A recurring dream leads a young man on an adventure through the realms of cultivators, immortals, aliens and high tech civilisations while he unravel the truth about people around him and his past life.

A/N: I would appreciate your feedback.

Ultrix sat in his new dorm room still dazed at the number of resources the Academy was suddenly bestowing upon him.

His current dorm was leagues better than his old one and there were even silver tier guards standing guard outside the main gate.

Of course, all of this didn't belong to Ultrix. He was currently staying at a dormitory building that housed all of the special guests of the Academy and it's best students.

Looking through all the runic creation tools yet again, Ultrix ultimately decided to hold back from any testings and headed straight to the main library.

Ultrix realized that his current understanding of combustion was too fundamental so he wanted to read up on some more research before attempting any magic circles.

Looking through the titles, a book called 'Fundamentals of Magic' caught his eye.

It was a fairly thick book and skimming through it quickly, Ultrix found that it had a basic understanding of all types of magic circles with a guide on the most efficient and effective means of drawing them.

Putting aside the book for the time, Ultrix went through the titles again to pick out another book to read. Ultimately, his gaze was drawn towards a book titled 'Combustion Control'.

Ultrix took the book off of the shelf and began reading it as well. Whenever he ran across a method that was mentioned in the book that he was unfamiliar with, he referenced back to his other book on magic fundamentals to compare notes.

After reading for a couple of hours and memorizing a list of do's and don'ts of magic circle drawing, Ultrix decided it was time for him to start applying his knowledge to practical use.

Picking up a piece of dry wood, Ultrix started carving a basic combustion rune onto it.

After a few seconds of carving, the rune was complete.

At first, nothing happened and Ultrix thought with disappointment that he had failed his first attempt. However, after a few seconds, a few sparks shot outwards from the rune.

Ultrix was ecstatic! Although he had not managed to start a fire, he felt like this was a better improvement from his previous attempts before he had read anything.

Reading more on the runic uses and combustion efficiency guide, Ultrix took a piece of paper this time and drew a runic circle on it with flammable ink.

This time the reaction was a lot faster, and hardly after he had completed the circle, the paper ignited and shriveled up quite quickly.

While this was a lot faster than his previous attempt at starting a fire, Ultrix ultimately still felt like it was too slow. He yearned for a method of faster casting but did not know how to improve.

After scanning all of the contents in the library again, Ultrix was just about to give up for the day when a glint in the corner of the room caught his eye.

Walking over to examine the glint, Ultrix realized that it was a book on 'Instantaneous Castings'.

Confused on what 'instantaneous' meant, Ultrix tried to open the book and read it's contents.

However, to his surprise, the book could not be pried open. It was as if all the pages were glued together and formed a solid block.

Feeling quite curious at this point, Ultrix examined the book more closely. Looking at the bookbinding, Ultrix realized that there was a runic circle faintly inscribed into the string.

However, it was a runic pattern that Ultrix did not recognize.

Scanning through the library once again, Ultrix took out all the books he saw which had anything to do with magical paper and books.

At first, Ultrix skimmed through the books, but a few minutes in, he realized it would be even faster if he knew what he was looking for.

Looking back at the design of the runic circle, Ultrix realized that he had seen the format before in the fundamentals book.

Looking through the fundamentals book glossary, Ultrix noticed that there was a section on magic circle encryption that correlated to the magic circle that he saw on the other book.

Unfortunately, although the fundamentals book covered the different types of encryptions, it did not go into depth on all of the methods of unlocking said encryptions.

Looking back through the books on books and magic, Ultrix finally found a chapter on magic encryption.

It turns out, magic encryption was quite a common usage in the world of magic. However, this was confusing to Ultrix as for some reason he had never heard of this term before.

However, after much thought, Ultrix realized that it probably made sense that he would not have known about such a method. After all, the departments that he had learned from were more practical and not very scientific departments.

It would make sense for there to be encryptions required on more important data, but for magic users like Ultrix, such encryptions seemed impractical.

Reading through the book though, Ultrix realized that the process of encrypting a book was not too difficult to learn.

However, there were different tiers of encryption, just like how there were different affinity tiers. Unlike the affinity tiers though, which were separated into bronze, silver, and gold, the encryption tier was simply given numbers with higher numbers meaning higher difficulty.

Luckily for Ultrix, the book that he currently wanted to unlock was only at tier 3.

With the highest tier mentioned in the book being a tier 7, tier 3 was still a relatively simple encryption code.

Without further hesitation, Ultrix started unlocking the book bind.

The process of decrypting a tier 3 was quite simple. All it required Ultrix to do was to rotate the rings of the magic circle in a specific order until they all lined up with each other.

At first, Ultrix was not sure what the book meant with 'turning the circles'

However, after a bit of messing around, Ultrix realized that once a magic circle was put onto an object, it would hover slightly above the original surface almost like a liquid skims the surface that it is on.

Ultrix tried to spin the circles in different ways, but he quickly discovered that the order to unlock the rings could not be done through brute force.

Anyone who simply guesses the order of the rings would temporarily lock the entire rune and the rings would randomize themselves again with a new combination code.

Luckily for Ultrix, the book on encryptions was quite detailed and he slowly solved the algorithm by turning the runic circles.

After turning the final circle in the correct order, the magic circle finally dissipated.

Ultrix was not surprised at all that the circle dissipated. After all, most encryption locks that were tier 3 were one-time usage only.

Once they were broken they had to be redrawn.

Ultrix looked at the book in anticipation. Something that required a tier 3 encryption surely was quite valuable, right?

However, before Ultrix could open the book, he suddenly realized that a new encryption circle had appeared again.

Multi-level encryption? Ultrix thought to himself.

He was not too surprised at this either, the book had mentioned that a lot of magic users liked to use multiple levels of encryption to secure their work in the case that the previous runic circle was depleted of its energy.

Upon closer inspection of the encryption runic though, Ultrix's face turned dark.

"Crap!" He said out loud.

"It's a tier 5 encryption this time?!"

"To be in control of destiny is to understand the laws of nature and the course of human consciousness. To lose sight of consciousness is to fall into the absence of self-awareness and stray from the path of universal equilibrium."

"Did you get that, Ultrix? Or are you too busy setting the workshop on fire again?!"
--------------------------------------------------
This novel is for the Writing Contest 104.

"Welcome to the Alchemy Association. May I be of assistance?"

Wearing a polite smile, I cordially reply, "Good morning ma'am. I was hoping you could tell me a bit about the Alchemy Association and possibly visit the library."

Ever the professional, she nodded in agreement and politely bid me follow her. While leisurely walking deeper into the notable building, she begins to voluntarily give me a condensed history lesson on the Alchemy Association. She ended her summary as we arrived at an elaborate set of open double doors.

At a quick glance, it appears to be either a small library or a large study. Noticing my questioning look, she answered, "This is the Apprentice's Study. Novices and Primary Apprentices typically utilize this room for building on their alchemy foundation."

Leading me to an alcove by the entrance, she sweeps her arm to indicate the small area. She states, "This section contains all the knowledge an aspiring apprentice needs to prepare themselves for the Apprentice Examination. Here you will find the required books, references, and the Alchemy Association's collection of soul force control techniques."

"Soul force control technique?" You had my interest, but now you have my attention!

"Well, yes. Soul force control is extremely vital for pill forging. Failure to swiftly and accurately manipulate the pill forge inscriptions causes more failures than anything else." the Alchemy Apprentice carefully explains. 

"Thank you. You have been a tremendous help." I can't prevent a large smile from breaking out. My excitement level is rapidly climbing as I review the possibilities perfect soul control would bring. 

With a more content smile, she departs after telling me I can find her at the front entrance if I have any more questions. 

Swiftly moving to the shelves holding the soul force control manuals, meticulously going through the shelves to prevent one escaping me. There must be nearly one hundred manuals. As I eagerly absorb them, I'm carefully scanning their flaws. 

[...86 Flaws...]
[...97 Flaws...]
[...83 Flaws...]
[...91 Flaws...]

After carefully checking to ensure I've collected all of them, I seamlessly transition to the Library of Heaven's Path and attempt to compile a soul force control technique. Soon, I am standing before an unassuming book. Gently taking hold of the book, I call for its flaws. 

[Soul Force Control...Flaws 19...]

With a smile like the Cheshire Cat, I think to myself, it's not a perfect technique, but it's perfect for my plan.

At only a few dozen pages, I quickly read through my new golden egg. Just reading through it I'm able to tell it's a powerful technique, but it doesn't deliver the awe-inspiring feeling like a Heaven's Path book typically does. Regardless, this is more than adequate for my purposes.

After a few read-throughs, I return to the study and finish absorbing all the books in the room. Before long, all the books in the Apprentice Study have been absorbed. 

Looking around the room for any books I might have missed, I'm struck with a thought. Gazing at the room as a whole, an idea begins to take shape. 

This is a room dedicated to beginners. To allow beginners to build a foundation in the art of alchemy. So that they may begin their journey on the dao of alchemy. 

This should be possible! Finding myself in the now-familiar sea of bookcases, I command "Alchemy." As expected the formed book contains dozens of flaws. Releasing the flawed Alchemy book, I concentrate on what I want. With a solid idea in mind, I command "Alchemy Fundamentals!"

