Giza Town

The sun rose, like a flower unfurling, gifting its beauty to the world below.

Sunlight slowly started to fill the sky with scattered golden radiance; its hue fighting to illuminate every nook and cranny of the land.

Sparrows chirped and goldfinches sang producing a beautiful background melody.

An easy breeze picked up and lifted to Hugo's vantage point, caressing his face and softly blowing loose strands of his long black braided hair.

Hugo sat upon a medium-sized rock, his small khaki trousers soaking up the damp morning dew, as he practiced the Psykhe-Mental-Exercise.

He was entirely focused on training… His breathing pattern synced to the rhythm of the 'Fibonacci-Breathing-Sequence'…

He inhaled and exhaled in irregular but consistent patterns for about a quarter of an hour, before letting out one last turbid breath.

Hugo opened his eyes… and then sighed, gently shaking his head.

It had been six years since he arrived in this world.

From the time he acquired Psykhe-Mental-Exercise from the immemorial owl, Hugo had never relaxed in his efforts practicing the mystic-soul-art. However, he had run into a bottleneck in his soul training progress during the past two years.

He couldn't figure out why he was experiencing this setback.

[Isn't entering into deeper meditation and sensing the world's mana supposed to be the only complicated step in training one's soul?] Hugo was baffled by his recurring failures.

[… Why have I failed to go beyond the first stage of the Psykhe-Mental-Exercise for two years now?] Hugo wondered with a frown on his babyish face.

Hugo's deep-blue eyes were narrowed into slits making him look like an aggrieved cartoon of an elf in a children's storybook.

In his first four years in this new world, he could tell that his mental faculties were improving with every training session with the mystic-soul-art.

He had prudently followed the instructions and trained with the Psykhe-Mental-Exercise only twice a day. Although each practice session only lasted 15 minutes, the results in the first four years were very remarkable.

Hugo's thought process had become three times faster than his peak in his previous life, and his memory had nearly reached the stage of being eidetic.

He had already learned a lot of common knowledge and some four native Gaian languages due to his improved and fortified soul. Hugo was sure that if he was allowed in the 'Library', he would have already memorized even more information.

But alas, the Matriarch and Tracy had strictly forbidden him from reading any books apart from common children's storybooks. Only the 'friendly' Miss Fox, would occasionally lend him a book or two bringing some much-welcomed diversity in his reading sessions.

The process of training the soul was not scientific, at least not on the level of his previous life. Tracy and the Matriarch vowed to only start teaching him some mystic-art-related knowledge when he clocked nine years of age.

The owl had also not made a reappearance in his dream world for the past six years.

Thus, Hugo was in a predicament similar to that of a blind man in a dark room ardently seeking a black cat that was not there. He couldn't find the correct path forward for advancing his soul training.

"Sigh… Three years is too long to wait… I really can't remain bored for this long, waiting for others to teach me about the mystic arts. The only interesting development in my life is the start of school next week." Hugo sighed wearily like an old man fed up with retirement.

[Why is it that I'm still stuck on this level of training the soul…] Hugo resumed his familiar routine of trying to discern what was hindering his progress in training using the Psykhe-Mental-Exercise.

[Does this mean I don't possess enough talent to become a powerful mystic like Tracy and Matriarch Bianca?] Hugo wondered, feeling dejected.

[I'll try to go further in the 'Fibonacci-Breathing-Sequence' again… maybe I'll have better luck today.]

Hugo closed his eyes and opened the now-familiar imaginary door to his spirit world…

He had once again entered deeper meditation….

He then concentrated and started sensing the mysterious world mana ever-present on Gaia.

He began by visualizing a 'zero-dimensional-image' of a point, then transformed it into a 'one-dimensional-image' of a line, then a 'two-dimensional-image' of a plane, and then finally the 'three-dimensional-image' of a polyhedron.

In his spirit world, Hugo visualized different variations of creating 3D figures while also practicing the 'Fibonacci-Breathing-Sequence'.

Triangles formed into pyramids, squares into cubes,… and this went on for various three-dimensional figures.

All this while his physical body was breathing in the patterns of the 'Fibonacci-Sequence'…

… Hugo inhaled once and maintained the breath for five seconds without exhaling…

He inhaled once again twice and maintained the breath for five seconds before exhaling one time…

Then he inhaled thrice and… exhaled twice…

… Inhaled five times and… exhaled thrice…

… And then he inhaled eight times… and exhaled five-times…

Hugo then attempted to complete the next sequence of the breathing sequence while simultaneously practicing the Psykhe-Visualization-Exercises, and sensing the world energy…

He successfully inhaled to the twelfth breath… but at the thirteenth breath, he once again ran into a brick wall. He felt no euphoria from practicing the exercises that had been so satisfying in his first four years on Gaia.

"What am I doing wrong?" Hugo mumbled after opening his eyes.

Even in his previous life, Hugo had not experienced as much-repeated failure as he had in the last 2 years. He was experiencing the four capital 'Ds'.

