Mystical Journey

In a small bedroom with a yellow wooden floor.

A small blue-eyed baby was in a cradle, barely standing with one hand holding the wooden support, looking out the windows at the branches swaying in the wind. Outside the window, there was a giant ash tree, swaying with each gust of wind. On the branches, two palm-sized sparrows were cheerfully chirping about.

The still hairless Garen was just staring at the sparrows, clad with nothing but a towel wrapped around his butt and holding on to a small leather ball, he looked on in a state of distractedness. He was still considering his options for secret techniques.

"From the list of secret techniques I have learned, after sorting them out according to their functionality and then attempting to integrate them into this body, only 53 secret techniques remain. Then, from these 53 gates’ secret techniques, sorting them up by their typings, taking into account their strengths and their compatibility with this body, there would only be 13 gates left."

Garen frowned while rubbing his chin.

"There are essentially a few different methods of secret technique selection. One, based on their special effects, the effects after training in these sets of techniques where one would be able to produce special effects like the Red Jade Palm or the Toxic Sand Palm. Two, based on their base advantage, wherein after training in these sets of techniques, one’s speed, vitality, defense, attack and other stats can attain special enhancements. Three, based on balance, these types of techniques have no extremities, and unleashes the overall potential of the body, gives one longevity and significantly enhances one’s spiritual strength."

"The Living Secret Technique had naturally turned from the first type to the third type, and it has now become a technique purely for one’s health. The only bad thing about this is that it works very slowly, due to the fact that it had to spread out its potency evenly to all attributes, naturally slowing it down."

Garen was looking through the 13 gates of secret techniques he had narrowed down.

"Due to the changes in my body caused by the Frost-Fire True Water Evil Technique, it’s still best for me to train in Ice-type abilities. I might as well just pick base on special effects. Being able to still use secret techniques in another world should probably still be counted in the categories that are derived from physical laws of this world."

"Within the 13 gates of secret techniques, there were only 2 under the special effects type, the Black Claw of Sethe and Andelina’s Capture. The Black Claw of Sethe has 4 levels, it’s an Ice-Poison attribute secret technique, after every level, the Ice-Poison attribute would be strengthened. As for Andelina’s Capture, although it may sound like a technique to capture targets, in reality, it’s a technique that creates multiple ice needles, creating a wall of Ice Spikes."

After a bit of hesitation, Garen still picked the Black Claw of Sethe.

Squeak...

The room door opened, his mother Trish walked in dressed in a white blouse and gently started helping Garen change his diaper. The 4-year-old Jason was standing at the side, watching with a strange sense of amusement glowing from his face.

Bonk....

Garen threw the ball in his hand without any hesitation, hitting Jason right in the face.

Wah!!!

The cheeky boy escaped the room in tears.

"Jason, Jason! Stop!" Their mother Trish shouted.

"Oh heavens, what a little devil you are, being able to bully your older brother even at this age, I can’t even imagine what you’d do in the future." Trish furiously glared as she pinched Garen’s cheeks. After rapidly changing his diapers, she ran off to chase after Jason.

Thus, Garen was once again alone in the room.

He was still standing in the white cradle, continuing on with his previous thoughts

.

"All of these secret techniques I have narrowed down, they’re all at absurdly high-leveled secret techniques, with power comparable to even the heavenly figures. Even for the Black Claw of Sethe, it’s still not secret technique completely compatible with this body yet, I still need to train in order to understand the details of it. Maybe I can combine it with some concepts from other secret techniques."

He started brainstorming again.

As time slowly passed, Garen lived his life in this boring manner, with his mother Trish beside him, reading the latest International Journal of Psychology on her laptop whilst taking care of Garen who rarely cried or threw tantrums.

Usually, when Garen cried once, it means he was hungry. When he cried twice, it meant that he needs to use the potty, and when he cried thrice, it means that the swaddle wrapped around him felt uncomfortable. As compared to the neighbor’s kid, Serin, who was born a few months earlier, this saved Garen’s parents a lot of hassle.

