Chapter 5: Haki manual
While waiting for his books to arrive, Mark was slowly and steadily improving his observation haki, not its range, but its strength.
If this were a game, notifications of 0.1+ would be coming every minute. Mark steadily kept this up until he was disturbed from outside.
_Knock knock._
Opening his eyes, he found that his maid had returned with a trolley full of books.
"Come in."
Mark allowed her in gently.
Opening the door without a sound, the maid pushed the trolley into the room.
It was a heavy-looking trolley, yet she didn't look affected, but Mark knew she was affected, a lot.
He could sense her trembling arm muscles.
'Sigh'
Mark sighed, but so was the etiquette of nobles; if it's found that she cannot do her job, she'll be replaced with someone who can.
Even he can't change this.
"Is that all of them?"
Mark asked gently once again.
The maid nodded, nervous for the slightest bit of delay she had caused, but breathed a sigh of relief when Mark simply dismissed her.
Mark might be a celestial dragon, but he was not a moron; humans make mistakes. Why would he replace someone who is working hard, because of a few seconds of delay?
That's utter horseshit.
"Alright, what do we have here?"
Mark started looking through the books; he began arranging them in the order he wanted.
The books themselves did come in a pre-arranged order, mind you; the librarian did it for him; celestial dragon authority was no joke.
But this order was the generally accepted one; Mark wasn't about to follow the general route.
"So here's the deal: there are three separate piles."
"The first is the martial arts pile; from swordsmanship to rokushiki, everything goes there."
Putting all the martial arts books in this pile, Mark nodded to himself.
"The second pile is Haki; wow, there are even uses of conqueror's Haki written here."
"The identity of a celestial dragon is like a cheat."
Mark was honestly impressed with the amount of detail they have crammed into these books.
Keeping it away safely, he put his attention on the next pile, although he called it a pile, but it was just one book.
"The third, a devil fruit encyclopedia, it was updated to the latest version, which came out a week ago."
"They updated the entire thing because some chap in West Blue ate an unidentified devil fruit… talk about overkill."
But who was Mark to complain about free benefits? So he kept the book again in a separate 'pile.'.
Sitting down on his bed, Mark put his hands behind his head; he was wondering what was the best approach for him.
Taking out the Haki book, Mark began to look through the entire thing.
But the more he looked, the more he frowned.
"No way, it's actually at such a primitive level? The best way to increase haki is to fight strong opponents in deadly fights?"
"Please, that's like a modern man saying the best way to gain knowledge is to tour the entire world. Yeah, it's true, but you can also just go to school, or read a book."
"There has to be a better way."
"I remember women of Amazon have techniques that allow everyone to use haki, regardless of their willpower or age."
Mark was very dissatisfied with the techniques written here.
He wasn't a man of science, but even he knew any changes happening to the body during fighting were just a stress response.
Things like that could easily be recreated artificially, Vegapunk could definitely create a machine which can do that.
'There is no way people of this world didn't try to research Haki.'
'Considering Joy Boy could seal Haki, they must have experimented with Haki back in the day.'
'Techniques were definitely lost during the void century.'
Mark thought about this silently, as to why he was thinking about this instead of saying it out loud?
There was someone like Im sitting on his head; what if void century was a keyword which told Im who he should kill next?
Mark wanted nothing to do with that old fossil of a ruler.
"Sigh, there is no use thinking about this; I am a celestial dragon."
Mark shook his head and stopped thinking about Im, he then kept the Haki book back down.
"As for this book's training methods, it's old fashioned and worthless."
"I am not fighting like some barbarian to get a power-up, not a chance."
Haki was out of question until he figured out how to get it without actual danger to his life.
He would rather pay Amazon Lily a visit, they must have a better way of training Haki, considering all of them had Haki.
"Both Haki and devil fruits are things I can get later, then the only thing remaining is martial arts."
"Let's start with sword technique, is that something I can do?"
Mark continued to flip the pages with furrowed his brows.
"I don't get it, what is swordsman sensing the breath of metal?"
"What is breath supposed to mean? Is it vibration? Or is it literally breathing like it grew lungs?"
Mark was speechless; he wasn't used to such vague nonsense, understanding this was impossible for normal people.
Imagine if your high school math was like this.
Comprehend the feeling of A as it adds together with B. People would just stop studying that.
"No, there is nothing here a regular guy like me can use."
"I really hope Rokushiki can give me something to look forward to."
"That's my last hope."
With an immense disappointment bubbling within him, Mark read the last book without any expectations.
But slowly, as time went by, Mark's eyes started to widen.
"Oh… I see… oh…"
After a while of reading, Mark smiled; he saw a particular technique amongst the Rokushiki.
This was a unique technique, the author had barely explained how to do it, but it was so good that it was worth learning anyway.
