2.2

The floor was made up of corridors of slabs with complex symmetrical patterns and railings. The walls on the sides were not solid, but shelves with hundreds of holes crammed with objects, the medium and small walls looked the same, even though they formed a labyrinth. Stairs went up and down while the ceiling had luminous squares and majestic drawings that were difficult to look at. The pillars, the same color and size as the trees of the Ever-Changing Forest, were also hollow. From the entrance nothing was distinguishable, but up close you could see them better, inside were hundreds of neatly organized books. How did the young man know they were books if he had lived through almost nothing? Well, his training master always carried a book that caught his attention, and "The Great Wise Wizard" had used a book to tell him the story of how his parents came to be here. In his so short life Rey had seen two books, and heard that books held knowledge. However, he could not read. He knew he had knowledge in front of him, but he had no idea how to interpret it. Deciphering unknown characters was not easy. Figuring out how they worked wasn't either.

Browsing than browsing, pulling out books and scrolls, questions came to the distracted little boy's mind.

"What does each sign represent? An idea? A syllable, or even a sound?" he wondered as he flipped through the pages of the last book on the first shelf. "Well, for food I don't have to worry. For time either... I've got forever," he said to himself.

After attacking the air-conditioned box for the 300th time, Rey returned to the interior of the library. The floor was no longer a floor, as it seemed to be made up of open books. In the past, his teacher, Heroclades, had told him, "Reason and draw your own conclusions." However, Rey had always had difficulty making his deductions. No matter how much he thought about it, so far, after all, he could not remember ever being able to draw a conclusion that did not have to do with the death of another being. In light of this, he said to himself over and over again:

"Get it. To the end. Keep moving forward. Don't stop..."

Between books and a lot of concentration, Rey collapsed on the floor.

"What's wrong with me... I'm weak."

He sat up. He began to reflect, to think about why his muscles failed him despite having eaten every time he felt hungry. He remembered the figures of his father, Hero and Mijan.

"How is it that they could have such toned and muscular bodies? How did Fang and Hero do it? Because of how much they moved. All the time they spent working out and training. Of course, they don't stay in the same place doing nothing for a long period of time, unlike the one I've been sitting in. The only muscles I've used are my eyes and my fingers to read."

Taking a deep breath the little boy laughed out loud. He reached an accomplishment, he had come to a conclusion after reflection.

"But I have to move. Even if I still don't understand the words and I have a long way to go, I have to move from time to time."

With twice the time, Rey was finally able to come to understand the patterns the letters followed. He still had a long way to go, but in the meantime, he had to exercise the muscles from his fingertips to his head.

Rey would read and for every page he turned he would immediately perform ten jumps, or ten swipes with his claws. At that moment, an idea came to his mind when he saw his fist raised.

"Fist. It's a word. It has four letters and sounds like the combination of two different syllables."

But that wasn't all, there were books with figures of beings making use of their fists. After discovering what the word "fist" looked like, then it was the word "finger", "arm" and so on until he understood all the parts of the body that he could verbalize. Rey had an extensive vocabulary. Having listened to the elders talk for so long without any word being forgotten was a great advantage. The book he had first been able to understand dealt with the different melee arts and there was one word in particular that caught the little boy's attention, fascinated to be able to read after so much effort. "Specialist rank" The same word that had been used by Silvia.

"It seems there are twelve rankings to measure the power of something or someone" he said to himself. "Servus Rank, meaning someone in service to, with an interest in learning, like my earlier self. Beginner Rank: one who has basic skills and knowledge; me, now. Intermediate Rank: advanced skills and knowledge. Advanced Rank: complex skills and knowledge. Master Rank: Heroclades is my only point of reference, he is my teacher, it means that he is someone who has the ability to teach what he knows. Specialist Rank: Silvia, who can create her own style or movements with what she has learned. Royal/Crowned Rank: specialist of various arts + increased effectiveness, colossus mode. Emperor Rank: complex manipulation of large-scale specialty, "often affect the surrounding [zone]", king of species. Holy Rank: absolute perfection, continental scale effects, "teleportation and more". God Rank: further enhances the scale of absolute perfection, planetary scale effect, "total destruction or salvation". Transcendental Rank: absolute scale effects, "time, present, past and future, reincarnation with knowledge". Divine Rank: "chosen" or else "differentiated", "distinguished", not bound by the logics of existence or energy."

Rey stood up. After turning a page of the book in his hand, it was his turn to perform his set of movements, which no longer consisted of just a few squats or boxing jacks. Now it was a whole combination of advanced actions until beads of sweat fell on the pages and so he went back to reading.

