Pragna is stunned when he saw that device glow in that red color. He did not understand why and how it is glowing in that color. He wanted to ask Biazib to come and see it to confirm it whether if it is really glowing. Then he remembered how three things flew from the red colored woman and coffins into him.
Pragna thought may be those colored orbs that flew into him have something to do with his current situation.
After thinking for a second he decided to check the device. Recording devices in battlefront come in all sizes and shapes. Some play what is recorded in them by simply pressing a button on them. While for some you need to insert your consciousness into it. This one is the later.
When Pragna inserted his consciousness into the device he found himself standing in a forest. It is afternoon with Sun high in the sky. A man is seating under a tree lecturing a boy. This man shaved his head and is wearing a thin cotton pant and a shirt.
The boy is seating while facing this man. This boy looked quite ordinary. If there is anything notable is that this boy has considerably big hands and feet.
The man is saying, "So tell me what, the best weapon to use is?"
The boy said hesitantly, "Sword."
The bald man smiled and said, "Really? Then what are you going to do if the enemy just uses spear and stabs you to death from far away?"
The boy thought for a second a replied, "May be a spear is a best weapon?"
The bald man said again, "What if your enemy got too close to your body?"
This time boy thought for sometimes and answered, "Ok, I give up you tell me."
Bald man sighed and said, "Alright how about this, do you think there is a best martial art in the world?"
The boy this time answered swiftly, "No there is none."
Bald looked surprised and asked, "Why is that?"
The boy said with confidence, "If such martial arts really existed everyone would be trying to learn it."
The bald man's mood instantly darkened, "For a second you almost made me believe you have become smart under my tutelage, but as usually you are as dumb as a wall."
The last remark seems to have touched a nerve, the boy bursts into shouting, "What!? I am stupid! It's not me who is dumb; it's you who is insane! Your standards are too high. You insult my intelligence at every opportunity you get. But let me tell you this, apart from me no one can survive your training regime. Also, what do you mean tutelage! You constantly throw me into dangerous situations, you constantly try to cut me to pieces and you only stop when I am about to die. The only time you ever taught anything about anything is how to butcher meat. So yes, if I am dumb then as your student, I am."
Bald calmly looked at boy and said, "Long rant, did you prepare before in-hand?"
That made the boy even further furious, but before the boy could start shouting again, the bald man laughed and said, "Ok, Ok fine since this is the first time I am properly started teaching you, I will tell you. There are no greatest martial arts. There is only a highly compatible one."
The boy asked confusedly, "Compatible one?"
The bald man said, "That Witch must have taken you to lot places and shown you lot of martial schools, right?"
The boy said, "Yes."
The bald man continued, "Then I am pretty sure all the schools said they have the best fighting styles?"
The boy trying to figure out where this Q&A is leading to and said, "Yes they said that and they were all sure that they will produce some of the best fighters."
The bald man sneered, " Trust me if they ever produced any competent fighter I would know. Currently your generation has none. If there were any experts they produced, they must be from first generation of the schools."
The boy asked, "So what are you saying? Those schools cannot produce experts at all?"
The bald man said, "No, I am not saying that. I am saying those schools cannot bring out the full-potential in their students. All those styles you hear about were created by the founder of those schools. These fighting styles are tailor made to suit the purpose of their creators. But if any other person who is not suitable for it learns them, then at-most he can only draw inspiration from it rather than truly learn that art. "
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
The boy sat there calmly digesting what the bald man said. After few minutes he asked, "Then are you saying that rather than going after the most popular martial art, I should to try to learn the one I am most compatible with?"
The bald man smiled and said, "Ah finally! I thought you will take lot more time to come to that conclusion. But before that let's see what your weapon type is."
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With that the recording stopped playing and Pragna found himself back in the library again. He did not know who that man is or that boy either. He looked at the device and it is not glowing in red color anymore.
He did not know why she wanted him to see it. May be because of the content?
But the content did not seem that extra-ordinary. Though the point about concentrating on your strong point and building upon it makes sense, but that's it. There is nothing more to it.
Why would she want him to see this recording?
As he was trying to figure this out, he remembered he forgot to summon yigg.
Yigg appeared after his summons and it looked around in the new place. It looked back at Pragna hoping he would clarify why it is summoned.
Pragna realized his mistake. Yigg is nothing more than a toddler. Of-course an intelligent one, but still a toddler. So, he started browsing the books to see if there were any compatible books for yigg.
As he is scouring through the books he heard a whistle and turned back to see it is Biazib. He looked surprised when he saw yigg.
He said, “Is that a soul weapon?”
Pragna replied, “Yes.”
Biazib though looked surprised he asked, “Can it fight?”
Pragna said, “No, it is actually quite young. Right now, I am looking for a suitable martial art for it.”
Biazib then asked again, “Do you have any more soul-weapons?”
Pragna replied,” Why?”
Biazib bashfully said, “The thing is that, usually I spar a lot. But after coming to Agarthala I have none top practice with. So, I am hoping if you want spar with me.”
Pragna thought for second and said,” Sure, but are there any good arenas in library to practice?”
Biazib thought for a second and said,” I don’t know maybe I should ask Mr. A.”
POV CHANGE
Agarthala is standing in the Owner’s office. He is talking to him about some bureaucratic stuff. After that they started talking about the newly recruited librarians.
