Eric calmed his fake surprise immediately after his exclamation. Now he was only looking at the body with some curiosity.

  “Was that a child?” he asked himself with genuine curiosity. “No, it couldn’t be. The still human part of its feet is far too large for it to belong to any child. At the earliest it’s a teen.”

  He paused, assessing the body once more.

  “It could be that it’s badly grown. It would certainly explain why it’s so disproportionate, head too big, torso too small. Hmm… whatever. Can’t really do anything about it right now.”

  Just like with everything else that he had no way of solving at the moment, he shoved the matter to the back of his mind and approached the body.

  Narrowing his eyes slightly as if increasing his concentration, he tried to push both parts into his storage. He was somewhat surprised with how little issue he had when he actually deposited them and felt no resistance.

  “That… that doesn’t feel right for some reason.”

  It wasn’t that he really thought that it was wrong in some fashion, but the person that was Eric, was built on certain understandings and values. And it was because of those that he naturally felt that it was wrong. It wasn’t a genuine emotion, more like an idea about the human body being more sacred and not actually believing that it is.

  “Well at least I have a gift to bring back to Marcus,” he said, dusting off his hands. “Wait, I can’t just go back with a gift solely for Marcus, can I? If I take this, I forcefully have to take something back for everyone else,” he added, letting out a tired sigh as he imagined the extra task he just added for himself. “Dammit…”

  Lifting his head, Eric saw the racks filled with various technological devices that might be helpful to someone like Marcus.

  However, he didn’t go and stuff things into his storage without any consideration. There was more than enough stuff in the warehouse to fill his storage, both the ring and the bracelet, he was sure of it. So, he had to be selective about what exactly he chose to bring.

  “Inspect would have been so useful to have right now,” he mumbled as he searched through the racks.

  As he looked through the various items, he also began to contemplate the fight he had just had, if you could even call it that.

  “If it weren’t for the bloodline assimilation, I would have died like three or four times over. The main cause would certainly have been blood loss. But without it I also wouldn’t have been able to continue fighting and would have probably died with whatever it did next.”

  Shaking his head, Eric discarded both the item he was inspecting and the train of thought he was just having.

  “No. Even before that, I was way behind in the fight. I was struggling to catch up.” He began to remember from the very moment he stepped into the warehouse. “It, they, whatever they are, already had a plan to kill me before the fight even began. Did I even sneak in? I was probably noticed the moment I stepped on the walkway, if not earlier—Oh! This seems interesting.”

  Taking out Alex’s storage ring, he put the item inside. It was a type of artificial heart that he could feel mana from. It wasn’t some insane item, at least he didn’t think so with the amount of mana that he felt from it.

  It probably only uses ambient mana to remain powered, he thought.

  Continuing with his search, he came to a conclusion.

  “I really need to learn how to fight. Not just the basics that I learned already through repetition, but something that actually goes with the level that I’m currently at.”

  A sudden beep was heard from his waist, turning to it, he saw the device that had pointed out the test subject. As soon as he grasped it with both hands, the screen zoomed out, showing another blue dot. This one was much further away from him than the one before.

  “It’s not like I’ll just learn enough to make a difference even if I start now.” Staring at the screen, he shook his head, already imagining how close to dying he’ll come if the next subject is the same. “It’s not like I even have a way to learn anything more. If only I knew this was going to be the case, then I would have prepared something—Ta’ir! He sent Ondal to give me books.”

  Dropping whatever he was inspecting at that moment, he quickly brought out all the books that Ondal had handed over to him from inside his storage. Before him were a total of five books.

  The Piercing Chronicle

  Bladesong Codex

  Arcane Manifest

  Endless

  The fifth and final book was nothing but a simple book with no name. It was a washed out green and it looked like some parts of it were already falling apart. It was by far the most mysterious one, but when he opened it all he saw was a single line: “Book two remains in Library.”

  Looking at the single line, Eric could only think of a single possibility.

  “Maybe I need the other book to get this one to work. I wonder why they gave me something incomplete,” he asked himself, with little to no real curiosity.