Crossing my fingers, I talk hold of the slender book and check for flaws.

[A flawless book on Heaven's Path of Alchemy Fundamentals. Alchemy is the...]

Clamping down on my excitement, I set to task.

[A flawless book on Heaven's Path of Strength Building Fundamentals...]
[A flawless book on Heaven's Path of Agility Building Fundamentals...]
[A flawless book on Heaven's Path of Endurance Building Fundamentals...]

Merging those three with my Heaven's Path book of Flexibility gives me Heaven's Path of Initiate Body Cultivator!

With a shout of victory, I am indescribably happy! With an insatiable urge to high-five someone, I'm forced to smack a book on the top shelf while doing my best Rick Flair impersonation! Purging that from my system, I'm finally able to calm down.

With this, I can breathe a bit easier. Soon I'll be in a position to actually put up a resemblance of a fight in the unlikely event I'm attacked. I've hated the feeling of walking on eggshells in a city of cultivators. Just knowing I would be at the mercy of any Bronze rank feeling piety or villainous has undoubtedly increased my paranoia. While a Fighter is unlikely to win against a Demon Spiritualist, at least I'll be in a much better position to flee. 

Exerting a herculean amount of willpower, I place my ticket to power to the side and exit the Library of Heaven's Path. I purposefully walk to the building entrance looking for the Alchemy Apprentice that escorted me to the study room. Sighting her standing behind a desk reading a worn book, I school my face and confidently approach her.

She's somehow able to mark her place in her book and place it down all while turning to face me directly. Politely ignoring this little display, I bring forth my idea.

"Pardon me once again ma'am, but I would like to know the Alchemy Associations protocol for purchasing alchemy manuals and techniques."

Her face morphs into a blank look for several seconds before she's able to shake it off and resume her professional look. She was definitely not expecting that. I wait patiently for her answer.

"I would have to inquire about that myself. Could you inform me of the nature of your item for purchase?" The reluctance followed by skepticism from those two sentences could be felt across the room. I can't blame her, with the condition of my clothes; most would assume I come from a commoner family.

"After reviewing the low-quality soul control techniques in the Apprentice's Study, I wish to sell my family's own technique. I can assure you, it is much more powerful than anything I've seen here yet."

The skepticism is still there, but a bit a curiosity is now present in her reply. As I take a seat to wait for her to return from speaking with a Master Alchemist. I busy myself with reviewing the flawed soul control technique a few more times. Shortly, I begin wondering if the Library of Heaven's Path can create an initiate level technique for soul force control as well. I'll have to test that once I return to my dorm room, I can't afford distractions before I close on this deal.

Eventually, she returns and escorts me to a room where three elderly men sit wearing white robes. These must be master rank alchemists. A brief introduction confirms my suspicions. I take the initiative and drive hard with my prepared sales speech. I quickly list a few vital benefits for an alchemist to own the most advance soul force control technique possible. Just to show them I understand the potential value of what I'm offering.

As I'm moving to close this deal, I'm interrupted by one of the Master Alchemists, "Perhaps you could allow us to take a look at this profound technique?"

"I'll do something better. I'll guide you three through it right now." Before they can refute my offer, I begin reciting the soul force control manual in a smooth and calm voice. The masters only hesitate for a moment before they begin to follow my instructions. There are no complaints when I begin guiding them a second time, and judging by the looks on their faces this deal is all but sold.

I allow them to take a moment and gather themselves before we get into the negotiations. Putting on my poker face and finding a comfortable spot on my chair, I'm ready to play hardball. They have another thing coming if they think they can low ball me. It's game time.

"Now that you've experienced my technique first hand, let's talk price." 

The master sitting in the center looks to the other two and after getting nods from them, he focuses his attention back on me. Hit me with your best shot old man. 

"The Alchemy Associations is willing to offer you one million demon spirit coins for your soul force control technique." the elderly master states.

"Deal!" 

It takes me a moment to realize I'm standing before the elderly master with my hand extended. The room falls completely still as the masters are blinking their eyes at me as I awkwardly stand before them. My face feels like it's on fire, and I'm wishing for something to happen to take the attention off of me.

Resolving myself to being an idiot. I try salvaging some of my dignity. "I also require full access to all of the Association's book collections. And I'll need something to carry the money in." I mumble out.

The elderly master I'm standing in front of stands and clasps my hand. "The Alchemy Association accepts your terms."

I ignore his twitching lip and make another request. "I would like half of the demon spirit coins to be anonymously donated to the Glory City Central District Orphanage."

The elderly master's lip instantly stops twitching, and he takes on a somber persona. He stares into my eyes for a moment before nodding his head and stating, "I'll personally handle it."

A 20 year old fan of fanfiction is transmigrated into an orphaned teen in the middle of Glory City. Follow him as he's forced to deal with hidden dangers, evil villains, and the dreaded puberty. 

This is my first novel, so expect some mistakes. I'll try to make corrections when seen. Reworked the first six chapters.

I'm doing this for my own personal pleasure. I have a family and a job that requires me to work most weekends. I hope to produce two chapters a week, provided life allows.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own the stories, Tales of Demons and Gods or Library of Heaven's Path. Any resemblance of any original character is purely coincidence.

What is the cipher? nobody will know now ... though, Dara mentally asked a question to the system.

Yes.

What? Really? Is it possible? Do you know all the lost books? Dara did not let up.

Yes and no. System.

Yes and no? What does it mean? Dara

Yes, I know some of the books that were lost and were written based on knowledge gained from alien viruses. No, I can't find the information in my database, those that people wrote themselves, on the basis of other magical essentials. System.

That is, you have a conflict of systems and formats? Dara

Well, something like that, as expressed in your human language, the system noted sleepily.

Okay, will I go to sleep when I wake up? Then wake up! All good nights, highly ketch! speaks with you. Hr-hr-hr.

In the head of Dara, there was a measured snoring, it was a sleeping system.

Well, well ... and what about our rams? Such was the local saying, that is, how are we doing?

Ah, yes, the system sleepily, again said, here is a part of the key to that cipher for you, I forgot to give you. Hr-hr-hr.

It fell asleep again!

The brain began to project data from an old manuscript:

When night equals day, the equinox occurs. at this time there is a weakening of man's strength, therefore at this time a man must eat - burning, surviving, bitter, of a pleasant taste.

In rainy times, the human body becomes stronger, sour, salty and pleasant tastes develop in food.

Washing your hair with hot water is harmful to your hair and weakens your eyesight.

Baths are useful for strengthening vital energy, they give strength and long life, soothe the drowned physically and mentally.

Enhanced physical activity and labor, the best means to maintain health, but overdo it and it harms.

Peacock meat cures blindness.

Sour milk from warmed milk cures chronic flu, chronic bronchitis, and lung cataracts.

In Dara's head, a treatise appeared "Peter Badmanov Fundamentals of Medical Science of Tibet Zhu-Shi". 1903 year.

Damn, well this is of course interesting ?! But how does this knowledge correlate with current pharmaceutical data? Now is the 21st century and not 19 or 18 ... new knowledge and technology ...

And this means that only a couple of centuries ago in the world there really were cultivators and immortals? Very funny!

They knew the bright Tao! But now part of the data is either lost or simply the readers do not pay attention to the fact that the historical treatises, in fact, hidden knowledge about the DAO! Encrypted by someone, so that not their own, do not understand the cultivation technique. Perhaps in this way, cultivators transferred their knowledge to neophytes (beginners) through archives, bookstores, science foundations and libraries. Only those who had the key could use the knowledge from historical works in order to cultivate methods in both martial arts and develop a spiritual practice. Not forgetting the two areas of alchemy - the creation of pills and the creation of healing cooking.

What is most interesting, cultivators had a basis, knowledge obtained from alien viruses, some sects were 500 years old and others 2000-3000 years. Their knowledge had roots in the Neolithic, Eneolithic, antiquity, Middle Ages, feudalism, they accumulated, accumulated, supplemented. Archaic techniques were improved, obsolete methods were replaced by new ones. There was constant development, but all this was done secretly, new formats of the world and new forms of groupings were also determined. These were not old sects, they became firms, companies, sometimes corporations that carried the foundation, the foundation, from those small sects or huge sects that were immortal. In the modern world, only a few dozens of sealed immortals remain, but rather they have already gone to another world and will never return to the near world.

But hundreds of thousands of Tao cultivators remained who knew the path of enlightenment and sought their way to nirvana. Each had his own method and understanding of the path.

Dara was a little confused by this knowledge, he didn't really want to delve into it. Undoubtedly, such knowledge was interesting and entertaining, but the main thing was the opportunity to make money. If you have money, then you can bring people more benefits than when there is no money.

The system told him that if he understands the essence of the healing properties of all his plants, he will be able to cook his own dish from each. Then for each victory, he will receive a new book. He has already received one, as a bonus. The system knew human nature. Without carrots, a donkey will never go forward. The best marketing move! It was necessary to create motivation, incentive, to study new healing properties for the Gift. The basic idea of ​​alien viruses was ... so that as many people on the planet as possible could have them. Then the viruses would not have collapsed - intruders, mutants, as it was 10 years ago. Coronavirus, the violator of the agreement between the viruses, decided to show how cool it was but was defeated. So that this does not happen again ...

