21 Training

I thought to ask Drrak and remembered what he said that I was mentally unstable. But I changed my mind, it's not that Drrak couldn't help instead, I knew once I prove myself unreliable he'll try to manipulate or he'll just make me acquiesce.

There is no difference between Drrak and that mage both deceitful and troublesome. So I restrained my emotions and calmed myself as I turned to Brian.

"Thank you for the help," I said trying to sound as sincere as possible. I hated favors and they didn't make me feel good, so I had to force out a smile and remember to get rid of this favor as soon as possible.

"No problem, you're one of my own," Brian said with a brilliant smile

"But I wouldn't recommend starting any more fights," he said sternly

"I am sorry I lost control earlier it won't happen again." I bowed my head in shame to please his ego. I told myself I wasn't conceding to him by bowing as I ground my teeth.

"It's fine just get back to work."

I quietly obeyed and went back to putting the books away. I grabbed the book the Gavyn had left. After I finish stocking the books I looked for another book on Elves. But sadly I found nothing specific to elves just some tidbits about their origins.

But I did find one piece of interesting information, the elves are the only true magic race. That's why they have magic eyes was what this book theorized. But that would run contradictory to what the dragons were described as.

'Drrak define a magic race.' I asked

'Are you asking because of that book you are reading?

'Yes.' I responded waiting expectantly

Drrak remained silent for a moment

'Beings created through magic and are the most skilled at magic manipulation.'

'What aren't you telling me?' I said inquisitively

'Nothing you would understand.'

'I would think of myself as rather intelligent why not tell me?' I teased

'All I have is a fragmented memory about the elves, I can't tell you the answer.'

I stopped pushing Drrak with that he's always answered my questions to the best of his ability if he can't tell me then it must be personal. If I push me he'll do the same to me, and I can't have that can I?

I then spent the rest of my time in the library reading the book on the Age of Collapse. This book was luckily a little more objective it avoided the topic of the gods. Instead, it examined the areas that info of the Age of Collapse was found and what was found. It made no specific analysis instead it presented very valuable information.

One name kept reappearing in the Dread Empire specifically a southwestern ruin that was extremely dangerous. Even if one was able to enter, getting past the various monsters in there was tough. Some even said a godly fey beast lurks inside because of that the Dread Empire hasn't made many expeditions into the ruin.

But previous expeditions date the ruin to around the Age of Collapse. I went to a map and compared it to the map the merchant in the desert gave me.

The merchant's map only included parts of Rain and Kirin. But it didn't show Dread or Vermillion Country or even the holy realm.

The center of all the 4 nations to the west was the Holy Realm, to the North of the holy realm was Kirin. South of Kirin was Rain. To the south East of Rain was Vermillion Country and to the south-west was the Dread Empire.

To the lowest corner of the Dredian kingdom was where the ruin was found. After that was the Tloms gulf which separated the beast continent to the human continent. The beast continent lacked any additional information just a general map of its borders.

A consequence of no major human excursions since the start of the era of three continents. Then just parallel to the human continent was the elven island in the middle of the Lonely Depths.

Which separated the fey continent and human continent. The rest of the world was a global ocean. The fey continent was especially rough in design with its borders being marked as unknown.

I looked up some geography about the 4 kingdoms, the thing about this kind of information it wasn't easy to get. Especially when you live paycheck to paycheck and are only concerned with living.

A commoner could live his whole life unaware of where he lived. Even that merchant who worked hard on making a map made a shoddy product at best with years of work and buying information from others.

When I finally found some information that matched my home, I realized I most likely lived in the Dread Empire. The policies and some of the big families matched and there were even a few mentions of the Silent Blades guild.

'But I could be very well wrong, I'll make sure to visit Lewis to thank him for his help.' I thought with a mocking laugh

I took the books with me home and by the end of the day, I was at 420 sword marks.

I had already received my monthly income and I have my betting amounts. All totaling 450 sword marks reading the magic book was 10 sword marks and the other books I got were 20 sword marks.

I went home that day and once again practiced telekinesis until I fell asleep. I woke up again and went to the library, I went around stocking more books. On my break, I talked with Drrak about my level.

'So what do I need to do to level up?' I asked

'The first layer is outer reformation, it's about changing the outside of your body and shedding mortality. You must hone your body's stats with exercises to level up.'

'When will the change be noticeable?' In my timeline, it should be in the next 14 days.

'That ultimately depends on your exercises, I don't have an understanding of the human body. You'll have to develop exercises that work all your stats.'

With Drrak's advice, I went around reading books on anatomy, I would work on each attribute one at a time. The first is the strength stat which was easy. I just need something to resist against and I just have to temper my muscles by fighting that force. But one problem I learned was the distribution of that force. No object could be perfect for tempering all of the body.

I looked around for any books on physics and I got one describing the properties of forces. After reading through it I didn't find any inspiration. I put down the book in frustration as I rubbed my temples.

'I've got 28 more days to make major improvements, I've already set a timeline for myself.'

I had already decided ever since I got a flawless physique to pursue perfection because that would help me create a solid foundation. So I spent a week thinking and reading about something that would distribute force evenly through my body. When finally it hit me I couldn't help but smile and feel anxious about going home.

This time I didn't go home instead I went to the arena where the training field was to the side. At this point, the only person was the old watchman in front of the arena. Since I was just entering the training field he didn't stop me, he just quietly watched me. I went to a corner of the training field where he couldn't see me, and I saw no one was near.

This was an exercise I couldn't do in the small space of my room, so I had no choice but to come here. I unsheathed the void blade and swung the blade normally.

I entered into a calm state as each slash speed up and I felt more confident. When I felt that I no longer needed to think to swing, I started using telekinesis. This time I applied the telekinesis on my body like gravity, to make it harder to move. Considering telekinesis is equal to my strength, trying to move would be tough.

The best part was I would only improve my telekinesis and ultimately increase my magic power. While using all my strength to fight my own telekinesis, it also trains my mind for multitasking.

After my magic power ran out I would meditate it would take a few minutes, I then felt the disadvantage of having my magic power regeneration decreased.

The worst part was I haven't even gotten the benefits of shadow magic yet, so it's nothing but a disadvantage. But if I get this short sighted I wouldn't improve would I?

So I continued the night alternating between meditation to restore my energy and relax then training in the blade arts after a full night my strength and endurance stat had increased by one point. I've got twenty more days I plan on reaching level 2 perfectly.