Chapter 396 Pagoda
Nial was not worried about the entrance test anymore. Khain was only 14 years old, they were at the same mana core rank and the Valxian didn't seem to be capable of using mana outside his body.
This seemed to be one of the few racial traits of the Valxian, who were basically Giants. They might be unable to use their mana outside the body, but their natural physical strength and control of mana were far above average.
Through these means, Valxians could learn various martial art techniques, which was also the goal Nial had in mind.
'As long as I don't have to fight against all three Valxians without the use of my dark energy, I will be fine,' Nial had a simple thought in his head.
He could tell that overthinking everything as he had done before wouldn't help. Thus, he ended up traveling with Elder Walin and her three students for the next three days until they finally reached Alliance City.
'My universal language proficiency should be more than enough by now, but I'm pretty sure that Elder Walin knows that I'm a human from Jundra… that's annoying…' Nial concluded when they were only a few kilometers away from the city.
During the last three days, Nial had studied the books whose content he had imprinted in his mind. This included the universal language books, some books related to Runiciers, and a few miscellaneous books to improve his knowledge.
Simultaneously, he tried to figure out more about the Alliance City by asking subtle questions to Elder Walin and the three students.
Khain and the other two students hadn't accepted him yet but that was something Nial liked more than someone, who welcomed strangers by showering them with kindness and great opportunities right away.
Elder Walin was such a person which was why Nial was more suspicious of her than her students.
Entering the city was not difficult. Because Nial was a new resident, his individual mana fluctuations, his fingerprint, and a droplet of his blood were registered in the database of the city before he was given his personal ID.
As long as nobody was able to steal, or replicate his mana fluctuations, fingerprint, and his blood, his identity would be safe.
After he walked past the entrance gate with a new identity, a new world was unveiled to Nial.
"How…?" Nial was just about to question something when he realized that his question revealed his ignorance. However, Elder Walin had already heard him.
"You might wonder how such a technologically advanced city can be constructed in a matter of months, right?" Elder Walin asked in a proud voice but she didn't receive an answer from Nial.
Nial was trying to look away from Elder Walin to be less suspicious. However, that didn't work as planned because the old Valxian started to grin when she saw his reaction.
"The awakening of the Origin happened recently but the preparations for building the Alliance City had begun a long time ago. The 10 Divons, the creators of the Alliance city, had been anxiously waiting for the news of the Origin's awakening for a very long time.
That's why the city looks like this…as if it had been created tens of years ago!" She explained calmly.
'She calls it Origin as well…' Nial thought at first. There were a few things that bothered him in Elder Walin's explanation but her words made him understand why the Alliance city was way more developed than all of humanity's shelters.
Everything was regulated with technology that was empowered with Origin crystals and Nial's head began to spin as the information of everything he visualized got deeply imprinted in his mind.
Digesting the numerous pieces of information was one thing but understanding what was going on was something completely different.
Comprehending every single bit of the technology used in the Artificial Intelligence that seemed to be found in every single device was not something Nial was capable of.
It was impossible for Nial to keep his calm and retain a poker face. This made it even more obvious that he was a human from Jundra rather than belonging to a human race from another planet.
It was a bit frustrating but Nial couldn't really do anything about the shock he felt.
He followed Elder Walin and her students to a huge pagoda. It was the dojo of the Thousand Body Refinements and its appearance was a huge contrast to all the rather modern and highly developed buildings that were located everywhere around it.
Nial might not be able to perceive and visualize the entire Alliance City with his range of perception and Mana Sense, but his range was around 50 kilometers. That was more than enough to tell that there were only a handful of buildings with few runic constellations engraved in the concrete and the foundation to make sure that they would stay strong for millennials.
"You guys really hate runic constellations and modern trends, or not?" Nial asked all of a sudden. By now, he could tell that Elder Walin knew about his identity as a human from Jundra, and it was not something that he could change.
Nial decided to accept that fact, which made things a lot easier for him.
"Why do you think so?" Elder Walin asked while Khain and the other two students stared at Nial's small body frame.
"Because your Dojo stands out as a rather traditional building, especially with the lack of runic constellations to protect it. Furthermore, you said that you don't really use runic armaments, not that you don't use weapons. That means you guys use weapons but not those that have runic constellations engraved on them," Nial explained his chain of thoughts in an easy way.
