It resembled a map, at least. And my instinct hurled at me to try and draw a proper map using all four of the symbols. So I grabbed a dark pen that was on a table, picked up an empty book, and started drawing the map by assembling the four symbols in one.
After I was done, I realized that the drawing looked exactly the same as the structure of the library. 'So it was a map of the library, huh?' I meditated.
But it didn't help one bit to know that. It didn't show me where to go to find other books. So I was stuck, or at least that's what I thought. I remembered a book titled 'Science of the Meridians, Blood, Veins, and Muscles.' I took it and decided to draw the same map on page 3 of this book.
It did something; the drawing started glowing, and 4 tiny red dots appeared; they seemed to indicate where I should go. But the whole drawing itself had changed too; it truly had become a map now, much more detailed than before. Because what I had been calling a map before was actually more of a layout than a map.
I went to the front-left corner of the second floor and searched for a book with content there. I found it only 20 minutes later; it was entitled 'Training Method of the Chaotic Thunder Body'. It had no text, aside from that one word, 'Annihilation'. And then there were dozens of pages filled with pictures but no text; the pictures recorded ways to meditate and breathe, as well as to train in sword techniques. I had no clue why they included sword training in a book about a 'Thunder Body,' but what could I do about it?
I thought back, 'If they did such a thing, there must have been a reason.' I then searched for the 3 other books; it took me 30 minutes to find the second one, 15 minutes to find the third one, and 40 minutes for the last one. They were all still related to the Book of Thunder, but I couldn't do anything with them.
Then an idea struck me: what if I went to the third floor, to the left-back corner, like I'd done on the first floor?
I thought about such a thing because there seemed to be a correlation between the page number of the first book and the third floor itself. You see, the word '3' that indicated the third page of the original book was in red... It was the only book page that was written in red; all the others were in black.
Funnily enough, each of the floors of the haphazard library had an associated color.
First Floor, Black
Second Floor, Purple
Third Floor, Red
So I rushed over there, feeling a sense of anxiety rising in my stomach. After reaching the place, I put all four books on the table, the same table that was on the first floor.
And after 3 seconds, all books started glowing; a golden-white, brilliant, dazzling light came out of them; it was magnificent. All books then started floating in the air and collided to form one single book. The book was dark, an abyssal-black color, the same as my hair. It had golden lines at its extremities. A sword symbol was carved on its back that carried a transcendental aura, and on the front was a barely visible lightning bolt symbol.
I was in awe; what I had just beheld was surreal.
I slowly approached the table again and picked up the book. But when I tried to open it, I was met with a system notice instead.
[System Notice]: [You have found one of the Ancestral books of the primordial elements; congratulations.]
[System Notice]: [Sorry, but you cannot open this book for now; wait until the first Well of Ascension ceremony is over to open it.]
Although disappointed, I understood that what was inside this book must have been far too powerful for a mortal to handle. I knew that the Well of Ascension would turn our bodies into non-mortal ones; hence, it made sense that I first needed to get stronger in order to have access to whatever was inside this book.
I henceforth acknowledged the need to go back to training. A different kind of training again. But before that, I would need to go and talk to Kal.
I left the library with the book hidden under my shirt. I waved goodbye to the guard and messaged Kal that I could talk to him now.
----- 10 minutes later, in front of the training ground. ------
''Hey Aiden, you're finally available; don't worry though, I won't take much of your time.''
''You are my friend, and you are worried about taking my 'time'? You should be worried about not spending enough time with me instead!'' I joked.
''True hahaha.'' He laughed back.
''But the thing is, I know why you're so busy; the others don't, and I guess you don't want anyone to know, knowing you. But if it's me, perhaps you could tell me what kind of training you're going through; I may be of help.'' He added right after laughing, in a much more serious tone that leaked a feeling of worry.
''I knew you were smart and observant, but to this extent, I'm impressed. I am indeed undergoing a harsh training program right now, one that's close to inhuman, but that must remain a secret to others.''
''Of course, it won't be known, and I won't interfere with your training if you do not want so. I just wanted to remind you: don't push yourself too hard, Aiden. I've known for a long time that you never liked physical training. But once you set your mind on something, once you truly want to achieve it, you snap and go all in, even at the expense of suffering alone. So please, be careful, Aiden.''
