By the time Haruto reached his room, it was already pitch black. The night had descended fully.
Using pure instincts, he groped for the lamp.
After a while, and still not finding it. He hissed in disgust, and withdrew the gold lighter from his pockets.
Repeating Sylvaine's actions, and struggling with it for a while, the lighter made a sharp metal sound, and the flame ignited at its center.
Thankfully, until he closed it, and wasn't extremely careful with it, it wouldn't go off. Putting it on again would have been really demanding.
Using the dim light, he found the lamp. Then he brought the small flame near it, then ignited it.
The shadows fled, and his eyes adjusted to the familiar, dull light. Basking the room in its subtle, mundane radiance.
With a heavy sigh, he crashed into the chair beside the table. And glancing at the parchments, he grimaced.
'This is going to be a long, long night'
He glanced at the clock on the wall, in front of his bed. The second hand moved at graceful intervals, vibrating violently and making loud click sounds with each. It was 11PM.
Casting a shadow over his face for a moment or two, he reminisced.
18 days.
He had just 18 days left until the expedition.
According to what Sylvaine had told him, at the very least, the members of Branch V must be somewhere slaying horrors, growing stronger.
There was something he didn't understand, considering the whole premise, it was as if the captain did not care about him at all.
Or was it not?
He was a Sentinel, right? And he was going on the expedition. Didn't that mean he was supposed to fight horrors? Wasn't he supposed to grow stronger too?.
Well except of course, if the captain had known that he had no core from the moment he saw him and wrote him off.
Haruto's expression darkened.
What were the chances that the captain didn't have a hidden skill like that? Close to zero he'd wager.
'That had to be It right?'
But, if so, why was he even a sentinel in the first place then? The captain could've let him be for all he cared.
But no, he wasn't asking the real question. The real question was why was he chased by the night when he first came here? Of course! There was something he had that both sides wanted.
Grimacing, Haruto sighed and rubbed his temples.
The captain must be feeling guilty.
Guilty? No, he doubted. As a captain, he must've been trained to be heartless.
Somehow, Haruto wasn't surprised, he had grown accustomed to this behavior of humans.
'uhh it's not a bad thing…right?'
Whatever, he didn't care. Truth to be told, his former self would've bailed. But, he had to grow stronger. He wanted to go back to Lily.
His expression grew dim.
Every passing day he was away from her, he grew less accustomed to her presence.
He remembered when he'd take her to the theatre, people would avoid them like a plague. They were treated like dead bodies, all bruised and dirty. But he didn't care, as long as he had her. She'd always have a bright smile on her lips and call him Big Sal.
He really missed her.
But the only was to get to her was if he had the power to open a portal.
Could he? No, he couldn't.
He could ask a stronger person, but, he of all people knew how expensive free things were. Besides, coming from another world or reincarnation? Surely, wouldn't that be too much of a fantasy to believe?.
Therefore, it went without saying, he had to grow stronger and find a way to reach her.
'I hope she's fine'
Shifting ever so lightly, he faced the three parchments on the table.
Knowing he had a long night, he quickly made a choice to read the Astral Oracle first.
Guided by reflex, he quickly opened it without, of course, glancing at the blur.
Alone in the dim light of the torch, the sound of intimate old pages echoed as he read through. Each time, he gained a new insight, and again, and again, and then again. Until he had finished the whole parchment.
Then sitting up, he smiled. Unlike its cover, the pages we're not so harrowing after all! To be honest, he felt that Mr Grey had atoned for his sins. But then, he grimaced.
'No! I'll still have a come back'
The Astral Oracle was a very grounded technique. Over all, one could say that, once learnt, one's gaze would grow sharper. At least that was how shallow Mr Grey had explained it.
But really, that wasn't the case at all. There was only one word Haruto wanted to describe the technique with…PRICELESS! Of course, the technique was priceless. With it, one could see through many things, especially another person's core.
One could see through fog, could see through a large distance, could see through opaque objects.
But really, that wasn't its most beneficial incorporation, it was the fact that one could perceive the world or one's field of view to be precise in a third person's point of view. Literally, one would be able to predict the attack of the enemy with about 30% accuracy or above, depending on one's mastery.
The only problem with the technique was choosing one's sign.
Just like Mr Grey had said, one had to choose a sign to activate the technique. It could be anything, hitting one's head, slapping one's face…kissing a la…
Almost choking on saliva, Haruto scowled.
'Damn you mind!'
The only time the Astral Oracle could be trained or one could train one's self to be a better spectator as Mr Grey would say was in the morning.
Very early in the morning, a deep fog would cover the whole of Tokyo, only through that fog could one train it.
At first, he had been puzzled as to why, because, examining it, one could as well use an opaque object. Wouldn't that suffice? And even train one better? No, it wouldn't. As the saying goes….Haruto scratched his head.
'Well I don't remember the saying but I get the point don't I?'
One had to start small. Trying with opaque objects would only waste one's time because they were tangible and extremely hard objects to see through.
But the fog, it was calm, intangible and assuming a state that was totally impenetrable by naked eyes. It was the best for training as a Spectator. Well what about smoke? That would do too, but it wouldn't be as effective.
Sighing, Haruto stood up and stretched, letting out muffled groans as he did so. He stared blankly for a while, absorbing the multitude of what he had just learnt. He thought he saw the lamp flicker slightly. Causing the shadows embedded on the wall to giggle. Giggle? What a strange term.
He let out a soft blast from his nostrils, sat down again and picked up the second parchments.
It took him about 2 hours to finish up the first. He reckoned he'd spend no more but less when reading the other two.
But then, he realized some time later that he was terribly mistaken, spending about three whole hours on the damned parchment.
Chorus of a thousand steps was a very complex skill. A skill? Was it a skill? It was a god-damned movement technique. One very complex at that.
Back when he had fought the harrowing Lord Khai, remembering the name, he shivered slightly.
When he had fought the knight, he could swear he wasn't mistaken. The knight had moved with calculated movements, precision and extremely mastered strange patterns.
Of course the knight was using a technique! More than so, he now had one at his disposal.
The Chorus of a thousand steps was very peculiar. Just like it sounded, the steps were a chorus, leaving afterimages because of how complex they are.
At utmost mastery, the afterimages one left would become tangible if one moved at a speed no less than quarter a split second, switching seamlessly between all after images one had created.
A truly miraculous skill it was! But first, one had to practice a series of movements and master them. Speed would come naturally with a rising level in mastery.
It was an extremely complex movement that splurged into five less complex movements. Less complex? How the hell can one call these things less complex?
The technique however, was something he didn't fully understand. So he didn't dwell on it. Only ingraining the steps into his memory and moving to the next parchments after that.
The third parchment however…
Ting!
[You have mastered a gold utility technique]