Victor finally fully absorbed the information in his mind. However, he started to get a bit of a headache. He had been exposed to a lot of information overload today. This situation also started to make him sleepy. He didn't really like studying in his past life either, but he was forced to study at the books for hours. Now, being exposed to hours of information overload reminded him of those days. While nostalgia for the past brings back good memories for many people, for him it only reminded him of being bored for hours at the books.
Victor shook his head and slowly opened his eyes. He took a deep breath and stood up. He started to yawn and stretched a few times, trying to get rid of his sleepiness. For a moment, his eyes drifted towards the window and he realized that it was already dark. The tower structure in the village, which worked with the energy crystal, helped to adjust day and night and set people's working and resting hours. This caused Victor to admire the mystery of this era even more. In some ways, humanity seemed very backward, but in some ways, it seemed too advanced. This made Victor feel quite strange.
Victor felt his attention was too scattered and woke up from his thoughts with the rumbling sound coming from his stomach. Since his headache still hadn't gone away, he slowly started massaging his temples with both hands and headed towards his storage chest to get his mushrooms. After taking two steps, he realized that his feet were also numb because he had been sitting cross-legged all day. With each step, his knees were shaking like those of old people. When he took out enough mushrooms from the chest, his legs were still aching. Therefore, he walked back and forth in the house 4-5 times with the mushrooms in his hand.
When his knees finally relaxed enough, he took a sigh of relief and went to his old pan with his mushrooms. He opened the stove lid. He saw that there was still some ash left inside, quickly removed the ash and emptied it into the small tin next to it. Realizing that there wasn't much firewood left in the house, he took the ash-filled tin in his hand and headed towards the woodshed at the back of the house. He emptied the ash somewhere nearby and took some firewood from the woodshed. He quickly entered the house with the firewood and lit the stove.
There wasn't much of a problem during the day, but it was still cold at night. After all, the places where people lived were cold lands, but this cold was somewhat broken because the cities and villages were underground or in deep caves. During the day, the light shining from the tower structure in the middle of the village also made the air more livable for people.
Victor emptied the firewood in his hand towards the back of the stove and left the empty ash tin next to the stove. He quickly lit the stove and poured vegetable oil into his old pan. He threw his mushrooms on top and just fried them. Actually, when Victor first ate these mushrooms, he liked their taste, but after eating the same thing for years, even the most delicious taste in the world starts to get boring. This is what happened to Victor. But there was nothing else to do. He finished his meal without lingering too much and washed the pan. When his headache subsided a little, he drank his water and decided to go out for a walk.
It wasn't too late. Although it was dark, it was just evening. He walked outside for half an hour. This walk both relaxed him and caused his headache to completely disappear. The confusion caused by too much information overload had also completely disappeared. He was feeling quite good now. When he got home, he would try to feel the dark energy. This walk was a preparation for him. By walking around a bit, he both relaxed his tense nerves and made his mind feel calmer. He was in a much better state now than when he left the house. He didn't want to postpone the matter of feeling the dark energy too much. After all, there were only 8-9 days left for the solstice.
When Victor came home again, he was quite calm. He took a few deep breaths and adjusted himself, sitting cross-legged on his bed again. He began to completely isolate himself from the outside environment and emptied his mind. According to the information in his mind, he slowly began to adjust his breathing rhythm and focused on feeling the free dark energy in the air.
He had difficulty adjusting his breathing rhythm at first. However, his breaths gradually established a certain order and became a rhythm. Although it was still not perfect as it should be, it had reached an acceptable range at a certain level.
When his breathing rhythm approached the basic breathing rhythm, his mind became fresher, as if the clogged veins in his brain had suddenly opened. His perception increased and he began to feel small things like the smells he normally ignored because he was used to them, and the condition of the air again with his five senses. This feeling was quite addictive and could easily cause people to forget their main purpose. However, Victor was only caught up in this feeling for a moment and focused on his main purpose again. After staying in this state for a few more seconds, he sensed the presence of some mysterious particles similar to water vapor floating freely in the air.
These mysterious particles were perceived in a very small part of the air. However, there were two reasons for this, and Victor was aware of these reasons. First, his perception range was really quite narrow. The first reason for this was that he was just starting to learn the breathing technique. Therefore, he did not fully master the breathing technique. This limited the power of the breathing technique.
Victor also realized that this technique, like other martial arts, was divided into several levels according to familiarity and the full power usage range of the technique. The level separation was unclear. However, when the levels were passed, the power and benefit brought by the technique underwent quite significant changes. These levels were roughly divided into 4.
The first level was the "entry" level, where the technique was just becoming familiar. At this level, only a very small part of the technique's power can be shown. However, after all, the technique has been entered and the technique is functional, albeit partially. At this level, the technique begins to be recognized and the power of the technique is variable. Sometimes very little is shown and mistakes are often made. When about 20% of the technique's power begins to be shown, the limit of this level is reached.
The second level is the "small success" level. The technique is more or less familiar and a part of the technique's power can be used. The familiarity of the technique increases over time, but at this level, only a very small part of the technique's power is used. The power of the technique is not clearly noticed. However, as the familiarity with the power of the technique increases, the power that can be used also increases. Using about 40% of the technique's power is the limit of this level.
The third level is the "great success" level, and at this level, familiarity with the technique has increased considerably. A large part of the technique's power can be shown. This level is also the level where the power of the technique is most clearly understood. The power of the technique is now realized and its power begins to be used. The limit of this level is approximately 60% of the technique's power. Starting to use more than half of the technique's power is a noticeable difference.
The next level is the "perfection" level. At this level, almost all of the technique's power is used and the technique's potential is fully explored and revealed. At this level, between 60% and 90% of the technique is used and the power of the technique is quite revealed. The limit of this level is approximately 90%.