Mankind has talked a lot about new challenges, threats, risks. Many scientists, politicians, officials went to conferences, ate jam, sandwiches with caviar, drank gin and whiskey. Reasoned about that. that humanity is ready for this. Hollywood films showed how Armageddon comes, but a couple of brave heroes save everyone. But the case of Hurricane Katrina showed that this was not so. Mankind snickered! It violates the laws of nature, greenhouse gases, ocean pollution, space pollution, the near-space orbit will soon be clogged with garbage, and humanity will not be able to send new satellites into space. Everyone knows about these problems, but they do nothing. Why? Because it is expensive, not profitable in the short term, and tomorrow no one thinks.

This is the rake of history on which humanity is constantly stepping on. So it was in the 30s, when world top stars, writers, called on the world to trample fascism and save the world from World War II. But Europe was deaf to these calls. This was repeated many times. Political, economic, strategic interests were higher than universal. The tragedy, genocide, just turned a blind eye. Like it was in Rwanda. The world was silent. And he came to his senses when it was too late.

The little heroine from Sweden made a speech about the climate, maybe someone manipulated her, but she spoke openly ... no one listened to her.

In 2020, there was a crisis with coronavirus, if the world listened to the experience of China, then many tragedies could have been avoided.

If the world would rally in 2020, realize its stupidity and begin to change its way of life, to clean pollution on soil, water, oceans, mountains, seas, rivers, lakes, cities and space orbit.

I would begin to use new technologies, reduce pollution, prevent it, if the rich ceased to oppress the poor and cash in on them, the world could change.

But over, after a world-wide tragedy, again the nature of man, a weak soul took up. Again, scientists began to travel the world and talk a lot of blah blah blah. Spend the state budget on all garbage.

Instead of creating an effective system to protect the Earth from viruses, mutants of viruses. To create a fund with money for a couple of trillion US dollars so that they do not plunder the money, donate it to their own and give it to the development of new methods, technologies, operational monitoring of viral activity around the world, the creation of vaccines, remedies for medical workers and civilians. Prevent price increases, suppress the activities of speculators their social condemnation. The world must know both its heroes and antiheroes. Antiheroes having received money on the grief and suffering of other people should be subjected to at least social condemnation. So that such cases are not repeated again.

A world civil defense service must act, this time not from a nuclear strike, but from various challenges and threats. This time from mutated viruses. We need effective measures, the creation of new types of protective suits.

In 2020, they all grabbed it, the local population had to do it themselves, as they could. They bought masks in hardware stores, goggles for welders, or goggles for skiers. Instead of special protection suits, they wore raincoats. Masks were sewn themselves from fabric or gauze.

They themselves bought ginger, lemon, garlic, onions, and harmonica in the hope of increasing their chances of salvation. We bought all the drugs in pharmacies - immunostimulants, antiviral, antipyretic drugs. In such huge economies as Canada and Germany, alcohol ran out, there were no antiseptics. It was a slap in the face of the world so that there were no simple remedies!

Probably they should follow the art of homebrewing, then there would be alcohol! 80 degrees easy!

But for some reason, the world then lost sight of it.

Nevertheless, already in 2023, the world was able to defeat the coronavirus. Now the world was ready for new shakes, in order to become relaxed and forgetful again after 7 years.

2030 world economic crisis.

The second version. 

Agriculture is a very interesting activity. Like the sale of products. Not to mention the cooking, healing cooking. The development of tourism. 


All this will be in this novel. Perhaps the continuation of the first novel, but not a fact.

What is the story about? The story of a graduate student who decided to become a farmer. He sold his apartment and started to run his business with the money he received. Farm, online shop, farm shop. Decided to sell organic food.

Who is this guy? Former student of the Faculty of History. His relatives are historians and artisans, scientists. Great-grandfather Farmer. Grandfather - oriental sweets manufacturer. His ancestor ... Dara is the hero of another novel "'Jiang' Magic Coin" ...

What happens to him? He finds magic coins that have already become a magic entity, he has an all-powerful system. The main character does not immediately use it ...

Why should I care? It is interesting. But not at once. Not from the first pages, there is interesting historical information, there is an understanding of everyday life, traditions, oriental subtleties of doing business.

Almost reality but in a fantastic wrapper.

Pros - good content, many different historical facts about the Silk Road, Eastern Trade, Household reflections on politics and economics, there are interesting ideas for organizing your own business in tourism and farming.

Cons - bad form, that is, the text of the novel is rough, grammar and syntax is lame. There are mistakes.

Overall assessment of the story if to be objective:

Writing Quality - 2 stars
Stability of Updates - 4 stars (3-4 times per week from 500 to 3000 words for one chapter)

Story Development - 4 stars
Character Design - 3 stars
World Background - 3 stars

Overall result: Who wants to learn new things about farming and about the world after the Cold War, who is interested in the first place content, can be sure that he/she will not waste his/her time in vain.

Whoever likes the good form of the syllable, he/she can immediately leave, having pulled his hat, striking his/her horse sideways with spurs, plunge into the depths of the prairie.


Tags - Farming, Cooking, Health, Folk Medicine, Magic, History


-----------------------------
This is a work of art. Any resemblance to real people or real events is purely coincidental.

As Izroth skimmed through the list of system alerts, he discovered a few surprises.

〈System Alert: You have gained the passive «Knowledge»!〉
〈System Alert: You have received the title «Scholar»!〉
〈System Alert: You have gained the passive «Battle Fundamentals Mastery»!〉
〈System Alert: You have gained the passive «Magic Fundamentals Mastery»!〉
〈System Alert:...
...

There was the passive skill Knowledge he gained, but the wording of the skill was vague at best about what exactly was that it could do.

Skill Name: Knowledge
Knowledge Level: 15.21
Skill Rank: Unique*
Passive: As the user accumulates more knowledge about the world around them and its workings, they will have a high chance of receiving natural benefits.
Special Note: Knowledge is power! This defines one's combined true understanding of all worlds.

What immediately stood out to Izroth was the fact that it did not have a skill level like other skills, instead, it possessed a knowledge level. At the moment, his knowledge level was 15.21 and he was not sure exactly how high that was compared to others within RML.

It was also a unique rank skill and the only other time he saw a skill that could escape the confines of a whole number. In fact, technically speaking, the only other time he saw something like that was with his trait Soul Essence. This most likely meant that the limit of the skill itself was unclear or undefined by the system. But, there was something else that caught Izroth's eye.

'Defining the combined true understanding of all worlds... Interesting.'

Izroth knew that there was more than the Mortal Realm out there. After all, he had personality been to the Shadahi Realm and even the Chaotic Dogma Realm which could be considered a world in and of itself. Although he had not yet been to the Nether Realm, he knew of its existence due to his most recent run-in with the League of the Eidolon and that envoy whose arm he severed.

Who knew how many other realms and worlds were out there? He had barely scratched the surface of the Mortal Realm alone, not to even speak of the other realms out there.

'A high chance of receiving natural benefits almost sounds like a luck-based passive skill.'

After reading through Knowledge, Izroth turned his attention to a title he received. It was the second title he had come across so far, the other being the Protector of Amaharpe title he received from coming in first place during the event.

Title Name: Scholar(Solitary Rare)
Title Benefit(s):
-Gain the ability to view the Knowledge Level of other individuals or monsters.
-Gain the ability to check out copies of books at any library. (Limit: 5)

'It's a Solitary title. I never thought I would come across one so soon. Although, the benefits are not all the useful to me.'

Unlike the primary and secondary titles that players could only equip one title in each category, solitary titles did not have that restriction. This meant that, theoretically, a player could equip one hundred or even one thousand solitary titles! Of course, obtaining that many solitary titles would be impossible, but the main point was that there was no limit to how many a player could equip.

'I wonder...'

Izroth equipped the Scholar title as he looked over in Kaz's direction. As his vision stayed on Kaz for a bit, the basic NPC information about him popped up, but this time there was one extra line.

NPC Name: Kaz(Normal)
NPC Level: 10
NPC Knowledge Level: 8.25

'So low.'

Izroth was surprised to see that Kaz, who was apparently Orion's assistant, only possessed a knowledge level of 8.25! That was nearly half of what his own current knowledge level was listed as!

'Then, how about...'

Of course, the real person Izroth was interested in was Orion who Kaz kept referring to as Grand Master. Since Orion had the title "Keeper of Books" in his name and had amazing comprehension skills, Izroth expected for his knowledge to be many times greater than Kaz. However, what Izroth saw only made him shake his head inwardly.

NPC Name: Orion, Keeper of Books(???)
NPC Level: ???
NPC Knowledge Level: 999.993

Orion's knowledge level was almost at the one thousand mark! In truth, Izroth knew that Orion only asked him questions about the books on the first floor purposely.

Therefore, when it came to his understanding of the books on the first floor, Izroth was confident in his ability of comprehension. As long as he finished reading the rest of the books that he had not yet touched, no one would be his equal when it came to discussing any book on the first floor.