  Putting the worn book back into his storage, his attention quickly shifted to the other books.

  All the books, even the worn out one, were hardcover and whenever Eric held them, he could feel mana coming from them. It somehow gave him the image that they weren’t simple books, not like the cultivation manual he bought to level up.

  The Piercing Chronicle was blue and the cover material kind of reminded him of denim, but smoother. From the bottom middle, nine different types of spears shot up, reaching for the top. The blades varied in size and design, but in the end each and every one was a spear.

  The Bladesong Codex, as its name suggested, was about swords. It had a smooth crimson red cover. There was a katana standing vertically in the middle of the cover surrounded by lines like those that you would see in a music sheet, but there were no notes. The lines formed a circle around the hilt and then flowed down both sides of the blade.

  Then there was the Arcane Manifest, which even the cover image was hard to grasp.

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  The cover was a simple clear blue color, like what Eric saw when he looked at mana with his skills. In the center of the cover there was a shape that Eric couldn’t grasp, just looking at it gave him a headache. It was like an odd combination of a mobius strip, a cube, a sphere and a building—not a rectangle, but a building.

  “That one is a spear book and the Bladesong is obviously about swords. Arcane is obviously about magic or mana, so what is the last one about?”

  The final book was a simple black cover book with what appeared to be stars arranged in a certain pattern, he had the strong inkling that he knew what the pattern was, but he ultimately skipped the cover and dove into the contents of the book itself.

  “The following cultivation method—It’s a cultivation method, got it,” Eric said, closing the book almost immediately.

  It wasn’t like he wasn’t interested in the cultivation method, he was, incredibly so, but he didn’t consider that he was in the right environment to do something like cultivate.

  Considering how long it took for him to do so, the test subjects might be killed by something or someone else. There was also still a lingering hope within him that he would arrive in a world that was heavy with mana and that allowed for easier cultivation. The world that he was currently in reminded him of Earth.

  Hmm, a bit less dense with mana though, he thought. It wasn’t that he wanted something like the cultivation room, but he did want something that was more than Earth.

  Having identified all four books, he put two of them in storage and then set his eyes on the final two, the only weapon-oriented books. He grabbed the red book, eyeing it carefully.

  “Neither of these fit me,” Eric said, sincerely. “The sword I’ve been using is bigger than a katana. As far as I know, it’s meant to stab while the katana is about cutting. I also feel like katana strikes should be powerful but smooth, allowing for clean cuts… I don’t think I can do that. All my attacks are powerful but rough.”

  He put the red book down and grabbed the blue one, also eyeing it carefully as he considered his situation.

  “This one fits me even less, especially after I decided to focus on one weapon at the moment.”

  He contemplated in silence for a moment, grabbing both books, one in each hand. As his eyes darted between the two, he slowly came to the obvious conclusion.

  “I already made some headway with the sword, it’s also my highest-level mastery, because of that, I think it’ll be easier to learn more about the sword than it would be to learn about the spear.”

  With some hesitation, he put both books back in his storage, his mind made up. He had decided what he would train, but that didn’t mean he would start immediately—he couldn’t, he was already busy doing something else.

  With the next steps already decided, Eric continued his search through the warehouse for more interesting devices that could help Marcus.

  ----------

  Within the room where all those that dabbled in fate had gathered, now only a few remained.

  The commotion that was caused by the stirring of the fate strand of a container spurred them all into action. Those that had remained behind only did so because of the unique properties of the room itself.

  Those above a certain level could feel fate and its movements from any location that they wished. The clarity with which they perceived was rarely, if ever, affected by their physical location.

  Reading fate was more about connection and the state of being of the reader and rarely about where they were. If they wanted to enhance their connection, then they would need to go to someplace far more protected than this gathering location.

  But that was only when you spoke about those above a certain level, those that remained were barely E and D ranks within their respective factions. They were taking advantage of the occasion and training their connection to fate and the heavens, seeing and feeling far more than they normally would.

  Din, a bald, androgenous looking young human with tan skin, sat near the galactic map that steadily swayed, their eyes closed as they trained.

