Wolf tried using fifty quills and failed spectacularly. Most papers displayed the same text, others had random scattered thoughts, mostly curses and complaints.

Fuck this! After persisting for two minutes, Wolf wanted to snap those Scribing Quills. His effort amounted to a pointless mess. He gave up. Wolf breathed in and exhaled.

Pages on the wall changed once more.

“Baby steps. Just like when I explored Demon Forest,” Wolf muttered. He set aside the stack of Scribing Quills and focused on one, which reduced the difficulty to the level of an idiot. An idiot able to scan and memorize three hundred words before writing them in sixteen seconds.

After a minute, Wolf took the second and the third quill. Just as simple. The fourth was not as easy, and things started getting complicated. Scan, comprehend and write. Manipulating a single quill came with three processes. Four quills meant twelve clashing processes.

Back in Demon Forest, Wolf learned to circulate Internal Energy cyclones through all parts of his body, save for his head and neck. The technique started with thirteen separate flows, which merged into one after several seconds. But those parallel thoughts only lasted until Ghost Shroud stabilized.

That wasn’t the case when manipulating quills. Wolf continuously detected, processed and applied information, and he did it on four different tracks. He struggled at first, but pressure on his mind gradually lessened and after two minutes, he adapted. Then, he picked up the fifth Scribing Quill.

Wolf felt like a drunkard teetering forward, struggling not to topple over. His mind raced, trying to keep up while attempting to find an alternate solution. He took the serial approach, but directing Scribing Quills one by one was too slow.

I’ll never control fifty quills like this unless I have more time. More time? Wolf awakened his senses. Time slowed to a crawl and Wolf frowned. The speed at which he read the pages increased merely twofold.

Is scanning text an instinctive awakening of senses? Wolf guessed. After considering it for another moment, he believed his conjecture was correct.

With his mind awakened, Wolf had enough time to consider such matters. He smiled, realizing the change he experienced. The reading speed is unaffected, but I still think faster.

Wolf smiled, picking up three quills. As expected, controlling seven was easy. Once he started using the eight, Wolf left his comfort zone, but the task remained manageable.

Wolf cleared his mind and took the ninth Scribing Quill.

I can handle nine of them. But if I pick up the tenth, it will be no different from before, when I used five quills. Still, Wolf had little choice. He picked up another and started writing on the tenth stack of papers. Wolf panted and sweated like a laborer carrying a ton of bricks, struggling while waiting to slip up and for his weight to come crashing.

Then it happened.

“Time’s up.” Richard’s impassive voice exploded in Wolf’s ears as the elderly secretary entered the media room.

‘Fuck!’ ‘Who?’ ‘Aaaaaa!’ ‘Why?’ ‘Scared me to death!’ ‘What?’ ‘Motherfucker!’ ‘My heart!’ ‘Shit!’ ‘Richard?’

Wolf jumped when his concentration snapped, writing random thoughts on ten sheets of paper.

Wolf turned around, glaring at the intruding Lord of Wind.

“Two hours are over. Any more and you may injure yourself.” Richard kept a calm face before the deranged sweat-covered savage staring daggers at him.

“Huh?” was the only sound to leave Wolf’s mouth. He realized his hands trembled and his robe was soaked, disgustingly sticking to his skin.

“You should go back to your lodging and sleep.” Richard advised in that unmoved monotone of his. “Don’t meditate. It will only make things worse. Come back tomorrow, after you recover naturally.”

“But—” Wolf wished to visit the Hall of Names, to figure out his second True Name.

“Sir probably taunted your misuse of butts, but I still have to say it. No butts.” Richard gave Wolf a look of a parent sending their kid to bed. He was a step away from tapping his foot.

Wolf still wanted to protest; but deep down, he knew Richard was correct. His brain was too strained to pursue the world’s profundities. The youth nodded and left.

Richard, a bona fide Marquess, remained to clean up the room like a common servant. He didn’t mind. In fact, if Richard wanted anyone else to do the job, Lord of Steel had enough trusted retainers to handle menial labor. No. Richard wished to see the result of Wolf’s first training session.

