4 hours later...
[System Notice: You have successfully performed the seventh technique 11 times in a row before failing.]
[System Notice: Here is the statistical analysis of your knowledge and capability in using all the techniques you've used so far.]
[Status Window—Martial Arts—Wing-Chun]
First technique: high-tier proficient level.
Second technique: high-tier proficient level.
Third technique: mid-tier proficient level.
Fourth technique: low-tier expert level.
Fifth technique: low-tier proficient level.
[Status Window-Martial Arts-Dim-Mak]
First technique: mid-tier proficient level.
Second technique: low-tier proficient level.
Third technique: mid-tier proficient level.
Fourth technique: high-tier proficient level.
Fifth technique: low-tier proficient level.
I could now see my degree of skill in a specific martial art in my stat window.
It was quite detailed in its level of description.
The different levels of proficiency went like this:
[Amateur, Proficient, Expert, Master, Transcendant.]
All are separated into 4 lower categories:
[Low, Mid, High, Peak Tier]
One could say I was a genius for reaching such a good level of proficiency in those 10 techniques in merely 5 hours. But this was just my theorized level of skills, not real combat-wise. That was because I hadn't yet used it on the dummy or a human. So this is how the system qualified me instead:
[Status window]: 'Aiden Glain, 17Y, Male'
[Social Status: 'Leader of Region 7'
[Number of followers in total]: '2754'
[Martial Arts user: Boxing 'High Tier Proficient' - Wing Chun 'Mid Tier Amateur' - Dim Mak 'High Tier Amateur']
[Battle Score: 31]
In fact, being almost considered a high-level amateur in two complex martial arts such as Wing Chun and Dim Mak, after such a low amount of training, was already phenomenal.
My strength and knowledge had improved by so much in just 1 day and a half; I never, in my wildest dreams, thought that such a thing would ever happen to me.
But for now, I had to go eat. I was so hungry after so much training. At first, I had planned on using just a little bit of strength to not tire my body, but things don't always go as planned.
''Deactivate''
[System Notice: Wait, before deactivation, don't you want to try the body-healing arts of the dummy? He can use his infinite knowledge of pressure points and meridians striking to ease your body and help relax your nerves and bodily tissue.]
''Uhhh, sure, if it helps me rest and regenerate my new muscles faster.''
[System Notice: Please sit with both legs crossed, your back to the dummy].
I did as per the instructions and then closed my eyes; I felt like it was necessary. Right away, the dummy started touching my pressure points and Meridians, but it didn't hurt. After about 5 minutes, he was done, and my body did feel soothed.
Of course, all the pain and strain weren't fully gone, but it felt as if I had slept for 6 hours and rested well.
After that, I finally deactivated the dummy, called over Eliotte so he could prepare my meal, ate like a troll, slept for 2 hours, and then it was time for my physical training.
----- During Aiden's intense training -----
"Come on, Leader, you can do it. Cheered Eliotte as he saw Aiden struggle on the dips."
"Fourteen... Fifteen... Sixteen... Seventeen... Eighteen... Nineteen...''
''Come on, one more!''
''Twenty..!''
''Here, drink. You have 45 seconds of rest.''
--Grabs--
''Thanks''
--45 seconds later --
''Alright onto the sit-ups, go go go!''
Aiden did sit-ups after sit-ups, then more squats and burpees, ran at full speed for 600 meters at 18 Km/h, then did push-ups again, then the plank for 2 minutes.
1 minute of rest:
15 minutes of exercises: 80 sit-ups, 3x2 minutes of planks, 50 push-ups, 2x20 dips, 2x600 meters sprints at full speed.
2 minutes of rest:
7 minutes of exercises: 25 burpees, 5 sets of 5 repetitions, and 20 crunches in between each set. 25 squats x 2
1 minute of rest:
1 Kilometer sprint
1 minute of rest:
1 minute plank, 2x25 crunches, 20 push-ups in a row, 30 squats
''What a beast! You've done so well again! I didn't expect your body to handle the training so well. It seems you naturally have a quick regeneration.'' Congratulated Eliotte.
''Y-yeah, it... seems so.'' Said Aiden as he struggled to catch his breath.''
'If only he knew that this rusty dummy was the sole reason as to how I managed to survive this training.' Aiden told himself in his head.
''Let's call it a day; you should come eat.'' urged Eliotte before indicating Aiden's state. ''You're nearing total exhaustion; you really need to eat now,'' he indicated.
''I figured, seeing how my body is dying.'' I joked, getting a laugh out of him.
