The second thought that came to Amon was that this was actually hell. His soul had been put inside a helpless baby body and these people around him would start to administer different kinds of torture upon him as punishments for his sins.
He did not feel scared though. He had gone through numerous kinds of torture during the course of his life, both administered to him or by him. He instead sort of looked forward to what kind of creative method these torturers would do to him.
Yet, the tortures never came. He was instead taken care of with utmost attention. In a way, this was a kind of torture for him. A mighty general who had caused fear and terror upon the entire Earth, now laid here as a helpless baby, being nursed and fed. He even needed the help of these people to clean his piss and shit. The devil was indeed creative in devising his torturing method.
Days passed. He slowly accepted the fact that this was not hell. He could feel his body growing. The people around him were also shown to have other activities other than tending to him. It felt real enough.
However, he was sure that this place was not Earth, or even if it was the same universe from where he was from. The first reason was because of their language. It was not any language he knew of. He could speak many languages of Earth. Although he could not say that he knew all the languages of the Earth, he had heard a great deal of them and could identify them even if he did not understand them. The language that was spoken by these people though, was completely foreign.
The second reason was because of the devices they used. Lamps, books, and writing instruments, were unlike anything he had seen before. The lamps were not powered by electricity. The books, when opened, would have runes floating around them. Some could even produce moving images.
A third reason was because of his caretaker, that's what he called the person who took care of him. Amon did not see any individuals he could identify as his parents. There were no couples that showed him affection when he was born. Only a group of men and women who showed curiosity and interest in his being.
This group of people took turns to take care of him, but at the end of the day, there was always this aged man that watched over him. This aged man looked more like his grandfather than his father. He did not see anyone there that he could identify as his mother or father. It didn't matter though. Even if there were, he would not consider them his parents. That aged man that watched over him, was the one he came to call his caretaker.
The reason that his caretaker contributed to the idea that this was not the Earth where he was from, was because every night after making sure that Amon was asleep, the aged man would sit cross-legged upon his bed and started to meditate. Amon was of course not asleep, he just pretended to. He would then observe his caretaker's meditation and saw numerous fancy lights gathered and swirling around him. It was almost like magic.
This completely piqued Amon's interest. He realized then that this world did not revolve around the same rules as his old one.
The people who took care of him started to teach him how to speak. They taught him the strange local language. Even before these people started to teach him, he had already started to learn from them through their daily conversations. He could not yet say that he had mastered them, but he started to understand bits and pieces.
When the people taught him though, he pretended to not understand most of them. He did not yet know about the nature of this world, it was better to pretend a normal baby as he continued to observe the situation.
When these people were not looking, Amon also tried to learn to stand and walked. It was a difficult task, due to his weak little baby legs. Around four months after he came into this world, he managed to walk successfully. Of course, when any others were present, he continued to lie helplessly in his crib.
Once he could move around the room, he started to look at the magical books that he could get to. When he opened the books, the letters within them started to dance around as they formed some sort of formation. He did not understand any of the letters, as none of the people taking care of him had taught him how to read this world's writings. Nevertheless, it did not stop him from trying to learn or made sense of it.
Little by little, he started to be able to connect some of the runes to the words that he had learned. When his caretaker started to teach him about the writings, his understanding skyrocketed. Yet, he did not show any of it. He continued to pretend as if he was like any other normal baby.
At eight months of age, he could roughly read a book already. Although many meanings still escaped his grasp, he could understand most of the writings.
From the books and the conversations he heard from the people that took care of him. He learned some basic structures of this world. This world was called Aetheria, it was not based on the logic and science that dominated his old world. This one revolved around some sort of mystical energy the locals termed Aether. The name of this world was given due to this mystical energy.
This aether existed everywhere, and it could be harnessed to create many things or to be used to do great things. One of the books he read depicts that aether could be used to control the elements, such as fire and lightning. People who knew how to utilize the aether could perform what his old-world depicted as magic.
Learning about this miraculous thing, Amon could not help but felt excited. A new plaything for him, he thought with anticipation.
