(Oct 16)

After the capture the flag match ended and all the soldiers headed home for the day, I met up with Alisha and spoke with her for a bit.

“Hey, Anthony! Wow man, I didn’t realize you were so strong! You held your ground against Mona and even pushed her back!” Alisha complimented me out of nowhere.

I just scratched my head meekly and replied with, “Yea, thanks… I guess…”

I didn’t know how I should’ve reacted to the sudden praise considering what had happened during the match.

Not only that, but it was also Alisha who was complimenting me and she’s… a bit odd.

I didn’t think we were on friendly terms or anything, but Alisha put her arms around my neck and offered me to work under her.

“You’re strong, I need people like you. Wanna work under me? We can make it big together!”

Before today, I thought she hated me or disliked me based on her behaviour towards me, but now it seemed she has a positive opinion of me…?

Maybe she values strength. That might be it.

I politely declined her offer though.

“Sorry Alisha, I have politely decline your offer. I’m just not sure what to do with myself, things have been hectic for me. I need to sort my life out straight before I make any decisions. I’m just going to continue doing what I’ve been doing till now.”

“Ah, bummer. Well if you ever change mind, just let me know.”

Alisha shrugged and just left.

She’s a strange person.

But she doesn’t seem like a bad person.

Anyways, after that brief conversation with Alisha, I returned home.

I picked Gabi up from school, had dinner (delicious BBQ duck) with my family, chilled around for the evening and soon I’ll be going to bed.

I feel very restless though.

It’s going to be difficult for me to fall asleep tonight.

What a pain, I hate restless nights.

(Oct 17)

I didn’t go to training today and stayed home.

After Mona’s advice, I decided that training might not be the best option for me.

In order to be truly strong, one must train both their body and mind (quite literally for me, because my dragon powers are affected by my mental state).

And I’ve been too stressed lately, too many things making me worried and distressed.

That’s why I spent the entire day meditating outside to become one with my surroundings.

And I must say, the results were amazing! I feel great!

In the morning, I ate breakfast, kissed my lovely wife goodbye, brought Gabi directly to school and then headed off to an empty grass area at the far end of the city.

I sat down under a tree’s shadow and just started thinking.

Thinking about whatever comes to mind and letting my thoughts naturally flow through me.

All my frustrations, my worries, questions I’ve had, all my stress, I thought of anything and everything that I could think of and that popped into my mind.

From minor thoughts like what am I having for dinner later? To more important thoughts like, will The Grinch subjugation be successful?

I didn’t resist the flow of thoughts.

During the day, most people are busy doing things and they don’t have a good chance to just stop and think.

That’s why for some people (like me), they think a lot when trying to sleep and their mind is very active at night.

Because of that, I tend to have a hard time falling asleep.

But I was giving myself time to think during this time, a time for just thinking.

I wasn’t clearing my mind—as you’re suppose to when you meditate—instead I just let my thoughts flow.

Hundreds, thousands, tens of hundreds of thousands of thoughts whirled within me.

Everything in this world is connected in some way, shape or form and as my thoughts naturally formed in my head, they eventually shifted from one random topic to another.

Forcing yourself to think can be tiring but forcing yourself to not think about something is just as tiring, however I was in a perfect state of mind.

Overthinking things is bad, but I wasn’t overthinking. I was in a state of free-flowing thoughts.

With my dragon’s mind ability, my mind was sped up and enhanced, so while in reality only couple hours have passed, several days actually passed in my mind.

Eventually after so much thinking…

I ran out of thoughts to think.

And it was at that moment, when I had nothing left to think of, I achieved enlightenment.

I know this sounds pretentious, but it truly did feel like I achieved enlightenment.

It felt like my brain orgasmed.

My mind climaxed, instead of my physical body.

Its like waking up after a 12-hour sleep on a long weekend and being in pure bliss.

My thoughts became clear.

My body felt fresh.

My stresses were relieved.

I was calm.

Not only that, I felt an undescribed sense of power inside of me.

My dragon powers are linked to my mental state, and since I had achieved a state of enlightenment, my powers also increased.

I could feel a surge of energy within me.

Every breath, every inhale, every exhale contained a dense amount of my dragon essence.

I raised my hand and flicked my wrist as if I was knocking a door, and the force of my flick caused the air to blow away causing a mini boom sound.

This strength…

Am I… an A ranked?

Have I finally become an A ranker?

Maybe…

Not yet…

I think I’m somewhere between A and B rank.

Wow.

I didn’t think that just by simply sitting and thinking, it would affect me this much!

I feel as if I’ve broken through a mental barrier that’s been blocking my mind for a while now and achieved a new level of strength.

My worries aren’t magically gone, like The Grinch is still not captured yet, but now I feel much less stressed about it and I feel much more confident.

Truth be told, when I first started, I had no idea what I was doing and was sitting there awkwardly in silence. However, as I started to think, it just came naturally to me and this was much more effective than I expected!

If I had known about this sooner, I would’ve done this a lot sooner.

I’ll also have to thank Mona when I see her again, it’s because of her advice that I ended up discovering this.

Anyways, I should be heading home now. The sun’s almost setting, and I’m starving!

I forgot about lunch since I was busy thinking and stuff, so I haven’t eaten anything for hours.

Oh shit! I also forgot that Gabi’s school should be closing soon!

I gotta go pick her up now, don’t want to keep her waiting for long!

(Oct 18)

Last night, I slept so well!

I got like 10 hours of good pure sleep.

That thinking exercise I did yesterday caused me to sleep so well at night.

I’m in such a good mood, so I’m going to stay home again today and relax!

It’s not like going to training actually does much for me anyways, my thinking exercise from yesterday made me much stronger than any normal training would.

I’m also pretty financially stable, so there’s no trouble with taking a couple days off of work.

The Grinch subjugation is happening in a few days (Oct 22), so I also want to have time to come up with good strategies or ways to fight against The Grinch.

But overall, I think taking time off work and relaxing myself is very important for my mental health and in order to strengthen myself as well!

Can’t train myself properly and can’t grow stronger if I feel tired after all!

And it’s totally not because I’m lazy and don’t want to do anything!

Ahhh…

Life’s quite nice when I can chillax.

Now I’m just going to go spend the rest of the day enjoying my free time with Gabi and my wife!