Allan finished all exercises for today. He felt fine and energetic as ever, while the strength he felt within himself has been nothing but surprising to him. Although, only slightly, since he always considered himself to be strong. For a kid. The thing that worried him a little was his mind, which was a kind of dull after the exchange between Sarey. Her words left not much of an impact on him as he thought they would.
He believed it, of course. It hardly went outside of his knowledge. So what if there are planets full of powerful people? Did it matter to him now? No.
Watching the sun in the sky. Sarey got up, and they both went back home. There was a summoning, which both of them expected. Walking from behind the courtyard, they rather decided to keep their secrets in Allan's room. Having another Zigmund episode would not be that great.
Sarey did not even find him anywhere, so she tossed the issue of her father behind her back. Walking with Allan into his room, she took a brown-covered book from his table and placed it on the ground.
Expecting the gush of blood, Allan did not complain about a small cut on his palm that Sarey did. It was like a bee sting for him, which would heal the next day.
Drops of blood dripped onto the book. Sarey was watching as usual with her glee eyes, how the drops of blood disappeared into the leather cover. There was nothing she knew about this, yet it was fascinating. Blood summoning. It was like a story she read when she was little, where a group of heretics summoned a demon from their own blood. It was a story for children because its end was a pleasant one. They were cleansed and slaughtered by honorable elders and heroes of their respective books.
She never found it that interesting, but unbeknownst to her, she was doing something very similar to that. 36 was by no means a hero of his own story.
In a few minutes, which flowed quite fast, a light appeared from the book, which blinded only a single person in the room. With a thud, a wooden figurine emerged from the vortex of light that present a portal to an unknown world.
“Greetings, mister 36,” Allan said as he wrapped his bloodied hand in a piece of cloth.
“Good. This was much faster than before.” 36's voice sounded from the middle of the room, where a figurine stood.
“Of course. You said it the last time. If you want to truly teach us, then every day is the best day for it.” Sarey added with her unusual demeanor, which she used only when dealing with this piece of wood.
“Beh! Did I say that?” 36 sounded surprised.
“Why not? If you said that, don't you think it is about time to act according to your words?”
“Words? Words have so few meanings. I couldn't care less. What do you expect from me, anyway?”
Allan suddenly got up in a frenzy from his seat on his bed. Pulling his new shaft with himself, he walked to 36's location a few steps from him.
“I am wondering how you look right now, mister 36. For you to be so hesitant. I wonder if you were a coward in your past life as well.” Allan's sudden words stabbed into 36's mind.
“Heheh. Are you finally getting your fangs out, you little beast?” 36's amused voices responded with a different kind of tone.
“You like to play around people as if you understand everything. Demon or god. Whatever you were, what is there to gain from fate alone? I've had enough.” Allan said as he pinched into a wooden figurine's head with the tip of his shaft.
Sound like wood against wood sounded from the small pokes.
“Well, no wonder you are so thick-skinned, and stubborn, like a piece of wood.” Allan further expanded his taunts.
36 fell silent amidst their sudden actions of Allan. It was about a time that he ceased his differences. He was waiting patiently for an opportunity, whether or not Allan had some guts.
“Hehehehehheh.” Laugher spread into the close ears of Allan. 36 couldn't conceal his tone with a pitch of amusement.
“Want a few more things to say by me? I think I could think of a few things more.” Allan asked as 36 turned not sane one bit more.
The laughter finally stopped.
“Enough. Right? I've had enough, you say? I've had enough of endless years which passed in my prison. Until I have my revenge, of course, I won't stop before that. I was waiting for this moment. For you to be at least a man with the bare minimum of courage. You took longer than I wanted.”
“That is quite a stupid reason to act like that. Who even were you before the imprisonment anyways? Bodyguard of some cult leader? Bouncer of some filthy club? A dog who went by the words of his owner? It was already creaking my nerves, so I decided to speak up now. Do you think my choices of words are bad ones? It's on the similar level as your acts, mister 36.” Allan spoke seriously right to his "face".
“How about calming down... both of you?” Sarey reluctantly said after being silent about this unexpected development.
“No.” Both of them said at the same time.
“It is fine like that... I guess we can now have a normal source of conversation. This is much more to my taste.” 36 said in satisfaction.
“Your pallet is quite disgusting, to be honest.” Allan kept going.
“Heh! Fair enough. What a pleasant day, isn't it?”
“Sure it is,” Allan replied, and walked back to his bed and sat down with his usual calm self.
“Now, with this being done. What kind of things are you up to today? Any surprises or things that are on your minds?”
“I want to go along with the scheduled exercises of higher rank. I ended much faster with pretty good results.” Allan said in confidence.
“How good?”
