Just A Glimpse Into The World

Ciemnosc was 4 meters in front of Lady Calisneia's statue, her same pose making her look as secretly beautiful as always while he smoothly made his right wrist and hand appear to be floating, flowing with the air and everything else that exists within the world. Holding his Inscription Pen with his fingers, his left hand was at his lower stomach's level, remaining passive but making a few strange gestures with most of his fingers doing the moving work and the rest of his left hand's structure giving the final 'strange' touch.

It has been just a few hours since Ciemnosc began practicing. As soon as he arrived, he sat cross-legged in front of the statue and began delving into that information that was even bigger than what he had seen in the Academy’s Library just a few days back.

Ciemnosc didn’t notice it at first but the information that he began ‘eating away’ at just like it has been introduced into him which he could now digest at ease and without anything or anyone stopping him. Not that it would have been the case now since he was at the workshop.

He immediately felt himself as if dormant, as if going to sleep. He didn’t feel danger, nor did he notice anything unordinary, so Ciemnosc let it be and finally began eating away the information with ease. And before he knew it, hours a couple of hours had gone by, despite him learning of… just so many things that he never thought could ever be ‘beyond’ this world’s knowledge.

And it was ‘this world’s knowledge’ and not ‘whatever was beyond his current knowledge’... Because all of the information he got to know of were no longer important when compared to what he was being presented and what he was quickly learning in his head. Only, whenever a piece of information was devoured by him, as if ‘it’ could somehow know, Ciemnosc wouldn’t be allowed to eat any further until he went through and thru it; basically becoming knowledgeable with whatever piece of information he devoured.

Thankfully, and fortunately, however, all this information had nothing to do with things that were about array formations. Be it even the addition of new herbs and plants that he has never heard of but whose properties were explained only and that with just that ‘small’ quantity of information, Ciemnosc had to resolve a few ‘troubles’ inside his head… Also, with how Ciemnosc had to do some ‘testing’ that was nothing more but theoretical in his head and see if it could be approved by ‘it’...

Ciemnosc, for the first time, felt overwhelmed by knowledge and detailed, sophisticated truths he could have never thought of before.

The array formations he knew of were of the use of one’s Power Energy, either through an inscription pen or through one’s finger. Though he wasn’t able to do the latter without the use of his Spirit Sense, which at times appeared to be inexhaustible, even up until today. All that required an array formation was from Power Energy to resources that each detailed array formation needed.

Like an array formation for moving and processing any kind of material, there was a large need for that very same raw material, or at the very least similar, or else the end result would be entirely different from the desired one. Besides such need for raw materials, cultivating materials were also needed to act as the beacon, and both the receptor and effector in the array formation.

Else, one would have to expend their own Power Energy to directly take control of the array formation’s every movement. And that was, naturally, the most stupidly hardest thing to ever do.

Ciemnosc, and many others in this world, have thought about the way that it could be changed. Either so that many could take the place of that ‘beacon’, receptor, and effector at the same time instead of one single individual; or so that the process for the array formations that needed such to work without actually such.

Naturally, the first one was the option that was mostly searched by the grandmasters of the array formations profession. It was the easiest by far, but it never yielded fruits thought. As for the second, there was nothing that was as complicated to even think about in jokes and banter as that. Ciemnosc himself was already busy with wanting to know more about array formations, precisely because he was not able to suddenly make such a change out of nowhere.

But, right now, with the information in his head… the answer was really… just simple.

The answer wasn’t the most incredulous and marvelous secret in the entire world, a different approach that no person ever thought would be possible; it, in fact, had chunks and pieces of attempts and ideas that anyone could have. The reason this answer was the answer was simple, they were just better…

Only one person was to be the receptor, while he was the pseudo effector. And instead of being the actual effector, it would be others who would make do with that role but also being the pseudo receptor in return, while they all together would become the array formation’s beacon; as a whole, indeed.