  They were currently straining to see all the strands of fate that moved within galaxy N24-895, which were quite a lot, perfect for training. As they focused on individual strands, separating and tracing each of them as far as they could, something interrupted their meditation.

  Rovre, a young woman with pitch black eyes and bright white irises, was doing the same as Din, only they focused on seeing where the strands were going, divining the future, if you will.

  As she followed the strand of a nameless, ordinary human, the strand suddenly cut off—No, Rovre thought, my connection has been disrupted.

  The last remaining person in the room was a pale man, who appeared to be in his thirties. He was lanky and even while sitting cross-legged, his back was hunched.

  Even though his appearance suggested one thing, the behavior of the plants that surrounded him was oddly kind and warm. His name was Pale, no one knew if that was his actual name or if it was a nickname that stuck, but he never corrected anyone.

  Pale was also following the strands of fate like the others, but his focus was on those of nature, seeing how nature itself reacted without knowing the specific events.

  It was a kind of training that would allow him to see more than he normally would even when he wasn’t intentionally glancing at fate. His connection to nature would increase and his dependence on other factors that weren’t inherently his would reduce, which could only be a good thing.

  As Pale was analyzing a scene, his sight suddenly returned to him, feeling like he had been hit in the face by a rubber band.

  All three looked at each other with suspicion, but before any of them could voice any complaints, their natural connection to fate stirred.

  The feeling was so overwhelming that none of them knew what to do. On instinct they reached for the source, but it was too far in the past for any of them to reach. Suddenly, it stirred once more, and flashes inundated them.

  A small human—no, a dwarf, brought forth a planet that spewed lava on to a singular entity. The entity was so enormous that even glimpsing at their full size was physically harming the three fate watchers.

  The scene changed, three bright white figures brought down a rain of golden holy light upon a smaller entity, a human sized one, yet still, even glimpsing at the entity caused the three watchers to writhe in pain.

  The scenes kept changing, showing different beings that the three had a vague notion of in their minds. Each scene was a fight of a scale that was completely unimaginable to their low ranked minds.

  A young woman with jet black hair swung her sword with such might that, like a breeze, entire solar systems were blown away.

  They couldn’t properly grasp any of the things they were seeing, every attack was far more than it appeared.

  Lava wasn’t just lava; a sword slash wasn’t just a sword slash. Each and every attack carried something more within it. Whether it was a conceptual understanding that eluded them or magic that they were too young to understand, there was something more in each of their actions.

  The scene suddenly changed, they were looking at a galaxy and in a matter of seconds, every star within that galaxy began to die out. Whether the stars were siphoned of power or destroyed was unknown, the only thing that they could grasp was that they were no longer shining.

  Once more the scene changed, now they were looking at a galactic cluster, and just as easily as those suns disappeared, so did entire galaxies.

  The strand of fate stirred once more, trying to take them further, to see the true scale of the conflict that they were glimpsing, but nothing happened, at least not in the gathering room.

  Within the gathering room, where only moments ago there had been three young people training their abilities, now there were only three still bodies.

  All three of them were pristine, if only a little hunched toward one side. They no longer had any strength to remain upright. Din’s skin paled, Rovre’s eyes inverted, and all the plant life that surrounded Pale, died.

  ----------

  “The titans stir,” a skinny, bald and tan man said, his voice like smooth sand brushing against your skin. Behind him, a bright yellow sun rose eternally.

  "Fate continually shifts. The winds have merely blown again," a fully robed man commented, his voice heavy, like the undeniable passage of time. “There is intent here. Someone has moved to wake them from their slumber, or perhaps, bring them anew.”

  The bald monk exhaled, the sun brighter as he did so. "Little actions bring about great change, brother Nameless." As if looking at the culprit, his gaze grew distant. "Even a gift—a kindness can bring great tragedy."

  Nameless bowed his head, as if he had received great wisdom and not merely a reminder. "Fate moves like the wind in a storm," Nameless said. "Karma's providence is not decided by us. We can only follow the path of virtue." Then he began repeating sutras at great speed.

  The bald monk closed his eyes. "Perhaps... perhaps..." he whispered.