Garen did not dare to casually practice the common outer techniques at all and he only used this method which gradually strengthened his body through external stimulation, due to the fact that he did not fully understand the structure of the meridians and the genes of this body.
This outer technique used a special method to stimulate the muscles and meridians. Although he could not determine the core structure of the body, Garen was still able to understand the locations and functions of the blood vessels and organs clearly within a month.
As he kept on moving in his room, slightly gray sweat gradually oozed out of the skin of his body.
Only after an hour did he rest and walk to the bathroom mirror.
Hua.
He turned on the tap and cool water gushed out of it.
Garen took out a basin and filled half of it with water. He put a towel in and soaked it before wringing it dry and covering his face.
He savored the icy feeling on his face. After the towel was warmed by his body temperature, he removed it.
Turning off the tap, Garen then used the towel to wipe off the sweat all over his body.
Putting down the towel, he inadvertently noticed the reflection of his own face in the water of the basin. The face was different. Only those eyes, those dark blue eyes, were familiar, which he had seen when he had traveled to the first world.
Taking a deep breath of cold air, Garen felt the cool breeze blowing in from the side window and went to close the curtain.
There was the scent of baked bread wafting through the air, as well as the odor of dust accumulating in the dormitory together with the smell of ink from his notebooks.
There was a student on the phone upstairs; the sound of a faint, gentle laughter traveled down. Other than that, it was all quiet. There was the faint sound of the wind rustling leaves and the sound of car engines passing by.
“It’s all real….” Only now did Garen fully realize that he’d really arrived at another world.
“This is really the real world, not inside a game…” he lightly scrubbed the towel and watched as the water in the basin turned murky.
“Since when had seeking strength and becoming stronger become my instinct….” he hung the now clean towel back on the shelf. “Even someone as strong as Black Sethe, who was at a Demon King Level, ultimately perished in the space and time of the universe.”
Feeling the two rotating Soul Seeds in his mind, Garen’s tired spirit suddenly became motivated.
“Even if I am far inferior to the Army Level, never mind the Demon King Level, there is no shortcut for me to take. The only way is forward. There is no need to think so much.”
Shaking his head, he pushed aside these thoughts and began to think about his current situation.
“Let’s try the training method first.”
He changed to a black sleeveless shirt and trousers and sat on his bed.
Opening the Blackboard Academy’s basic training method booklet which was printed with <<Blackboard Manipulation>>, the clear writing inside reflected in Garen’s eyes.
‘The root of Willpower comes from the body. If the consciousness is the product of the brain, then the Willpower is the product of the entire body. According to this theory, the body can be divided into countless regions of Willpower like the regions in the brain. We are going to focus on the most central regions— the three main regions which include heart, lungs and stomach, the three viscera.’
Scanning line after line of text, Garen analyzed the booklet’s contents.
Slowly, he began to have a certain understanding of this world’s Willpower. According to the theory of Willpower, neurons existed in every organ in the human body and these neurons acted the same as the neurons in the brain. Their variety of functions were similar and in order to activate these neurons, a special field called Willpower was needed.
“Simply put, treat the body neurons the same as the brain and eventually construct something similar to a second brain in other parts of the body to become the source for Willpower and generates the second consciousness. The second consciousness is the Willpower….” Garen realized. “This theory is easy to understand.”
He looked down and continued reading.
The previous pages explained the general outline of this world’s humans’ nature. Now, it was the training for stimulation of the organs. The Blackboard Manipulation chose the stomach as the site for training. This was also the choice for almost all of the training methods on the market.
‘The center of the stomach is the central part of the body. Naturally, the special field will converge here. This place is also the easiest place to gather Willpower… Inside the human body, excluding the nerves and blood vessels, there is another invisible network that transmits energy. The middle of the stomach, the place between the ribs, is also the center of this invisible energy network…’
Next was the training of the second consciousness, which was the key to Willpower.
‘The second consciousness, which is the essence of the human instinct, comes from the depths of the human body. Before humanity learned to use words to know this world, before words were invented, humanity had been using this kind of instinctive consciousness to understand the world.’
‘It has no words and no symbols. There are only images and only a rough understanding of the world. This is why the second consciousness is also called the cognition of the body. This kind of cognition is an innate ability. Due to the fact that we learn languages and symbols, we are forced to use the text and symbols as a connection to the world.’
‘So, the key to training the WIllpower is to forget all the symbols.’
