章節 111: Body Refinement Manuals

None of the Evomon could properly speak just yet, but they were more than capable of expressing their joy through seemingly unusual events like this one. Even the normally apathetic Nyxvoldar seemed to have brief changes occur in the shadows covering its body.

Groggily, Cassius opened his eyes, putting his icy blue gems on display once more. "How long has it been…?" he asked.

Nyxvoldar stuck up five willowy fingers shrouded in darkness.

"Five minutes, huh?" Cassius understood right away what measurement his Evomon was using. "...It felt like an eternity… Yet only five minutes had… Haiz…"

A heavy sigh escaped his lips as he eloquently rose from the ground and surveyed his surroundings. Everything was still more or less the same as he faintly remembered, but it all felt so unfamiliar at the same time.

It was surreal to feel like this.

But with more important things to gloss over, Cassius shrugged off this weird sensation breaching his psyche and instead focused on the information still being sorted out within his mind. The three sections, each one more glorious than the next, were rapidly organizing themselves in a certain department of his brain. This, too, was an odd thing to experience.

After everything gathered together where they needed to be, Cassius was able to glimpse three Chinese characters hanging above three differently colored books. They were displayed on cloud-like podiums, with their brilliance and complementing covers doing well to emphasize the outstanding nature of the Fundamental Body Refinement Manual Set.

Without wasting any more time gawking at them, Cassius locked on to the whitish-gray book, which was the first one lined up on the left. It was also the manual that represented the Movement section of the Body Refinement Manuals.

Blowing up its illusory pages with the power of his sturdy mind, Cassius flipped through page after page. The title, being as ordinary as they came, was literally just 'Basic Movement Manual,' yet the contents were anything but. They were extraordinary, containing within their brittle pages Chinese characters, all of which could somehow be read by him.

'The power of the Body, the beginning before the beginning. To embark on the path of Immortality, one must first hone one's body.'

'First, one must be as fleeting as an untraceable shadow, able to move in a way that even afterimages are unworthy of the image that you embody. As the fundamentals of the fundamentals, an aspiring Immortal must be quick, so quick that none stand in your way.'

'One must remain focused at all times, for Speed and Quickness do not only relate to how fast one moves. It is also about awareness. You get distracted, you die. Your opponent gets distracted, your opponent dies.'

'Move quickly, think quickly, react quickly. These are the three fundamentals of the basics of movement.'

Following this introduction to the manual were numerous illustrations and brief descriptions, all describing movements that needed to be trained to master the basics of speed. And somehow, Cassius was able to understand everything he was seeing.

That was when he recalled an S- Skill that he kept out of the fusing pool on purpose.

Namely, it was the |Supreme Comprehension Skill|, said to be capable of enhancing mental processing and understanding speed a hundredfold. However, as he had just rolled for it, he hadn't even really been presented with an opportunity to use it.

But now, that was no longer the case.

"Everything… All of it is coming together inside my mind… This Skill, or rather, this Manual… The Path to Immortality—what does it all mean?"

The Basic Movements Manual referenced the Path to Immortality multiple times throughout the pages of the book. Yet it spoke nothing of what that actually implied.

Cassius had, of course, heard of Immortality, and even the Chinese belief in Immortality as well as their Cultivation Culture. But he had believed that it was all just that—belief.

Awakeners and Monsters were as real as could be in this world, and there were surely other unbelievable things festering in the world as well. However, not once had he expected something like Rudimentary Immortal Cultivation to be real.

At least, for the Idle Evolution System, it was made a reality.

"I have no clue if something like this exists in China, but I do know that this can tremendously benefit the current me," said Cassius. "These nine movement layers… I will master them, and I will see exactly how far this Path to Immortality will take me."

He had become so absorbed in the reading and theoretical practice of the Manual that he had long since memorized it, yet completely forgot about the other two manuals.

"Ahh, right, I should read and memorize those as well before I begin putting anything into practical practice," Cassius declared with a wry chuckle before moving his mind to flip through and understand the contents of the Attack and Defend Basic Manuals.

After two minutes of silent meditation.

Cassius abruptly opened his eyes, startling the Evomons who had once again grouped around him in concern. He silently thanked them for keeping watch and protecting him before diverting his focus back to the practice of the three Manuals.

Not wanting to idle any longer, he got into a proper stance in the middle of a deserted street. Toxic emissions and unknown chemical substances permeated and circulated throughout this deeper area of the Trail Gate part of HELL's 1st Floor, yet none of it affected him by even the slightest degree.

Of the Skills he kept out of the two main Fusion lines, there were the resistance and healing Skills, which he separately combined to get two Skills.

One was the S Neutral-rank Rapid Regeneration Skill, which would surely do wonders to save him from wasting Status Recoveries in the future. There was also his Endurance stat, which was also working toward the same goal.

The second Skill, on the other hand, was dubbed |All Elemental Resistance|.

It was also of the S Neutral Rank, and as it sounded, it was capable of resisting nearly all common elements present on Earth. This, of course, included the unusually deadly atmosphere that encompassed HELL.

With its utilization, Cassius became essentially immune to an area that would normally reap the lives of even A-Rank Awakeners, and slightly injure or annoy S-Rank Awakeners.