Mel stood next to the creature unseen, trying to poke at one of its legs. Unsuccessful as her hand phased right through it. She chuckled. "Don't obliterate this one. I would love to find out more about it first. "

I couldn't help it, you and I both know that vaporization was not in the description. I-

"Someone was in the Library! The security triggered. There's a Mind Mage. It's not this thing, but it came from close by. They managed to skim your short-term memory, but I don't know what they got before they were ejected." Mel said in a panic.

"Ah, I understand." The beast in front of me rumbled. "Master will call what happened here an unfortunate misunderstanding. Unless you intend to cause more trouble?"

I shook my head. "No trouble, this was the first thing I saw besides water all day., I only meant to rest my body for a moment. I will be on my way and I apologize about your security."

The mass of earth began turning.

"You may stay on the beach, do not venture past the trees. I will ensure you are not bothered by my pets. You are allowed twelve hours to rest, then you must leave. Master does not own an isolated island with aggressive security, because he enjoys entertaining guests."

"Understood." I bowed to the creature's back.

"And do not do any "testing" here. I will not tolerate vandalism. You are free to use the water, though be wary of attracting anything that will disturb the island." It called back as it disappeared behind the line of trees.

Mel and I watched it go, and waited until I could no longer hear its footsteps. "What an odd encounter."

"Not what I was expecting, for sure. Glad, whoever was out there didn't get mad that I killed those boar. That earth creature was strong, even now I don't know if I could have fought it."

"Very lucky, Well you have about an hour for your meditation cooldown, so you should try to get used to your new body's proprioception. And go through your loot from the boars, you need to start a stockpile now for when you get the upgrade at Novice. After your cooldown resets, I can give you a full tour of the Library. And after we can go test out your more destructive abilities in the water. I saw the idea you had and I think it will work, I also have something for you to try out if that works."

With that, she popped back out of my sight. I smiled, I would be looking forward to the testing of my little theory.

First I looked into my ring to see what kind of loot I got and was kind of disappointed when I saw what it was.

Lesser Beast Core

(Beginner)

Affinity: Acid

Quantity:20

Alchemy Ingredient

Deciding to ignore the shitty loot, I looked at my stats again. With a majority of my stats sitting at just above two hundred, I was about as strong as someone at level 10 right now, besides my Intelligence course, but that didn't count. I couldn't see what level those boar had been but they were probably between levels 4 and 8 with the leader being the strongest. I had seen level 10 beasts and they were slightly faster and stronger. So if I just based my abilities on someone twice my level I should have a better idea of what I could do.

Unfortunately, the highest leveled people I had ever seen in action was a Level 584 in the Expert tier. That had been three years ago at the aurora festival held every four years during the natural light display. They had one of the twelve Great Masters erect the barrier to keep their fight from flattening the city.

I shook my head. I didn’t have to worry about that for now anyway. For now, I would have a good grasp of what the bar was supposed to be, and plenty of time to figure out the rest later.

At Level 10 most without a severe deficit in any particular Stat would surpass any Coreless human athlete in peak physique, in speed, and strength. So theoretically I should be able to punch about as hard as a sledgehammer, but I didn't want to anger the owner by destroying his stuff to find out. Instead, I walked into the water until I found a medium-sized rock about the size of my torso. Carrying it back onto the beach I noticed how light it was relative to its size. Placing it down, it sank into the sand a little before settling.

Staring at it for a moment decided there wasn't too much point in thinking too hard, so I just punched it as hard as I could. A large plume of sand and dust blanketed the area about 10 yards in every direction.

Coughing, I waited for the dust to settle as I narrowed my eyes on the rock. Just at the edge, was a small crack 3 millimeters long that hadn't been there before.

Victory!

A victory short-lived, however, as I heard the voice of the earthen beast from before. "Didn't I say not to disturb the island? I applaud you for retrieving a stone from the Great Sea, but do try and leave this place how you found it. Sand included."

"Sorry!" I yelled back to the forest. The beast had not shown itself but its voice sounded as if it were all around me. Sound Affinity most likely. A lot of Mind Mages had a Sound Affinity.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Shifting my attention from the rock for now I would focus on my Agility as I took the 4th step of my Guard Form. I slid my right foot behind me through the sand, shifted my shoulders and hips forward, and brought my dagger out of its sheath. Holding it in a defensive position I moved through my Forms with ease, holding myself back to preserve the proper technique. After several dozen repetitions I had progressed to executing each step at my top speed with only minor errors.

I moved to my Strike Forms and repeated this. I needed to be able to use my martial knowledge with my improved body, but it would take time. So I spent the next half-hour just going through my Forms, getting more familiar with my new speed and power. It was just a start, but as quickly as I would progress, I couldn't afford to slack off.

After my cooldown was up I sat back in the same spot as before and relaxed. This time I left my eyes open for Mel as I engaged my Ability.

Appearing at the same table Mel greeted me. "If you fought those boar now, you probably wouldn't even need any abilities."

We both got up and walked over toward the Hall of Memories.

"I could sense that too, I would want to maybe track down some monsters while we are on our way back, but I want to wait until we get to wherever we're going with Osiph. Testing is great and I am enjoying this but I also don't want to attract something too big while we're out swimming in the middle of nowhere."

"That's fair, I'm more than confident the old man has plenty in store for you to get used to your new body and Abilities. I am looking forward most to your Thief of Time Ability. Since you are the first consciousness I've been tied to, I would like to know more about how other creatures would handle a small portion of what you've been through. It is an excellent opportunity to collect data on this. But again, I'm sure there will be time eventually."

