Ball of Nothing

#95: Training (3)

Truen ate when he starved and slept when his eyes could no longer focus. Other than that, he was focussed on the task at hand: To record the title of every book.

Three days passed and the wood elf was finally beginning to see the fruit of his labour. Information was power. Without knowing what kind of books there were, Truen would be wasting a lot of time slogging over something that could be done using a shorter route. He was done with forty-odd thousand books and the wood elf came to realise something. If he prioritised the kind of magic to learn, he could exponentially increase his speed of information processing.

For instance, there was a book that taught multiple casting which is related to parallel thinking. It's a passive skill learnt by magicians for high-tier casting. Often, high-tiered magic had to be prepared beforehand in the form of sacrifice, magic circles or chanted by a group of magicians. However, few demigod magicians were able to pull off multiple casting without chants. That was due to their ability to think parallelly.

Many thought that parallel thinking was an innate ability only available to demigods. However, after scanning through the titles, Truen deduced that it wasn't true, Parallel Thinking was a skill that could be trained and cultivated to a certain extent. He took a few hours from recording titles to read the basic theories about parallel thinking for there were only a handful of books about that topic. The wood elf had an inkling that this was his key to resolving the information overload bottleneck.

Parallel Thinking can be trained to a certain extent. As explained in one of the books, the ability to think will depend on the number of limbs or body parts a creature could control at any one time. Hence, insects were usually better at it if they evolved into demons who could learn magic. The chances of that happening were rare but there were cases of Demon Lords recorded in books. They single-handedly wiped out nations and many heroes had to be sacrificed to save many species from genocide.

Having said that, humans can generally master from two to fourteen levels of Parallel Thinking. Every level requires a certain minimum level of intellect and that was the second physical limitation. In the past, mana regeneration was decided on birth. There was no way for anyone who isn't sensitive to mana to progress. However, after the Age of Magicians, many races found ways to overcome that barrier by fusing magic with technology or dark arts. The secret in acquiring more Parallel Minds lies in the progression of technology.

Alchemy was the key to that solution and it wasn't found until much later. There were cases of human minds reaching up to ten Parallel Minds with the aid of machines and equipment. Some humans were able to exceed that limit but they were rare. Arithmetic was something invented by humans to compete with the other species in terms of physical limitations. Humans had lesser limbs to control as compared to beast folks or elves. They did not have well-honed instincts to guide them into achieving a higher level of multi-levelled thinking. However, with arithmetic, alchemists were born. These magicians specialised in increasing intellect through brain exercises. After a certain level of high-speed arithmetic was attained, these alchemists found that they could access a higher level of Parallel Thinking without much effort. With gnome and dwarves coming to help them create new mana infused equipment, alchemists discovered that false limbs counted as limbs and were able to surpass the physical limits of fourteen Parallel Minds.

Truen was in a body of a wood elf but he was in actual fact a living wood spirit. Limbs didn't apply to him and he was glad that human alchemists discovered a way to overcome the natural disadvantage. His first aim was to master Parallel Thinking. If he had more Parallel Minds, he was able to free up more time to read instead of analysing. With that goal in mind, the wood elf got to work.

***

Before he knew it, Zero was waking up before Hua Tuo could get to him. He didn't need Mii's reminder either and it was a huge sign of improvement. The brunet got up and was becoming more familiar with the strange exercises. Hua Tuo was pleased to see his apprentice learning so quickly. He was initially worried about not being able to prepare Zero sufficiently before their travels but his worries were for nought. Hence, the teacher began correcting Zero's stances while they went through the routine.