152. The Book

❮ ◈ ❯

Krav Maga has reached level 5. Host has accumulated a sufficient amount of level 5 proficiencies to initiate a combination.

Will you fuse your Close Quarter Combat Proficiencies?

Yes/No

❮ ◈ ❯

Rakna exhaled when the notification finally arrived. He had been training for nearly three hours now and it was close to midnight. He had also ordered Trii to increase gravity to 200 while he practiced against the dummies. It tired him faster but it benefited his growth so it was all the better for him.

When he accepted the prompt, his mind became clearer for a second then welcomed a new set of close combat theories. Even though most of his fighting skills were driven by his instinct, it wasn’t a bad thing to possess.

‘Now that this is done, there’s just the Kzanaria left. But I can’t ‘feel’ how to use it like Vow of Accord or Astral Projection. Is it something that happens spontaneously?’ He thought and sat down cross-legged after Trii had called back the dummies.

“Let’s visit that library then. Who knows, maybe I’ll find something there,” he muttered and began to channel his soul power to enter his meditation. “Ah, and Trii, keep the gravity at this stage. I might as well let my body get used to this pressure in a relaxed state.”

|| Understood. ||

Rakna closed his eyes and let Soul Breath do its work. Before he knew it, he was already standing in his soul realm. He had gotten the hang of this place and entering was significantly easier than when he first did it.

He looked around and didn’t find any trace of Higure or Fray. Rexam was flying in the sky under the twelve moons and when his eyes fell on Fenriu, the wolf yawned and pointed at the library above him with one of his tails.

Rakna nodded. “Thanks,” he muttered and used one flash step to get to the building. Though, the way his skill manifested in his soul realm appeared different. It was as if he had emulated it with his will alone.

“Then again, this place is my soul. I can probably control it to some extent,” he muttered and held out his hand. He concentrated a bit and without notice, a cigarette appeared in his hand. He huffed and put it in his mouth. He then snapped his fingers and it was lighted. “As expected,” he muttered and opened the door of the library.

The interior was very similar to what it was in Fray’s Quest but one large difference was that there was an open second floor above him. Rakna hummed and tried to sense the presence of the lioness and storyteller. He raised an eyebrow and started walking in their direction as he eyed the books he passed by every now and then.

He walked up the stairs to the second floor and ultimately reached a door. When his hand touched the knob, he nearly gasped as a terribly familiar feeling washed over him. For a second, he almost felt like his uncle was standing in front of him with Karma’s blade at his neck.

He scowled and opened the door in full. What he saw in there was Fray standing in the corner of the room as if he was scared to even move by a centimeter while Higure was sitting in front of a pedestal with a large black and red book open on it.

“Honestly speaking, Rakna, I have a hard time believing this man was human,” the lioness said as she carefully turned a page with her paw. “On a completely other level compared to you.”

“You don’t need to tell me that,” Rakna retorted and walked to the book as well. The closer he got, the clearer he could feel the domineering presence of his uncle. He took a look at the page Higure was reading and after a while, he sent a blank look at Fray. “Really? Did you also have to write his vacations when he was sixty?”

Fray shrugged and waved his fan in front of his face. “My magic can be rather… futilely detailed.”

Higure chuckled and closed the book. “Do you want to take a look yourself, devourer? I’m sure you don’t know everything about your uncle, right? At best, you must be aware of the main lines but not much more.”

“I don’t need to,” Rakna said and glanced at the book.

“Well, I would not recommend it. The longer that book stays open, the stronger it becomes,” Fray said. “It may be a bit hard to tell for you two but as the creator of it, it is clear to me. At this rate, it might become something independent from Rakna’s soul.”

“It’s that bad?” Higure asked surprised.

“Definitely so. Also, there was something I forgot to mention,” the storyteller mused. “When I used Tale Magic to look into that man’s life, there was an irregularity…”

“What kind?” Rakna asked.

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but from your perspective, Arimane Blade suddenly disappeared from the surface of the Earth overnight, right?”

Rakna frowned and looked at him. “Yes. He did. are you saying that even your magic wasn’t able to find out how he disappeared?”

“Exactly,” Fray closed his fan and walked out of the room. Rakna and Higure followed him out and they closed the door behind them. “But that is not all of it. Not only was I unable to discern how he went missing… but his tale in itself is not finished.”

Rakna froze when he heard that. “…you mean he’s not dead.”

“There is a high chance, yes. Moreover, there is no way that a normal human can have a connection that powerful to the World, to the point that it affects a book about him,” Fray said and leaned on the railings of the second floor. “Tell me, do you think it possible for him to have been a dweller of the supernatural world without your knowing? Enough to be able to even fool my magic?”