Even the nonsense explanations didn't stop Mark from choosing this technique, this was what he was waiting for.
"Hahahaha! This is it; This technique can solve all my problems."
"This is what will give me the edge. I found it, finally!"
Mark laughed happily; he was thrilled. It was as if everything that was troubling him was solved in an instant.
Like none of the concerns about Haki or devil fruit mattered to him anymore. He had found the technique which could solve everything.
Chapter 6: Scholar
A day had passed since Mark had found the technique of his dreams.
There was something Mark wanted to do using this technique, but it required knowledge of biology.
So, before he tried anything, he wanted to make sure he understood how human and animal bodies worked.
That's why Mark was currently in his study, observing the sweaty biology scholar before him.
"I need you to answer some questions for me."
Mark politely smiled at the man before him.
The scholar nodded, a little too desperate to please. A while ago he was told to explain whatever Saint Mark wanted to know.
But here's the problem: Mark was a three-year-old celestial dragon child; it was debatable if he even knew how to read.
'Please ask easy questions, please ask easy questions.'
The scholar was praying to the sun god that Mark doesn't ask him senseless questions and then gets mad, when he doesn't understand the answer.
They will have his head if that happens. After all, it can never be the celestial dragon's fault, only his.
"Yes, I shall ask, and you shall answer."
"Now tell me this, scholar."
Mark folded his hands.
"I have noticed that the animals in my zoo just eat and sleep, but they still have powerful bodies."
"Both their adults and children are full of muscles."
"How is that possible, what exercises are they doing secretly that I can't see?"
Mark asked something in a very celestial dragon way, ignorant and proud.
The scholar was a little terrified hearing the question; he knew the answer, but he didn't know if Mark would get it.
"My liege, animals don't need to train to gain muscles or strength; they gain it naturally."
Mark tapped the table in thought while the scholar twisted in his seat.
After a few minutes of thinking, Mark looked up; he asked again.
"Explain what 'naturally' is. What exactly is happening to them that doesn't happen to me?"
"Baby animals have strong bodies without trying, then why don't I have it?"
The scholar widened his eyes; he finally understood what this was all about.
The celestial dragon kid wanted to have muscles and was confused as to why the animals in his zoo had them while he didn't.
Sadly, animal and human bodies worked in different ways, but he can't say that now, can he?
Celestial dragons were supposed to be gods, not humans.
'Sigh, my head is gonna roll today; I can't escape anymore; bye-bye world.'
Even as the scholar accepted his fate, he still had the dignity of a scholar; he would answer everything truthfully, for knowledge isn't afraid of anyone.
"It's a biological process, Saint Mark; that is how the animal bodies decide to function."
Mark nodded and kept asking.
"So if my body also decided to have muscles, will I get them?"
The scholar thought for a while as he answered.
"It's not impossible, Saint Mark, but your body cannot decide to do that."
"Human body builds muscles when it needs them, then breaks it down when it doesn't."
"But that's not how animal bodies work."
Expanding on this further, the scholar gave an example.
"Think of gorillas; they have a humanoid shape, but they gain muscles right from childhood."
"They don't do any weight training, nothing at all but eat food and sleep."
Seeing that Mark was seriously nodding while frowning, the scholar decided to say a little more. He was gaining courage after finding that Mark was being serious about this.
Clearing his throat, the scholar gave Mark an example he just thought of.
"You can think like this: Gorilla bodies have decided to keep growing muscles even if they don't train."
"But your body has decided to grow muscles only when it is necessary; that is, after training."
Mark remained silent; he was thinking about the details given by the scholar and trying to understand if his idea would work.
Clicking his tongue, Mark looked at the scholar and asked about the plan he had thought of before.
"Scholar, say, for example, if my body somehow decided to grow muscles."
"Or I somehow made it think it needs to grow them; will it work? It's basically like the gorillas, right?"
The scholar was rightfully amazed at how bright this 3-year-old child was; he not only didn't get angry, he also understood and put forward some interesting points.
So thinking about it for a while longer, the scholar gave his reply.
"If you can command your body to do something like that, say by medicine, it indeed is theoretically possible to do it."
Looking towards Mark, he diligently explained.
"But I would recommend against it; bodies have a very delicate balance; if you break it, the results aren't pretty."
Mark hummed in a non-caring fashion.
"I see. I'll call for you if I have any further questions."
Waving his hands, he gestured towards the scholar.
"Leave."
The scholar bowed heavily and left the study with pride filling his steps.
'A celestial dragon child was so smart; regular children aren't even comparable to him.'
'Maybe they indeed are gods? They just happen to look similar to us? Something to think about. '
The scholar walked away with pride, feeling he knew something more today.
Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
27 Power
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