There is also a "transformation" level that is not included in the 4 sections, but reaching this level is very difficult. Because reaching this level requires not only mastering this technique, but also mastering similar techniques at the same level and making associations between those similar techniques. This is not fully sufficient. One must also fully master one's own body and be able to accustom one's body to this by making subtle changes on these techniques without forcing it. When this level is reached, the technique adapts to the human body and all of the technique's power can be used.
The difference between the perfection and transformation levels lies exactly here. It's like the difference between 90% and 100%. After all, every person's body is different and the people who created these techniques are also human. It is impossible to activate 100% of the power of a technique created according to his body. In the transformation field, the technique is adjusted to a small extent according to the differences in the human body and all the power of the technique is used. For most people, the difference between 100% and 90% may not seem like much. However, this is not calculated exactly like that.
A difference of only one point of improvement can determine the difference between life and death at the moment of a difference of only one point of defense or attack power. It can decide who leaves dead and who leaves alive. Therefore, Victor never underestimates these small differences.
Victor was just starting to learn the basic breathing technique and was not even sure if he was at the entry level. Therefore, he was using a very small part of the technique's power.
The other reason was that the place where people lived was generally barren in terms of dark energy. If it weren't for this, those places would not have been the places left for the human race to live in. More powerful creatures would have occupied those places and humanity could not have seen those places even in their dreams. Therefore, it was quite dangerous for people to go outside.
Extraordinary resources tend to grow in places where dark energy is abundant, and powerful creatures are found in those places. If you want to seize resources, you can just keep fighting. If you don't want to fight, you won't have resources and you will develop much slower than other creatures. This leads to a situation where you don't even have the strength to resist when stronger creatures set their eyes on your place tomorrow and capriciously want to destroy you. In the wild, reality follows a rather simple principle, although it is a bit cruel. Fight or be destroyed.
The situation of the human race is exactly like this. Build cities, fight for resources, build villages at resource points and expand. However, not everything develops as rosy as this. There are dozens of cities that have been attacked and destroyed in history. Power is the only thing that speaks in these lands and the size of the fist determines the right. There is a saying that history is written by the survivors, and this saying is quite true. When people are strong, they kill creatures and plunder resources, and when creatures are strong, they do the opposite. It is meaningless to talk about right or wrong in this matter.
When Victor saw these dark energy particles, he could not control his thoughts and his attention was distracted. His emotions created intense fluctuations. Therefore, he could not maintain that magical state and suddenly came out of that state. Even though he came out of that state, his emotional fluctuation continued and he felt very excited. There was very little left to get the reward for 10 years of effort. Therefore, he could not keep himself calm.
He suppressed his excitement and tried to enter that magical state again and again, but no matter how many times he tried, he could not enter that state. Victor finally gave up and realized that he had to take a break for today. It was quite late and his mood was not calm at all. The tiredness of the day was also starting to set in. This state was not suitable for finding that dark energy sensation again. Victor shook his head and said forget it, standing up.
He looked towards the stove and saw that there was very little firewood left, it was almost going out. He threw a few more pieces of wood into the stove, refreshed the fire and got into bed. The bed was a bit cold, but with the tiredness of the day, he pulled the blanket over his head and quickly fell asleep in a few seconds. Less than two minutes later, the young man's snoring started to come from the bed.
After a night of sound sleep, he woke up a little late in the morning. The tiredness of the previous day caused him to ignore his biological clock and exceeded that clock by a few hours.
Although Victor wanted to start working on feeling the dark energy with the basic breathing method immediately, he finally restrained himself. Without sacrificing his daily routine, he quickly got out of bed, dressed and went outside. First, he warmed up his body by running a little and started doing his daily exercises. These exercises were very important to him. It helped him adjust his body coordination, strengthened his muscles and kept him alert. They didn't have anything extraordinary, but Victor knew that the most important thing in exercising was continuity. Low-intensity exercise done continuously develops a person much more than high-intensity exercise done irregularly. In this sense, it was important for the body to stay warm continuously.
After Victor finished his daily practice, he was quite sweaty. He decided to throw himself under a cold shower and entered his house. After getting rid of his sweat and cleaning himself in the cold shower for half an hour, his tiredness was also quite gone. He changed his clothes and started preparing his classic meal.
He fried the mushrooms and sat at the table. He quickly finished his breakfast, drank his water and lay down for half an hour to think about the meaning of life. After eating, he, like everyone else, didn't want to do anything, he just wanted to lie flat, but he had already finished his daily practice.
He shook off the lazy expression in a few minutes and made a move towards the bow hanging on the wall. This bow was also an ordinary bow he bought from the market. It was made for ordinary people to use and was quite practical for learning archery, but he needed to change this bow to hunt monsters. He could fully draw the bow in its current state and fully show all the force that the bow could apply.
When he stepped into the extraordinary path, his power would start to increase rapidly and the bow in his hand would become weak for him. This was also a headache for Victor. There was only one blacksmith in the village, and he was an ordinary man. He could only make ordinary bows like this. Apart from that, the things he made were farming tools, an axe and a saber. These items had no extraordinary aspects. If he wanted to buy items that he could use at an extraordinary level, he had to either trade them with contribution points or look for a blacksmith in the city. However, he could not estimate how much an extraordinary bow would cost in the city.
It was certain that it would be very expensive. After all, bows were long-range weapons and they were much more effective than swords. Their prices would also increase accordingly. Victor realized that his thoughts were scattered again and shook his head. He took the bow hanging on the wall and hung it on his back. He put his arrows in his wooden quiver and left the house without lingering any longer. He headed towards his field to do today's last training. After his bow and arrow training, he would practice the breathing method again to find the feeling of dark energy.