After filling my stomach with delicious dishes that were themselves filled with good nutrients, I went to wash myself again. After cleaning myself up and leaving Eliotte, I went back to the training dummy and activated it once more.
''Continue to perform all of the techniques in front of me; I'll observe them.''
And I stayed there, gently seated, for 2 hours and 40 minutes. He had executed all the 10 techniques over 200 times.
At some moment I stood up to try and perform them as well to correct my mistakes, in order to improve my usage of speed and strength with the techniques as well.
After that, it was already night time, so I decided it would be wise of me to go and talk to my friends. It had been a long time since I had given any sign of life; I couldn't just stay on my side all the time. And after that, I was planning on taking a tour to the castle's library. It was early night, so by the end of my conversation, the library would surely be empty, or at least almost completely empty.
Good thing there was a meeting at the moment. I invited myself and greeted everyone; everyone greeted me back with a bow.
''Where have you been this whole time, Aiden?'' asked Kal.
''Training'' I simply responded.
''For 10 hours?''
''No, less, 9 hours.'' Saying the truth as a joke.
''Wait, what?! Are you being serious?''
''Of course not; I just did a few hours of physical training and martial art practice; the rest of the time was me meditating and analyzing the status-window functions.'' I lied
''Ohh, I see. That makes sense. How could someone train for 10 hours? Hahaha.'' Kal knew I had lied.
''Hey Aiden, let's talk in private later. It's about 'this matter'.'' Added Kal.
''Sure'' I answered nonchalantly.
The meeting was about non-important things, such as a trivial dispute that had occurred between some members of ''Heavenly Pendemonium'' or people complaining that they are working without getting paid.
"The thing is, most of the people who are complaining about having no salary are among those who work the least—''
''I'll do a speech tomorrow about the salary issue; don't worry.'' I interrupted Clark in the middle of the discussion.
''Are you sure? Will you be okay?'' Clark asked in worry.
''Of course! I'm your leader; don't you trust me?'' I said.
''Well, that's specifically because you are our leader that I fear something might go wrong,'' Clark joked.
Everyone burst out in laughter as Clark said that, even me. However, I continued to reassure everyone about my speech and ordered them to announce that I'll be holding a short speech tomorrow morning. In fact, I was not going to prepare anything; all my ideas and sentences were in my head.
After the meeting ended, I continued to talk with Kal, Arthur, and a few others, including Jammes, who seemed troubled by something.
''Hey Aid... I mean, leader, I had a question. How do you keep your composure all the time? You're always so calm despite our situation. On my side, I really struggle with that; I feel like I'm not even worthy to be a sub-leader when I compare myself to others.''
''Well, in my eyes, the very fact that you worry like that and compare yourself to others proves that you are indeed qualified to be a leader. You're human, and you worry about not doing enough, about not being good enough, so you try to better your mistakes by comparing yourself with other people who you consider better than you.'' I started consoling Jammes.
''But are you really inferior to them? Do you actually need to compare your own value to that of others who might just be simple-minded fools that don't care about their situation at all? You are aware of the dangers, you have human emotions, you are honest, you are a kind person at heart, and you often speak good ideas during meetings. Trust me, Jammes, you are qualified for this position. What you are going through is something normal, and some other people may also be experiencing the same thing.'' I pursued.
''We are young, Jammes. Be it the world, our parents, our teachers, or society itself, none of those instances prepared us for what we are now dealing with. And yet, here we are, creating a new society from nothing but questions and doubt in mind. And you are helping in creating that very society, so don't undervalue yourself. You are human; you can never be perfect or avoid making mistakes. And to my eyes, this is what defines us and makes us truly good individuals, so keep that in mind. You are a good leader because you are more human than most people; that's all'' I finished.
"Whoa, you really have a way with words, Aiden. Thank you very much; they mean a lot. It's truly fascinating how you can articulate my situation so well while also incorporating those of others. It's almost as if you have a grasp of psychology and human nature that we don't. It makes me wonder why you weren't the first candidate to begin with—you're so mature and wise."
"Well, thanks for the undeserved praise, Jammes. I don't consider myself an expert when it comes to psychology and human nature, though. Rather, I think it's my parents education that rendered me able to see through the human's heart, hence why I can discern people's worries, weaknesses, and their overall mental condition easily."
"You must have had wonderful parents then. I wish mine had educated that well too, haha."
''Did you have any problems with your parents?'' I asked.
''Oh no, not at all; don't worry. I just wish they had educated me better.''
''Haha, every good parent's education is worthwhile; we should cherish what they've taught us and fly on our own once we come of age. And, in our case, we must fly a little earlier than anticipated.''
