Simon left the training ground once he was certain that Instructor Ormon had nothing else to tell him.
On his way out of the training ground, he barely heard the whispers of the Initiates who were in the training ground before him.
Apparently, the fact that Instructor Ormon decided to give him a chance to learn the Broken Rhythm Art was very shocking to them.
They knew more about Instructor Ormon than Simon, and they also knew that Ormon valued his technique so much.
He was a popular figure in the clan, and many demons who used their fists had tried to become his disciple.
And yes.
Anybody he teaches the Broken Rhythm Art to, is one step away from becoming his official disciple.
And Instructor Ormon had only two official disciples, not because he only wanted two or because he only wanted very few disciples.
No.
It’s because, very few demons have been able to learn the Broken Rhythm Art.
Even some very talented demons who were brawlers failed to learn the Broken Rhythm Art because, well... it was a broken technique.
Simon did not know this because buying information on Instructor Ormon was too expensive for him, but if he’s able to successfully become the disciple of Instructor Ormon, his status would be elevated by a few degrees.
He would still be treated as a slave by the clan’s system, but he would be respected and feared by more members of the clan... though, just by a little.
Even if Simon knew this, he would not be so interested in it.
What he wanted was the Broken Rhythm Art, and he planned on doing his best to obtain it.
After leaving the training ground, his next destination was the library.
His goal is to find a mental techniques- mental cultivation techniques, offensive mental techniques, and defensive mental techniques.
After his encounter with the pathetic and useless messenger of the three factions, he knew that things would start getting a lot more dangerous for him.
So, he wanted to get stronger... fast.
Despite Lilith giving him the Hollow Sky Eye, he knew that he still needed more mental techniques.
And most importantly, he needed mental techniques whose source could not be questioned.
He needed mental techniques from the Shadowgrave Clan so that whenever he used it, the clan would not question where he got it from.
When he got to the library, he encountered Ari, the purple succubus.
As usual, she had a light conversation with him, and she made an attempt to make him sleep with her.
He refused as usual, but his frown deepened because she was using her ability to a greater effect.
She had been using it on him from the very first day he entered the library, but she was subtle and did not go overboard.
However, she was using about 50% of her seduction ability on him, and it was becoming more annoying for Simon.
Because of how sturdy his mind was, she would definitely not be successful with it, but the last thing he wanted was to cause a commotion in the library.
He eventually left Ari despite the obvious displeasure in her eyes.
He only hoped that she’d stop and not take things too far or things might get ugly.
He went to the mental techniques section of the library, but on his way there, he noticed that many of the Initiates would take a glance or two at him.
Some were subtle.
Some were not.
Their gazes lingered just a little bit longer than necessary, and their whispers were just a little bit quieter when he passed by.
Simon ignored them.
However...
His eyes narrowed slightly.
’This isn’t just curiosity.’
He had gotten used to the looks. Ever since the incident with the nine Initiates, he had become somewhat of a spectacle within the academy. Fear, admiration, hatred... he had seen all of it.
But this...
This was different.
It was more controlled.
More intentional.
His steps did not stop, but his perception spread outwards.
Nothing obvious.
No killing intent.
No blatant hostility.
Yet...
There were patterns.
One Initiate leaned against a shelf, pretending to read, but his eyes flicked toward Simon every few seconds.
Another turned away too quickly the moment Simon’s gaze brushed past him.
Two spoke to one another about a completely random topic before stopping the moment they believed he was far away from them.
Simon’s expression remained calm.
’So they’ve started already... But isn’t this a little bit too obvious?’
Whether it was the factions or something else, he could not tell yet.
But he knew one thing.
He was being watched.
Closely.
He arrived at the mental techniques section and stopped in front of a large, dark shelf.
Unlike other sections of the library, this one had a faint, almost imperceptible pressure surrounding it.
It subtly affected the mind, and Simon was not surprised by this.
Books with a very powerful mental technique tend to emit a subtle pressure on the mind, and the stronger the pressure, the more powerful the technique.
However, this was not a metric that was used to grade mental techniques since some books would radiate no pressure but would have extraordinary mental techniques.
Simon scanned the shelves.
The books were categorized.
Basic and Intermediate.
From what he knew, the first floor of the library only had basic and intermediate ranked mental techniques.
The lower floors had higher ranked books, but he could not access them yet.
He decided to go through the titles of the basic techniques, and unsurprisingly, he found nothing of interest.
However, he decided to take the book that taught one how to create a mind spear to attack the mind of their enemies.
He also took another book that taught one how to send out a mental wave to disrupt another individual’s sea of consciousness.
These were all basic offensive mental techniques.
There were basic defensive mental techniques, but he wasn’t interested in having a poor defense.
He also found nothing of interest among the basic mental cultivation books, so he went to the intermediate books.
And three minutes later, he found a book that caught his attention.
An offensive mental technique to be exact.
"Eternal Mind Maze?"