But, of course, there were still many floors within the palace library that he did not have access to and so it was only natural that there were still many things that remained unknown to him about this world. However, he did not expect the knowledge level gap to be that huge!

When Izroth's saw Orion's knowledge level, the old man that he met back in the Towering Oak Forest named Zhi came to mind.

That old man had spoken some words to him that left him pleasantly surprised due to the sheer level of comprehension required to understand those words. Izroth wondered if he had the Scholar title at that time, just what knowledge level would it have shown for that old man?

Once he finished thinking a few things over, Izroth moved on to view the next two skills he received, the Battle and Magic Fundamental Mastery. The Battle Fundamental Mastery was acceptable, however, it was the Magic Fundamental Mastery that made him put on a helpless smile.

Skill Name: Battle Fundamental Mastery
Skill Level: MAXED
Skill Rank: A
Passive: The user of this skill has mastered the basic battle fundamentals and will gain the following benefit(s):
-All physical-based skills gain the ability to increase in level through repeated usage.
-When learning or growing physical-based skills, the user's growth rate speed in improving that skill is increased by 15%.
-The user has a high chance of being able to periodically see exposed weak points on enemies during a battle.
-The user of this skill can equip any physical-based weapon ignoring any class restriction(s) listed.
+25 Energy.
+5% Critical Hit.

Skill Name: Magic Fundamental Mastery
Skill Level: MAXED
Skill Rank: A
Passive: The user of this skill has mastered the basic magic fundamentals and will gain the following benefit(s):
-All magic-based skills gain the ability to increase in level through repeated usage.
-When learning or growing magic-based skills, the user's growth rate speed in improving that skill is increased by 10%.
-Reduce casting time on spells by 10%.
+250 MP
+5 MP Regen/s
+100% MP Regen outside of battle.

There was nothing that needed to be said about the benefits brought about by the Battle Fundamental Mastery. However, while the Magic Fundamental Mastery maybe a magic caster's dream to obtain, it was completely useless to him! After all, the number of magic skills that he had within his arsenal of skills was zero.

Even though he mastered the fundamentals of magic, he still had no idea how to actually create a magic skill itself. Therefore, the only way for him to put the passive to use was to first learn or create a magic skill for himself.

But, in order to do that, he had to either purchase a skill book without a class restriction to it or gain enough knowledge about magic and see if it was compatible with his combat master class. However, that was only the beginning of his problems. His mana was most likely too weak to cast any powerful magic spell that would be useful for his current level range.

Not to mention that fact that he did not plan on sacrificing his attack or agility stats just to improve upon his magic stat, therefore, damage abilities were out of the question. But, Izroth quickly came up with a solution to his predicament.

'It may be possible if it's that area of magic. Body reinforcement type magic is the most forgiving when it comes to mana usage and it won't require any kind of sacrifice to use. However, there are not many books that discuss this topic on the first floor. Maybe it will be possible after I...'

"Young man." Orion suddenly called out to Izroth and snapped him out of his thoughts.

He then continued on and said, "I have only seen one individual with your ability of comprehension in my entire lifetime. Never would I have thought that the day would arrive yet again when this old man feels that his era will soon come to its end." Orion released a long sigh as he shook his head.

"However, all things must eventually come to an end, as is the curse of one's mortal body." Orion said as his eyes filled with a look that was difficult to comprehend. It seemed like a mixture of hope and despair, compliance and unwillingness, juvenility and wisdom. All these things together formed a stream of endless thoughts and ideas.

Izroth knew what that look in Orion's eyes meant because he had seen it once before during the time of his youth in the Seven Realms. It was the look of one who yearned to return to the days of their youth and begin anew. One who was not satisfied with their current power or understanding. It was the look of one who thirsted for an eternity's worth of knowledge!

After a moment of silence, Orion waved his hand as a thin red book appeared. This book was so thin that it appeared to be no more than fifteen pages inside of it!

"I have not forgotten our wager, young man. Without a doubt, it is your victory. All I ask is that you not remain complacent with yourself as you are now. The worlds are boundless and there awaits a long journey ahead of you." Orion said as he motioned his hand towards Izroth.

The red book landed within Izroth's hands and he immediately received an alert from the system. However, he did not even bother looking at the system alert as the title of the book jumped right out at him!

Since the wager was that the item he received would be equal to or greater than what he wagered, Izroth knew that the book currently within his hands had the value of an epic ranked weapon at minimum.

〈System Alert: You have acquired the item «Comprehending The Origins of Source»!〉

It was actually a book about Source! Even though it was incredibly light, Izroth was still more than satisfied with his winnings. After all, his current knowledge about Source was practically nonexistent and there were no books on the first floor that contained any information about it.

As Izroth had his sights set on the book in his hands, Orion one grand motion with his hand as the piles of books placed throughout the library all shot into the air at once. As he moved his hand forward, every book instantly shot into the bookshelf in an orderly fashion. In the blink of an eye, the entire library was back to its previously perfect state!

Kaz watched on in amazement. The Grand Master was truly powerful! Kaz had almost let this slip his mind after watching how excited the Grand Master when he was talking to Izroth.

"I have other matters to attend to so I'll be taking my leave. However, try not to make too much of a mess in my library while I'm away-" Orion was about to call the young man by his name, however, he remembered that he never bothered to ask! Normally, he would not bother with learning the name of some random youth, however, this young man had managed to impress him!

As if reading his mind, Izroth told Orion his name before he had the chance to ask.

"Ah, Izroth? A unique name indeed... Right, I should leave you with one more small parting gift. Come Kaz, we're leaving." Orion said as Kaz quickly regained himself and followed after the Grand Master.

A few moments later, Orion walked away along with Kaz and left Izroth alone in the library.

That was when Izroth received one more system alert.

〈System Alert: You have been granted access to the 2nd floor of Amaharpe Palace Library!〉

...

Meanwhile, somewhere near a starter village...

"Xiao Liang, where are we...?" Reilei had unknowingly wandered off from the starting area. Without even realizing it, the minimap had disappeared and now she had no idea where she was! In other words, she was lost!

Mew! Mew!

Jin, a hardcore gamer who still lives with his mom at the age of 24. He could never hold down a steady job since graduating, his girlfriend since high school dumped him for his best friend and he's constantly getting beat up by a group of local gang members. His dad left him and his mom when he became rich from the lottery and got a new family, one free of debt and burdens as he called it. His mom works 3 jobs to keep everything from falling apart, except for herself slowly. One day on his way home with the very first and new fully immersive VRMMORPG called Realm of Myths and Legends or RML for short, he died from a hit and run car accident. RML was advertised as the worlds first fully immersive VRMMORPG, allowing for players with skill sets in the real world, like sword training, martial arts, archery or reaction time, to benefit in the game itself! Though Jin died and at that moment a soul from another world crossed over into his body and inherited his memories. The man known as Izroth once hailed as the greatest cultivator in the seven realms, soul reincarnates into the modern world year 20xx in the body of Jin.

"What are all these strange memories flowing into my mind..? I've been to all seven realms and have never seen one like this. Earth is it?"

"M-My cultivation..! It's back to nothing! This body is so weak and spiritual essence here is scarce. But my soul strength is untainted."

"I'll make right all the wrongs that have been done to you, your revenge shall come."

"It's called a video game? I'll play it! Since you've given me this body even though it wasn't planned, I'll accomplish your goal of becoming #1."

"So sects here are called guilds... I'll make the strongest one there is!"

"Ha? World greatest gamer? Don't think you can bully me and not pay the price!"

Action, Adventure, Betrayals, Romance, Revenge. Join Izroth on his journey to become the #1 player and create the #1 guild in RML!

-----------------------------------------

Check out and support their work! Lots of great artwork!

