Chapter 11: Time to think

When I opened my eyes again, I felt refreshed. I felt like my body was in shackles from before, but now, I feel free and light as a feather. It is a very comforting feeling. Upon thinking more about it, I just remembered that I had a hole punched through me by that wizard dragon. Is this the afterlife already? I then started looking around. All I see are the same old buildings in the school but much more pristine than what I remember. Afterward, Max perched atop my head and told me what was happening. Apparently, when I was dying with a hole in my chest from the old man’s attack, Max stepped in and saved me. Like the phoenix, Max can also resurrect once he dies. He triggered this ability when I died because of our life and death contract. He also died and then, he resurrected. Since our contract linked our souls together, I also got resurrected.

With that cleared out of the way, I looked into my awakened powers. When you awaken, you'll feel like you have full control over your powers. In my case, my awakened powers involve acquiring the Library of the Heavenly Way. When I see people perform an action or when I touch objects, the Library would generate a book on them that contains their flaws. Subsequently, this book generated by the Library would also show the flaws of what is written on it. Another function of the Library is that when it has generated multiple books about a certain topic, the contents of these books can be summarized to form a flawless book with all the correct knowledge and skills put together. Luckily for me, the Library already contains books that were present in the actual novel. However, I can’t access all of them at the moment.

I can access the Library in two ways. First, I can physically explore it in my mind like walking through a memory palace. Second, I can quickly access information like searching through a database; I think of a topic, then afterward, information on this topic would flood my mind. To compile new books, I would just have to will it when a party is performing a battle action or performing a craft or will it as I am touching an object. With my current knowledge and powers, I can use the books in the Library to improve my physical body, my soul cultivation, and my Qi or Mana Cultivation.

I assimilated the knowledge needed to get the First Rank of the Body, Soul and Mana Cultivation from the Library directly into my brain. This entails that instead of just recalling the knowledge, it would be treated as a skill that the body knows, like how to drink water. In drinking water, you stop breathing so your lungs won’t get water in them and your body opens up different holes, so the water gets into the stomach.

After analyzing my newly found power, I decided to analyze the book compiled on Max. Max is a sovereign elemental bird. Elemental birds are on the same level as the Thunderbird and the Phoenix but instead of focusing on one element, they can change the property of their mana into all the different elements. However, there is a downside to this. Since sovereign elemental birds like Max, spend time directing the different properties of their mana into all the different elements, they are not as strong in controlling each element as those single elemental birds that can focus all their mana 24/7 in only one element. In unlocking the ancestral memories of the sovereign elemental bird, which I did during the fight with the dragon wizard, the bird gets a certain degree of control on the property of its mana for a short duration of time. The maneuver that Max does where a bigger version of him shows up is how the sovereign elemental bird absorbs mana from all the different elements. You can think of it as how the Makahiya plant closes when it is touched by a stimulus. Instinctively, it knows what is happening.

Now that all my thoughts have been sorted out, I decided to pick up my phone. But, upon reaching it out from my pants left pocket, I just touched my leg. Apparently, I’m not wearing any pants and I’m naked. Uh oh.