As expected, most stacks only had a couple of papers missing. Those missing papers were strewn about with identical words or jumbled messes. Richard ignored them. Those were the inevitable failures. Even with decades of experience, Lord of Wind wouldn’t delude himself that he could partition his mind enough to handle fifty quills.

Sir can do it, but me… Richard moved towards the ten stacks missing the most papers. With a glance, he saw that Wolf had transcribed different books on all of them.

He’s a monster. It took me two years before I could pull it off. Richard subconsciously bit his lip. Dammit. Sir’s going to tease me about this endlessly.

***

Wolf returned to the penthouse and went to Mandy’s room to crash. Anna had afternoon classes, while Mandy was still stuck at work. Wolf stored his clothes as soon as he closed the door behind himself, then chanted Clean and threw himself on the bed, falling asleep on his belly before even hitting the feathered mattress.

Lately, he’d been having nightmares whenever he slept. Archibald’s spell failed in full view of the public. He was too small for his robe and all his clothes fell down, leaving Wolf naked for all the world to see.

The jeers and mocking hurt him deeply. But what hurt him the most was Mandy’s mocking.

“Its real form is even cuter!” The woman giggled. “Look, Miss Annabelle, you can let him do anything he wants. There’s no way he could hurt you with something so petite.”

Anna seemed deep in thought, then smiled and nodded.

“Wolf,” Mandy called.

Wolf gasped, snapping his eyes open. The room was bright, but the windows were already dark. Mandy’s hand gently shook Wolf’s nude shoulder. He rolled away from the smiling woman and covered himself up with the woolen quilt.

Mandy’s fond smile still seemed like a mocking leer. A surge of Soul Force dispersed the illusion and Wolf saw the woman gazing at him warmly, without a hint of ridicule she held for him in his dreams.

“Are you alright?” Mandy moved her arm and cupped Wolf’s cheek with a warm hand. Her smile slackened a bit, while a worried glint entered her eyes.

“It was just a dream.” Wolf still felt dizzy from the True Name practice, while at the same time fighting the irrational anger he felt towards Mandy over what happened in his dreams. “What time is it?”

“Eight in the evening. I just got back from the gym and brought takeaway from Will’s Place. Would you like to have some dinner before we go to bed? I brought enough for Miss Annabelle.” Mandy added the last bit to show how she was considerate of Anna, because the girl constantly forgot to include Mandy in her plans and purchases.

“Sure. Thank you.” Wolf took a deep breath and gathered his scattered thoughts before answering Mandy’s question.

A fresh set of clothes appeared in his hands, but he feared Mandy’s ridicule and didn’t want to expose himself in front of her. After a dazed moment, Wolf realized how ridiculous he was. He stood up boldly and got dressed.

My mind must be really jumbled up. Wolf attributed his weirdness to the tough day. And I even wanted to go to the Hall of Names. Luckily, Sir Richard stopped me.

Wolf and Mandy ate, while Anna gave an excuse that she would eat a bit later. She avoided Mandy whenever possible, and Wolf knew that her opinion of the woman was horrible, even though Mandy agreed to let them live in her home.

Once the dinner was done, Mandy tidied the dishes before pulling Wolf back into her bedroom.

“You should’ve told Anna we’re done,” Wolf said once Mandy closed the soundproof door.

Mandy just rolled her eyes. “She knows we’re done. By calling her I’m hurting her dignity and telling her I know what she’s doing.”

“But she already knows you know?”

“Yes, but this way she can pretend she doesn’t know.” Mandy took out a small ivory bead. “Now, this is a Seventh Order Monster Core. I think it would be good material for our experiment.”

Mandy placed the Monster Core into Wolf’s hand and closed in for the kiss, but the youth gently stopped her. “Have you found the ingredients from the list I gave you?”

Mandy pursed her lips and made a wronged face, but after a moment of pouting she nodded. “I did, but they will cost around twenty thousand gold. Do you want me to buy them?”

Wolf didn’t tell Mandy what those things were for. She only knew he needed them, not that he needed them to make her a potion. Yet the woman had blind faith in him.

And I was angry at her because of a dream. Wolf placed the Monster Core into his mouth and then laid down to refine it.