Missions Hall
Ciemnosc rushed down the 'hidden' stairs for more than a minute. He wasn't getting any anxious or strangely bored as he could finally see the end of the stairs once he was close to that minute from passing by with his Spirit Sense alleviating his thoughts ever since seeing and then coming down these stairs. He was wondering how truly large they were and what kind of secret basement laboratory it was. He was itching to discover!
‘What the?! Wowaah~!!’ Yet, as soon as Ciemnosc reached the final steps and could see with his own eyes all around this so-called basement laboratory, Ciemnosc was struck mindlessly stupid by the ginormous sight of the entire length in which this seemingly ordinary place up above hid such…grand secret down below.
It wasn’t even needed for Ciemnosc to know how long it was to go from one place to the other, it was all very dimly illuminated, but it still had lights that allowed a normal person to see from one end of the room to another one, let alone Ciemnosc’s eyes which were even better than his Spirit Sense overall.
Other than that, this entire room was clearly square shaped, as Ciemnosc could see there basically having the same distance as he looked towards any angle and faced any side. But when looking directly above, Ciemnosc’s Spirit Sense read that the distance between the floor and the ceiling was 32 meters!
Nobody in their sane mind would do such a thing. Why even?! But, as Ciemnosc was dazed looking at the room alone, and he was beginning to look at the ‘big’ machines and devices all around, some even a bit more than half the distance between the floor and the ceiling. Ciemnosc heard Elder Apegos speak to him a little far away, “Hey, come here! There is not much time until you have to go, so hurry already.”
Step, step, step, step.
“Ah!” Ciemnosc ‘woke up’ from his stupor and rushed to where he heard Elder Apegos’s voice come from. A few seconds ago, he saw Elder Apegos in front of a device that was large enough for 100 Ciemnoscs to stand side by side and right in front or behind each other in a very wide circular shaped completely empty space and even a bit carved downwards.
“This place, old man?” Ciemnosc said with a fake drop of sweat falling off his left eye. Elder Apegos ignored the ‘nice’ compliment and was still facing the empty, circular area with his hands behind his wheelchair and his face looking straight up ahead. As if he was a towering mountain in the eyes of a kid but not Ciemnosc, Elder Apegos opted such a straight pose before speaking with a bit of pride showing.
“Here is where I myself learned array formation, kiddy Ciemnosc.” Elder Apegos moved his head to the right a little as if the air itself could caress him somehow. “It’s been hundreds of years since then; my mentors of then are no longer here now, their cultivation too low to keep on living like their peers in the sect do. It is also my fate in a couple hundred years at most for me.”
“Today, I will do my best to teach you, from now on, all the things about array formation that I know of. Those others who have already begun this forming from seeing with their own eyes and exploring on their own do so only mostly for money or fame - there is barely anyone who can do array formations half as well as our people do in our sect, Ciemnosc.”
“...” Elder Apegos turned around. In-between his legs at his knees, a smallish Covert Space bag rested. When he turned around fully to gaze at Ciemnosc, his eyes were silent, and Ciemnosc felt they hid something. Elder Apegos then spoke again, “In this Covert Space bag I’m giving you…lies your first Inscription Pen for array formation, among a lot of other, many, knowledge which I have amassed over my years of learning, Ciemnosc.”
“Medicinal, alchemy, properties, poison… Creatures, their unique bodies’ specialties, and properties, types… Weapon creation experience, images to find inspiration from that came from some of the best products ever created, for both weaponry and armory… Tools that have always been essential as well as full of marvelous imagination…”
“All of this, and homework which I’ve…thought randomly of putting you through, will be your assignment outside this little place of mine during your first mission, Ciemnosc.” Elder Apegos grabbed the Covert Space bag with his right hand and passed it over to Ciemnosc, before continuing. “You are the first and only kid I am going to teach array formation, so be utmost prepared to…when you return…be given a lot of exams regarding every single little thing I’ve just given you.”
“Also, there are some things that may or may not interest you. But do not speak of them in public, much less show them so. It is one of the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect’s greatest weaknesses, or even possibly its most troublesome taboo.” Elder Apegos said. His face didn’t look as troubled as his words did though, almost only lamenting the past and not the present, and definitely not the future.
‘...’ Ciemnosc’s Spirit Sense quickly went through the contents of his new, 3rd Covert Space bag, falling silent in both physical and mental ways. He looked at Elder Apegos and his eye that looked right at him without expecting an answer but still looking at him expectantly… Ciemnosc could only keep his brand new Cover Space bag and stand with his arms to the side.
“Teacher, what is it that we need to do first?” Elder Apegos’s eyebrows jumped, and he turned around, his arms pointing at the extremes of the empty space with a soft, old man-ish exclamation, “Mnp! Ah.”
Wree, wre~.