He also learned that what his caretaker did every night with that light show, was called cultivating. It was an act to absorb the aether around and used it to nourish the energy core that existed within one's body. The book depicted that this energy core would start forming once someone came to five years of age, and would grow stronger if the right cultivation method was used. This energy core could evolve to a higher stage when it reached the limit of its current stage.
It's all very fascinating, but to wait till he reached five years of age was rather boring. Yet there was nothing he could do. He could only continue to learn through the books as he waited for his energy core to form.
When he was one year of age, he did not bother to hide anymore when he read. He would just take a book and sat in a corner and read it silently as the others were doing their businesses. Most just thought of him as a silent child who liked to read and left him to his own device.
The house, or rather, the mansion he grew up in, consisted of several interconnected buildings. It was considered large for his old-world standard. But the occupants were not that many, he counted only fourteen, nine men and five women.
From their casual conversations which Amon eavesdropped on from time to time, he deduced that they used to be part of a large clan. They were somehow involved with a cult that held forbidden knowledge and ended up being punished by the city lord. They had been in decline ever since.
Their main income came from chores that they performed for other clans and the medicines that the eldest women in this mansion concocted.
At two years of age, Amon had been actively roaming around the mansion. Most of the occupants only saw him as an overcurious child and left him be. He spent lots of time watching the elderly woman concoct medicine. He also realized that some of the medicine that she made was in reality, poison. In fact, through his observations, he could see that she sold more poisons in comparison to medicine.
He paid attention to where the old woman stored her ingredients and recipes. She also kept a notebook that she left inside her workroom. When she was not around, Amon took the notebook and studied them. He was not a master alchemist, but he knew a bit about them. He had dealt with toxins in his past life.
The contents of the notebook were very much confusing at first, as all the terms and ingredients noted inside were completely alien to him. But he studied them patiently, comparing them with the ingredients and recipes inside the workroom. Eventually, he gained an understanding of them.
He did not attempt any experimentation though. Such an action would easily be discovered. He just kept all the knowledge to himself for the time being.
In his third year of age, he felt something unusual with his body.
Amon felt a wave of strange feeling from below his navel. It was warm, but also somewhat painful. The feeling reminded him of a text he read in a book. It was regarding the forming of one's energy core. He was bewildered, wasn't one's energy core supposed to form when one reached five years of age?
But since it was happening, he did not question too much about it. He had read the instruction in the book that when the Energy Core was formed, several steps needed to be taken. Otherwise, it might leave repercussions on later progression in his cultivation.
From the information he had read, large clans usually had instructors to educate their young ones about how to deal with this situation when it occurred. Amon believed the occupants of this mansion also planned the same thing for him, but none of them might have expected his energy core to form this early.
It's a good thing there are many books regarding this energy core forming. Every human in this world went through this development, so there were many records regarding it.
It would be easier if an experienced instructor was guiding him in the process, but there was no time to look for one. The one he thought to be most qualified would be his caretaker, but he was not in the mansion at the moment. All the books indicated that this initial process couldn't be delayed. The core would form by itself if it was ignored, and the quality would be sub-par at best.
Hence, Amon decided to experiment by himself. He sat cross-legged on the bed. From the various information he had read, it was advised that one should immerse his or her consciousness into the newly formed energy core and the essence was to guide the aether to form a strong wall around the core.
It was vague guidance. The notion of immersing consciousness into oneself would be laughable in his old world. But he had learned to stop thinking using the old world logic in this new one, so he allowed his imagination to take hold.
He closed his eyes and concentrated on the strange feeling below his navel. He shut down all his senses and just focused on the feeling. There was nothing at first, but he suddenly felt a pull from underneath him. He experienced some sort of vertigo within the darkness. The feeling of being sucked was getting stronger. He did not fight the feeling, some books had described a similar experience.
He soon felt himself floating in a vast expense of space. He remembered the book described this space as Energy Space. There was nothing all around. No, there was something there. He was still closing his eyes, but at the same time, he could see everything within this space. He floated to where he had sensed an existence within this infinite space.
He arrived and saw scattered grains of dust floating there. This must be the base essence that formed his core. Now the next step was to bring the surrounding aether to the inside of this space.