"I was, I am, and I will forever be cautious. Thanks for your concern, but don't worry about me; I know what I'm doing."
"Glad to hear that. I'll go and let you continue on with what you had planned. But I want you to know that if you have something that troubles you—a question, a doubt, or if you are in need of help—I'm here for you.''
''I know, Kal, I always did. And I won't ever forget it, because you are my most trusted friend.'' The conversation ended as Kal went away, smiling at me.
It left me in small shock at how short the conversation had been. After all, I had first believed that Kal would try to inquire more about my training. In fact, I feared he would force information out of me. But it seems I was wrong. I think Kal understood right away that I had no intentions of revealing anything about my training; that might have been why he decided to not pursue the conversation any longer. Anyway, now that my mind was emptied of doubt, I could proceed to the training ground.
"Activate the level 1 dummy [Training-Mode]''
''Same martial arts as before—but this time I want it to attack me at 75% of its original speed with the best boxing, karate, and muay tai skills it has. Every single one of them actually. And my goal will be to both block and dodge the attacks. You can also tell me what I'm doing wrong if I block or dodge in a bad way.''
''You can also try and explain to me better ways to conserve stamina while defending myself and ways to better move and use my eyes to analyze the incoming attack pattern of my opponent and react better.
[System Notice: Level 1 Dummy | Training-Mode | has been activated, using boxing, karate, and Muay Tai martial arts.]
[System Notice: "Alright, you can go in front of the dummy, at a distance of 1 meter to begin. The dummy will have gloves in order to not hurt you too badly.'']
''System Notice: Which martial arts attacks do you want to try and dodge first?''
''Boxing and karate at the same time. And I need to successfully dodge or block at least 20 attacks in order to go on to the next martial arts.''
''System Notice: Alright, you can start whenever you are ready.''
''Start''
The dummy's strength had risen to 48. It's movements were sharper and faster due to karate. And it had more stamina and flexibility, as well as an undeniably improved experience in combat.
He had gloves; I didn't, but it didn't make his attack any less scarier. But my abs had already gotten slightly stronger after the few trainings I had done, and my core had been strengthened by at least 5%. I had also grown more endurant in my legs and arms, thus I was still confident in holding on for a few minutes before getting beaten up.
He launched a right overhand right after two fast jabs, but the overhand was a feint that was meant to set up a left-right jab hit into an upper-left-body hit, to a chin counter combination. I blocked the first two jabs, not being pushed back at all, then evaded in vain the fake overhand, barely getting the time to replace myself correctly in order to block his two lightning speed jabs.
The body shot came too abruptly though, so I twisted my body in order to reduce the amount of damage taken. My whole body shivered, but I kept going. I caught his arms to not get hit in the chin; this was authorized since catching was harder than blocking and dodging in such a situation. The dummy increased his pace and mixed both karate moves and boxing. It was time for leg kicks.
It lashed out at me as I tried to roll back; it sent a terrific high kick to my head, which grazed me heavily, although I managed to avoid most of it. Even though this high kick left him open for a second, I realized that in my current state, even if I were permitted to attack back, I wouldn't have been able to do anything. My reaction time was far too slow, and the dummy's balance with its leg kicks was too good. But before I could further realize my own weakness, my enemy continued his chain of attacks.
One-two-one-two.
Right jab-into a powerful left straight, followed by a mountain-crushing right overhand.
Left-right straight into a left hook, then a spinning back-kick.
I was drained of my stamina in under two minutes, and it was painful as hell. I didn't even know how to properly block or dodge kicks, yet here I was, so arrogant that I thought I could hold my own against the dummy while it used two different martial arts.
[Stop]
I rested and then asked for the system to remove boxing; hence, that way I would only have to deal with karate blows. I had a good program in my head (15 minutes of blocking, dodging, catching, throwing, and struggling against karate, then 5 minutes of rest followed by 15 minutes of the same thing but versus boxing). That 3 times.
And every time I would be nearing passing out or was just too tired, I'd say stop and resume training after barely 30 seconds of catching my breath, which wouldn't be included in those 15 minutes of surviving. Obviously.
[Start]
And so the war began again.
58 minutes later.
