The Beginning (6)

"Go and sit on the chair. Because 'I' will personally overlook your studies from now onwards... !"

...

[I am going to die. There's no doubt about it.]

I slowly walked, sat on the chair and brought the bench near to me. Chills were running down my spine. Dark reigner summoned a chair out of thin air and sat opposite me. He started, "Let us revise what we did in the first part of the drill!"

I replied, "Yeah, I was meditating and you made many alterations to my body inside out. I felt a sudden rise of heat within me and then my whole body underwent rapid changes in split-seconds. That caused me bouts of pain. But later, I slowly got used to the pain and the impurities were completely purged away from my body. That's how I understood it!"

Then he made his elaboration,

"Well, you are not wrong in some of the parts. But, I didn't make any changes in your body.

[Huh? Then how come I changed so much.]

... At the beginning, I gathered all the darkness that was manifested inside you for hundreds and thousands of years. I forced all the darkness into a single pointed location of your body, at the centre of your heart. The dark nature compressed into a single point and I used that chance to forcefully make it into an abyss core.

[Would my heart hurt when I release Darkened Daylight from the core?]

... You don't need to worry. A core is not something that can be touched physically. Just like the mana core in your previous life, it can only be touched with the help of power that is imbued on the body or magic spells.

And later, when the abyss core was formed successfully, it led to a sudden outburst of power in your body and that is why your bones near the torso got twisted and you vomited blood. Still, there were some loose ends on your formed core. The dark nature was leaking continuously. Before the core could get empty or shatter into bits, I brought you back to focus and began fixing the core. As the core's structure and flow were getting better, your body had been undergoing changes as a side effect of your core's perfection. In the end, the darkness inside you got purified.

[Huh, I thought only light would have purities and impurities. Even darkness has impurities?]

... No, the darkness manifested within you would be enough to kill a thousand mutant asymmetrons. But, there was also a small amount of light inside you. That light was creating an imbalance with the darkness and slowing the pace of your growth.

[The light must have been manifested from my previous lives.]

... After the core was perfected, the light was burnt by the darkness and was released out of your body.

[So, that black sweat was the burnt light inside me?]

... Yes, but that doesn't mean your body is completely purified. Only ten percent of the darkness within you was stored in your core. The remaining ninety percent was still too excessive. So I imbued an authority to your new suit. It would keep that excessive darkness on hold, inside your body. I also imbued 'invincible' trait into it. The cloth would never get torn or any burns.

[But that doesn't mean my skin and bones wouldn't hurt when I am hit in a battle. I would rather have you imbue defence authority to it.]

... Remember young lad, Darkened Daylight is not as complicated as Aftermath Monarchy or as simple as Reigning Supreme Star. It is just dangerous out of all due to the abyss. If you let your impulse get the best of you, then the abyss would make you dance around the clutches of chaos by turning you into a psychopath. So, I cannot make the drill anymore easier for you. If you were in danger, then the worst case could happen. Presently, the difficulty of your missions would be easy. But the difficulty will rise in the future. You will regret it when the time comes!"

...

[Yeah, I can't rely too much on external support. I travelled on my own, made companions and raised my rank in every life. I should have that same courage and belief within myself.]

Dark reigner smiled slightly and said, "Now that you are hyped up, why don't we begin your studies?!"

[;;;;... I am beginning to have second thoughts.]

...

It has been three days since I started reading books about the entirety of existence. Dark reigner made me study ten encyclopedias without me having a wink of sleep. I also had to memorize every single word of the books. For a note, I received the 'shape shift' authority from him. But I can only change the colour of my eyes with it.

[Damn it, this 'shape shift' authority just changes the colour of my eyes but does not turn my eye into a human eye.

Phew...

If it wasn't for the comprehension skills of my past lives, it would have taken me a whole year to comprehend a hundred thousand pages. Thanks to my abyss core, my senses and mentality were heightened. Wait, why not ask dark reigner about the doubt I had in my mind?]

