7 Chapter 7 – Abilities (1/2)

2 years passed.

...

Adam had spent the last two years absorbing knowledge like a sponge.

His mother Yuki had showered him with unconditional love in these years. She was obviously some sort of adventurer but she had given that up to buy a plot in the city of Two Fang. Settling down, she converted her land into a medium-sized lodge.

She opened a house of literature and arts. A place where travelling bard's, artists and writers could come share knowledge as well as rest.

Two Fang city was a developing city. With the discovery of a new dungeon emerging 2 kilometres east of the village of Two Fang 2 years ago, large scale investments were made into the city from nearby merchants and migrants were bustling into the city on a daily basis, in the hopes of finding new prospects.

From what he had heard from the conversation's of the patrons to his mother's lodge, Dungeons were a double-edged sword. Dungeons would spawn monsters on a regular basis and if the population exceeded the accommodating capabilities of the dungeon, a monster horde would be expelled and would attack the nearby towns and villages.

Thus, the investments by nearby merchants were not done purely for the opportunity itself but also as a precautionary measure.

Coming back to Adam, he was sitting upright in the dining hall of his house. In front of him was a small low lying table with various opened books. Yuki sat next to him with one of her arms atop his head gently caressing it. Occasionally he would ask her a question or two when he couldn't understand something in the books and she would diligently answer. This was their daily routine before breakfast.

Adam would spend an hour reading and learning from Yuki every day in the morning. Yuki would usually be busy for the rest of the day. Taking this chance he would go sit in on the lessons of the girls who worked at the lodge.

Every girl who worked for the lodge was a slave that Yuki had saved from the slave market. Slave trading was a legal practice. As long as the dependent was sold by their guardian, they would lose all their rights. Though it was more often than not people falling into irreversible debt, there were always different cases.

It was a very shady grey area for merchants. Yuki most definitely wouldn't tell him too much about it.

The girls were all between the ages of 12-15. They were given lessons daily in shifts. they were taught basics on all the arts and literature through books and Yuki herself. Very few of them knew how to read or write so it was an arduous task that took over a year. Now Yuki would invite the staying over artists, bards and writers to give lectures on a daily basis to the girls. She would either waylay their costs or provide discounts to the lecturers.

This was one of the reasons for the growth in popularity of the lodge. Not only were the girls working there growing increasingly knowledgeable but the place itself was accumulating more and more information and knowledge from all the guests. The lodge had turned into a hub of knowledge transfer.

The one benefitting the most from this? It was Adam of course. He would sit in on all the lectures and wouldn't miss a single one.

It wasn't always this nice for him though.

His first year was truly quite an awkward and frustrating one for him. He was incapable of walking and had no control over his own bowel movements. On top of that, he would get tired easily and spend most of the day sleeping. Truly a hell of frustration.

This led to an unexpected gain though. All that time immobile he had no choice but to experiment and think within his mind. He learned very quickly that he could immerse himself within his soul. His soul world was vast beyond compare and he could take any form within it. While immersing himself in his soul, his body would enter a state of meditation and whenever he exited he would wake up refreshed.

This unexpected discovery led to him sleeping much longer than he usually did. Staying awake for barely 3-4 hours in a day. This scared Yuki out of her mind.

Seeing that Adam was fine and would actually wake up energetic every day. She got used to it.

Exploring his soul he very quickly found it contained 4 different abilities which he named himself.

Ability 1 – Sentient mind: This was very similar to a second conscience that was linked to Adam's soul. Adam recognized it as what he had tried to invent in his previous life. It was, however, a hundred times more efficient than what he had imagined.

Imagine your brain as one set of hardware and software. The sentient mind was like the cloud that could be linked to function alongside the brain. This sentient mind, however, was capable of processing at the speed of a supercomputer at the least. It was a second brain in its truest sense.

The energy it consumed was something that came from the environment and Adam was not able to figure out what it was yet.

His experiments proved that keeping it working continuously had no side effects. The energy around him seemed inexhaustible. Plus it seemed his sentient mind ability did not take a lot of it, to begin with. It mostly operated using his soul as its base.

Ability 2 – Matchless Comprehension – This was a passive ability. His comprehension when learning something was heightened to a very high level. He had still not come across something he could not understand after one read. So the extents of this ability were yet to be determined.

One thing that could be said is, this ability had a side effect of giving the user unmatched confidence. This was something that came from the depths of the soul. A boldness that didn't allow anyone to demean.

Ability 3 – Enhanced Charisma – This was the most pointless ability according to Adam. This was also a passive ability. He held a certain charisma towards the opposite sex. He didn't know the extent of this ability nor was he interested in finding out. He was too young to do so anyway. It was best to stay low profile till he grew up.

Ability 4 – Enhanced sensory (temporary) – This was a battle ability. He could tell it increased his sensory capabilities but it always felt as though something was missing. This ability would not activate fully without the prerequisites being met. He always had an urge to hunt when he activated it, so he knew it was meant for brawls.

He had to fight no one in his current situation. As such, this ability was kept at the side for now.