Discord: https://discord.gg/W6N9MZk
Contact Me: DaoistZenFeng@gmail.com

Elder Chen even stopped watching his war film. He immediately turned it off as he exclaimed, "It can't be. Elder Wang is such an astute man. How could he be tricked into joining something like that?"
"Astute people are the easiest to trick. I am 90% sure that this is multi-level marketing. When he comes back, we have to question him," said Lin Fan.
Sister Hong had brought her kids to buy some snacks. As she walked past, she decided to come in. "Little Boss, Elder Chen, what are you two talking about?"
Lin Fan shifted his position to allow Sister Hong to stand next to him. "Sister Hong, Elder Wang has been acting abnormally lately. My friend saw him at some kind of conference. It seems like he's been tricked into multi-level marketing."
Sister Hong was startled. "That can't be. Elder Wang hasn't told us anything about this."
Of course, she didn't believe it. Elder Wang was such an astute man and he was usually very careful about the things he did. Now that they were telling her that he had been tricked into multi-level marketing, she wouldn't believe it even if she was beaten to death.
"Okay, stop talking about this. Elder Wang is back." Elder Chen looked into the distance at Elder Wang, who was carrying a red bag and a smile as he chatted cheerily with the people around. "Should we call him over to ask him about it? We won't say that it's multi-level marketing, we'll just ask him what he's been up to lately."
"That is a must," said Sister Hong.
They were all a part of Cloud Street. Everyone was very united. Whenever someone came across trouble, the rest naturally couldn't sit idly by. Moreover, they didn't know if Elder Wang had actually been tricked into joining multi-level marketing and how much money he had been scammed of.
Lin Fan hollered, "Elder Wang, come over for a moment."
Elder Wang saw Little Boss and the rest at Elder Chen's shop and started smiling as he came over. "Little Boss, what are you guys doing?"
Sister Hong and Elder Chen just watched without saying anything. They decided to leave the talking to Little Boss.
Lin Fan said, "Elder Wang, I see that you've been very busy lately. What have you been doing? Is it something important?"
Elder Wang smiled embarrassedly. "No, I've just been learning some new knowledge to enrich myself. I've just finished my lesson, so I'm back."
Lin Fan glanced at the red bag. It seemed to be containing something and it was all full. "What are you learning? Tell us more."
Elder Wang said, "Alright, I shall tell you then. I came across something good so I definitely have to share it with everyone." Then, he opened the bag and took out a book, which he then placed on the counter. "Look at this book."
Cover page: 'Mysterious elements are all around us'
"What kind of book is this?" Lin Fan was stunned. It really seemed very unsafe.
Elder Wang explained with a smile, "This is basic teaching material. It means that around us, in the air, there is a kind of mysterious element that exists. When we can sense these elements, our spirits will enter an immense relaxation. We could even mediate the magnetic fields in our bodies. There are many things. I've only just listened to several classes and I haven't learned as much as those fellow disciples of mine."
Sister Hong and Elder Chen looked at each other. At this moment, they understood that Elder Wang had been scammed.
And judging by the looks of things, he deeply believed those lies.
Lin Fan said, "Ah, it's so mystical. How much did you spend?"
Elder Wang waved his hand. "Not much. The fee is only 1880. With this book, I spent a total of around three or four thousand. This isn't much. Some of those who have attended the further classes have spent tens of thousands on buying items. I wanted to buy as well but because I haven't learned enough, they weren't willing to sell the items to me either."
Lin Fan's mouth twitched a little. That's f*cking harsh.
Elder Wang seemed to sense Sister Hong and Elder Chen's distrust, so he said, "Don't think that this is a scam. Let me tell you that this is not a scam. They are very responsible. Before you reach a certain level, they wouldn't sell you items. If they are scammers, they would definitely sell things to you, wouldn't they?"
Lin Fan wanted to say a certain sentence but didn't say it in the end.
'It's not that they don't want to f*cking sell it, they're just afraid that they haven't brainwashed you enough and that you'll escape!'
"When is the next class?" asked Lin Fan.
Elder Wang replied, "There's another class in the afternoon. This class is very important. There will be a professional teacher coming to teach us. I have to go and do some revision. I'm going to ask the questions I don't understand in the afternoon."
Before Lin Fan said anything, Elder Wang kept the book and left immediately.
Lin Fan tilted his head and said softly, "Did you hear that? Elder Wang seems to have fallen deep into the trap."
Elder Chen asked, "Little Boss, what should we do?"
Sister Hong sighed, "Sigh, Elder Wang is usually a really astute man. How did he become so stupid?"
Lin Fan said, "Don't tell other people about this for now. I'll go and take a look in the afternoon. We have to help Elder Wang avoid this plight, isn't that right? If we can't save him, then he'll be screwed."
Elder Chen and Sister Hong nodded immediately. That was indeed the case. They hadn't expected Elder Wang to have fallen deeply into a scam. It was simply scary. If they hadn't discovered this early and Elder Wang had really been scammed of a lot of his money, that would have been tragic.
…
In the afternoon!
Dongyue Hotel.
Elder Wang reached the venue very early and most of the other participants had reached very early as well. They felt that if they missed out on even a bit of content, it would be a great loss.
Liu Xu watched from afar and felt that these people were really maniacs. She roughly estimated that there over a hundred people.
Spiritual Exchange Conference.
The person-in-charge was a middle-aged lady who was dressed brightly and had short hair. With one look, you could tell that she was capable of big things.
"Is the lecturer here yet?"
The assistant said, "He's coming. He's on the way."
"Mmm, that's good. Prepare the materials. After the lecture is over, get the students to buy them," said the middle-aged lady.
The class fees were just a small sum. The real profits came from these materials and other supplementary goods.
When the members were really immersed, something worth ten dollars could be sold for several thousand or maybe even ten thousand.
"It's ready." The assistant nodded. In this line of work, in order to brainwash others, one had to first brainwash himself or herself. Otherwise, how would one convince others?
Hence, they were now feeling the energy from around them as well.
Unfortunately, they could never feel any energy but this didn't make them give up. They just believed that they were not competent enough to feel it.
In the very large conference room.
A group of students were seated.
And amongst them, Lin Fan was seated as well. He had utilized his Wuxia class of knowledge to make others not notice him. There was indeed a way to do this.
He wanted to see what exactly they would talk about is such a 'powerful' lesson.
Suddenly, all the members stood up and shouted towards the entrance, "Teacher Zhou…"
Teacher Zhou nodded and gestured for everyone to be silent.
"Please sit."
On the platform in front, that lady who had been greeted as Teacher Zhou stood in front of a drawing board. Then, she pointed at the content on the board.
"Today, we will be learning how to absorb the mysterious elements around us more effectively."
The crowd nodded. They were very eagerly anticipating it.


I am Lin Fan and I've become a jack of all trades just because of a powerful Encyclopedia. 
In the first ever competition organised for trolls, all the other contestants lost. The crowd exclaimed, "Brother, you're so good at trolling." 
Lin Fan replied, "But I've never been trolling..."