He was able to guess the reasoning for the Valxians to have a mindset that rejected runic armaments but he wanted to know if he was right.
However what Nial didn't expect to see was that Khain answered his question before Elder Walin could, and he didn't seem calm at all.
"Everyone, who relies on runic armaments to survive is weak and narrow-minded! The moment you start relying on external means to be strong enough to defeat your opponents, you've already lost in the long-term progress!!" Khain exclaimed, tightly clutching his fists as he continued,
"Your mind and heart will be tarnished by your actions and your progress will be hindered at the thought of using better runic armaments to procure better results.
Slowly, your talent to become a truly powerful warrior would diminish while your dependence on runic armaments would keep increasing. We want to become our strongest self and reject giving into the temptation of runic armaments!"
It was the first time that Khain had spoken so much to him, and the youngest Valxian turned his head away from Nial after he realized that his temperament and passion for putting the young human in his place had been the reason for his spontaneous outburst.
The explanation was pretty much what Nial had expected. The Valxian race's mission was to turn their body into a weapon and shield. As long as their body was strong enough to protect themselves and those around them, they would have achieved everything they could have dreamed of.
Using runic armaments to temporarily enhance their strength by external means might be helpful for some time but it would prevent the Valxian from tempering their body and creating an iron will.
Nial felt that this reasoning was honorable but also quite stupid. He didn't rely on runic armaments to fight, not because he could fight without them but because his opponents were usually stronger than him.
In order to fight stronger opponents, Nial might as well have to go all-out and end up getting injured while gaining a lot of experience but that was only useful as long as one wouldn't sustain severe injuries, or end up as a cripple.
Gaining more experience while fighting without the use of runic armaments might be useful but the fact that one was likely to sustain more injuries was a big problem.
Sustaining injuries was equivalent to a weakened combat prowess and this would make it more dangerous for him to keep fighting.
Thus, if one wanted to fight more opponents while gaining the most experience from it with a lower chance of getting seriously injured, one would have to use runic armaments.
That was Nial's opinion, which was also the reason why he had created numerous runic armaments for himself and Sabrina.
It was better to be safe and well-protected than dead. It was as simple as that.
'Well my Ideals are different from others, that's only obvious,' Nial thought, not wanting to discuss more their reasoning to reject runic armaments and rely on physical strength most of the time.
"Thank you for sharing your race's Ideals with me. I learned a lot and I understand your reasoning. Tempering the body is very important, especially for a race that relies on their physical strength as much as the Valxian race," He said before he smiled at Khain gently.
The young Valxian looked at Nial and merely grunted in response. Nial almost laughed out at this when he heard Khain's following words.
"Don't think that I will go light on you just because you're so nice!" He warned, pointing at Nial as if he was threatening him.
However, everyone around could tell by now that Khain was just a young man, who was trying his best to look tough and instill fear.
"There is no need for you to hold back. Just don't blame me when I beat you," Nial retorted with a smug when they finally reached the entrance of the Dojo.
The proportions of the entire pagoda were created to fit Valxians that were more than ten meters tall, and the ceiling of the pagoda's first floor was almost 50 meters high, allowing the tall Valxians to fight without any restrictions.
Nial was quite impressed by the size of the pagoda but he wasn't given much time to visualize everything down to the finest detail as an eight-meter-tall Valxian entered his range of perception.
'How come I didn't sense him before?' Nial realized in shock. Instinctively, he used his hyper-sensitive senses to take in all possible information his senses could ask for, and it was only after that that he got to know that there were seven more Valxians that were seated near the wall of the other side of the dojo.
They sat there in a stance that was similar to meditation and they had concealed their mana tightly within their body.
Only by focusing on them was Nial able to perceive that they hadn't concealed themselves but that their surroundings concealed their mana fluctuations.
The surrounding area seemed to be acting actively, trying to cover the existence of the Valxians. This was enough for Nial's eyes to widen in a stupor.
"What technique are they using?" Nial whispered quietly because he felt that making a lot of noises would unnecessarily disrupt the Valxians from whatever they were doing.
However, it was none of the four Valxians with whom Nial had entered the Pagoda, who answered his question but the eight-meter-tall Valxian.
"You don't need to speak in a low voice. They won't hear you even if you were to shout in their ears," the tallest of the Valxians said while Elder Walin and her three students made a weird motion with their arms, greeting the tallest Valxian.
'So that's the Dojo master…impressive, indeed!''