While his goal was possible to achieve, Lucian had his work cut out for him. Adding up all the time he needed to allocate to each of the tasks the AI had set out for him, he would need to spend 16 hours of every day training. This left him with just 8 hours for sleeping, eating, and all his other necessary daily tasks.

‘Luckily this academy doesn’t care about attendance, only about the final exam results, otherwise I would be in quite a spot these coming weeks.’ Lucian thought to himself, thanking whichever administrator came up with this rule.

With his new schedule, he would be hard pressed to fulfil it if he also had to attend classes every day.

‘Hmm, since it’s so early in the morning I guess I’ll start with the least intensive task of the bunch.’ Lucian summoned the details of the breathing technique provided with the training method, and examined it carefully. His gaze gradually began to become ablaze with interest the more he read into it.

A deep analysis of the technique revealed that just like he had suspected, the moves required of practising the breathing technique were almost identical to that of the breath control methods of his previous world, but at the same time it was much more detailed and in depth, and contained a lot more theory.

The theory combined the practicality and efficiency of controlling the breathing to minimise energy exertion mid fight, and the mysterious forces behind life force. The act of entering a meditative state enabled a person to have a much deeper connection to their inner self, loosening the channels which the life force flowed through and making it much, much easier to cultivate it.

However, even with all of this, there still existed barriers that blocked each person from fully allowing their life force to flow freely. It’s said there were only two ways to break through those barriers — either through sheer talent and understanding of their life force, or through pushing themselves to the limit their bodies could handle, with the easiest method of achieving this being during battle, when adrenaline and stress levels were at their highest.

‘At the most basic level, it takes 60 seconds to enter a meditative state and the host’s concentration and body cannot be disturbed during this time, or else their cultivation will break and they’ll have to start over from the beginning…’ Lucian thought to himself.

It’s a good thing he was a loner in this place, or else he might have other students coming over and knocking on his door all the time. This was one thing Lucian actually praised his predecessor for. He contemplated hanging a ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign on his door, just to make sure there were no odd disturbances that might break his concentration during this time, but he was already sitting down, eyes closed and arms crossed, so he decided to just take the risk.

It was his first time attempting this anyway, so he didn’t exactly think things would go as smoothly as he’d like — discrepancies always occurred whenever he attempted a new and unexplored experiment for the first time, it was something he had long become accustomed to.

Lucian took a quick glance over the mental instructions of how to begin the breathing technique in his mind, and immediately prepared himself. ‘Deep inwards breath…’ He inhaled long and hard, just as the instructions reminded him.

‘Now exhale, slow and structured. Like a calm breeze on a warm summer day…’ Lucian wouldn’t exactly use those words to describe how he would breathe out, this was just how the AI described it in his memories. He suspected this was perhaps due to the inclusion of some memories of his predecessor being added into the mix when doing the simulated experiments to produce this training method.

‘Repeat the process, keeping strict control over the breathing the entire time. Do not stray from any step…’ He followed the instructions to the tee, maintaining an steady rhythm of breathing for a good 55 seconds.

Whoosh!

Then, just as he took his final exhale, it was like a floodgate had been released in his mind. His thoughts became clearer, flowing gently and naturally like water, and his senses gradually faded away as they gave way for his whole concentration to be focused internally. It was an entirely new feeling for Lucian, who had never experienced something like this before.

‘It took me 5 seconds less than the stipulated time required, does this mean I have some talent in this department?’ Lucian thought to himself, but quickly pushed it aside. Whether he had talent or not didn’t matter to him in this moment.

Like previously mentioned, he did take up pilates and yoga in his spare time to keep his body in shape, but never had he ever thought meditation would be of help to him. Before now, he was of the mind that things like meditation, relaxation and prayer were all placebos, as there were no scientific explanations to back up any theories related to them.

But now, coming to his familiar yet entirely different world, his mind was opened. Both literally and metaphorically. For the first time, he finally got a grasp of what people meant when they talked about ‘life force’ as an energy, rather than a concept.

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Right before his eyes, or more specifically his mental gaze, he could ‘see’ the various different pathways and channels inside of his body that would otherwise be hidden not only from view, but from any scientific instrument’s view as well. In the past, he had performed various dissections of all kinds of different people, but never had he encountered something like this before.

However, in the midst of the whole thing, a wild but exciting idea suddenly came to him. ‘AI, scan by body and record every change in data in real time!’ Lucian was so engrossed in marvelling at this spectacular phenomenon that he almost forgot the very reason he had opened this pandora’s box. But once again, he had one trick up his sleeve that could potentially make his journey to becoming a Knight much, much easier than other people of this world.

