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Chapter 14: I Love Peace IV

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Val nodded and made his way towards his room, desperately needing to take a shower. 'I mean, it's common sense, right? Pain usually means either escape or stop... And I hate pain.'

After that, he had dinner, and as usual, it consisted of ether beasts' meat. It's not only extremely delicious but also very nutrients heavy.

Their meat is also quite beneficial for seekers in the second sequence, especially if they have an innate ability of the same aspect as the seeker.

The northern continent is most famously known for ice beasts though, in the Helious castle, one can find some blood creatures. They're rare but available for the rich and the strong.

Val then went to the library and brought the recommended archery book back to his room, 'Archery is quite interesting. I should've learned it in my past life though gunplay was much more interesting back then.'

Val comfortably sat on his bed after he turned on the lights. He paid a bit of attention to the orb chandelier with the similar engravings all over it, 'Hmm, formation masters... That's definitely a goal of mine.'

He opened the book and started reading through it, marveling at the advancement of this world in something so simple.

The way of the bow is much more fascinating than he thought it'd be, and it's quite special.

That absolute focus on simply hitting the target with no excess thoughts and movements. A form of meditation through which scholars created many ether arts, archery arts.

It gives you a single goal to focus on, hit the target! 'The only sword type I was comfortable with in my past life was the rapier, and that's the only kind I've ever used since I laid my hands on it.

That type at least gave me a sense of security as I can keep my distance between my targets. However, on the battlefield, my chance of death would still be extremely high.

I was one of the best in it sure, but battlefields aren't a place where that matters. Even the greatest fall in its bloody chaos. That's why long-range weapons were and still are my favorite... snipers before. Bow now.'

For now, he knew he only needed to focus on the first stage of archery, a stage where the majority of archers are stuck... Bow Mastery.

The pages turned, and even more, pages turned until there were no pages to turn anymore... There are however numerous books with numerous pages within.

And so, even more pages turned... and turned... and still turned.

First was art. The second was wisdom. The third was intellect. Those were always Val's priorities.

An intellect without wisdom is most often than not wasted. Wisdom was always one of his greatest assets. He wasn't the smartest man to ever live, but he always believed in his wisdom.

The greatest enemy of wisdom was always the Unknown. It's basically useless if one doesn't have the knowledge to make use of it.

He sought to read through the entire third-floor library before moving to the first-floor library, the public library for all the castle residents.

It of course doesn't have anything important, but it has stories, history, people's aspirations. All of these things combine to give him a clear look at the pictures between the lines.

"This is lovely... I love peace." Val remarked as he closed the book named 'Hollows Of The Side.' by Nariuk Olsfur.

A smile of satisfaction surfaced on his face directly after that, feeling his current state, 'Perhaps today?'

He felt himself on the verge of a breakthrough, on the verge of awakening his soul curtain. He can even slightly sense the movement of ether around him without deep meditation.

That's a talent spiral curtains don't have the luxury of having. They can only sense the ether in that deep state, at least in the first three sequences.

Sensors however can differentiate between normal people and seekers by sensing the irregular movements in the ether when in close proximity to a fellow seeker.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, the Helious family's head butler appeared before him, "Hm? Louis, did father send you again?"

Louis released a slight smile and nodded, "Yes, he's wondering if you changed your mind."

"No and no and no. I need to focus on archery until I master its first stage, and it's only been a month, tell him again that I need at least a year."

Val couldn't help but sigh with a bit of annoyance. His father has been annoying him about switching his main focus to swordplay, and he didn't even have the courtesy to tell him to his face.

Louis nodded again, seemingly agreeing with him though his words say otherwise, "I agree. However, You've already mastered the way of the bow so It shouldn't be a problem to give swordsmanship a bit of time, right?"

Val's brows couldn't help but raise up as he eyed Louis with a strange look.

"I mastered it? How come I don't know that? Of course, I don't because I have yet to reach that stage.

I still miss one or two shots from a thousand. You probably haven't read the books 'The Vastness of Archery.' and even the infamous Eliveon agrees in 'Anarchy Of Arrows.' The word missing is unexisting in their vocabulary."

Louis' implacable face muscles seemed to suffer a heavy blow as they slightly twitched.

He let out a small cough easing the embarrassment as he spoke, "But young master, they're legends and have reached realms you don't even know of. Their definition of mastery is different from ours.

Moreover, your mastery of archery has already surpassed most master archers out there. Besides, there are several stages beyond mastering archery so why limit yourself in the first."

Val again let out a sigh and shook his head, "You don't understand. They're legends and that's why we take them as an example of perfection, of the highest that we can reach.

And only once we reach that perfection can we see what's beyond, if we can push that perfection beyond. I have yet to reach perfection, and I feel like I really need to, so..."

Louis let out a sigh of his own at the bizarre family he severs and said one last thing.

"You should know that the bow isn't very effective against Ether entities. It's against ether beasts and monsters but, it's practically useless against entities where alchemy is needed.

Applying powders and potions to arrows as you can imagine is plain stupid unless one has too much money to spare. It's still stupid even in that case. Swords, spears, and other similar weapons don't have that problem.

I'm telling you this because, in two months, you'll be tasked with investigating a certain case which most likely involves dealing with an ether entity, a specter to be exact."

He left no chance for Val to respond as he disappeared directly after that. His thought process however was on another matter,

'Did they really think they're gonna convert me with that? Why can't they just admit that the family's main ether art requires close-ranged combat and get on with it?

Hmm, it definitely has something to do with blood, yup it's a trap. I only liked the rapier in my past life because we only had mock battles with it. There was no risk of blood spraying on me because the goal was never to cause harm.'

Suddenly enlightenment surfaced on Val's face as he marveled at his new finding, 'Now that I think about it, my father should've gone through a lot of battlefields.

That means he came in contact with blood a lot, he might've even taken a shower with it... Luckily I realized before it's too late. I will keep a distance from him... and the others.'

Val then stood up and made his way back to his room, his humming acting as a tempting drug for the hearing ears to just laze around and have a good nape.

He took a comfortable position on his bed and took a deep breath before closing his eyes and diving into the state known as deep meditation.

He sensed the overwhelming amount of ether variants around him, thanks to the existence of several Ether formations throughout the castle walls.

The most apparent of the bunch is none other than ether blood, followed by darkness Ice, death, darkness.

He willed those variants into his heart and they followed his orders with very little resistance. From his heart, he willed them to go through his bloodstream and fill every cell they can reach.

The process went on for a while before he started feeling that usual ecstasy going throughout his soul, celebrating its ascension towards the Unknown.

The process suddenly stopped as all the ether variants within his soul curtain started behaving strangely.

They started orbiting around him without coming into contact with even a bit of his skin. They circled around him with his head as the center, remaining flat, seemingly a galaxy of endless light, a Lenticular galaxy.

'It's interesting, too interesting. The movement of the stars, of the constellations used as a concept to awaken something in one's soul.

However, the question remains, how did the ancient gods get to know of such methods despite being a prisoner of this realm?

Especially since the residents of this world have ever really known of one star. A concept such as galaxies doesn't exist in their vocabulary... So...'