After an hour of introspection, he imagined he achieved a tiny bit of progress in straightening out his crooked design philosophy. It wasn't easy by any means, and it might take months to restore it to a pure state, but at least Ves saw some hope in his current approach.
"I only need a couple of minutes to put my design philosophy to the brink, but I need months to undo all of the damage I've done."
Creation was harder than destruction. That applied to pretty much anything, so Ves did not expect an easy road to recovery.
In the meantime, Ves sensed that he really shouldn't put his design philosophy under stress during his recovery period. Putting more stress on a broken limb for example only exacerbated the damage and prolonged his recovery period.
Even though he should take it easy for the next couple of months, Ves feared he may need to compromise his much-abused principles yet again if the Aeon Corona System turned out to be a cesspool of danger.
"I feel like an abusive husband who can't help but make excuses for hitting my wife." He grimaced.
His design philosophy was his 'wife' in this analogy. The danger here was that he might hit her too often or too hard one day that his design philosophy decided to give up on him and file for divorce.
With all that he put his design philosophy through lately, Ves certainly deserved it, but he did not want this to happen.
"Can you forgive me, please? I swear I won't hit you again!"
Ves suddenly shook his head. What was he thinking about? Why did he suddenly imagine his design philosophy as his wife?
"I think I have to call this a day."
He felt reluctant to go to sleep. While the Vandals stood down from red alert, the current condition or yellow alert meant that they still anticipated possible threats. Yellow alert merely allowed for a rotation of shifts so that all of the stations would continue to be manned while off-duty personnel had a chance to eat and sleep.
"Still, my mind really needs a break."
Ves figured that someone would wake him up again if anything drastic happened, which admittedly didn't seem very likely.
The Flagrant Swordmaiden fleet had limped their way out their initial emergence zone. The ominous Vesian fleet that initially burned in pursuit had sustained heavy damage from the pirates, while the forces aligned to the Church of Haatumak learned the hard way why they shouldn't challenge a detachment of a battle-hardened military mech regiment.
He rested for four hours before an alert woke him up. Ves blearily emerged from his bed and took one look at the message from his comm before he jumped out and dressed himself up at his best speed.
He raced towards his office where a security officer handed over an important package to him. As soon as he received it, he thanks the officer, entered his office, threw a sloppy greeting to Ketis and jumped behind his desk, activated his signal jammer before finally inserting the encrypted data chip inside the package into his secure comm.
The contents inside the data chip contained all of the logs, readings and telemetry out of the simulations and live deployment of the Parallax Star!
While Ves grumbled a bit about missing out on the tests as they happened, at least it appeared that nothing drastic had gone wrong. Venerable Xie hadn't gone insane or went onto a random murder spree. According to the biometric logs, the expert pilot exhibited an increased amount of exertion, but that could have been attributed to the man's slightly increased performance with the Parallax Star from before.
"It's good to see at least one of my changes went as planned."
The slight increase in performance helped justify his changes and mask all of his shenanigans behind the scenes. To the rest of the Vandals, it appeared that Ves managed to successfully tweak the Parallax Star in favor of Venerable Xie.
Only Ves and Major Verle knew the truth, and if it was up to him, that would remain so forever.
He still found it a waste to set a fatal trap for an expert pilot. If the expert pilot hadn't been so slavishly devoted to the failure of a Fourth Prince, then the Vandals could have forged a tighter bond with the versatile fugitive from the Dark Plasma Star Sector.
Incidents like these illustrate the difficulty of converting a foreign expert pilot to another cause. No one wanted to let go of their trump cards, especially to those with power and ambition, so they did everything in their power to indoctrinate their expert pilots into becoming their loyal servants.
The MTA's emphasis on protecting the rights and privileges of expert pilots emerged out of necessity. If expert pilots enjoyed no such protection, that left them vulnerable to all kinds of brainwashing and coercion by unscrupulous states and power players.
The fact that practically any expert pilot that experienced forceful persuasion often stagnated or regressed didn't stop them at all, though it would be bad for the MTA as a whole. In order to make the advancement towards expert pilot as attractive as possible and to leave the path open towards ace pilot and god pilots, elite mech pilots of all stripes needed to be treated with respect.
This policy sounded good to Ves until he ended up in the position of one of those people who needed an expert pilot under their thumb. Then it became a hindrance that Ves had willfully violated.
Ves dove into the logs and the telemetry, trying to find any signs his intervention had any side effects. He found plenty of abnormal indicators, but they shouldn't come to anyone's attention as long as they remained small.
The amount of abnormalities did concern him, however. It told him that his changes resulted in a spillover effect that cascaded many other parameters.
The man-machine connection was one of the most complex and mystifying fields in mech design. It occupied the same status as FTL drive mechanics to starship engineers.
Ves merely dipped his toes in the field himself, so while he expected his changes to have missed the mark somewhat, he did not feel pleased that it had grown to this extent.
This was like ordering an artillery mech to perform a precision bombing but instead the mech decided to go wild and carpet bomb the entire surroundings around the target region!
"I've been fudging all of my projects lately."
The batteries, his gadgets, the Six-Sided Dice, the Evaporating Spear and now the tampered neural interface were all rush jobs that Ves had hastily completed due to a perpetual lack of time and capability. This left way too many shortcomings into his final products.
"I have no choice in the matter." He sighed.
Ves recognized that the situation compelled him to these dire straits. His current woes reiterated his desire to gain more autonomy over his own life. Even if Major Verle was correct in that everyone was someone else's pawn, working under someone's thumb really grated on him. The sooner he jumped off the chessboard, the sooner he stopped ending up in situations beyond his control.
Ves spent a half-hour in total to skim through all of the data. Most of it consisted of irrelevant or incomprehensible observations, and he couldn't figure out if his changes had actually stuck or not. At the very least, he concluded that no major problems had occurred despite his inexpert handling of the code.
"Ketis?"
"Good morning to you too, Ves." She grumbled.
"Sorry, I became preoccupied with an important task."
"It's fine. I know what you're like."
After a bit of chit-chat, Ves turned towards her own development. "Did you do as I suggested earlier?"
"You mean to talk with the mech pilot of that swordsman mech we visited before? I did, but the Vandal didn't want to tell me much. I think it's because I'm a Swordmaiden, so he didn't want to give away his secrets."
He had overlooked that possibility. The Vandal mech pilot did nothing wrong, and Ves should have passed on some instructions or the like. Well, it may have been an irresponsible suggestion from the start.
"You'll get the opportunity to interview your fellow Swordmaidens when you return to their midst. Just remember to do it. You really need to understand their quirks and their idiosyncrasies to design your own mechs in the future that fit with your intended clients."
"Isn't that part of marketing?" She asked.
"Yup. What I've just described is marketing research in a nutshell. I can't just design a random mech and dump it onto the market. Well, I can do that if I really want to, but I shouldn't expect it to pay for itself because it won't sell that much. The mech market is immense. Even in the Komodo Star Sector, a lot of mechs change hands all the time. The competition is so big that you simply can't afford to go your own way. Mech designers have to adopt the mentality of putting their customers at the center of their vision. Without an existing base of customers to appeal to, who is going to buy your mechs?"
"I don't see how that matters to me. I'm just a pirate designer and I don't care at all about the mech market in the frontier. Can't I just do my own thing?"
Ves shook his head. "Just because you've read it in a marketing textbook doesn't mean the theories can't be applied in non-commercial settings. Every form of labor a mech designer performs is intertwined with a transaction of some sorts. Would Mayra be so highly valued by Lydia's Swordmaidens if she only designs and fabricates spearman mechs?"
"Of course not! That's stupid!"
"That's because she knows her customers, which in this case is the outfit she is a part of. Just because she is a member of the outfit doesn't mean that all of the marketing theories are invalid. In fact, they matter even more so, because designing mechs that are a poor fit to the Swordmaidens directly affects her safety."
"Okay.. I get what you're telling me. You don't want me to design the mechs I've imagined in my mind?"
"Not exactly. If you have a strong belief that a mech you formed from your own insights and experience, then you can go ahead and design it. Just make sure that it's attractive enough that someone wants to pilot it. It sounds stupid, but many mech designers who just started business actually neglect finding out if the market has any appetite for their products!"
Not every mech designer was cut out to be an entrepreneur. Mech designers cared about designing great mechs, while businessmen wanted to earn as much profit as possible. These priorities differed from each other, but an independent mech designer constantly needed to pay equal attention to both.
"The biggest mech manufacturers won't hesitate to spend millions of K-coins just to understand their target segment a little better."
"Really? It costs that much to interview a couple of mech pilots?"
"They do more than a simple interview." Ves replied dryly. "There's a whole science behind it, but you don't need to know the details. Once you get to my level and own your own business, you can ask for a report and have your underlings or an external marketing agency do the heavy lifting."
"Here you go again." She rolled her eyes. "You always state that I'm destined to start my own mech company or something."
"That's because I believe you are meant for greater things. I have the utmost amount of confidence in your abilities."
She didn't know how to reply to that. What Ves said was so ludicrous she didn't even consider it a realistic possibility.
Ves did not mind. As long as she remained confident, she had the potential to outgrow the Swordmaidens. However, if she ever took that step, then she sorely needed to become familiar with the fundamentals of running a business.
If Ves did not bring up the necessity to design her mechs with an eye to her customers, she might make a misstep at some point.
Ketis eventually showed signs that she comprehended his point.
"I guess if you think about it, even if designing the mech of your dreams is fun, it's not a game. Sometimes you have to design mechs you don't like to pay the bills." She remarked in an uncharacteristic display of wisdom. "Mayra often receives commissions to design mechs for our friends, and she sometimes comes back complaining about how she hates the way they fight and how she needed to adapt that into her commissioned designs. Some of them are real scumbags who…"
As Ves listened to her rambling, he felt a bit more at ease. The unsettling sensation in the depth of his heart had subsided by a tiny bit. Surprised, Ves turned his concentration inward and found to his surprise that his design philosophy actually regained a small amount of brightness!


Humanity has conquered half the galaxy and the Age of Mechs reigns supreme!

Ves Larkinson lacked the genetic aptitude to become a famed mech pilot. Fighting against his fate, he studied mech design in order to express his love for mechs as a builder instead of a soldier.

When Ves graduated from college, he returned to a new but empty boutique. Left with a small, newly founded mech workshop that his father painstakingly built with a mountain of debt, Ves somehow needs to make ends meet with the bank breathing down his neck.

In the midst of his despair, he found salvation from another legacy his father had left.

"Welcome to the Mech Designer System. Please design your new mech."

--Join The Mech Touch's unofficial Discord server: https://discord.gg/APB5KCU

As Michael set himself down to begin his push-ups, he noticed he was more than a little sore - the system informed him that this was just a byproduct of the body not being used to the level of exercise, and that the muscle soreness was not a sign of injury. Reassured, he quickly made his way through his morning routine - maintaining his form was still tricky, of course, but he managed to require fewer corrections from the day before. 

It wasn't even 7am by the time he made his way upstairs, and he managed to see his parents on as they were getting ready to head out the door. "Well good morning! Someone's up earlier than usual," his father greeted him warmly. "Coffee? Pot's still pretty fresh."

Michael nodded his thanks and went over, pouring a cup before setting it down on the counter. "I'm going to let it cool down a bit while I grab a shower, but it looks like you're heading out?" His father nodded. "Your Mom's already in the car. I was just grabbing a brief I'd left upstairs. Mornings are going to get a bit busier once your sisters are back at school. We'll need to figure something out for a schedule. We should also revisit the basement bathroom plans. All of the plumbing's already done, after all. Is that something you'd like to help with?"

Michael's face quickly brightened up. "Yes, definitely! I've had a bunch of thoughts on that, actually. Can I put something together for you?" What Michael's father couldn't see was the new mission that popped up in his son's view.

<<[Mission: Upgrade Personal Territory - Bathroom]
Description: The continued expansion of one's personal territory and facilities opens up a lot of options for continued development. Take advantage of the planned development to include optimizations recommended by the system.

Reward: Enhancing Bath Solution formulas unlocked.>>

Michael's father was a little surprised but slowly nodded. "Sure... though we already have a budget set aside, so we'll have to discuss it. However, it is your space... let's plan to have a conversation with a three of us once you're ready. Sound good? Oh, that reminds me - the money for yesterday's groceries is on the counter. We've got something in the oven for tonight, and your sisters are responsible for the sides. We'll see you tonight. Gotta run!" he waved as he passed through the door into the garage. 

Michael waved back and made his way upstairs. 

---

With nothing else really to do at home, Michael decided to start heading to school a bit earlier than usual. On his way, he realized that he hadn't made plans for lunch. He considered stopping by the grocery store he'd visited last night when it occurred to him that it might be worth asking the System what its thoughts were. It had previously made some allusions to nutritional profiles, but he was wondering if it could elaborate further.

