The Mistaken Reincarnation Of Leon AnKhel

Learning!

The past couple of days have been filled with no small amount of books. To be honest I had no idea that within this, somewhat large storage room, there was a colossal amount of books and scrolls, even tiny disk like medallions that transmitted information straight to your brain whenever you activated it with energy; if I had to be honest with myself, I would say that my brain was filled to the point of bursting, but I don't think I had much of a choice but to suck it up and see this mission through, my life depended on it after all. 

It was gradually dawning on me that in this new world, and with this new life, I don't really have much of a choice in the way that I get to live, or how I live. Though I'm trying not to think about it, the thought just kept biting at the back of my head about how helpless I was in this place. My life before this was simple, maybe too simple. But what more would or could you expect from an average African youth; who lived his life with crowd, being one of them. 

There was no excitement in my life before this, I did what everyone else was doing, and I wanted to go to school, get a job, preferably with the government. Then I would get married, have kids, work some more and hope I get rich, send my kids to school, then retire after working with the government for thirty years, guaranteeing me a pension. It was a simple well thought out life, dull and with the least chance of anything crazy or exciting happening to me for the duration of said life. 

But now here I am memorizing the basic principles of artifact refining, ward formations, spirit herb farming, beast training and caretaking , basic geography, mortal and martial botany, a compendium of basic to advanced spirit herbs and plants vol 1, basic blacksmithing and engineering, alchemy and basic to master s****l techniques for men and women vol 1 to 22. 

Okay I'm not going to deny that I might have spent a much longer time on that last title, but can you blame me. It was quite insightful, and that was the most in depth knowledge my virgin body has ever gotten about the female anatomy. And I'm sure anybody else in my shoes would pay attention to it first, I mean come on who wouldn't. But I digress, and I have to admit reading that book, all 22 volumes of it had left me very much depressed. Because then I realized I was very much alone, without any female companions except for monsters who would rather tear my face off than to have a conversation with me. 

Either way back to the matter at hand, even with all the books I have read, it only amounted to half the books in the storage room. But as exhausting as it was, I couldn't stop reading and learning everything that I could get my hands on. I never even knew that I had this much love for learning, and even though I couldn't put much of what I've learnt into practice, I was happy about the fact that I could store all these knowledge within my head. The words 'knowledge is power' could not be more true. 

However what really bummed me out was that regardless of how much I read none of what I read was translated into skills or abilities that could help make my life easier. When I asked the system why that was, it told me that all skills, whether they're learnt from a book or bestowed through magic or some other form; would not show up as skills in my skill list, until I've practiced or at least made an effort to use them a dozen times or more. 

I also had to have a certain degree of familiarity with said skill and the way it works and its effects on the environment and on me to truly create it. Which is why all this reading is going to help me, studying everything that I have so far, has given me the degree of familiarity I needed. Now all I needed to do was to put all that I have learnt into practice, and then everything else would fall in place as it should be. Of course the only exception to the skill rule was system granted skills. 

The skills granted to me by the system from either repetition of certain actions, my reactions and adaptability to certain situations, and of course the skills given as a reward after I've completed a mission. These were the skills that I got with hardly an effort on my part; I just have to be either running or fighting for my life. 

But either way since I would not be getting any skills until I start practicing, I just decided to focus on what was in front of me, and that was learning everything else that I could from the remaining books. And that was how I spent another five days, going through tomes of medicine, list of sicknesses, diseases, plagues and their cures. There was a book on diplomacy and the customs and culture of different kingdoms and civilizations within the continents of Huxia. And then there were books on espionage, sabotage, war tactics and all manner of mean and underhanded methods you wouldn't expect a respectable man to employ. 

There were books on dancing, eating styles, carpentry, building, and most importantly for a world like Huxia….martial arts. And there are four of such books, apart from the cultivation manual of the Celestial Zodiac Theorem. But of course there was no learning them until I took the initiative to practice them on my own. However for a martial arts sect, they had a little too little of the so called martial arts techniques. 

But I think these techniques and books being here was due to luck. Based on Leon's memories, the Celestial Beast Sect had a huge library that was most probably in shambles now. So having these techniques was just a stroke of good luck, and I was thankful for it, because it meant that at the very least I had other avenues and methods to protect myself. The only problem lay in the fact that three of those martial arts were weapon arts for different weapons, while the fourth was a movement technique, whatever the f**k that means. 

But I did not just read the books within the storage room, I spent time digesting what they had to offer, trying to understand the theories behind them and come up with deductions of my own to counter what I've learnt from them. But most of the time it was all just random guesswork born form intuition. I never was good at science or anything that had to do with calculations. Back in secondary school I was even below average in terms of my grades, but now it was as if a dam had burst open within my mind, and every waking moment of mine was spent understanding methods, cramming the individual features of a plant and herb, their habitats and the conditions they need for surviving. Then came the understanding of all sort of beasts, even methods to study how to breed two beasts of different species, elements and race. 

I learnt how to differentiate between Qi demons, Essence beasts, and Magical monsters. And I learnt of 437,566 documented species of demons, beasts and monsters with new species being discovered all the time. Though most of these species are already extinct, their descendants still roam allover Huxia. Unfortunately some species have completely died out, with only their bones and skin left behind to show that they once existed. 

With my one week of intense study, there are a lot of things I've come to understand about the Celestial Beast Sect. there were basically zoologists, and biologists, studying biology in terms and ways that it relates to the animals they study and train. Science in this world had taken a completely different direction as opposed to earth, but based on what I've read in this small amount of books within the storage room. These guys were far ahead of us when it concerns cellular science, and though tech here was not as streamlined and refined as earth, they were functional and even more powerful. 

They were advanced, the only problem lay in the fact that they were cruder and less elegant than earth. But with each book I opened, the thirst for more knowledge, and a lab became so powerful I felt like I would go crazy if I don't put everything I've learnt into practice and learn as much as I can about this world that has now been placed on my lap. Knowledge really was power, and I needed more of it, I never craved anything more...except maybe for a girl that's willing to get down and dirty with me. A guy has needs after all. 

I felt the need to leave this place, to go out into the world, explore and learn as much as I could in the process. But that had to be put aside for now, I was in the middle of a danger zone, and I couldn't help but feel that everything I might need was within the ruins of this sect. but the danger that accompanies me living here was way too high, and all to the point that I felt it would be better to just leave. But I did not have the strength required to leave this place, so the best I can do is try to make this place safe, whilst also building the strength I need that would help me leave when I want to. This was the right thing to do in this case. 

{Mission Accomplished: Study every knowledge available in your storage room} {Rewards: +3 to all stats, 2 skill combining token, system level up +1} 

{System is undergoing level up update. Estimated time of update is 1 hour. All system functions would be non functional for the duration of the update. Host is advised to stay put until update is complete. Or you can do something useful, it's up to you.} {Commencing update 0%.....1%.....2%}

I blinked at the system message in front of me, and then I just proceeded to ignore it. This so called system was weird, I don't understand s**t about it or its functions, or how something like it can exist, but at the very least I know that I would figure it out eventually. After all, I'm now a super smart genius with a heightened memory.