Chapter 9

"This is the Black Dragon Lair."

A hall resembling a great hall was built inside the cave. At the entrance of the cave, two molded men wearing the same kind of mask as Blood Afreet stood motionless. Just looking at them made the children uncomfortable.

"Great place."

Alexander patted his chin as he looked at the large hall, connected by several corridors, and took a look around. In the great hall, especially in the corridors, huge shelves were against the wall. There were too many booklets and encyclopedias on the shelves to count.

Noah was as fascinated as Alexander. Of the entire group, there was no Alexander and no one else who respected the information as much as he did. For the two of them, this place in particular looked very nice. Too much information they would ever learn in their lifetime was right in front of them.

"From what I've heard, every camp has this kind of hall. It was built by the founder of Black Dragon Camp when he first stepped into Elysium. Information has been collected from all over the world, regardless of whether it is important or not, and a huge archive of information has been created. It's called the Black Dragon Lair."

Noah approached Alexander and spoke in a low voice.

"How many books are there here?"

Even with a rough estimate, there were tens of thousands.

"There are no book restrictions. You can work on any part of the book you want in six hours. It's forbidden to take anything outside."

After Blood Afreet brought the children to the archive, he didn't care about them anymore and disappeared. Alexander approached the nearest shelf, ignoring the other eight children who were giving him dirty looks. When he listened to his feelings and chose a book, he realized that he did not understand what was written in it at all.

He put the book back and chose another book. Some books had titles on the cover to provide information about their subjects, while others did not.

After a short practice, he came across a book that almost attracted him. The cover of the book was made of wicker. When he looked inside, he saw words written in elegant but sharp calligraphy. It was as if he had been drawn not with a brush but with a sword.

"YOUR MIND IS THE GREATEST WEAPON!"

That was the sentence that was meant to be emphasized.

After reading this sentence, Alexander opened the next page, wondering if he had found what he had been dreaming of for a long time. On the first page, there was a preface explaining the purpose for which he wrote the book. However, Alexander did not bother to read it and moved on to the other page.

When he looked at the page, Alexander's heart was clenched.

A diagram covering the entire page and the pages after the diagram were written for use of the points specified in the diagram. The writings were quite small, but their account was large enough to broaden Alexander's horizons.

When he examined the diagram more carefully, three different words caught his attention.

Perception.

Strength.

Control.

Although the contents of the book were too complex for Alexander to understand, he engraved the entire contents of the book, including the diagram, in his mind, thinking that he should memorize it even if he did not understand it. From the moment he arrived at the Black Dragon Camp, he had never had trouble memorizing.

After memorizing the book, he put it where he took it. He still had some time. While memorizing books wasn't hard for him, it wasn't easy. It was not easy to keep in mind thousands of words and dozens of schemes. After wandering around the bookshelf for a bit, he didn't gravitate toward the martial arts category like the others.

Instead, he looked for books that would help him realize the plan he had in mind.

He found it as a result of long efforts.

---

When Blood Afreet entered the hall again, the children put down their books and lined up. After Blood Afreet gave them a look, he turned around and led them to the main hall.

On the way Noah whined.

"If I had a little more time, it would have been great. I couldn't memorize anything."

Theoretical lectures were not considered so important in the eyes of the students. Most people were just working to pass the course, which didn't require effort. After all, a fight would also speak of punches and level of development; not war history or strategy.

So all but a small part of the group were not shaking up the theoretical lessons. That's why their reading and memorization skills were bad.

Noah was not one of them. He had engraved many things in his mind in this short time, but he was saying these things to mislead others.

Alexander sighed. From the moment they began to see Toxicology and Strategy, a few people had become overzealous and cunning. Chief among them was Noah. It was as if they had awakened the sleeping beast. Luckily he was friends with her.

"What about you? Did you find anything?"

Finding what he wanted out of tens of thousands of books was impossible for first-time entrants.

"Not really. It's not enough to enter once. I need to spend at least a day there so I can memorize everything."

"I'm jealous of your brain."

"..."

Alexander didn't say anything and they came to the main hall. Six hours had passed, and strangely enough, there was no one in the hall.

"You can rest for today."

'Really?'

Alexander looked at the bewildered Blood Afreet and was able to understand what was on his mind. It gave them time to digest the information they had received from the archive. Well, that's what Alexander wanted.

After eating at the cafeteria with Noah, they shared what they knew with each other.

Martial arts were divided into many categories. Weapon Mastery, Foot Movements, and Body Strengthening were just a few of them. The Rise of the Black Dragon taught by the camp was one of the rare development techniques among martial arts.

During his conversation with Noah, Alexander also learned about what Noah had learned. Noah didn't pursue the big one like the others — instead, he learned 24-Forms Bodytraining, a martial arts guide that would perfect the foundation. It was much easier to memorize compared to other manuals and was a training that would maximize his fitness.

Alexander began to tell him what he had learned. In particular, he talked about combining strategy and martial arts and creating a solid philosophy. Thus, he would close the gap thanks to strategy.

He had read several books about it in the Black Dragon Lair. People who combined martial arts and strategy predominantly used long swords. He could not use the long sword at the moment as his weapons training would start next year.

Besides, who says that strategy can only be applied with weapons?

Noah and Alexander became even more adept at the subject by telling each other what they had learned. Then they practiced some close combat and retired to meditate.

Alexander did not imitate the Rise of the Black Dragon. Instead, he decided to use the development diagram he had memorized in the archive.

The next acupuncture point after Central Residence was Cloud's Door. Cloud's Door was a very important point because it was also used as the Sea of Energy. But there was a different acupuncture point in the diagram.

Although it was located in the same vicinity as Cloud's Door, it was not on the left side of the heart, but above the diaphragm.

The development diagram was addressed in two ways.

ShenFeng and Spirit's Seal.

It was an acupuncture point that would take control of the body to the next level.

Alexander excitedly directed his Qi there and slowly imposed his Qi.

It was one thing for him to scream and faint as he did that.

The pain was far beyond the limits his mind could stand.