However, this kind of boring routine lifestyle was absolute torture for Garen. Luckily, after a few more months, his father Emmer made a set of early education resources, planning on starting Garen’s early learning.

******

"Don’t you think it’s too early? Don’t babies usually only start learning phonemes at the age of 2 or 3?" Trish said while folding Garen’s baby clothes.

"Have you ever seen a baby crawling at a month old?" Emmer countered while looking through the prepared materials and resources.

"But I asked one of my friends who was a child specialist, she said that usually a baby should only start engaging in early language education at a few years old. If we start off too early, they will just forget what they learned as they grow up."

"Have you ever seen a baby crawling at a month old?" Emmer asked as he picked up one of the selected books and skimmed through its contents.

"Doing this may lead to the kid being placed under too much pressure, his attention span is still small, he’s only four years old after all!" Trish said in front of Emmer, with her arms crossed.

"Have you ever seen a baby crawling at a month old?" Emmer raised his voice and put down the book he was holding. "I suspect that our child is a prodigy!" He exclaimed seriously.

"Alright, alright. Every parent would want to believe their child is a prodigy, or was a prodigy." Trish helplessly sat down.

"Then, let’s try it out." Emmer placed the prepared education materials in front of Garen, the cover page was filled with fancy colourful images.

"Let’s start with the basic phonemes, then the alphabet." Emmer planned everything deliberately, his previous experience with Jason made him feel confident in his plans.

Garen opened his eyes wide, he felt that he shouldn’t be too extraordinary, it would be better if he pretended to be a bit more "normal" for now.

"The first alphabet, ‘a...’" Emmer opened his mouth at Garen.

"..."

"a..."

"..."

As such, the pair continued to stare intently at each other.

His mother Trish stood up, speechless, and walked out. After a short moment, she returned with another baby, swaddled in a red blanket and placed her into the cradle as well.

"This is the neighboring Serin, her mother just went outstation. Mr Walter needed people for the Public Security Team, so she asked us to take care of her child for a couple of days."

Lil’ Serin was about a couple months older than Garen, and after being placed in the cradle, all she did was sit, motionless, staring curiously at Garen with her jet black eyes.

"If you’re gonna teach Garen, you might as well teach both of them." Trish said, then walked off to read her theses.

"‘a...’ Repeat after me, ‘a...’" Emmer didn’t give up on his attempt.

"..."

"Come on, look at me, look into your dad’s eyes, you’re a prodigy, you’re a prodigy, you’re a prodigy you’re a prodigy youreaprodigyyoureaprodigy..." Emmer’s expectations started to crumble.

"k."

Emmer suddenly jolted in excitement.

"No, not ‘k’, it’s ‘a...’, look at my mouth shape."

"k..."

Garen followed his mouth shape, but for some weird reason the sound that came out was still "k..."

"Oh my God!! Trish!! Trish!!" His dad was a broken man, he threw the book down and went over to call his wife.

Garen uninterestedly shook his head, then turned his head to look at Serin.

At this age, the baby would still be bald, like him, and distinct facial features would not have been developed yet, so he couldn’t tell what she would look like in the future.

"I guess it’d be better for me to focus on my secret techniques..."

He once again placed his attention back on his secret techniques and attribute abilities.

Looking at his attributes:

"Garen Thomas: Strength 0.2, Agility 0.2, Vitality 0.3, Intelligence 0.4, Potential 0%."

"How poor..." he helplessly sighed. What about his Skill Pane?

"Soul Type: Northern Frost-Fire True Water Evil Technique -- 1 attribute point limit increase per year. Innate Vitality change leaning towards Frost-Steel types."

"Secret Techniques: None"

After that, the list ended.

This body didn’t have any skills, and all his potential points were exhausted in the Mother Stream.

Well, since he already picked a secret technique, Garen started to focus his energy on his first introductory training of the secret techniques.

The Black Claw of Sethe had 4 levels, the first level required very specific commands, postures, and mental concentration, combined to precisely manipulate one’s vital energy and blood. Only then will one be initiated into the secret technique.

