When Zayn found his way to the closest Inn which he lodged once again, he was satisfied with himself.
His fortune was certainly amongst the top 1% if compared to his peers. As for those with more wealth than him, it was likely that only a handful of them were self-made, which was the case with Zayn.
It was only obvious that he felt proud of himself. However, there was no time for him to get arrogant. He was still weak and the fortune he had amassed would dwindle much faster than he wanted to accept. That was the bitter truth. Zayn accepted this truth regardless, but it was not as if he would suddenly grow tired of pursuing strength. He was not the type of person who was willing to idle around.
That was also why he materialized the Grimoire of the Ancient in front of him, hoping to read something that would help him a lot.
However, what he didn't expect to find on the second written page were the memories, guidance, and some advice from the former user. Before Zayn, or rather his past self got hold of the Grimoire of the Ancient, others seemed to have been in possession of the ancient relic as well.
Zayn was not really surprised about this because he didn't think that the Grimoire of the Ancient was just another ordinary book, and he couldn't be more right!
"The Grimoire of the Ancient is a Mythical Item created in the Era of the Downfall. It never binds to the strongest, the luckiest, or the most talented, but to those who are willing to do everything it takes to achieve their goals!" Zayn recited with great interest.
He could tell that the Grimoire of the Ancient was a special item, even without the need to read through the praise of it being a Mythical Item, or created in the Era of the Downfall, whenever that may have been.
The first page of the Grimoire was already evidence enough to prove this statement correct.
Zayn felt an itching sensation in his head when he was about to finish reading through the second written page of the Grimoire, and he prepared himself for the incoming pain of resurfacing memories.
The Fragmented Memories of his past showed him the same page as he had woven, or so Zayn thought at first until the memories of the page's content flooded his mind.
'Advice from other users were noted down in the Grimoire before? Why did it change all of a sudden?' Zayn wondered and he began to compare his past memories with the words scribbled on the Grimoire's page in front of him. The result was that only the first sentence was the same and that every other anecdote, comment, and advice had changed.
"But these pieces of advice are much better, aren't they?" Zayn blurted out in confusion while staring at the Grimoire in front of him. If he were to be given the same second written page as before, he would have loathed the Grimoire for wasting his precious soul particles for the pieces of advice and guidance that seemed to be entirely useless for him.
However, he also recalled that he had been overjoyed with the pieces of advice the Grimoire had given him in the past. That didn't really make sense, if not for a certain factor that had to be taken into consideration.
'What if I needed those specific pieces of advice in the past? Right now, the second written page of the Grimoire seems to be perfectly cut out for me, almost as if it was customized to cover all my needs and answer questions that have been tormenting my mind!'
Zayn figured that the Grimoire was adapting to his needs and desires. That was pretty amazing and it increased his expectations for the third written page drastically.
He was hoping for a combat technique, turned the page, and halted in his tracks, frowning deeply as he read the title of the technique he got to learn.
"Soul…Guidance?! That's definitely not a combat technique…"
For a moment, Zayn was disappointed but he couldn't afford the luxury to sulk like this for long. Fragmented memories of the past flooded him, providing every single piece of information he required to know about the new technique he had just learned.
It was a technique that hadn't been used often in the past because the Zayn of the past had unlocked this technique very late. That was something he realized pretty quickly since his proficiency with the technique was not good even after he recalled various memories revolving around the Soul Guidance technique.
Zayn felt a little bit sad with the recalled memories. It was not about the Soul Guidance technique but the feelings, and the gloomy atmosphere that shrouded the Zayn of the past as he had unlocked the new technique.
'What was I doing in the past? Was I in a tricky situation? Did someone I liked die? Why was I so sad?'
There were too many questions and none of them could be answered solely by looking at the fragmented memories he had recalled of the past until now.
Thinking about the past and being sad about the things he didn't recall were certainly not helpful. Thus, Zayn chose to ignore the past memories since he couldn't go back in time nor could he influence his recollection of the past, let alone the past itself, in the first place.
Instead, he decided to focus on the Soul Guidance technique which made things much easier. The technique allowed Zayn to support and guide Souls, which included his Spirits, by entering their bodies with his consciousness. That was pretty interesting, especially when Zayn realized that the memories of the past showed him how his old self had used the technique to guide one of his Spirits in the creation of its Soulring.
Being able to help his Spirits with the creation of their Soulring was pretty advantageous, especially when it came to the Sparrow Spirits who weren't able to create their Soulring on their own.
The only downside of the Soul Guidance technique was that it required a tremendous amount of soul particles to be activated and even more to be maintained over a long period of time.
Activating the technique required a lot but the time for which it was kept activated increased the consumption of soul particles exponentially. That meant he couldn't help his Spirits with everything when it came to the creation of Soulrings.
However, Zayn believed that he could work around that. Somehow, that should be possible. It was certainly worth a try!