The effector, which was the many others, would follow what the receptor wanted them to do; the receptor’s orders were the law. But for such an array formation, like processing or moving materials, to even battle array formations, one person simply looking around would never be enough. So there were two choices from this: either the other pseudo receptors had some kind of sensorial connection with the receptor, or the pseudo receptors connected with direct communication with the receptor.

The effector would then be the only one to act, while the receptor could only order around, making the receptor’s role still the greatest and hardest among the 5, or 4, roles within an array formation without taking the ‘beacon’ role that is everyone into the equation.

On the other hand, the role of the receptor was so vital and important, basically being the ‘brain effector’ in array formations that they would be called as such additionally, ‘pseudo effector’. Similarly, because of the fact that the effector wasn’t a mindless single individual or inanimate object, they were called ‘pseudo receptors’ because of the capabilities of, in any way, sending information to the receptor.

Ciemnosc felt weird the moment he knew of this, it wasn’t anything weird nor incredibly ingenious. It was just replacing the item with pure energy acting as all, the beacon, recept, and effector at the same time with multiple brains.

It wasn’t a bad deal though. Every array formation that needed such roles would become… many times stronger, efficient, productive, and harmonious. Even when the natural materials were the, in fact, most natural methods for array formations. When there was a group of cultivators taking the roles and the wheels, nature was at its best when working together, and so would the cultivators make a much better job.

In this way, the array formation that Ciemnosc and this whole world have knowledge of… are rather known as ‘automated’ methods… that are in use whenever there is a shortage of personnel to do these kinds of jobs.

It was a huge blow to the haughty and arrogant Ciemnosc, who was all within reason to even be cocky and not be wrong. But knowing of this, and with the ‘resolved’ problem of this world being given to him so easily; it reminded him of cultivation. Because it wasn’t just cultivators getting inside an array, sitting down or remaining standing on a certain whatever pose and saying ‘here’ or ‘there’ how the array formations worked. According to the ‘it’ that was revising Ciemnosc’s tasks and ‘homework’, and whose origin Ciemnosc didn’t nonsensically become obsessed like an idiot.

They had to learn the array formation and an art… Arts weren’t given full detail to Ciemnosc, but with what he was explained of them so easily and with such casualness… he could tell they were a part of cultivation that was completely world-breaking to the so-called ‘arts’ of this world.

This art was supposedly from the organization that they belonged to, but it also could be employed according to their cultivation method. Though those were the hardest to come by as there was an infinitude of cultivation methods; something that differed this ‘it’ and its knowledge from this world once again. And it was this one method that was the hardest which built some of the strongest array and battle array formations.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

On the other hand, there is a secondary method, which is with the connection of their Spirit Sense and… something… Something that, strangely, the ‘it’ didn’t want to let Ciemnosc know of, for whatever reason and on whatever purpose. But Ciemnosc knew that even if he knew, accomplishing such a thing was incredibly impossible for him, and even if he wanted to try it out himself for his future forces - he would just fail miserably.

What else was of this method to both have it as the secondary method and the least one that any cultivator would want to employ was that: with their mutual connection of their Spirit Sense and this ‘???’, every time the array or battle array formation is damaged when in the manipulation of such or when they are injured - it is transmitted about everywhere.

When it is damaged, the cultivator in charge of the damaged part receives astronomical pain, capable of stopping a cultivator’s life by just their beating-breaking heart or other similar causes of death that should only be known to ordinary people. Being so intricately connected, this damage was spread equally to all others in the array formation, whichever it was, of a smaller margin of pain, but it still affect their bodies and their whole selves.

“...” Right now, Ciemnosc was just finishing another hour of practicing the movements of his whole body when inscribing. He chose to use his Inscription Pen because it would draw Power Energy from him without him putting tiny pieces of Inferior Powerful Stones in its little storage, and that could both get him to become more… familiarized with the wastage and drainage of his being when inscribing as well as getting him closer to the teachings in his head; from that information.