<<Since Subject has asked, the System is able to analyse the contents of the food the Subject plans on consuming. While the System is aware of general guidelines concerning nutrition, and Subject's current state, Subject has not yet unlocked potential functionality for nutritional plans. The System is able to create a mission for this at Subject's request.>>

"This seems like a good move, to fit with the exercise and... baths? Though I'm a little surprised at what is and what isn't included in your knowledge."

<<Resource costs of inter-dimensional transference necessitate prioritizing information Subject would not be able to readily access.>>

"Oh? Information like what?"

<<...Subject has not yet unlocked associated functionality.>>

"Why am I not surprised..." Michael mused as he walked into the grocery store. He selected a ready-made salad and a summer sausage - easy enough to keep at room temperature and wouldn't make a mess in his bag. He also had the system go ahead and generate a mission for researching appropriate nutrition plans for people of his age, with the goal of both athletic and scholastic performance in mind. 

Despite the detour, he still arrived at school significantly earlier than usual. He decided to try his luck and see if the library was already open, so he could return the copy of 'Fundamentals' he had borrowed. Indeed, the lights were on and Mr. Maddox could be seen sorting through books. However, when Michael tried the door, it was locked, so he lightly tapped on the glass to get the librarian's attention. Mr. Maddox turned to the door and his face showed surprise at seeing the student he'd taken a bit of note of at his door so early. Shelving the book he'd had in his hand, he walked over to the door and opened it.

"You're here rather early," the librarian commented as he opened the door. "Technically, the library doesn't open for another 10 minutes. What brings you here at this hour?"

"Thanks, Mr. Maddox. I ended up running a bit early on my morning, so I thought I'd come and drop this off before class started, and maybe look for some others," Michael said as he fished the borrowed copy of 'Fundamentals' out of his bag. 

"I see. Decided against it in the end? It's nothing to be ashamed of - that's a pretty advanced piece of literature. It's okay to take your time with it, you know - there's still a couple of weeks til you need to return it." Mr. Maddox tried to encourage Michael to continue.

"That's not it," Michael said, shaking his head. "I finished it, and my dad gave me his copy to reference in the future."

"You're done!?" Mr. Maddox exclaimed. "You know this isn't the kind of thing you should just skim, right? Well, not only skim - skimming is important, after all."

"I know - I've spent all of my free time in the past few days on it. In fact, I'm planning on taking a syntopic approach to my English assignment. Do you have any recommendations?" Michael asked hopefully.

"I see... well, in that case, I'll sign this one back in. In fact, I do have a couple of recommendations, let me find them..."

<<Reputation with Mr. Maddox +1. Progress for title "Dedicated Student" increased.>>

---

Michael left the library and made his way to Algebra class. Grabbing his open seat by the window, he was quickly joined by Jeremy as had become his habit. 

"Hey Michael! Do you have plans after school today?" Jeremy immediately asked.

"I don't, actually. My sisters are handling dinner, so I've got a few hours free," Michael replied.

"Excellent! You're coming with me, then! My treat." Jeremy replied excitedly.

"Going where?" Michael inquired.

"Somewhere awesome." Jeremy grinned. 

Before Michael could get more information, the bell rang and class began. The teacher had everyone pass their homework from the previous class up to the front, then began the lecture. Class proceeded normally, and Michael received a new mission at the end of class after asking the System. He decided it was easier to keep track of this way - it was essentially just using the "Steps" function he'd unlocked in an easier way.

After Algebra, he said goodbye to Jeremy and made his way to Chemistry, which followed pretty much the same routine as Algebra. Checking his schedule, he saw that he didn't have Algebra and Chemistry again til the day after tomorrow, so he could get a head start on them at lunch and then finish them up before the next class. Losing the evening for whatever Jeremy had in mind wouldn't be the end of the world. Besides, it sounded like whatever it was would be worthwhile.

---

"Good Afternoon, Mr. Maddox," Michael greeted as he walked into the library for lunch.

"Good Afternoon, Mr. Prout," Mr. Maddox returned with a slight smile. "Have you discussed your plan with your English teacher, yet?"

"No, sir. English is after lunch."

"I see. Well, while I think it's an ambitious idea, I'm not responsible for the class - you should definitely bring it up with... Ms Aldrich, I'm guessing?"

"Yes. Thank you, I will. For now, though, I have some other books to hit," he said as he waved his Algebra textbook. Mr. Maddox waved him on and returned to the paperwork in front of him. Michael quickly found a table, pulled out his notebook and lunch and got ready to work. However, right before he started on the first problem, he realized that he hadn't actually opened the book they were meant to be reading for English yet. Considering they'd be discussing it in class, and he was even attempting to take on a more advanced version of the assignment, he'd look pretty foolish if he couldn't even speak to the basics of the book!

He stowed his Algebra materials and pulled out the book and a fresh notebook to begin taking some notes as outlined in the 'Fundamentals' he'd finished the night before. 

"That was close..."

It's the turn of the 21st century in a world not unlike our own. 14 year-old Michael wakes up on the first day of high school with a nosebleed, a splitting headache, and the voice of someone claiming to be him from a number of years in the future in his head!

"We could have been, and we need to be, better... so, congratulations, I'm sorry, and good luck!"

Stuck with a somewhat overbearing voice in his head that seems hell-bent on ruining his life, Michael will have to survive such ordeals as... doing well in school, eating right, exercising and... learning demonic contract law? Stay tuned to find out!

Einstein stared at the stats window, now understanding why being flung into the cage didn't hurt, it was because he had the constitution of a peak human existence, a staggering 17. To put that in perspective, Husain Bolt if given stats would have twelve points of dexterity at most. Having a fifteen in dexterity is the kind of speed, flexibility and reflexes that where spoke about in myths and legends, comparable to felines  of the animal kingdom. The kind of dexterity that allowed people to catch cobras mid strike.
But what was really mind blowing was that he possessed all this strength and speed as a seven year old who hadn't even had his first growth spurt.
'top talent indeed, God-me doesn't fuck around' Einstein thought finally understanding the staggering amount of talent packed into his young body.
'wait why does my age say seven?' Einstein asked the system.
[Host's god self adjusted your body to have maximal compatibility with your soul, amongst those adjustments was aging your body to suit your soul]
'one of them? What where the others' Einstein thought.
[Majority of the alterations made to host's body to enhance soul compatibility where purely cosmetic] 
'show me' Einstein thought. He remembered seeing his reflection when he first woke up but that was in a muddy puddle in a dark cave he wasn't exactly clear on what he saw.
A window appeared in his vision displaying what he assumed was his look right now.  It was extremely similar to how he looked in his first life, except older and with honey brown eyes instead of the former colour, he was also much more attractive. it was like someone had taken a chisel to his face to remove all imperfections, leaving a perfectly symmetrical face.
Having had one of his questions satisfied, he moved onto the next one.
'why does my race say those things? Am I not human anymore?' Einstein thought.
[The bloodlines that where implanted into host's body where shaped by your gods self's most powerful divinities and are directly connected to them, because of that they possess so much power that they devoured all of your human genetic material. To answer host's question, indeed you are not human anymore.]
'So I'm not human anymore.... well worse has happened' Einstein was still young and malleable, he was not particularly attached to his humanity. So what others may consider a bombshell of information was just another interesting titbit of what his God self was up to before the memory wipe.
'now explain these talent skills' Einstein thought. He could more or less figure out what normal skills where, since he was really skilled in the fields displayed there, and after those months spent as a slave he would be pissed, if he didn't even have the basic gathering skill but what where these talent skills? He could make a vague guess but best to be sure.
[Talent skills refer to natural abilities possessed by host, that are intrinsically part of you and not learned] 
'Okay then, explain what they do'
["Eidetic memory ":it gives the host perfect recall while increasing your Base intelligence by 30 percent.
"Incubus lure": the incubus is irresistible.  Passive- Increases host's charm by a factor of 500 percent (sealed)
"Dragon body": all tremble at the dragon's fury. Passive- increases host's physical attributes by the following factors, strength 200 percent , dexterity 100 percent, constitution 150 percent (sealed)
"Chaos aura ": become the origin of the elements. Passive- host will possess the highest affinity towards all elements in the natural world
Active- host will be covered in an aura of the chaos aura increasing all stats by 500 percent for 20 seconds.
"Spirit body": the fairy's soul made flesh. Passive- Create an energy form with perfect attunement to an element.
Active- become one with an element for 0.3 seconds
"Infinite spirit well": A soul that stretches into the void to touch the origin.
Passives- soul language: hear and see the meanings behind the world.
Infinite soul: a spirit that never ends.
"Warriors heart": A heart that beats for battle. Active- ????????? (sealed)]
'wow, that is op as fuck' Einstein thought in shock.
'if I still can't escape from here I should honestly commit seppuku' Einstein thought 
Moving his attention back on the books, he proceeded to appraise them.
" basic warrior cultivation"
A book expounding on the fundamentals of warrior cultivation. Requirements:
Strength 12, dexterity 9, constitution 11
"Basic rogue cultivation"
A book expounding on the fundamentals of rogue cultivation. Requirements:
Strength 9, dexterity 11 constitution 11
"Basic sword acolyte cultivation"
A book expounding on the fundamentals of sword acolyte cultivation. Requirements:
Strength 12, dexterity 12, constitution 9.......
........
.........
..........
All of the books appraisals followed along those lines, a simple name and the requirements to cultivate the technique. Einstein met the requirements for most of these techniques but he was having trouble choosing, being both young and inexperienced he didn't know what to choose and he couldn't ask the golden gorilla what was better because all she cared about was him being able to have sex with her without breaking, which with his constitution being an incredible 17, he probably wasn't far from it.
'system run the variables and choose what technique is most suitable for me' Einstein thought. The system being a super computer was capable of simulation on a tremendous scale, while also having assess to an unlimited amount of soul energy and incredible information gathering capabilities supported by his soul language talent skill. 
[Simulating the host's physical body and the multiple cultivation paths available...
Processing results....
Conclusion. None of the aforementioned techniques are suitable.....
Beginning running of permutations to create the most suitable technique.....
Estimated time of completion...
1123 days, 3 hours, 8minutes and 26 seconds]
Einstein scowled at that, he didn't like any thing he heard. First, none of the techniques where suitable for him and for a suitable one to be created it would take more than 3 years. He could not go that long without gaining any power or he might fall to far behind Aurora, let's not forget she is currently the heir of a powerful organisation and although he would rejoice at any achievement she made it didn't mean he didn't have his own ambition.
'system is there any way to get stronger while I wait' Einstein thought 
[The body of host possesses boundless potential, if tempered with even the most basic of techniques you would be able to reach a decent level of power, that was equivalent to the completion of a basic cultivation technique. ]
'what techniques are these and how can I get them?' Einstein thought joy flashing through his eyes at the knowledge he still possessed a path to power. 
[they are already embedded in the basic cultivation techniques , the system is capable of extracting it....
Beginning extraction process.......
Compiling results....
Creation of unknown tempering technique successful.....]
'Okay,  send it to me' Einstein thought 
[Transferring knowledge]
For the second time today Einstein experienced a searing migraine, after which his head was filled with different sets of movements meant to exercise the body, but it all looked like superstitious nonsense.
'I don't have the luxury of doubt I need strength to escape so I will do everything in my power to get it' Einstein thought 
swallowing his doubts andstanding up from the dirty floor of the cage and drawing the attention of some of the slaves who where awake in the process, Einstein began a set of movements that resembled a mixture between taichi and classical dancing, he continued like this for four hours until he heard a notification from the system
[Training successful, all stats plus 0.1]
Einstein perked up at the announcement followed by a whoop of joy. It works it may not seem that much now but what about after ten sessions or a hundred or a thousand,
He finally found a way out of here.
He would escape and find aurora.
and hopefully not get raped in the process.