However, for Garen, having to go through all that trouble, his soul’ strongest strength was that it was his body’s vital energy and blood through neurons. This was actually a specialty of a Grandmaster of Combat - Aura.

After concentrating energy into an aura, the soul would gain authority to use said aura to manipulate the body. In other words, a soul’s strength could only be utilized through auras, otherwise it was no different than that of the average individual, using their soul as a form of consciousness to control their thoughts and replicate everyday actions, unable to control one’s body with extreme precision.

"The first level of the Black Claw of Sethe can train and improve one’s heart, slowly improving the blood typing. This requires one to absorb the cold at 12 midnight every night when the temperature is at its lowest. This is to get the body used to the cold, so it does not harm the body. With proper special vital energy and blood regulation, one can achieve the manipulation of vital energy and blood, without harming the body in the process." Garen thought to himself in a logical manner.

"Usually this requires a lot of strengthening from things like medication, but since my body has already been changed by evil techniques, this bit of cold won’t even bother me. All I need to do know is to accordingly absorb the cold everyday at 12 midnight."

After making that decision, Garen started to lie down to get some rest, completely ignoring Serin who was right next to him. This was his first introduction into the secret techniques, and would set a foundation for his skills in the future. He had to be extremely careful, after all, he was still only a few months old, his body must still be insanely weak.

After awakening from his sleep in the afternoon, his mother Trish came in to feed him some milk. However, he still felt hungry, so she gave him 2 more bottles of Camel’s milk, only then was Garen satisfied and went back to bed.

In the evening, his father Emmer came in once again, thinking of attempting his early education once again. But as he noticed that Garen sound asleep, he quietly left him to wash his diapers.

His mother Trish was in the room, occasionally checking if Lil’ Serin had wet the bed. Most of her time was spent on reading the theses written in her journal. As for Lil’ Jason, he was squatting in the living room completely focused on his cartoons.

As the night fell, the sky through the window slowly turned from white to gray, then slowly darker, and finally turning pitch black, with countless stars spread all over the night sky.

This room was on the second floor, and visible from it was a small town road, where a couple of cars would occasionally pass by. Yellow and white headlights kept flashing on the ceiling as each car passed through. The faint bickering of children also came in through the window, along with the cries of dogs and cats.

Trish surfed the web under the desk lamp, up till late at night, before washing up and going to bed with his husband.

After the two eventually fell asleep, Garen suddenly opened his eyes, waking up in the cradle.

He crawled out from his swaddle, looked over at Serin who was still next to him. That girl was still sleeping soundly.

The clock on the wall neared twelve o’clock.

Garen’s upper body was completely naked, wearing only a diaper, he was sitting at the edge of the cradle, slowly awaiting the designated time.

In the darkness, the only source of light was the streetlight from outside the window, shining dimly on the ceiling.

Outside, a car drove past. Garen could hear the muffled sound of the car radio, and a young couple cheerfully bantering.

Garen was sitting in the cradle, putting his hands together to form some complicated hand signs, which looked like an unruly tree branche in the shape of an "L", but also somewhat like an "A".

His body was seated in a cross-legged position, with one eye open and the other shut.

As every minute and every second passed, Garen maintained his posture, motionless, like a statue. However, in actual fact, his hand signs were changing with each of his heartbeats

Dong... Dong... Dong...

Midnight had come.

Garen’s heart suddenly vibrated, then stopped for an instant, before starting to beat at a steady, but even faster pace.

He concentrated his aura and controlled the regulation of his body’s vital energy and blood carefully and precisely.

"Level 1 of the Black Claw of Sethe - Heart of Frost"

On the skill pane, the secret techniques tab finally changed from "none", a complicated light red symbol started to form, its shape looking similar to Garen’s first hand sign, in the shape of an "L", but also somewhat like an "A".

"Secret Techniques:

The Black Claw of Sethe -- LV1 Heart of Frost 1%(1/4)"

He stayed in this position for a few more minutes. Garen the quickly recovered from his training, and felt sore all over. Looking at his skill pane, he can’t help but let out a small grin.