… Tap… … tap… … tap… … tap.

Another 4 hours went by, it was already close to the evening, already in the middle of the afternoon, and with the east looking barely with light; only dark, deep blue beginning to show. Ciemnosc stopped not even once, Tini and Older Brother came out a few times to change their tay between soft and hard buildings, watching him practice and move strangely.

But he couldn’t help it, all he knew was that whoever and whatever ‘thing’ has given him such a test surely thought he was of a higher realm than the Spirit Gathering realm. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have ‘tasks’ that required him to inscribe in places that were well over what he could normally reach without jumping, stomping harshly against the ground or floor.

Basically, whoever was testing him didn’t understand he was just at the Spirit Gathering realm 9th stage and not the Conflagrate realm or Obsidiafying realm for that matter.

Still, Ciemnosc sucked it up and continued ‘dancing’ on the platform time and time again while the inscriptions he made along the way, during these whole hours became a bit dark blue and its energy even turned… somewhat dusty.

From light blue, the array formations are supposed to change colors only when they are done, completely. Some change at some point due to their nature and what is being added to them as the array formations are being completed. But right now, Ciemnosc was just scribbling and doodling nonstop. But Ciemnosc’s inscription lines and drawings had already turned dark blue… and gained an additional effect.

It was unheard of in the whole world.

Every loud tap he made against the platform’s floor, which was just too tiny to be actually called a noise, with Ciemnosc himself barely even hearing it if he were to only use a normal person’s hearing despite being the one making them. Well, each time, an hour was over with and Ciemnosc could finally relax his body.

But ever since the first time, he only took half a breath's worth of time to rest before going back at it. And now, despite sweat covering his back in such an annoying manner and the sides of his face becoming too sweaty and ‘warm’, Ciemnosc stopped only because he felt the change inside his head.

A ‘clicking’ and ‘clanking’ noise went out inside his head, as soon as the last tap he made sounded the last hour he made of dancing about and practicing over and over again. Signaling this one last hour of practice, and hearing that sound in his head, Ciemnosc spread his arms to the sides and just let his body fall backwards. All while his eyes slowly yet surely closed before even halfway through his back meeting the floor, and his sweat was beginning to be cleared away by the windiness of the mountain’s height and the approaching night.

…thud…

… Inside his head, Ciemnosc found himself once again in his pitch, total, and absolute darkness mind; his everything. After a thought, he found himself where his ‘homework’ was, where all of the information is stored but only the current tasks he was undergoing were present.

It was also dark around there, but the ‘small’ pieces of information and ‘list of tasks’ around seemed to illuminate everything that was the nearest to them, portraits of images like memories floating in one’s head but were just his homework instead. All of them had been standing, floating, sparsely but slightly close to each other and facing Ciemnosc at all times.

Even when they were being completed, one after the other, from just reading through the information that was small at least compared to the entire ‘exam’. They remained idle and floating slightly apart from each other, but now, as soon as Ciemnosc entered and gave each a glimpse, they would subsequently gain life and move to stand next to each other and form up right in front of him but at a mildly large distance of 10 meters away.

Only after the noise in his head went out did these things finally change their stillness. Ciemnosc stood in front of them while his body rested on the platform, becoming cold and refreshed with the windy gusts of air passing through the mountain and over the workshop and its platform.

Ciemnosc heard nothing, while these ‘portraits’ moved, but he still somewhat understood a kind of message. One that had no voice, no words, and no genre. In the deepest ends of himself, he understood: ‘You have now understood one of many basics of Array Formations. Rewarding you is a piece of life, it may either limit you and baffle your whole self, or inspire you.’.

“...!” Immediately after he finished going through that message, after hesitating to start reading it for 2 seconds only to try and find out if that foreign force from before was still around, the message disappeared and Ciemnosc felt his vision become… so different!