a young genius on earth dies at the hands of an experiment only to wake up in a world were magic exists and monsters roam, where men can take flight on they're own, unhindered. but sadly he was not part of those men instead he was reincarnated into the body of a child of about the same age as he was on his earth, as a slave and forced to watch his mother die again. let us join Einstein the seven year reincarnator as he faces the world and all life has to throw at him

Finally, I'm going to start practicing taijutsu.

My Japanese did improve greatly, I'm finally able to write and read it. My body constitution improved considerably, from being able to run for 15 minutes to an hour nonstop, and being more flexible thanks to the exercise that I do; and 3 months ago I felt the trace of chakra.

Today, a day before my 3rd birthday, I'm able to feel my chakra and do the leaf concentration practice. After feeling my chakra 3 months ago, It didn't take long enough to master the leaf concentration practice. Now every time I meditate, I do the leaf concentration technique together with it.

According to what my father said to me, my birthday is going to be in the morning, and in the afternoon he had something he wanted to showed me. I was excited because finally, I was going to train in taijutsu.

"Congratulations on your birthday, little Kira." said most of the adults when they saw me.  They gifted me a new set of clothes and training clothing as well. The training clothes were simple, it was a black t-shirt, black sweatpants, and black sandals.

My clothes consisted of the same color scheme but it was a long sleeve t-shirt, I told my parents that I wanted to keep the sweatpants and the sandals the same. Jin wanted to give a beige vest or sweater but I rejected the idea.

I approached a group of kids, the same ones I play soccer with. We were all wearing kimonos, although of different colors they were ultimately the same thing. After a few hours, the guest started to leave. "Okay Kira, Go and get changed into your training clothes," my father said to me.

After changing, my father took me to the study/training room. Once I entered I saw a bunch of scrolls and books, there was a small table where you could sit down and read while enjoying a cup of tea. Going through a small door in the back, there was a spacious space, mostly used for sparring.

"Here, this book will show you the fundamentals of the gentle fist. The gentle fist is the taijutsu only taught to the members of the Hyuga clan, it's also the strongest taijutsu known in Konoha," my father said proudly.

"That means that we are the strongest clan in Konoha right dad," I said with excitement clearly showing in my face.

"Yes, the Hyuga clan is the strongest in Konoha. Well, enough talking about our clan, we're here to practice taijutsu. I'll give you ten minutes to memorize the first 3 exercises shown in the book, after that you'll show me what you learn in the book," said Jin firmly.

I simply nodded and started to study the book. The book that I was given wasn't that thick and it mostly contains different poses.

The first pose that I had to do was just a squat and keep the form as perfect as I can, for as long as I can. The second pose I had to do palm technique as shown in the book. And lastly, the last one was a breathing exercise.

I had 3 minutes left after I finished studying the 3 exercises, instead of telling my dad that I was done, I went over the exercises in my head.

'Hmm, these exercises are really simple, the most difficult one seems to be the breathing technique. It seems it'll take me a while to get the hang of it.' I said while going over the techniques in my mind.

"Okay, 10 minutes have passed. I want to see all you've learned in these ten minutes," said Jin with a frown. After noticing that he was serious and a little disappointed at me I simply nodded. 'He probably thinks that I slacked off and gave up once I put down the book.' I analyzed the situation quickly.

Jin activated the Byakugan and said, "Show me the first exercise in the book." I acknowledge his statement and did the squat as specified in the book. After 5 minutes I saw the expression in my father softened, and after 10 minutes he seemed a little shocked, but at the 10-minute mark, my legs were shaking. Jin saw me starting to struggle to maintain the form correctly, "Excellent let's move on to the second set of exercises, start." He said not as mad as before.

I immediately started to throw punches with my palm open, I threw the punch exactly at how the book said to do it. The book said that the punch had to be thrown as perfectly and as fast as possible. I threw 80 perfect punches in one minute, I could have thrown more but I was trying to keep the form perfectly. After the 30th punch, I got used to the form and started to go faster, unfortunately, my father told me to stop at the 1-minute mark. 

At this point, my father seemed excited and asked, "Good! Kira do you know how to perform the 3rd exercise?" I looked at the happy face of my dad and simply said, "Yes, I read how to do it, I just need some time to get it."

He seemed surprised and looked and said, "Okay, in the last exercise, you're going to have 1 minute to perform the breathing exercise, after that you need to keep breathing as stated in the book without being distracted."

I simply acknowledge his words and got down to business. The breathing technique was kind of irregular but after seconds I was able to do it perfectly. After a while, I heard a loud noise, when I turned to look where the noise originated I saw my father. "Again, you shouldn't' get distracted and lose concentration." I closed my eyes and started the breathing technique again, after a while I heard the same noise but at a different location. this time I didn't turn to look but got distracted and stopped the breathing technique for a second.

My father was about to talk, but he stopped himself when he saw me immediately starting the breathing technique again. This time when my father tried to distract me he failed. After 2 minutes I opened my eyes, finally able to look around while maintaining the breathing technique. 3 minutes after that my father told me to stop.

"You have a 5-minute break after that you're going to perform all 3 exercises at the same time," Jin said excitedly. I saw that the more exercises that I did, the better his expression. 'It seems that I'm doing an excellent job in these exercises.' I said to myself.

I sat down and started to meditate to recuperate my stamina back, especially in my legs since they were the most exhausted part of my body. My father still had his Byakugan turned on and saw how I was manipulating the chakra in my body to recuperate faster.

"Akira, can you manipulate the chakra inside your body?!" Jin said exclaiming. "Yes, I've been able to do it for 3 months now," I told him the truth. "Excellent! It seems that you've skipped the next step in the fundamentals of the gentle fist. Usually, we teach the young ones how to manipulate chakra once they've finished the basics of taijutsu, but you, you already know how to do it. I just know that you are going to become a great ninja," Jin said almost laughing.

"Anyways, I still need to test you in the basics of taijutsu, so let's get started with the last test." He said as calmly as he could. As soon as he heard that I did the breathing technique, then the squat, and finally started to throw the punches. I did everything as fast as I could, my dad tried to distract me, but ultimately he failed. After 5 minutes he told me to stop.

"Great job! You did all the techniques perfectly and passed with flying colors! Tomorrow you can go and have some fun with your friends. The day after tomorrow we are going to start on the real basics of the gentle fist," my dad said proudly.

Follow Akira, in his new life in Naruto.

I'm trying to make the MC a high functioning sociopath. Akira is going to make friends and have a good personality but he won't go out of his way to help people; he will do everything he can to be more powerful, no matter the cost.

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