Basics of Keystone

In any case, Silas figured he would find the answer as he grew stronger.

Silas also finally learned what achievements were. Achievements were the official currency of Keystone. After a mage reaches the Adept stage, he is required to earn a certain number of achievements to continue staying in Keystone and access various facilities and information.

Silas also learned why he received so little information in the welcome package. This was because Silas was an anomaly. He was the only student among the current 500 Outer Sanctum members who had no background. All other members came with the reference of an alumnus. 

As such, they already knew a lot of the common information that Silas didn't. Thankfully, this booklet was going to fill the information gap.

There was a lot of other general information about Keystone as an organization, but only a few pieces of information really roused Silas's curiosity. He finally learned why that student in his class left immediately after he was allowed to. This was because members were allowed to get private tutoring.

Generally, a mage has to gather achievements and exchange them for this opportunity, but a senior mage can also take the opportunity to teach a member free of charge. This generally only happens when the student has a strong background.

He also learned that there was no advantage in being promoted quickly. But it still only took the average mage a year and a half to reach the disciple stage. This meant that if Silas was to continue on his three-year plan, he would be taking twice as long as the average student.

He had no problem with that, but it piqued his curiosity. He couldn't understand how someone could train their body, mind, and soul to the peak in such a short time. It took Silas decades in his previous life to achieve perfect body and mind control in his past life. 

'Perhaps, this place has some special facilities or tools that can speed up the process, ' he thought. 

Mind and body control was not a joke. Body control meant using the body efficiently—maximizing strength without wasting energy. Normally, the brain limits how much strength we can use to prevent injury.

An average person can access roughly 30 to 50 percent of their muscle capacity, while elite athletes might reach 70 to 80 percent through training. Achieving true body control would mean consistently pushing past these natural neurological limits—a feat few could even imagine and reach 100 percent. 

As one can imagine, this was not an easy feat. 

Mind control was an even more challenging feat. Perfect mind control meant that one has perfect control of their emotions and their mind. Just emotion control is a superhuman feat, just imagine if all of one's emotions are under one's control, this would mean that one will have control over the direction of one's thoughts, no emotion would cloud one's judgements, and one will never perform an action he regrets due to his rashness.

Of course, Silas's control was never that perfect; otherwise, there wouldn't have been the whole time-machine fiasco.

In his past life, Silas's control over his mind was so strong that he could quantify his thoughts. This was without the super-brain device he had built. 

This was a terrifying concept. It meant that Silas could treat his own mind like a computer; divide his thoughts into different threads to achieve multitasking, effectively allocate his mind like processing power to these threads, and much more.

Of course, this only became possible after decades of meditation and mind-enhancing drugs developed by his team.

So, he was curious whether people in Keystone can truly reach this stage in a year and a half, or do they give up before they reach this stage.

In the organizational structure, Silas learned the meaning behind the stripes, it was as he assumed, and why Arthur was so candid with Instructor Juno. It was because there is no concept of seniority in Keystone, in the traditional sense.

Keystone encourages mages to treat each other like colleagues rather than as seniors and juniors.

'This is really a weird organization, ' Silas chuckled. Keystone really treated itself like a research organization rather than as a powerhouse.

In the final and most important section, Silas learned of the various facilities in the Outer Sanctum.

The market was one of the most important places in the Outer Sanctum, since it catered to any need the members may have. From the pamphlet, he learned how to properly 'promise' someone. Any Disciple and above stage mage could form a magic contract with just a handshake, but an Observer stage mage had to write a magic contract and sign it. 

This was both an advantage and a disadvantage. It was a disadvantage since it required much more effort. But it was an advantage too, since it was much easier to get the wording right on paper. It also decreased the chances of getting duped. Of course, if an Observer mage is dealing with higher-stage mages, he can always do a handshake deal with them, but it was suggested that it is better to do a written contract deal before getting accustomed to the contract process.

Silas was very satisfied with this information packet. It was clear that it was made specially for him. After reading through it, Silas could finally relax a little. He finally had some basic information about this place.

And from what he read, he was safe here. The only danger he will face in this place is from people trying to take advantage of him and from magic itself. He was more than fine with that.

It took Silas only twenty minutes to read the booklet, so he still had more than enough time to visit various sites in Keystone.

He was close to the library, so he decided to start there. The library was known as the 'Keeper's Vault' and was one of the most famous venues in the universe.