His wheelchair moved though it seemed squeaky despite the easiness to which it moved, and even had some hidden compartment here and there that directly amazed the peeping Ciemnosc who had no obstacles nor endangering when abusing his Spirit Sense. “You see, all this little piece of terrain, from the entire 2,000 square meters around you now, is the place that is most further apart from the entrance to this place and also the one covered up and defended the most.”
“Here, even if an Obsidiafying Realm cultivator comes and checks up the entire place, as long as I press just a few ‘buttons’,” Elder Apegos said while taking out a single little circular object. His eyes looked at Ciemnosc, kinda smug, before he dressed it with his thumb as it had a size no larger than his own thumb’s tip. Immediately, a transparent gray barrier appeared to surround them.
“This will protect us from not just their eyesight but Spirit Sense as well, giving the impression we’re just barely beginning to do and deciding what to put in here since it’s a very large place and we are always so busy with other stuff, heh heh.” Elder Apegos said and even chuckled, which Ciemnosc didn’t need to know the old man too much to understand; it was rare.
“Mn, I’ll do my best to learn it all today! And when I come back, teacher, I will show you a crazy good, talented boy who has already achieved all and everything you’ve taught him!” Ciemnosc commented out of nowhere, making the smug looking Elder Apegos stop for a moment and look at him in silence before turning his head away and pointing at the empty space with his left index finger, which was a bit shaky.
“In this place, you’ll do inscriptions until you can make the most basic, regulatory, and mandatory of them all. You’ll grow to understand why is all that.” Elder Apegos said in return after a while, his right hand took out his inscription pen and began showing it to Ciemnosc casually, “This is the one I made for myself long ago.”
“Though one can use their own hands, other different tools, and even their own Spirit Sense alone to carve an array formation. No matter which method I tried when I started, only when using an inscription pen was I able…and don’t you dare laugh, I was able to ‘feel’ that I was doing it correctly… I still remember the sensation.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Elder Apegos lowered his right hand, which was about to show some inscription, his gaze losing itself as he murmured. “It was only when I held an inscription pen that I believed it was the right way to begin learning with, yet I ignored and followed my mentors’ advice… In the end, I took more than 100 years trying with the other methods, until I failed and failed before I finally did as I wanted…and…directly succeeded.”
‘...’ Ciemnosc said not a single thing, let his teacher have his moment, which the latter woke up from his dazed state and slowly raised his right arm yet again. This time, as his shaky inscription pen was beginning to form smallish, short lines of a light blue color, he began explaining while making those little lines and slowly forming a kind of structure without connecting any of them altogether.
Then, the old man did another few of those, each group of short and smallish lines traced semi randomly all around a small space of 3 to 4 Ciemnoscs’ heads, his face at ease and not feeling any weary at all as he completed hundreds of such in less than 10 minutes, just to showcase how damn good he was; perhaps.
“Here are the basics of array formation, kid.” Elder Apegos kept his inscription pen in his Covert Space bag and faced Ciemnosc, moving close to him to hold his shoulders, Elder Apegos’s sounds of breathing through his nose were heard as they seemed quite a bit heavy and of ‘letting someone else shoulder one’s something’ that made Ciemnosc quiet for a bit more of time.
“Initially, I wanted to teach you one by one, allowing you to digest the full attention and experiences as well as…what you ‘felt’ when finishing each of them. But considering your talent and unruly, insatiable thirst for knowing more which…I’ve become aware of these last few days. I will let you do you how you know how to do and…well, learn what you must learn, kid.”
“In my times, because of my own diligent, devoted, and subservience of a blind nature, I failed to recognize myself. Don’t do that to yourself kid, not now nor in the future, and definitely don’t do it to anyone else you may get to teach like I am right now, or even more. Much more.” Elder Apegos left after saying that, leaving Ciemnosc on his own in front of hundreds of unfinished products, which he had to deal with.
He took out his pen, noticing that it had a quirky design, a fat ‘lower’ body which was the half in which the Inferior grade Powerful Stone would go, and a thinner ‘upper’ body which was where the half where the tip was on its extreme; the former had a thickness of 5 cm while the later one of 1.5 cm.
It had dark, deep blue as its main color with platinum little parts here and there that made it well decorated, almost to the point it looked to be able to even become a huge weapon or something - but obviously did not. It at least was not that type of incredible, strange, and overly developed tool for its time.
At its lower fat body, the- no, his inscription pen even had a set of all different colors where Ciemnosc could just push them, and they would seemingly change something within the inscription pen. He couldn’t tell what they were but was capable of feeling that change even without his Spirit Sense getting to work to know what was up because Ciemnosc decided to let his instincts do the learning. He could research, experiment and test things up when he had time, and he had learned already.
Despite having to push a button for the inscription pen to seemingly ‘change’, all Ciemnosc had to do for it to go back to ‘resting’ and for said changes to become invalid is to desire it with his Spirit Sense; only know did he understood, that only those who can really use Spirit Sense are able to learn array formation.
‘Let’s see…’ And so, Ciemnosc’s journey into the depths and profound array formation vocation started, his eyes glimmering as he went over to the first ‘question’ in the exam and visualized it. Surrounding it, making a few laps around it, touching through, looking from up and down at it since it didn’t matter if he touched it physically.