"What is it that's in your mind!", asked the dark reigner. I flinched towards the sudden reaction and said, "Well, you said I had to grow stronger quickly. Does that mean I will get my own system from the lord of afterlife?"

He said, "Relying on something so simple would only slow your growth. You should have an understanding of the power you are wielding. Having a system would only force everything into your body. That will lead to an outburst of darkness within you and you will turn into a lunatic who would enjoy chaos!"

That reason scared the hell out of me. I greeted him, ";;;;... I Thank you for the warning. And I will never ask a favour regarding the system!"

He smiled and said, "Continue studying. I am busy in my battle!"

[;;;;... You sure are enjoying bloodshed like some kind of sport.]

These three days, the dark reigner was sitting on a black and white designed sofa and was watching battles that were prevailing in different realms and in between different species via a huge transparent sphere that was floating in mid-air. It reminded me of the first time when we were in his soul dimension.

[Wonder what kind of sport is battle. The way he is enjoying the battle behind the scenes is no different from a human enjoying sports matches via TV.]

But, I felt several changes in these few days. On the first day, I was hardly able to comprehend a single book. On the second day, I comprehended three books. The third day was a huge surprise, six books were comprehended by me. I didn't get what was happening within me. A few moments ago, I asked the dark reigner, "Mr Madrona, can you check whether my body underwent any changes?"

He said within an instant from his sofa, "Pushing the limits of your body and mainly 'mentality', gave an upper hand to your abyss core in accumulating the excessive darkness that has been freeloading in your whole body. Right now, your core has assimilated a total of fifteen percent of that darkness. If you continue this pace, you would succeed in assimilating twenty-five percent of the freeloading dark nature!"

I attempted, "Then, what about the remaining seventy-five percent?"

He replied, "Not everything can be done by mentality alone. Mentality just helps you in maintaining your calm, focus, emotions, feelings and certain other mind factors. It does not help much in a battle, since you need to have a potential IQ and a strong physique to stand on equal footing with your foe!"

[Guess I have to figure out how to improve my IQ, swiftness and speed.]

"But, your comprehension of the knowledge from the books may help you in increasing the rate of assimilation by more than twenty-five percent!", said the dark reigner.

I responded immediately, "What? It can go above twenty-five percent? But you said my mentality can only help me reach twenty-five percent of assimilation!"

He smiled slightly and said, "In order to comprehend a thick book, you have to maintain a strong mentality. But to comprehend a knowledge perfectly, you need to have lots of IQ!"

[Then, my 'Intelligence Quotient' is what helped me comprehend that knowledge much quicker than usual?]

"If you combine your strong mentality and high-leveled IQ, then you might assimilate up to forty-five percent of the outer darkness in your body. You better get back to your work!", he said.

I felt encouraged by what he said and continued my work, "Yes sir, I will do my best!!!"

...

It had been a week since I started comprehending the knowledge of every book. By that time, the whole room was filled with thick encyclopedias. The count of those encyclopedias might even surpass a hundred.

[In this one week, I studied and comprehended more than a hundred books, which is equivalent to ten million pages of literature. I can also feel and guess the amount of excess dark nature. If my guess is correct, then the amount of excess darkness I absorbed would be forty percent.]

"It's thirty-five percent!", said the dark reigner while watching otherworldly battles via his transparent sphere.

I replied, ";;;;... Thanks for enlightening me of my mistake, Mr Madrona!"

---flip---

The transparent sphere that was in mid-air vanished and he stood up from his sofa. I too stood and stretched my body. All that time, I didn't even get up from my spot and he filled my stomach with his authority to 'cure everything'. With that, he cured my hunger, thirst, fatigue and migraine whenever I passed out.

[Now that I can move my body so freely, I feel very much relieved. But, my butt is still feeling the pain.]

As I was flexing out my muscles, dark reigner walked past the exit. I stopped flexing my muscles and followed him. I was back to the bookshelf dimension. He stopped at a doorway that was in between the bookshelves. I stood right behind him. He placed his palm on the door and said, "It is time for the third and last part of your first drill to begin!"