...
'What an odd thing to say...'
William would continue chatting calmly with Jian Fangzhao while he rapidly consumed the bread he had just been given, like a starving wolf who had seen a fresh pig to devour.
"What kind of hobbies do you have?"
"Just a bit of writing and drawing, though I struggle in some areas..."
William would nod calmly. He was awful at social interaction, so he decided to use the same old questions he asked everyone to break the ice.
"Is that so? I enjoy writing myself, though I'm not even close to being good at it. By the way, are you a verifier? I assume you are, since this is a somewhat urban area of the city."
Jian Fangzhao would respond by snapping his fingers and summoning his Anecdote.
A strange-looking anecdote would appear in the air; most anecdotes reflected who wielded them, while some odd ones, like William, represented things that were still a mystery in their user's eyes. He hoped this one belonged to the latter category. As the book that appeared was completely blank.
The cover? Blank. The pages? Blank. This anecdote was empty, empty.
'This guy... he's either completely and utterly blank as a human being, which could mean so many things, or it's a special case like my own. I should use Author's Note to check what powers he has...'
William's eyes would flicker over at Jian Fangzhao's face, like before, he was sporting a nice, gleeful smile on his face. But now he had to wonder if that smile was truly genuine or not.
Bzzt! Bzzt! Bzzt!
At this moment, William's pocket, which housed his phone, started to buzz. He would take it out and check what was causing the noise.
Incoming Caller : Kaelus.
'F*ck.'
Current Time: 1:03 P.M.
He was late.
It seemed he had lost track of time, a bit strange, but probably just because he was engrossed in his conversation.
'Guess time flies when you're having.....moderate amounts of joy?'
"I'll see you later, probably."
William would hurriedly gather his things and sprint off in the direction of the library.
----------------------------------------------------------------
"Yeah yeah, I got it, I'm on my way back right now."
William would shove a piece of bread, salami, and lettuce in his mouth with his left hand while dashing home, saving the rest of his food for later. In his right hand was his phone, in which he was having a pleasant conversation with Kaelus. Meanwhile, the Moonbeast had transformed into a hawk and was carrying the grocery bag whle flying next to William.
'Kael can really be strict sometimes....'
After about twenty more minutes of running, he would have made it back to Kaelus's Library.
Kicking the door open in a hurry, he would speed into the center room, pull the door key to unlock the hidden stairwell, and tumble down the stairs to find Kaelus sitting cross-legged in a chair, sipping on some tea calmly.
"Took you long enough Will, it's time to begin."
Kaelus would close his eyes, and attempt a meditative position. A strange, wispy, colorless substance would start flowing around him, it was clear what this was, Ingenuity.
Kaelus would speak up, eyes still shut tightly.
"Ingenuity, the main aspect of energy in this world. Skills and Abilities use both literal and a figurative sense of Ingenuity. Which means you need to be creative to truly utilize your verifier powers to the fullest."
As Kaelus said this, the wispy colorless energy around him would start to move, faster and faster, forming several rings of Ingenuity that rapidly rotated around him. He would open his eyes, which nearly blinded William, as his master's eyes were glowing brightly with the color of bright grey, simultaneously also turning the energy around him the same tone of grey.
"Ingenuity has been around since the beginning of the world, it exists in the air you and I breathe in, just unable to be truly shaped and formed until you have experienced an awakening such as the ones created by the Fruits of Knowledge. Various parts in history can be attributed to the manipulation of Ingenuity, just very subtly. For example, the qi that exists in the cultivation myths is just another name for Ingenuity. Such as in your everyday life, where your supposedly 'Nonsense' good luck rituals tend to always make your day better. That right there is caused by your belief and also the earliest form of control over Ingenuity."
The ever rotating and overlapping rings of Ingenuity would slow down and turn into a ring of grey, concentrated, flowing energy, to which Kaelus would lightly tap the air towards one of the nearby walls with.
The air would appear to crack a little, before completely shattering with a deafening boom. As a shockwave that would level mountains would easily puncture the reinforced walls of the Institute, digging kilometers into the extremely condensed earth. An inhuman level of power, even for verifiers.
William had covered his ears in preparation, and still had to take a minute or two to recover from the damage caused from the sonic boom.
"This is the power of Ingenuity. A power that few realize, and even fewer learn to master. But if you can gain preliminary control over it, your power will skyrocket. This is the core of your spiritual training." Kaelus would say while dispersing the energy ring, his eyes turning back to normal aswell.
The tunnel he had created aswell as the wall began to repair themselves while this happened, likely because of Kaelus's interference.
William would once more be impressed at Kaelus's lecture, this was way better than the 10 kilometers he had to run, or the several practice quizzes on the wars that occured after the Library had arrived. This was actually interesting!
He would do his own criss-crossed sitting on the floor, while closing his eyes.
Kaelus would carefully start to instruct him about the ins and outs of how to manipulate Ingenuity.
"Alright, now don't be discouraged when i say this, but most people take ages to learn this. Even I took a whole week to get a grasp on it. First, breathe in and out slowly, to reach an internal equilibrium and be calm enough for the next step. Next, try to feel the energy in the air around you, each bit of Ingenuity should be able to be seen and felt, even without opening your eyes or touching them. Then, try to move the Ingenuity around you, like telekinesis. Envision the flow of Ingenuity you want. Picture every part of the process and the structure of the Ingenuity you want to create."
As Kaelus went on his length lecture on how to use Ingenuity, William would catch the most important bits and attempt it.
Surprisingly, he was able to feel the Ingenuity particles around him near instantly, a prodigal level of learning speed.
He would then envision the movements of the Ingenuity particles, a shape of a small cube. He would build the cube in his own build, piece by piece.
After a couple minutes of pure concentration, the cube was complete. He opened his eyes, which sadly weren't all glowy like his master's, most likely due to a difference in the amount of Ingenuity, to see a small, everchanging, colourless cube of energy floating directly infront of him.
He would curl the corners of his mouth as he looked at his master whose eyes had widened slightly in surprise.
[Attribute: Average, is displaying it's effects!]
"First Try."