I thought about what she said as we walked across the large room, dodging between rows of tables and books on altars. "I don't know I agree with inflicting my experiences on others seeing as I was the only survivor of the attack. I do agree it will likely be effective and I won't shy away from using it if needed. So you can collect your data from that but I'm not gonna go around torturing people so you can learn faster."

She pouted but relented. "Fine, I guess I can be patient. But if you change your mind, at Adept you get a room that can sustain health points while it's occupied. So, you could do it safely without killing them. It's also good for practicing dangerous Spells and Abilities … well in your case just Abilities, without fear of killing yourself."

"It's a torture room isn't it?" I asked deadpan.

"If that's what you need it to be. It can also be an infirmary to keep patients alive long enough to make it to a healer. It's a tool, just like any other. It's all in how you use it." She said, regaining the bounce in her step as the door to the Hall of Memories swung open in front of us and we stepped in.

Even though it was called a hall, it was just a large spherical room. We walked along a railed path that led to what appeared to be three control panels in the center of the room.

"How does it work?"

"Step up to the controls, there is a selector to pick which memory you want to experience. It's sorted chronologically and you can move the slider or think about a specific memory. If you want to see something that's in the Vaults, it will need you to confirm access."

"Simple enough." I took a spot in front of the control panels and picked a memory that was still kind of hazy, even with my new Stats.

The entire room shifted, and a table appeared in front of me with people sitting all around it. My parents sat next to me, beaming as they cut a cake. My instructor sat at the end of the table and a few cousins from the clan filled the space between us. It was my seventh birthday, and my mother was with Ren, keeping her from terrorizing the stack of presents that sat nearby.

"So how about it, Janus? Is my boy ready for the entrance exam?" My father asked in a light voice that belied his deadliness with an ax.

"I'm confident he will pass with flying colors and begin his training with the guard in earnest. He had come far in such a short amount of time." My instructor responded. He was a retired member of the guard and a distant uncle.

"We're so very proud of you Cassieus." My mother beamed from behind an unruly Ren trying to break free of her hold.

This was the last peaceful time in my life before I spent the next six years in constant training and schooling. I had been given a year off before my Ascendancy Ceremony but that was spent studying everything I could get my hands on about the basics of magic.

It was insane to think that, to everybody else, the ceremony had only been a week ago.

"Thank you, again," I said as the room transitioned back to its original state. "Just... this means a lot."

"You're welcome. Now come on there's more." Mel waved me off as she turned and walked back down the pathway towards the main chamber.

Returning, I noticed that there was now a third door next to the Hall of Infinite Vaults. This one looked like a painting of the room I was currently standing in. At the top was the mosaic of runes with four of the columns running down to where it depicted the floating books and pedestals, even the now numerous tables and comfortable chairs.

"We don't need to go into the Vault, since everything In there is meant to stay there." She looked back over her shoulder for confirmation.

"I agree. Nothing to be seen there for now."

"Great, then we can move on to your room."

"My room?"

"Yes, at some point in the not-too-distant future, you will be spending months if not years here. You should be able to rest here, then when you exit meditation, you will wake up like you had a full night's sleep. At least while you still need sleep before Journeyman, anyway."

The door opened as they approached and I was pleasantly surprised at the massive room. It was almost the size of the Library itself. I had never had a large room, we lived in a provided house in clan territory. It was spacious enough but my bed and wardrobe always took up half the room.

On the left side of the wall was a bed that could hold an entire branch of my clan. At the other end of the hall, was a red, oak wardrobe easily fifteen feet tall and just as wide as the back wall.

"A bit ostentatious."

"You can change it however you want, it is your head after all."

I looked from her to the room and willed it to change. Unlike the Hall of Memories, it wasn't instantaneous. The walls began closing in, and the bed shrank to a normal size. The wardrobe became a small dresser and an L-shaped desk rose out of the floor, opposite the bed.

"Cozy."

"It gets the job done, and I can always change it later."

"This," she rolled her eyes as she gestured at the dresser. "Will hold any type of clothing you can think of that your mind could reasonably replicate. So no water shirts."

"What shirts?"

"It was the first thing that came to mind, shut up."

I laughed as I walked over and opened a drawer. I thought about a white mage's robe and it appeared just how I pictured it, down to the striped golden trim. Once you can take things in and out at Novice you can take them with you as long as you deposit the requisite materials in the storage room, it will automatically pull from those shelves. Even cooler is you can do this with Armor when the trading grounds open up."

"When will that become available?"

"So there is the storage and labs at Novice, and the training room is Journeyman. You'll get the Infirmary at- yes it is called that. You'll get it at Adept. Then you get a Mana forge at Expert, You just put several of a similar type Monster Cores in it and it makes a super Core. Kinda sounds fun but has limited applications as far as I'm aware."

"That could be very useful for elixirs."

"Yes but not much else. The best things have multiple uses. Anyway, the last upgrade before you Ascend is at Master, and it is a fun surprise I don't want to ruin for you, let's just say you will be the envy of this world."

"Is that gonna be a joke later? When I hit Master, are you going to pull this memory up in my brain?"

"Who's to say." She answered wryly.

"What about after that? After I ascend?" I asked ignoring her childish antics.

"I don't know." She admitted. "Like I said before, I wasn't able to retain knowledge that wasn't already a part of me until I was bound. The knowledge that I told you. I never learned, I've always just known it. Now most of my knowledge comes from what you already know."

"I guess we'll find out together?" I held out my arm.

She wrapped hers around it and replied. "I guess we will."