With his AI scanning his body and recording every change in real time, he could gain much more accurate results from his first ever attempt at channelling his life force!

‘In a world where everyone has one, you fail to realise just how helpful these AI implants really are! But in a world like this where only I have one, its abilities really start to come to light!’

His AI carried out its task and even provided a live projection of his body inside his mind for him to check at any time, but Lucian ignored that as looking at it started to break his concentration. He was mindful not to cause too many distractions for himself after all, as he didn’t really want to have to start this whole process all over again. Time was limited and he couldn’t afford to waste it because of stupid mistakes like that.

A familiar word Lucian had ‘read’ in one of the many training books in the library earlier popped into his mind. ‘Enlightenment’, this word was mentioned a few times across the many books, and every time it always had some mysterious and unknown connotations attached to it, like ‘It is only when one reaches a state of enlightenment that their full potential is realised’ and other poetic and philosophical terms similar to it.

Lucian ignored each and every one of them at first, as he was never one to enjoy reading poetry, but it was at this moment he realised just what this word meant in this world. It was hard to put into words, but he felt like his current state closely matched the idea. His mind was fully opened, he could inspect and feel each and every inch of his body like some sort of ‘mind’s eye’, but most importantly he could feel his life force beginning to stir.

However, it was at this point of the technique where he was lacking the most information. As the breathing technique was built off the foundations of the breath control methods of his previous world’s martial arts, where no such thing as ‘life force’ existed, he had no foundation or research model to point him in the right direction after he had reached this point. He could only proceed based on guesses and assumptions, and he started with what seemed like the most prominent gathering of life force.

He focused his inner gaze on the largest and most concentrated area of inner force, located right smack bang in the middle of his chest, slightly offset to the left a little bit. Lucian recognised instantly that it was exactly where his heart was.

‘It makes sense. The heart is often referred to as the epicentre of life in medicine, with many religious facilities also stating that the soul is stored in the heart.’ Lucian muttered to himself internally, making sure the AI was noting down every one of his thoughts. However, he soon began to hesitate. Was this really what he should start with? He was already basing his judgements on assumptions and educated guesses, since he had nothing else to rely on.

His heart was one of the two most important organs in his body, so if something went wrong then there was very little chance he would be coming back from this. Lucian didn’t want to waste his second chance at life so early after being granted it, and there wasn’t any guarantee he’d be given another one after this. He had to treat this life like it was his last.

‘Let’s think carefully about this, I should perhaps start with one of the smaller concentrations of life force.’ Eventually, he convinced himself out of experimenting and practising with his heart right off the bat, and instead opted for a much smaller concentration located in is little toe. This was a much safer option — if something were to go wrong there, then worst case was that he’d lose a toe, rather than his life. This was a risk he was willing to take, compared to the previous one.

Very carefully, Lucian focused his entire concentration onto that one small spot of life force, willing it to start moving. He could see the visualised channels which it would flow through, and noted that they were like a central nervous system and veins combined into one, all eventually ending up at the same place — his heart. If he wasn’t so concentrated at the moment he would probably be affirming his decision to lay off starting with his heart for the time being.

Gradually, his face started to get redder and redder as his body forgot to breathe it was so focused on this one task! Sweat gathered on his forehead and soon spread to the rest of his body. After nearly another 60 seconds passed, his face started to turn blue from the lack of oxygen, and his veins were protruding from his skin due to how strained he was.

‘… Come… On!’

His head throbbed at this point, and his body was practically screaming for him to give up, but Lucian instinctively felt he was on the very cusp of success. He could feel that the tiny concentration of life force was about to shift from its spot, even if it was only a minute amount.

“PUHA!!”

*Huff* *Huff*

Lucian opened both his eyes and mouth to take in some desperate breaths as his body could no longer hold it anymore without passing out.

*Cough*

But along with his exhalations came out a foul, black colored substance that splattered all over his wall and bed sheets.

“Ugh!”

And it stunk up one hell of a storm! Lucian had to immediately cover his nose to stop himself from regurgitating his breakfast! But even that failed to stop the incredibly disgusting smell from penetrating his sinuses. He had to run to the bathroom and open up the window just to get some fresh air.

“Fucking hell what is this abominable smell!” Lucian cursed with all his gut, taking great care not to breathe any of the toxic fumes back in. The very thought that this substance came out of his mouth made him nauseous.

Only after spending 10 minutes carefully and thoroughly cleaning his wall, and giving up on his bed sheets, having to resort to throwing them out, did his mind get back on track.

‘Did I succeed?’