After the healer had taken her leave and said her goodbyes, Ivan decided on asking his father for one last piece of information.
"Daddy, can I have a book about that stuff?"
His dad raised his eyebrow, but he was not too surprised by his request due to the earlier conversation.
"Uhm, a kid your age may not be able to read one."
But Ivan's expression in response to his fathers passive objection was stubborn.
"I want one anyways daddy! Hmph!"
His dad was too exhausted to have a debate about a mere book, so he conceded and allowed Ivan to borrow his own book he had kept for awhile.
"Fine, I have one that you can borrow."
He walked to his room then came back holding a big book that looked around 500 pages, the pages were not perfectly white it seemed and had traces of yellow on them; the cover did not have any words and was made of a rough, black material.
As he gently handed the book to Ivan, the book was transferred from his strong, medium sized hand to Ivan's weak, small, baby hand. The difference was huge. If before the book looked normal when he carried it, now when Ivan was carrying it instead it looked as if a cat was trying to carry a smaller sized Bearded Collie dog.
'S-so heavy....'
Ivan tried his best to carry the book back to his room, although it would usually only take him around 10 seconds, rather while carrying this monster of a book it took him over 30. As he got to his room he instantly set the book down. He was sweating from carrying it and his little arms felt like spaghetti.
He flipped through the book until something caught his eye, which talked about elements and concepts a Transcendent could choose to explore and mainly focus on to increase their strength.
There was Fire, Water, Earth, Essence, Air, Lightning, Blood, Death, Life, Shadow, Light, Soul, Manipulation, Creation, Beast and even money.
Of course, all of these interested him but there were four which especially did, which were mentioned as "Ancient/Mysterious".
Demonic, Angelic, Time, and Balance.
All of these were called Mantras, essentially paths one could take.
'Huh, I should research these first.'
So he first flipped to the page where it was stated the information on the Demonic Mantra was.
He then read it to himself.
'Demonic is becoming a demon yourself, which makes you form into a red creature with horns and four arms. Your lifespan is increased by a thousand years but to live you need to absorb the souls of people. Demons have greatly increased strength and there Velsit is able to release hellfire and dark energy. You may ask why this is listed here next to these other paths, well once you become a demon your relics all turn demonic and your velsit is permanently adapted to only releasing hellfire and dark energy,'
Ivan's view on it changed throughout him reading it, at first he thought it was disgusting but when the lifepsan was mentioned he perked up a bit, but right after that his expression turned to one of disdain.
'I would not do this even if I was being forced! Next!'
He then flipped to the page that had information of the Angelic Mantra.
'Once becoming an Angel, one's lifespan is increased by 300 years. However, after becoming an angel it messes with your mind. No longer will you ever feel the need to kill and you will develop excessive empathy for people. But you also gain the ability to fly and your Velsit is adapted to releasing holy energy and can form it into weapons. All of your relics instantly form into new Angelic type relics too after becoming an Angel.'
'Yeah, that's also not for me. Next!'
He then allocated his focus to learning about the Time Mantra, quickly flipping the pages.
But there was nothing!
'What? There's really no information about time?'
This was a shame, he was very interested in time specifically.
'Well, balance is next.'
He switched to the page that talked about balance.
There was only one sentence.
'Balance to all the living, all the dead, all the tangible and intangible, balance to everything.'
His expression shifted from that of disappointment to confusion in mere seconds.
'What the hell does that mean? Balance to everything? Are we serious? This is useless!'
He quickly moved on from all those, being left thoroughly disappointed. After that, he decided to only research one main Mantra. So he scoured the book for every Mantra previously imposed.
'Okay, after an hour of reading through I have dubbed it down to three that interest me the most currently. These are Lightning, Beast, and Soul.'
Each of these Mantras had their own specialties.
Lightning of course, delt with lightning. After little research he learned that lightning can be used in many ways. First off, some relics release lightning directly. Some can alter the change of a whole environment, causing it to start thundering. Some can cause disruptions in other relics by applying a shock to them. Finally, there are numerous weapon relics that have to due with lightning. Then there was Zelits. These were able to be used to absorb lightning into your own Velsit, or into a Relic. Of course, the higher tier a Zelit (Zelits had the same tier system as Relics) was the more lightning could absorb, and the higher tier lightning. That's right! Lightning actually came in many different forms. White, blue, yellow, gold and even pure black. Each one had different strengths and weaknesses.
Then there was soul.
Soul had to deal with your own soul and your enemies soul. But first to focus on Soul Mantra you have to understand what a soul even is; Ivan took this into consideration and read about it in the book.
'A soul is basically is your Xin core, but this had to do with the Active Zi in your Xin core. Because this was really the base of your soul. Active Zi could only be found in one's original Xin core, new ones created would not carry any trace of it. When you do a Soul attack it also effects your own soul because you have to release Active Zi directly. Well, that is only if you didn't use a Relic. But soul relics were interesting. To activate them instead of having to pour your Xin energy from your body into them you needed them to absorb souls themselves, which could only be achieved by killing things. Once you absorb enough souls they can release the soul energy (Active Zi) at their opponent to damage their soul. Similarly, the only way to strengthen your own soul was by using a Zelit. You had to kill monsters or other people to absorb their soul energy into it and then pour Xin into the Zelit for it to release it into your body. But soul attacks could also be physical. Some relics turned the soul energy into physical forms like phantoms to attack people. Or combine it with another relic to achieve an effect.'
But before he could continue his research, suddenly he heard the door open and saw Lucy walk in. Instantly, when Lucy saw him her bright blue eyes shown like diamonds.
"Aw Koji are you trying to read that book, do you need big cousins help?"
She cupped her hands together and rubbed her cheek against them while looking at him, to her it was a very cute sight, after all seeing Ivan trying to read this book while being two was like seeing a fish trying to walk on land.
'No, I must do this research alone insolent girl! You dare view me for my physical age. Actually, I am older than you! Be kind to your elders.'
He said inwardly, however his expression showed an almost opposite tone.
"Koji don't want Big Cousins help, Koji is bored with reading!"
Lucy was still smiling but slightly calmed down.
"What does Koji want to do then? Does little Koji want to go outside?"
Truth was, Ivan didn't want to go outside for the time being. Maybe if he could walk alone but he would have to be watched at all times. Currently, that was too much of an annoyance for him to deal with; he would rather not.
"Koji tired!"
Lucy slightly pouted at this. But she did understand, after all he was a two year old.
"Does Koji want help to bed?"
Ivan had no objection to this.
"Yes please big cousin, Koji wants help!"
So Lucy picked him up, her slender arms not struggling too much carrying his small body.
Ivan could feel the warmth from her body and hear the beating of her heart, it calmed him down a good bit.
Thus, whenever she had placed him down in the bed, even though he had only said that as an excuse to be left alone and think, he had fallen asleep.