even if they manage to pick up something they could never be able to have the same output as other races.
Instead of just dying off like many other races that had innate problems using magic, they took advantage of their special bodies and with a lot of time, pain and effort managed to become one of the strongest races in the history of the new world.
Using their powerful bodies as well as their specialized techniques, they dominated various parts of the seemingly infinite new world. While he currently didn't have access to these special techniques, his body didn't have the same restrictions as theirs's did.
He could take what he wanted from wherever he found it and use it to his advantage, which was one of the only things his talent gave him. He was going to exploit this at every junction if it meant seeing the sun for one more day.
Since he decided to learn the Golden Overlord Physique, then the Golden Body refining technique was his natural first step.