Despite his head comprehending that there was no more a foreign fore with ‘its’ energy floating around and hiding somewhere, the fact that the message disappeared only when he finished going through it and not in the time that one would react and start going through it confirmed Ciemnosc’s other suspicions of there being something even stranger going on inside his poor little head - he became too astounded by the following changes in front of his inner eyes that he had no time to even ‘blink’ or ‘breathe’ within himself.

Within just a moment, Ciemnosc’s darkness from his inner self disappeared, overtaken by boundless light that didn’t come from pure light but from the scenery of a world; a new world!

This was a vast prairie, with one side having a long, long way to go with endless hills, burrows, a few caves and rocky mountains, and gigantic boulders amok over the entire dark, powerful green grass. That was only even bigger once Ciemnosc looked to his right, where an endless forest stood tall. But that wasn’t what gave Ciemnosc the answer to how large everything around was, it was the fact that a gigantic river below where he was floating barely went through 1/1,000’s of what he was seeing that made him realize the vastness of this world and its… boundlessness.

Ciemnosc still could not differentiate the sizes between the gigantic river and the size of the prairie, much less the tall trees at the beginning of the endless forest, but with the naked eye, he could somewhat retake the scenery and surroundings of the gigantic river whose waters gushed with ferocity certain crashing intersections here and there before continuing to flow down.

The length of such a vast and terrific gigantic river was like nothing he could have ever thought of, as well, it just seemed that whatever Ciemnosc received from the ‘it’, it would always be something he had no idea of whatsoever. What else could it show to surprise him, to shock him… or to terrify him? For this gigantic river, itself and without counting its surroundings… was bigger than the entire Region he was in as he knows it.

So, if this gigantic river was already bigger than the whole Region he has been running amok around and if the trees of the endless forest made it look like a simple puddle, pool whereas even the crashing points where the water of the river rose for hundreds of meters after colliding somewhere were still like tiny ponds to the tall trees… Just how… impossibly… insanely… unthinkably colossal was this world?!

Ghrruuwooroooooooaarr! WHOSHAAAAAAASSHH~~!!!!

Time was once again not on Ciemnosc’s side, but it could never be on anyone’s side, as it was gone. His nonexistent body within this new world was shaken, as was the world he was currently in, and from it, the endless forests had its trees all bending over unnaturally but without harm still. And from its deepest regions, probably… trillions of kilometers away… a gigantic figure ascended.

From far away, thankfully, Ciemnosc saw it soar into the skies but not that… ‘far’. Only above the trees of the endless forests, and it also didn’t seem to notice him, for it only looked in his general direction before moving directly towards the gigantic river below where his nonexistent body hovered.

FWOOOOOOOOOOSH~~~~!!!... WHOOOSH!!! SLURP, CRASH CRASH, GURGLE, SPLAASSSHHH~~~!!!!

The immense, colossal figure with wings, a long neck, head, and tail flew and landed above the gigantic river but way below where Ciemnosc floated. It plunged its head low but not low enough for its head to touch the river water, its entire head was already almost as large as the gigantic river itself. It had to stick its snake-like tongue out and drink water like a dog, otherwise, the river would just collapse.

SPLASH, SPLASSSHH, SPLAAAAASSSHHH!!!!...

“!!!” Ciemnosc saw as the majestic Creature suddenly looked up, turning its gigantic eye the size of half the Region he has been in look up at him and notice him; it really did notice him. Ciemnosc was heart shaken and felt his true body’s chest begin spasming, but that was when a slender and fair, yet wrinkled and collapsed left hand extended from above, behind himself.

FWWWshuuuck.

The thing that was looking at him immediately widened its eyes, pupils shrinking and irises extending as the last thing Ciemnosc could see was merely the figure crashing head on against the trees of the endless forest. Uncaring about its damage, it flew among the trees and destroyed everything in its way… doing its utmost to flee from wherever he… and that arm’s owner were.

‘Fan…tastic!’

…

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This is the end of Volume 2 — Shadow of the Region.