After telling the Owner about current status about each one of them, Agarthala had complicated expression on his face and asked, “Are we doing the right thing?”
Owner looked confusedly, “Are asking about the dungeon?”
Agarthala said, “No, I am talking about new recruits. Is it really ok to toy with them like this?”
When Agarthala said this, the Owner looked genuinely surprised, “You are feeling sympathetic towards them?”
Agarthala looked slightly annoyed when he heard sympathetic. He said, “It’s not exactly sympathy, it’s just that their lives are already enough messed up. Do we really need to further complicate it?”
The Owner looked at him amusingly while resting his face against his pudgy hand, ” What got into you today? Agarthala you have been with me for a long time and you have seen battlefront recreated 7 times till now. You have seen catastrophes and miracles beyond immortal comprehension. You have been doing this for a long time. Why the sudden empathy?”
Agarthala he himself has no idea why he is having these feelings today, “I do not know. But think about it. Harima and Biazib had relatively normal lives. But Evy and Pragna? I have seen massacres, genocides and complete extinction of species that happened in matter of seconds but compared to all those situations what happened to this two, especially Pragna-”
Owner who is attentively listening suddenly started laughing out loudly. Agarthala stared at him not knowing reason for this sudden outburst.
The Owner said, “Wow! This is unbelievable. You got infected with illusion.”
Agarthala looked at owner like that was a ludicrous conclusion. But just to be sure he checked his conscious. He closed his eyes and after few seconds a black miasma kind of smoke started emanating from his body. It immediately dispersed into the air.
The Owner is watching this entire thing like a kid watching a circus elephant riding a cycle. He is laughing, “I can’t believe you of all the people got infected by an illusion.”
The moment the entire miasma dispersed from his body, Agarthala looked slightly flustered like man who just sobered up.
Agarthala looking still a little bit dazed asked, “How did he infect me? His abilities are sealed.”
The Owner who is still laughing asked, “Was there any change in his schedule?”
Agarthala answered, ” Not much. Once he went to crystal cauldron to sell and purchase some items. But that’s it.”
Owner suddenly stopped laughing. He seems to remember something and asked, “What did he purchase?”
Agarthala knew something is up, so he answered hesitantly, “Well he purchased a soul gazing mirror but-”
Agarthala who is looking a little bit dazed out while sitting in his chair, suddenly jolted up. The final missing piece of the puzzle seems to have fallen into its place.
Agarthala shouted “It’s the mirror!”
He waved his hand and a screen appeared. It started playing the footage of from when Pragna returned to his house after his purchases. He is sitting on the floor all by himself and fainted. After few hours he was awake. But from beginning to end of footage there is no sign of the mirror.
Owner who is watching it waved his hand at the screen. Suddenly a blurry image of the mirror appeared in the footage again. Though it appeared, the image of it was trying its level best to blur itself out. But somehow the Owner is stopping the image from disappearing. After Pragna fainted and fell-down, the mirror disappeared.
Agarthala who is watching looked surprised while the owner is laughing again. After his interaction with Pragna this morning he had this overwhelming sense of anxiety and stress. He did not feel like this in a long time. Yet he did not find such changes odd. But now after seeing this mirror, clarity appeared in eyes again.
Agarthala who was so flustered few minutes back turned back to his usual self.
He asked while smiling, “I can’t believe I got fooled by a kid.”
The owner who is watching said, “Don’t blame yourself. Though the kid is special, what messed with you is this mirror.”
Agarthala had an amused expression, “Do you think it will appear again?”
The owner thought for a second and said, “Probably not. Though that mirror is hard to track, it will not appear in front of Pragna again. It is constantly trying to find its remaining fragments. By choice of elimination it goes to all anomalies it finds. After confirming that those anomalies have nothing to with it itself, it disappears.”
Agarthala still could not wrap his head around this mystic mirror situation, “I can understand if the mirror eluded my perception. But how the hell did you miss it? Aren’t you one of the original three?”
The owner explained while smiling, “That’s the thing about chaos born treasures. It made this mirror for fun. Realizing how much of a dangerous item it is, Jason Matangi broke it into many pieces and scattered it across different realities. The mirror specialty lies in its elusiveness. If you lose track it for a fraction of second, it will try its level best escape even from your memory.”
Agarthala sighed and said, “What should we do about Pragna? His schisms are acting independently. This should not have happened this early.”
The smile on the owner’s lips disappeared. Agarthala who is watching the owner knew that his boss has finally become serious. The owner rarely takes anything seriously. But when he does take a serious interest, the other party is either blessed or screwed.
The owner said, “We have to accelerate our training regime. Open the dungeon portals. Tell Biazib we have an arena. Also, one more thing, try to make Pragna spend more with Evy in formation sections.”
Agarthala who is listening asked, “What about Pragna’s situation? We were lucky that I was his target. If it was anyone else it could have been really, bad. Do you think I should train him?”
The owner said, “No, not yet. First let him spend more time in formation section. He must read those books first. Only then you, start teaching him.”
After listening to it, he got ready to leave the room. But before he could leave he asked one more question, “He most probably tried to infect me so he can get access rights to that room. To avoid any further mishaps, I think we should allow him to there. That way we can actually monitor him and avoid any further accidents.”
The owner nodded his head in approval.