Rakna rubbed his eyes. “How would I be supposed to know? Frankly, everything’s possible with that old man. But if he could use magic, there are too many inconsistencies. Many things transpired which he would have never let happen if he had abilities to stop them. So, I lean toward no. But as I said, everything’s possible. So, as far as I know, he might have already become some sort of God of Death somewhere after his disappearance.”

Fray tapped his fan on his other hand a few times. “Well, there is no point in discussing this right now, is there? Now, I assume you came here to look for hints about Kzanarias, right?” He said and extended his hand toward a few shelves. “There isn’t anything specific. I have several stories about guardian angels, soul beasts, and spiritual incarnations. Kzanarias are similar to those.”

A few books slid off their shelves and floated to the storyteller’s hand. “But there is a certain book recorded here that is a journal; the journal of an experienced and talented soul practitioner. You should be able to find something useful in its contents,” he said and flicked his fingers. One of the books flew toward Rakna who caught it in flight.

The werewolf opened to the first page and read the first lines before closing it again. “Hey, can I read this outside of here?”

“It should not be a problem for you to manifest it as the genome trio would. If you use your star constructs, physically reading it shouldn’t be impossible as well,” Fray said.

“I see. In that case, I’ll read it later. I’ll go rest for today,” Rakna stated and tossed the book in a random direction. Then, with a thought, it flew right back to its place on the shelves.

“So, you already learned how to control your soul realm, huh?” Higure remarked as she noted both his trick with the book and the cigarette he was smoking.

“It’s not too complicated. Anyhow, see you tomorrow,” the therian said and faded away.

After he was gone, Fray sighed and looked back at the door of the room holding the book. “That is nothing less than a mystery now. Let’s hope that this book doesn’t get out of control one day.”

“Hm, what do you predict it to be able to do?” Higure asked. “It seems that it is being imprinted an identity. Do you think it will gain its own life?”

“Improbable,” Fray shook his head. “Perhaps a sort of beacon or a source of power are more likely outcomes. Regardless, I do not think it will become something nefarious to Rakna. It comes from his uncle at the end of the day. It wouldn’t do anything to harm him.”

Higure gave one last glance at the door, barely acting as a barrier for the overflowing bloodlust behind it, and nodded. “I guess we’ll have to see.”

* * *

Rakna ‘woke up’ in the morning with his body still under gravity’s influence. He grunted and stood up with a slight stagger. “My body’s a bit sore,” he grunted. “Trii, turn off the gravity,” he ordered and the pressure was lifted from him.

He instantly felt as if his weight had become nonexistent. It wasn’t because his physical abilities had become massively higher, of course. It was just a trick his brain was playing him after getting used to the restrictive hold of the amplified gravity.

“It wouldn’t be a bad idea to come here regularly,” he noted to himself as he left the room. He went to the entrance of the Pavilion and popped his joints with a groan. He held out his hand and closed his eyes for a second.

Cold energy swirled around his hand to create the journal he saw inside his soul realm. He walked out of the Pavilion whilst reading it and followed his map to the Trial. After around ten minutes, he had read around a tenth of the whole journal.

“There’s nothing lucid in this thing,” Rakna clicked his tongue. “It feels like it was written by someone with delusions; spouting shit like enlightenment, ascension, and earthly desires. It’s your soul damn it, not some sort of alien power that will make you invincible. People are weird.”

“{…well, you’re just that special to be able to understand your soul directly. Other people have to invent themselves artificial ways to further their insight. It’s not incorrect in itself, it’s a different method from yours.}”

“I guess.”

“{Did you find anything about Kzanarias?}”

“Hm, sort of. I’ll make a conclusion when I’m done reading it,” Rakna said and put the book inside his storage. His Star Hearth made it that it wouldn’t disappear for an entire day after all. “Anyway, it seems I’m the first to arrive,” he muttered as he stopped in front of a big rectangular pillar in the middle of a plaza in town.

He looked around a few times and shrugged. “I might as well do it first. It’s not like I need to leave the Plateau right away after finishing it,” he muttered and placed his hand on the pillar. A blue outline appeared around it and a System window popped up.

❮ ◈ ❯

You have reached a Trial Zone.

---

Trial of the Tenth Plateau: Simulation Trial.

You will be transported into an artificial dimension where you’ll be faced with a situation to solve, survive, create, or avoid, etcetera. The nature of the simulation will be random but the objective will be fairly clear to discern.

Conditions to Pass: Resolve the simulation.

❮ ◈ ❯

AhraManyu

As a little foreshadowing for ya; simulation trials are a big thing later on. As in, they constitute very nice things I'm planning to write.