One dodge, one block, one hit received to the back-tamp, one hook to the right, avoided. One low blow to the body caught, which I then sidestepped out of. One jab, one left overhand, one right hook, all blocked. One-two straight, one-two jab, left hook, dodged. Three heavy body shots, left-upper body, right-low body, solar plexus, all either blocked or shunned.
[System Notice]
[New record for consecutive hits dodged, caught, and blocked: 13]
'Come on, I can do this,' I erratically shrieked in my head.
'It's coming again with the left feint; that's getting boring. I'll try to catch it and evade it right after to get two points.''
'Here it comes!'
[System Notice: 15 minutes have passed; please rest for 5 minutes now before training with the karate dummy.]
'SHITTT'
Things weren't always so easy.
After less than two hours of training, I was done.
[Record for consecutive hits dodged, caught, and blocked: 15]
The dummy then performed his odd technique like he did last time to help me rest faster again. Following this, I called up Eliotte to eat with him, filling my stomach with more energy than needed, and then went to sleep immediately.
The day after, I had to prepare for my speech in a hurry. Luckily, I was not tired at all. This unprepared monologue of mine would not be long; on the contrary, it was meant to be short and authoritative.
Upon waking up, I noticed I had forgotten to wash myself, so I did. How could I not look attractive and clean when thousands of people were going to see me talk on stage?
After preparing myself and my speech, I called for everyone to assemble at the entrance of the castle since it had the largest area. It was early morning, but most people had come to listen to me anyway.
At the entrance of the castle, there was a giant flat area where everyone could listen to the speech, and far in front of them, at approximately 5 meters of height, with a big old marble statue behind him, was me. The statue overshadowed the serious expression I wore on my face, rendering me hidden from the eyes of the observant ones. That meant nobody could see what kind of facial expressions I was harboring while delivering my speech; but on my side, I could see theirs.
"Hello everyone. First of all, I'd like to apologize for calling you all so early in the morning for just a brief speech. But no matter how small some things may seem, they remain important when they affect a large population. And that is exactly the subject of my discourse today."
I paused for a moment and then continued.
"I've heard complaints—many, in fact—about people not receiving salaries while still working. Regarding this issue, let me remind you all that our current circumstances do not follow the same standards as before. Yet, you all want money, even though it has become completely useless. You all can live, eat, play, work, train, wash, sing, dance—do whatever is authorized in our constitution—for free."
I took a quick breath before continuing swiftly.
"And yet, you want benefits? It's not that I or the council members are unwilling to create a new financial system; we will need one soon enough to make this society function like a normal one. But we've just started accommodating to this new world. Actually, no—we're still struggling and surviving with the limited information and insight we possess about our dire situation. So give us—me and my council—time. We will, at some point, reward people for their work, perhaps not always with money. We don't even know if money will be that relevant in the future anyway."
"But there might be other resources besides money that we could put in place for those who perform their jobs well for one month. These may include martial arts techniques, direct teaching from our best martial arts teachers (once we have reached that point), as well as higher quality food, better living environments, a better status, etc. Such things will surely be implemented in the future. Now, when exactly that will happen, I do not know."
"As I said, you have to give us time. It's through your work, my work, and everyone's work that we will one day reach the point where we can reintegrate financial means into our society. Right now, it's too difficult to do that. So please, be patient, and do not utter meaningless complaints. All of us, including me and the council, have to work our asses off—and we are already doing so—in order to achieve greatness, happiness, safety, and a true home in this new world."
"Be happy that you were among the chosen ones, picked to play this surreal game to try and bring back our parents, along with the opportunity to become transcendent in terms of strength. All of you shouldn't waver just because you aren't being paid when what you are doing is crucial for survival and creating a new world. We all contribute to this, meaning we are all equal, and it is not necessary to have a salary."
"Your lives are worth more than mere dollars. The lives of your friends and relatives are worth more than any banks. The survival of the world's population is worth the stars, and, funny enough, one day, those stars will be ours. May they be our currency one day, and do not let money lead you astray from our goal, the Ascension. Thank you all for listening to me."
Everyone clapped and cheered warmly; it still felt as good as all the other times; being praised and congratulated sure was satisfying. But it couldn't compare to the feeling of growth from training...
I didn't know why I felt the need to train right away after I had concluded my speech, but there was an odd feeling erupting from my chest, and I knew that this gut feeling was always predictive.
But what did it mean?