22 Library

"1! 2! 3!...." "Come on Ben, stand up! Are you some kind of wuss?" "I can't look. My little baby." 'Come on, stand up. This is what you dreamt off.' Ben thinks while hearing all these voices coming from outside the ring.

Ben is currently laying on the ground inside a kickboxing ring. He was just dealt a powerful roundhouse kick from his opponent. The referee is counting down. 'COME ON!' Ben screams inside his head. 'NEVER BACK DOWN!'

Ben slowly lifts himself up and stands in his southpaw fighting stand. The referee comes up his face and examines him. The referee nods and stands in between Ben and his opponent. He back off and slashes his hands in between us. "Fight!"

Bens eyes focuses on his opponent. 'COME ON YOU CAN WIN THIS.' Ben steps forward. Him opponent who sees this is wounding up another roundhouse kick. 'Duck. Step right' Ben ducks and steps right. His opponents body is completely open for him now.

Ben gives a left jab to his opponents face and follows with a right hook. His opponent falters back and Ben conceals his fate with a high kick to the side of his opponents head.

The guy falls down unconscious on the mat. The referee comes in between Ben and his opponent and examines the opponent. The referee waves his hands above his head indicating that the match is over and the opponent can't fight back anymore.

"That's it, NEVER BACK DOWN!" Bens coach hugs him.

Ben is currently still in the bathroom after breaking through to the bone tempering stage. And entering the high foundation stage. Ben is having all sorts of thought inside his head and flash backs. These flash backs showed Ben falling from a high ledge when he was little. The flash backs showed Ben being hit in the ring and falling down. It showed him his trainings when he was about to give up.

Ben was slowly feeling more fear overtake him by the second. 'I am all alone surrounded by elves. In a land were cultivating is a thing.' 'Can I even stay alive to see my family again?' A lot of negative thought were flashing through Bens head.

Then the flash back came back but this time they showed Ben what happened after he fell down from the ledge, being hit in the ring and his training when he was about to give up. It showed him slowly picking himself up after the fall and gritting his teeth and walking away. It showed him standing back up after hitting the ground when he was punched down in the ring. And winning the whole match. It showed him the result of the harsh training he did.

The negative thoughts were replaced with a chant that was slowly becoming louder and louder. 'NEVER BACK DOWN!' A face of determination slowly replaced the face of fear form Bens face. Ben clenched his fists. 'Never back down. My motto when I am training and fighting a match.' Ben looks up with a soft expression. "I know you will worry about me, mom, dad, sister. But I will see you again." Ben pledged.

When the existential crisis Ben was having was dealt with. He walked out of the bathroom and changed into his clothes again. He walked out his room and approached a servant. "Hey, can you show me the way to the library?" Ben asked the servant.

Bens' eyes widen upon entering the grand royal library. The grand royal library's name isn't for show only. This library is located in a pocket space. This is one of the reasons why the royal palace was built in this location. When the pocket space entrance was discovered the royals, who lived at this time wanted somewhere to store all their knowledge and accumulated information to be stored.

So, when the entrance was discovered they built the palace around it. They anchored the entrance to the doors that lead to the library. In this library everywhere you look, you see bookshelves upon bookshelves. "Hello there!" A sudden voice says directed to Ben.

Ben turns to the face of the voice. He sees a man with stark white hair with light blue eyes. This man looked to be around 6'5 and had silver trimmed glasses. He wore a scholarly outfit and had in one hand a book.

"Hi." Ben says back. "I've never seen you before. Who are you?" The scholarly man says. "I'm Ben, the royal guest." Ben says. "Ah! Yes, the human. I had a feeling you would eventually come here." The man says. "Really?" "Yes." The man says. "Rumors go around fast you know." The man says in a matter of fact tone.

"Peculiar, a non-elf made royal guest. Why would the king give a non-elf a royal guest title? Then another rumor, he looks like elves but is not. So, I thought you could be a dimension traveler and you would be in search of answers of where you are. What is the best way to know where you are? A library." The man says with a haughty tone full of confidence.

"Dimension traveler?" Ben asks. The mans left eyebrow raises. "You are a dimension traveler, are you not?" The man asks back. "No…" Ben says with a questioning gaze. "Oh, but you are here for information I suppose." The man says a bit embarrassed. "Yes. I am." Ben says.

"How rude of me, I haven't even introduced myself yet. I am Eris Sapine II." The man says while hitting hit head. "Nice to meet you." "Now, on what subject do you need information?" Eris asks. "I need information of cultivation." Ben says. "Cultivation? Didn't your entity or entities leave their teachings behind?" The man says. "Leave their teachings behind?" Ben asks.

"Yes, don't you know that?" Erin asks. "No, I just discovered that you could cultivate here. I met my entities a few days ago." Ben says. Erin raises his left eyebrow. "You don't have any knowledge about cultivation?" "Luna briefly explained entities and contracted spirits. And my entity explained the cultivation system. That is all." Ben says.

"So, you're a complete stranger when it comes to cultivation? Even though I feel you are in the bone tempering stage and higher foundation stage." Erin asks. "Yeah I just cultivated with the help of my entity." Ben says. Erin starts to stroke his chin while having an amused facial expression.

Erin starts to walk away and just as he is about to disappear in between two bookshelves he stops and turns around. "Follow me." Ben jogs to catch up to Erin. They walk through bookshelves after bookshelves.

When they abruptly stop Erin says. "I am going to give you a speed reading technique for you to start. Right here is all the basic knowledge of the cultivation world." Erin takes out a scroll and gives it to Ben. "This is the technique."

Ben accepts the scroll and opens it. It is an unnamed technique that gives the one who practices the technique will read as fast as his mental capacity can handle and remembers the content much better. "Thank you, Erin." "Don't sweat it. If you have any questions, ask away." Erin says.

"Ehm… yes I do have some questions right now." Ben says apprehensively. "Sure, you can ask." Erin says. "How come I don't need food anymore? Or I need to go to the toilet?" Ben asks. "Ah yes, you are really new to cultivation even to the concept of energy itself." Erin says.

"Food here is a luxury. We don't need food because the energy in the atmosphere is enough for us to live off of. The plants and beast of this world can also live of off only the energy. But they still kill and eat each other. That comes due to the fact that the beast gets so much more energy from eating another beast than just getting energy form the atmosphere.

We, more intelligent species have techniques to cultivate this energy. But when we reach a bottleneck, we can aid our breakthrough with pills made from spirit plants or eat beast meat.

Beast meat is usually filled with energy." Erin explains. "Well then, I'll leave you to it." Ben nods and sits down to start on the new technique he got.