''You're right; thanks for everything, leader.''
''No problem; this is one of my duties as a leader and as a friend to help you. Please do not hesitate to come to me if you have any problems in the future.''
''Will do!''
On that positive note, we said goodbye, and I went to the library of the big castle. I searched for books containing information regarding our world.
Upon entering the dark-arch building, I met an ordinary member of my faction. He also noticed me and walked over to me.
''Please leave this place; entry is strictly prohibited for non-council members.''
'Gosh, that's embarrassing...' Aiden thought.
''Well, I am the one who's specifically in charge of that council.'' I declared in a cold tone.
I decided to show him my status window.
[Open System Window.] - [Turn on view accessibility to other people.]
''O-o-o, my god, I'm so sorry, my leader; I didn't know it was you...'' Stuttered the 16-year-old boy.
''It's fine, boy; at least you're doing your job properly, and I'm quite satisfied to see that. But how come you didn't recognize me though? I made a speech in front of everyone after all.''
''Well.. that's because I was at the very back of the crowd, and I had broken my glasses at the time, hence I couldn't see anything at all. Im so sorry''
''I see, that's reasonable that you wouldn't have been able to see me then. And you have nothing to blame yourself for, no worries. What about your glasses, though? Aren't you having a hard time now that you don't have them?''
''Thanks for your concern, my leader, but weirdly enough, after the world changed, my view became good again. I no longer need any glasses, and my view is much better than it used to be prior to when I had my glasses on.''
''Whoa, that's incredible; you should make full use of this chance and enjoy having regained perfect sight, haha.''
''Of course, my leader. By the way, I'm quite impressed to see that you know such martial arts, and with a power level of 31 too, that's insane.''
'Oh sh*t, I forgot to hide it back.'
[Close System Window.] - [Turn off view accessibility to other people.]
''Don't worry, I won't talk about your martial arts knowledge to anyone. I assume you must be preparing for the Well of Ascension Ceremony.''
''Thanks, and yeah, I am.''
''Good luck then, my leader. After seeing what kind of person you are today, I'm happy I chose to join your faction.''
''Haha, you won't regret it.''
I then entered the building and left the boy to guard the entrance. The interior was grandiose; it looked like those fantasy movie libraries. Dark, grand, filled with dust, cobwebs, and books, empty books. I wondered why so many books had been placed here if they were all devoid of any content. But perhaps it was to hide one, or a few important books, that actually had content amongst the rest.
The library had 3 floors, and looking at the number of shelves and tables, as well as drawers, there could've been over one hundred thousand books. It would take dozens of years to find a single book with content. But I had time to spare, so I began searching.
I started with the first floor and went to the left-back corner of the library. I went there because it was the only place that had lights, and the light somehow seemed to guide me. The lights were candles that had a desolate perfume, a sore-sulphur odor. And I felt like crying when I smelled it.
I reached the place, and I saw a few tables made of a type of wood that I had never seen before in my entire life.
There were hundreds of books, so I scanned through all of them; their titles were indicated on the front page, so it didn't take a long time to verify if a book was worth checking out or not.
Book of Heavenly Banquet
Book of Lamas
Book of Giants
Records of the Desolate Prince
Papers of the Great Sand
Jyron Higos, The Precursor of Fire
Most of those books had titles that didn't make sense, and the few that seemed to talk about our new world's history and magic were still empty. But I still found one book that wasn't completely empty after brushing through all of them.
Emblem of Chaotic Thunder.
Page-3 [Not only can the emblem of chaotic thunder revitalize the body by channeling a constant stream of pure-lightning and thunder energy through the meridians, veins, blood, and muscles, but it will also strengthen it massively. At the early stage of the Chaotic Thunder Emblem, one can already...]
That was all; the text was cut off in the middle of the sentence. But there were still a few interesting things to take into account. First of all, this Emblem thing seemed to indicate that magic, or energy, truly did exist in our world.
Secondly, the words meridians, veins, blood, and muscles were also all crossed in black by different symbols.
Meridians: A straight horizontal line and then a 90-degree upward angle turn to form an arrow.
veins: A normal diagonal cross.
Blood: A vertical line to the right of the 'd' letter, and then it turns to the left to form another arrow.
Muscles: A vertical line to the left of the 'M' letter this time, and the arrow is at the very top of it.
Initially, I struggled to make up for what it could have been. But since all the symbols seemed to have a sense of connection to each other, I tried to piece them together. After assembling all the forms in my head, everything became clear.
It was a map.