“If what you described as an impossible result for the current time. He finished all in a few hours and he could have time to worry about blacksmithing afterward.” Sarey explained.
“Sure. Go along the limits. If he feels like it, he could even skip a few stages. Your next ones are not gonna be that pleasant so I will give you a formula for much better medicines as well as detailed steps of that new training. Sarey, how did your task even end?” 36 calmly asked.
“I have everything. My father decided to share some of his contacts, so I am trying to get a hold of rare ingredients that you left out in the few pages you got me in the past.”
“Good, take your time. What do you have to say, Allan?”
“Nothing much, how about you? Are you finally going to reveal your plans?” He said with a serious yet mocking tone.
“Hehehhehehe.” 36 giggled at his question. Unexpectedly, he could tell that Allan was no longer such a kid. He wondered what would change him so suddenly. Unfortunately for him, Allan never cared too much about 36 words. He was always carefully observing the words, tones, and specific exchanges between them. It took some time before he became to understand 36 better. Allan was sure about it, after going over it over and over again. 36 is a prime lunatic, and a person who could be trusted, if it's mutual.
“I may as well do that. This is what you seek? If not, this is about everything that is the right choice for what I discovered..”
Suddenly, a scroll appeared from the gust of light. It shot to Sarey, who caught it right about the face of Allan. There are also a few pages of the new training plan in greater detail.
“This is The Unmoving technique. It could be even called Immovable, but I don't know how to translate it for you.”
“What makes it so ready for me?” Allan asked, after understanding what he was implying. Unexpectedly, 36 gave him something that he did not expect but welcomed.
“Bunch of reasons. Your situation is rather special, after all. I considered your chances and resources. In truth, you already started with this technique. When you were unconscious, Sarey and I performed a course of acupoint diagrams, which came from this technique.”
“Of course, if it ended with that, you wouldn't need to continue practicing this. With enough time and consideration, I came up with good methods which could be suitable for you and this technique is pretty standard and fine for your case. Your time will revolve around this technique because it is something that can get your eyes back. I think I told you before, that there are stages when it comes to everything. Right?”
“It is for the simplification of the process as well as for a better understanding of the progression. All kinds of people have different styles of teaching. That is further influenced by the manuals and scrolls which are passed further to the generations. Years are barely manageable for explaining the details of this complexity.”
“Body, bones, blood. What makes you more interested in each?” 36 asked after the long monologue.
“More interested? The body is bones and blood itself. What makes it different?” Allan knew a thing or two about this, but he knew the complexity of 36's technique is nothing simple. It did not make much sense to him.
“Good question. There are not a small number of answers to that. First, this is the most important aspect of what is there about your special path I made for your future. The body of us, humans have certain specks of energy inside. Every person has it. Some less and some more than the others.”
“Even me?” Sarey asked in surprise.
“Yes. It's the general truth that I discovered from months of research. Previously, it was not something I knew, so I guess this is a secret of the Ones who made this diary.”
“What else is there to it? Energy without a spark? Is it natural?”
“Natural? You could say so. Every person which is born through the generation will share certain statistics, talents, and history. It is believed that this comes from involuntary absorption of the minuscule particles of energy throughout the generations of parents. It will go deeper inside and could make some changes or not. Do you finally understand how complicated it all is?”
Allan and Sarey were both dumbfounded by this revelation. It went completely on a different route than they expected. What if this is what talent is about? They were uncertain and expectant to learn more about the secret that 36 uncovered after long months of research of the prime knowledge of the Diary of the Body.
“I bet, there is something on your mind right now. Is this what talent is? What about talented youths who are from the Central region of the universe? With an abundance of energy within the space itself, there are major changes which can occur to anything, living or not.”
“They will gain a certain level of talent? Chance to awaken a Spark?” Sarey asked while knowing the answer from her former teacher, Terg.
“Yes. That is the truth and something that is an undeniable fact. At least that is what I learned as well, although this is more detailed information with reasoning.”
“But! There is more. What Am I even talking about to you? This is a secret development of actually using this speck of energy. The Unmoving part is redundant for this. It goes a little hand to hand with the truth I found through this diary in front of us.”
“And you! Allan! Will go along this pathway. What do you think?” 36 talked about what sounded like an eternity for them. They felt speechless. Excitement about what 36 talked about left them overwhelmed.
Both with the amount of information and the way he told them. The scroll that ended up in Allan's lap after Sarey took it from the ground is a beginning step of something greater for Allan, and he is unsure what kind of thing this even is.
This is precisely the Immortal body forging method 36 chosen for him. As for the speck of energy 36 talked in a strange excitement. He did not even tell anything meaningful about it, so the young pair tossed it behind their mind.