Absorbing Aether and refining it was a cultivation method. And there were many cultivation methods in this world. Such methods were not available to the public. However, if to simply absorb a small amount of aether, there was a book that taught him the basic way of doing it. It was through respiration.
He sent part of his consciousness to his outer body and controlled it to perform the breathing technique described in the book. He could sense some sort of substance entering him via his respiration. This substance materialized in his Energy Space. It appeared as a thin white fog.
Amon approached this fog and tried to grab it. The fog swirled away as if alive. It was as described in the books, the aether was like a living entity. It had a will of its own. The information was to guide the aether to the core, the books did not inform any specific way of doing it. The books, however, described that the Energy Space was its owner's private space. Every foreign element that entered the space could be bent to the owner's will, provided that the owner's will was stronger than the foreign element's will.
Amon then stopped trying to chase after the aether fog. He steadied himself into a tranquil state, expunged all unnecessary thoughts, and focused his attention on the aether fog. He imagined an invisible hand grabbing the fog. The aether fog sensed his invisible approach and adeptly flee to another place.
Amon sent his hand of will chasing after it, but it produced no better result than when he was chasing after it directly. Seeing that this method bore no result, he changed his approach. Capturing gas using a tangible hand was never the right way, so he copied the method from his old world. He imagined a large vacuum cleaner that sucked the fog over.
The aether fog tried to flee again, but this time, it stuck in its position as it resisted the pull. It was working! Now it's only a matter of will. He concentrated harder as he imagined a stronger pulling force. The aether fog slowly lost ground.
Not long after, it gave up and the fog was pulled rapidly to his side. Amon looked at the floating fog in front of him. He could sense it was still trying to move away, but his will was holding it still. He moved the fog around under his imaginary grasp as he got used to all this illusory mechanism.
When he felt he was adept enough, he brought the fog to the grains of dust that were the components of his Energy Core. He moved the fog over to the dust. As the two touched, the dust started to bond together. The fog seemed to act as some sort of adhesive material for the dust.
Amon applied the fog over all the dust and brought them together. The books indicated that the core needed to be formed into a ball. The more compact it was, the better.
Amon then started to apply pressure to the collected dust. He imagined it being squeezed. The collective dust was getting smaller as it continued getting compressed. Amon did not let up the pressure as he continued to press. He exerted all his will on the task.
Finally, the dust turned into a tiny ball the size of a small marble and did not seem to be able to compress any further. Amon let go of the pressure and observed the tiny ball. It was silver in color and seemed to be reflective.
Such a tiny thing was his Energy Core? Could this thing truly produce miracles as depicted in the books?
The next step was strengthening the Energy Core, but since he did not possess any cultivation method, the process would be very slow. The basic respiration technique could only draw in so little aether. It would not be enough for proper cultivation.
However, he still did it just to experiment with it. He drew another round of aether into his Energy Space. Another small mass of fog entered. He used the same method to control the fog and brought it to his newly formed Energy Core.
He directed the fog to enter the core. As the white fog touched the tiny silvery ball, it vibrated, and the fog slowly dissolved into it. Amon could feel the aether fog nourishing his Energy Core as it entered. He could sense the thirst of the core, it was as if a person in the desert who had not drunk for days, and was offered a glass of water. It drank the aether greedily.
Although it was not visible, Amon could feel its Energy Core growing. Once the last strand of aether fog was absorbed into the core. Amon felt an intense thirst as the core demanded more aether.
Amon chuckled. The entire experience was fascinating. He had arrived in a truly stimulating world. He could not wait to conquer it.
The next step would be to look for a cultivation method. He knew that his caretaker had one, as the old man cultivated every night. He would need to find a way to acquire it.
He did not intend to let any other people know about his already formed energy core first. Although the people of this mansion took care of him, the way they treated him was more like a tool, not a family. He did not understand how he was related to them, nor how they came to possess him when he was a baby. He would look for this information later.
As he was about to leave this Energy Space, he felt something. He looked at his Energy Core. There was something about it. Amon did not understand, so he cleared his mind and focused his attention on it. He felt it. It was as if the core was… communicating.
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