He came to a conclusion:

"Most of the instructions in these books are for those who want to reach advanced rank in various methods of combat. Small arms, big guns, short range, medium range, medium range, long range, melee, defense, attack, counter defense, counter attack. I have learned everything these books say. Although, truth be told, no matter how many martial moves I learn, my body size doesn't help at all if I were to face any of the bigger guys. Mhhh, the thousands of physical techniques I've learned don't make up for my weakness at all. I can make use of "Fighting Spirit", the various elemental controls, spellcasting, aura control or some other fighting art, but the theoretical learning of these non-physical skills can never be compared to the practical. Only real battles can make me a warrior of advanced rank. If I fight against someone stronger than me and observe their movements, I will be able to raise my rank over time. With "specialist" grade, I would be at the same level as Silvia, but father and mother are stronger than Silvia. Mother was able to employ teleportation to bring the whole group here. And father, he can beat mother with ease, or so I think. Mother has to be Holy grade. Father has to be God grade. Although mother used a scroll to get to perform teleportation. Ummm... It's not worth thinking about it for now, there are still many more books, much more knowledge. Leaving the physical aside, I could focus on being a sorcerer."

Rey stood in front of the pillar whose name had "Sorcery" written on it, reached out his hands and pulled out volume one of the hundreds of books. He had realized that every time he was going to start on a new subject, he should start with the first version, since it was easy to understand and introduced more complicated subjects.

"Now that I review better, books of this type begin with something similar. "Spellcasters willing to use the means of this book must go through "initiation". A process that consists of the awakening of twenty-four energy vortexes that will become the pillars that will support the full weight of an internal microworld, the perfect environment to materialize imagination into energy and then turn it into reality." Of course, the microworld is the pinnacle of sorcery, however, "with the awakening of each vortex, one acquires the qualification to invoke existing clamors... Water clamors are the most harmless for the sorcerer and which are recommended to practice first (...) To train your mental capacities, you must repress sleep... To rest your body without sleeping, you must meditate. To meditate is...". All these books have instructions, but they are incomplete, they do not even have seals or incantations to cry out. No spellcasting technique could be recreated, let alone awaken one of the twenty-four energy vortexes or create a core. Umm, something new. Warnings: "Mistake in conjuration or in manipulating the energy can end up destroying the user. To fight, it is better to use silent or shortened cries... With great power there are great consequences. Crying in extreme situations is dangerous and very risky, you must have absolute control over your heart, mind and the energy passing through the vortexes. Do not cry out under circumstances of stress spell with the strength or power to end the life of the user. One should fight using the fairest and most necessary cries. Lack of concentration in the act can lead to end up cursed and transformed into the creature you tried to invoke or lose reasoning forever. Having a blocked vortex can result in loss of consciousness, direct and even permanent damage to the chakra in question. Combining strong emotions with poor pronunciation or writing at the time of calling out can result in the spell caster exploding, or the spell's effect being the opposite... The art of calling out does not obey the laws of proportion, logic or matter. Cries can result in recreations of the present, past, and even the future, which supports speculation that it was the tool used in the creation of everything."

Disgusted that he did not meet the qualifications for clamoring, Rey put the sorcery aside, and made his way to where the pillar of "Aura Control Arts" was located. After opening the first book and taking a look, he added.

"It looks more attainable and less risky. Of the eight existing paths, shadow control can help me with my training. I understand that, for many non-physical skill arts, you need to be born with them or have an affinity, although it doesn't hurt to try to learn them."

With a determined face, Rey continued.

"The first step to shadow control is meditation, controlling the breath and visualizing my essence."

The little boy's essence became visible in his imagination. The body was black, and seven other layers enveloped him. Each layer had its own meaning and attributes, for example, control of white favors invisibility in daylight, discipline or even resurrection. The control of gold favors intuition, discernment and wisdom. And green, regeneration; even so, Rey understood that he had to prioritize one and it was black.

"The second step is to visualize the different colors that make up my energy and choose black, which represents shadow. Once selected, separate it, become aware of its movements, its size, intensity and darkness. Then, fight it, make it real, tangible, let it hit me so hard that it makes me bleed, and I hit it so hard that it breaks its bones. Fourth step: separate it from me, let it become independent. Fifth: appearance. Sixth: let her have a mind of her own, and seventh: let her duplicate herself by repeating the previous steps. Now, to reach the advanced degree in this control, I must make my body a shadow and make my presence disappear.... "