As for with his Spirit Sense, whatever it touched may get deleted instead as Ciemnosc believed that this strange and little empty space was for the sake of experimenting or learning, and that was how Elder Apegos didn’t have to come back every time Ciemnosc would fuck it up and touch them directly; or would have to over and over again too.
Even when Ciemnosc blew air at it, and used Power Energy around his arm to flow specifically and passed it around, it was all still untouched and perfectly standing still in midair.
Finally, Ciemnosc stood before the first one and began staring at it, deeply as if conversing mentally with it but also in ways he himself hasn’t been capable of understanding. A kind of method that despite not being something practical and seemingly not orthodox, it was ‘giving’ Ciemnosc some unknown, brand new found insight on the matter at hand.
Ciemnosc quickly moved afterwards, his right hand holding his inscription pen as he began guiding the Power Energy coming from it, quickly filling the gaps, missing pieces, and necessary steps so that it could feel connected, whole, beautiful, and functional. Ciemnosc didn’t stop until the feeling of it not having been fully finished with and beyond left him.
After nodding to each of such ‘questions’ once he resolved them like that, Ciemnosc would go on to the next one. His speed did not increase but the smoothness at which he moved and decided to go with his chosen methods in each of these fundamentals of array formation became ever more admirable to watch.
Ciemnosc single handedly cleared up one after the other, not a single one of them taking him more time than needed. As for Ciemnosc, not a single second and even more so was a ‘second less or second more’ was what mattered in this test; and learning experience.
Ciemnosc might’ve had to stop and think about his next move in the first 50 he completed and beyond, even adding some smallish and short lines here and there of his own to fully complement the fundamentals of array formations.
But beyond that, with his ever growing knowledge and experience, Ciemnosc was like a little monster evolving into a big one at a fast forwarded speed. He even began using both hands to pass his inscription pen around, not needing to even visualize them even more after having initially checked them up a lot of times before getting to solve them.
…By the time Elder Apegos returned, Ciemnosc had finished the last one of them and was now reading his 42nd book from the libraries since then, sitting cross legged on the floor and looking up at the fundamentals of array formation from time to time, admiringly as if really having been bewitched by the beauty of all array formation that had prepared for him in the future; near future.
“Huh? Which one are you reading?” Though Elder Apegos was already expecting something like this, coming from Ciemnosc the monster, a ruthless genius that wouldn’t care less about being polite, he was still shocked tremendously, overwhelmed, and jealous of having a flexible mentor who wouldn’t go die from having their student choose another way of learning under them.
“Oh, it is the one of the…’vessels’, it’s very interesting, I read about Little Lake the other day, weeks before I was taken here… I didn’t know anything about these n-n…’naval battles’? Mm, they look…very inspiring.” Ciemnosc answered right away, his eyes not leaving the book, his eyebrows not stopping furrowing, and his whole being seemingly gaining a lot of things to do.
“Mm, I have a dozen more of those. I’ll give you the entire collection after we’re finished here. Now put a pause to that and hear me,” Elder Apegos nodded towards Ciemnosc, his eyes shining as he could already see the rise of the vocational ‘clique’ within the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect and all thanks to this little guy…and well, to him since he was the one giving birth to his genius, eh.
“Okay, teacher,” Ciemnosc cutely called out and closed his book. Standing up, he went over to the first one, and told Elder Apegos of everything he knew of and understood, even explaining a little or several little questions that Elder Apegos had not of him and how did he come to such conclusions, but of what he had done afterwards with the fundamentals of array formation since they were even changed!
Little by little, one by one, Ciemnosc and Elder Apegos made their way towards the last, final one of them all. But in each of them, Elder Apegos was shocked by the little boy evermore, leaving a distasteful taste in his old mouth from being an old man incomparable to a young boy in so many things…
Basically, Ciemnosc’s thoughts about the fundamentals of arrays were questions that Elder Apegos himself has thought of ever since embarking on the journey of array formations, but also of questions that he didn’t even know he had, and he didn’t know there could exist. It wasn’t math, and some kind of advanced, to professional, super advanced math. It was simple…creation.
Ciemnosc showed Elder Apegos a whole new world, and without exaggeration, Elder Apegos even thought that this tiny brain of a boy would be changing all of the future for array formations. But not only that! This boy that has been moving around the sect’s territory prior to his first mission outside the sect showed great talent for every single thing he became interested in!
Elder Apegos really wanted to go to the Missions Hall and scream at the top of his lungs at them for not allowing such a precious gem to remain safe and protected. But knowing that his clique was no longer ‘any’ important for the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect’s elite, higher ups.
Looking at the obvious changes made to the fundamental arrays, all of them, and not just changes but even evolving of such. Elder Apegos thought hard for quite some time before looking at Ciemnosc, “It’s time for you to learn many basic arrays.”
…