He was 'Defeated', 'Dejected', 'Depressed', and 'Disturbed'.

He had been a child prodigy and a peerless inventor in his previous life. Although he was poor, he had possessed the pride of a scholar in being able to tackle any problem using scientific inference and deductions.

But alas, science was not the only rule of the cosmos or universe… whatever it may be.

What was he to do to get past his bottleneck?

Hugo sighed once more as he watched the ribbons of golden morning sunlight spill onto the trees of the nearby forest. The individual pines were deep-green silhouettes against the brilliant gold sky. The dew drops, adorning the forest, sparkled with rainbow iridescence.

The reincarnated inventor from Earth took in this picturesque scene and his mood brightened.

[Why am I even depressed?] Hugo wondered.

[I am living a second life. Why should I worry about things that I can't solve immediately?]

[… I just need to experience and enjoy the beauty of this life…]

"The purpose of life is to live it, to taste it, to experience it to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experiences," Hugo mumbled.

"This is how I should live my life from now on… Sigh… Eleanor Roosevelt was also an enlightened soul. A pity she wasn't a scientist." Hugo sighed, shaking his head.

He cast away all the negative thoughts… and voila, the morning seemed to brighten…

A smile appeared on his face enhancing his chubby dark-brown cheeks with dimples that would make any anime character like 'Lucy Heartfilia' cover her face in shame.

Hugo stood up and stretched his hand up towards the sky…

"The 'Universe' never closes all roads, I will surely find a way since school starts next week," he mumbled, letting the soft amber glow of the sunrise pour through his fingers and onto his upturned face.

"I should go back," He said to himself as he started to descend the mountain along a familiar pass that led directly back to Giza Town.

Hugo exhaled with relief when he reached the bottom and stepped onto the rugged path to the lower eastern gate of Giza.

Ahead lay a town, breathtakingly mysterious with old medieval architecture.

At its gate stood a statue that depicted the hooded God of Darkness - Erebus looking like he might rise from his throne at any moment. Hugo could even perceive some sort of otherworldly aura leaking from the statue.

Hugo didn't like the feeling the statue gave him. That was one of the reasons he had completely rejected any kind of association with the clergy of the Dark Church the moment he could talk. Even the Matriarch was cleanly defeated by Hugo's machinations intended to avoid the 'Dark Fellowships'.

A dome-shaped translucent gray barrier enclosed the town.

After reaching the gate, Hugo took out his illegally obtained residence-token necessary to pass the dome-shaped barrier when entering or exiting the town. The token was dull-gray and etched with mysterious ciphers that surrounded the sacred symbol of the God of Darkness engraved in its center.

Hugo pointed the token at the barrier when he was only a few steps away… and then…

"… Swash…"

A glowing gray light enveloped him and deposited him on the other side of the protective barrier of Giza town.

Once inside the protective barrier, Hugo let out a breath of relief as the town was still empty meaning that most of the townsfolk were either attending the early morning service or still asleep.

[At least I won't get caught by Tracy and the Matriarch. Miss Fox should be the only one at home… I better hurry before those nannies leave the morning service…] Hugo quickened his step as he left the deserted eastern gate of Giza town.

The air in the town felt fresh and new as a gentle wind caressed his dark brown skin.

The few streets and the buildings he bypassed were geometrical to the last brick.

Hugo broke into a light jog as he passed through the East-Main-Street of Giza town.

The street was magnificent, wide enough to allow two large lorries to drive side by side. The sidewalks were paved with smooth-gray stone, joined with such precision that the seams were nearly invisible.

Hugo continued jogging on the sidewalk and passed the blacksmith's workshop, already displaying some cold-weapons like swords and spears, and the alchemist shop full of potions, but still closed, and finally bypassed the majestic pitch-black cathedral at the very center of the Town.

Hugo could still hear the hymns being sung by devout believers of the God of darkness even after a few minutes' jog.

He had always been creeped out by the cathedral, which made him instinctively feel that he was being observed by secret watchers.

He let out a light breath of air and then emerged from the West-Main-Street on the western side of Giza onto the narrow dirt road that led southward to the residential area of the Dark Church officials.

In this western part of Giza, he could finally see some signs of human activity.

A few groups of youth were jogging through the otherwise deserted dirt roads of the residential part of Giza. But every one of them was too tired and breathless to savor the persimmon sky, or the rays that radiated from the golden orb that had just risen above the horizon in the east.

Hugo slowed down his pace and started strolling towards the house on Boma Street, which had been his home for the past six years.

Small medieval-looking houses dotted this part of Giza and pine trees, perfectly straight like spikes, zigzagged the borders of dirt brown roads and unpolished homes.

Hugo was soon walking on the stone-paved path that led to the front door of his home.

The house was cubic with its front door dead center. Four medium-sized windows lay near each corner and it was painted warm-gray like any other house in Giza.

Hugo started tiptoeing a few paces away from the front entrance, but his expression drastically changed when he heard the voices coming from behind the double-arched wooden doors…