The Anomaly

Cane saw the notifications pop up in front of him as Ray and Laya did. He knew that meant the other two came here, he was tired,though. Very, very tired, too tired to think about such things. Despite his energetic and confident exterior after the prior events he realized how mentally weak he was, to so easily break down in such a dangerous situation, even leaving his brother to face danger alone.

Most of all, he didn't regret it, I mean, what should he do in that person. Although he was strong physically, mentally he was just an ordinary boy with ordinary problems. Ray tried to rationalize his past actions but he just ended up letting out a sigh.

'Seriously... I'm fucking pathetic.'

He couldn't even feel a single bit of remorse, honestly he was tempted to just leave Islan all together at that time and at every passing moment that desire increased. He felt useless; cowardly; pointless; unnecessary he knew that his way of thinking was logical. He should have run and thinking to do so wasn't wrong. It wasn't was it?

Ray tried to self reassure himself of this as he had too much time to think with him being a baby, cultivating anymore than he has already in his small, undeveloped body would cause a large amount of harm to him and eventually stump his growth ability in martial arts a lot. It was much better to wait until age of 3-4 to start basic training, even the cultivation he had done earlier was slightly pushing it.

'If I wasn't so god damn pathetic.'

Ray began to think negatively of what if scenarios. What if I had arrived earlier? What if I had trained harder in my martial arts? What if I could have better stood my ground?

'This... This is all pointless.'

It was truly useless, regardless of how much he tries he can't go back in time but he still exists here, presently. Blood was flowing through his veins and his heart was rapidly pumping.

'That's right... I'm alive, that's all that counts right? As long as I'm alive i can...'

That's right, he was alive. As alive as any other human being on this planet, as long as he was alive he could help others he could help others, he could change...

'As long as I'm alive... I can be better.'

Ray decided to dedicate this life to others but for that he needed to be alive. With knowledge of the novel he could save many that are destined to meet tragic ends with absolutely no hope of survival. However...

'Now I exist, an anomly that knows of a future that no one else does. Not even the universe itself. '

He began resolving himself slowly, he had knowledge of all the calamities that will and have happened in this world so he also knew just as equally how to stop them. He thought similarly to Ray for a minute, thinking of recruiting others and stealing opportunities that existed with his knowledge but...

'I don't deserve things like that... For someone like me who willingly left his own brother to fight a monster those items would be much better used in his hands... In this life, I should be the only one of the two of us to suffer.'

He decided he'd train to the best of his abilities to become strong rather than using rare items that could be used on others. Even though he had the novels knowledge he knew he probably won't be successful ending threats without multiple opportunities even if he had 9 lives.

'Is that thing the only way?'

He thought to himself. This ability in the novel is considered a curse rather than a skill because of the mental effects it can have but it can also grant the user extreme power in a short period of time.

'The time locked training space... I guess that's the only way... '

This is the thing that allowed, Vik, the original main character to become so strong despite his low potential. It transports the user to a training space that one can train in for 10,000 years without stop but...

'Only one person can enter and once you do, you can't leave until the time has fully passed.'

This ability allowed the low talented Vik to get immeasurably strong in a short period of time but it also drove him to the point of insanity. Every time he entered he'd forgot about everyone, family, friends, and so on with him also experiencing isolation and depression that would drive anybody insane to the point of wanting to end their own life.

'The last effect of this curse... It makes it so one cannot kill themselves or willingly accept death in any way shape or form.'

Vik had no choice but to live through forgetting everyone and himself constantly, becoming an almost training machine whilst he got trauma from him constantly seeing allies around him die and not being able to follow. By the end of the story he was alone, entirely alone. The novel had no heroines at the end despite there being some characters who liked Vik at the end being alive.

'He was simply too broken to accept such feelings of love.'

Ray gulped as he knew how Vik ended up in the novel and didn't think he was any better than him, no in fact he was much worse. At least in the story Vik never stopped training despite all his pains as it was the only thing he could do to try save more people but Ray didn't think he could do that.

He was lazy, even as an ex supreme peak he tried to find the quickest and easiest methods to get stronger and because of his talent simply didn't have the drive that others did. Even Islan who was also a supreme peak actively trained to improve unlike him who simply slacked of, being satisfied after realizing how hard it would be to reach Beyond Zenith.

'Can I really do something like this?'

He pushed this thought to the side for a moment, he resolved himself that it was something he must do. At the very least he knew using this 'training space' wouldn't take it away from Vik as multiple people could get it and already have but the area I which it was contained was destroyed to end the cursed cycle, he simply needed to get there before Vik could destroy it and he has at least 16 years until then.

How does he know this? The year after Vik was born inner energy was known and on top of that regular medical treatments were no longer used, rather holy magic was fully employed even when giving birth, so he could confirm what's happening now was before then as he'd seen no arts being used as from the novel he wrote that holy arts tend to give of a distinct glow to them.

'I guess I have a lot I need to do... '

Baby Ray sighs as he has been staring at the ceiling this entire time.

'but for now... '

His eyes start flickering showing signs that he is dozing off, letting out a short yawn before he begins to fully doze off.

'let's get some rest...'

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Now the entirety of the basic setting has been done we can finally get into the juicy parts as we get to see more of the world and see the novels characters as well. This is just to ask any of the reads but as we continue the first volume would you prefer the first part to be more focused on world building or would you rather to know more about the power systems of Mana and inner cultivation with our characters training?

I plan on doing both of these regardless but I'm just curious as to which one's you guys would like to see first so I can push out that content!

P. S vote, comment, and favorite