Below was a list of different ways, steps, and precautions to take note during training. More importantly, the noteworthy areas were marked with red lines and notes were written on the side.
Garen read them carefully and a general idea of Willpower was formed in his mind.
“The so-called Willpower is the purest consciousness that is not affected by any language, words or symbols. It’s not the brain’s consciousness but the instinctive consciousness of other parts of the body. This system of this world is quite mysterious….” Garen flipped through the contents of the training method and compared it to the progress of his body.
He touched the pit of his stomach. There was a feeling of some kind of cool breath there. He did not notice it previously but focusing on that place now, he felt something different.
It was like there was a nose there slowly breathing and moving. If he focused on it, he could feel something strange, just like there was a pair of eyes there but it was closed.
“This is the second consciousness?” Garen quickly read through the Blackboard Manipulation booklet. “Discard the thinking pattern that uses words and symbols and activates the cognitive thinking pattern. Why is the animalistic instinct of crisis gone from humans? It is because the second consciousness has been degraded by the system that uses words. Makes sense…”
He put down the booklet. A list of various drugs and equipment that could stimulate the body into a pseudo state of activating the Willpower was written above. Only a few methods were available for a single person to utilize.
Garen sat down cross-legged on the bed. He could clearly feel that above the pit of his stomach, there were traces of hair-like fine air currents circling there.
This was the Willpower that Nono had trained.
According to what was recorded, it was still the Middle Basic Level.
A training method that did not use drugs and equipment was very simple. It was to concentrate on the pit of the stomach and imagine the mind hidden in the pit of the stomach and not anywhere else. Imagine the mind in the pit of the stomach without eyes, ears, and mouth, and there exists only the sense of touch.
The method was simple but it was difficult to do it.
Garen could not adapt to this method. After a few tries and around half an hour wasted without any results, he put it aside temporarily.
According to the booklet, the first time training the Willpower had to be done with the help of the drugs and equipment, otherwise, the feeling could not be grasped. It could also easily affect the digestive function of the body, resulting in physical exhaustion.
He took the Moonfang from the pocket of the clothes he had removed.
Garen carefully inspected it in his hand.
There was a large crack in the middle of the Moonfang. The white surface was also covered in many small cracks, like a glass that was about to break. The texture which was supposed to be as smooth as porcelain was now rough and sharp.
He recalled one of the two methods that Nono had used.
Garen furrowed his brows and willed a trace of the second consciousness in the pit of his stomach to come out and headed towards the Moonfang.
Hiss….
There was a faint sound and the Moonfang suddenly lit up and slightly burned Garen’s hand. He nearly threw it on the bed.
“It can still be used.” Garen was a bit happy. “As long as it can still be used, taking care to not overload it should enable me to continue the disguise.”
He did not want the fact that his Willpower was not sufficient to be exposed right now. He had been enrolled into the academy as a student that had reached Level 1 Willpower. If his Willpower suddenly had a drastic drop, with a detailed investigation, the truth that he cheated to get into the Blackboard Academy would be discovered.
According to the laws and regulations, a light punishment would be kicking him out of the academy and he would never be admitted a second time. Other federal academies would also be notified. A heavy punishment meant that in order to recover the contents of the training method, they would cripple his Willpower and maybe even kill him secretly. In times of chaos, human lives were not a big deal for those who held power, especially those of people who broke the rules.
“There were only Level 3 training methods on the market and Level 4 was almost exclusive to the people in powerful organizations. Looks like I have to join a group and get a better training method using the orthodox way,” Garen made a decision in his heart.
However, it was all just wishful thinking now, as his Willpower was not even Level 1.
He began to test the function of the Moonfang. Inserting the Willpower into the Moonfang could produce an effect similar to increasing his Willpower. Putting it in the Mech Controller and insert the Willpower could achieve an effect that allowed it to control the Mech automatically.
This Moonfang was basically a universal amplifier device.
After studying the Moonfang for a bit, Garen continued the training method to train his Willpower. Sadly, he seemed to have no talent for it, which was to say this body was not gifted, very mediocre. After working hard for a long time, there was only a tiny bit of feeling. No wonder Nonosiva only had this bit of improvement even after enrolling in the academy for more than a year.
“Looks like it is necessary to find an equipment to help training the Willpower. Also, it would be better to try using the Moonfang to test manipulation….” Garen decided.