Galaxy's First Ruler

This This

This This This

This…

-Writing two same words back to back can bore a writer. Reading over three of them can make a reader lose interest. The human mind is not tuned to handle the exhaustion hidden behind the concept of Repetition-

Scholars, regardless of their origins, found out about these facts in mundane daily activities. Daily sweeping, eating the same dull porridge, reading unchanging texts, and watching the same stars bored many to their deaths. But in these repetitive tasks, scholars saw a Way to train their minds.

With time, these daily chores became a form of meditation. The same things that bored others became a powerful tool in the hands of practitioners.

Weak hands that swept the floor became the hands of destruction and creation. The tasteless porridge that didn't bring flavor to the tongue challenged one to see from different perspectives. Unchanging texts paved the way for further research, and some saw the path of Destiny among the twinkling stars.

After many years, and the coming and passing of many Saints, it became clear that repetition could bring unimaginable changes. But to see these changes, one's mind needed to be strong enough to not let oneself lose midway.

If it was a repetition of sex, one must not have a desire for the climax. If it was a repetition of food, one must not have desires for flavors. And If it was a repetition of life, one must not have the desire for immortality.

But even after billions of years of chiseling and pruning, one thing baffled Scholars. There was this one thing, the repetition of which had no end. And almost none could hold themselves from giving up on its path.

This thing was… Pain.

Pain was universal, eternal, and relentless. Pain wasn't a food whose flavor felt dull with time. It wasn't the book that was bound to gather dust if left untouched. Pain didn't care for one's feelings. Even if it was repetitive, every pang of pain felt the same as the last.

No pain lasted throughout life, and one lifetime wasn't enough to know its Way.

Then how to meditate over it, and how to train one's mind to get used to this pain?

This question remained unanswered for eons. Then came a family, carvers by profession, who found that it wasn't the repetition of minor hits that brought the best result on a carving. It was a combination of heavy hits and soft hits, in a rhythm, almost as if these two types of hits were alive, in tandem.

What rhythm? What heavy and soft? And what does a carver know about pain? How does the hit of a hammer apply to the pain of the body and mind?

The outstanding scholars of those times couldn't understand these simple but confusing statements. And so this family and their findings got buried under the same texts scholars had been trying to meditate upon.

But the family didn't forget. They didn't forget their profession, this profession's repetition, and the words of their ancestors. Many generations passed, and when the time came for them to get entirely forgotten by the world, one man came out of this family.

HE was also a carver by profession. HE was also a humble man. And HE had found out the Way of those Heavy and Soft hits.

The unseen and unfounded scrolls say that there was a Pain in HIS eyes, there was Pain in HIS mind, and there was Pain in HIS heart. HIS eyes weren't brimming with life, and they were dull and almost emotionless. And when the time came for death, HIS bones were found out to be golden.

There was no weapon in the Galaxy which could scratch those bones, no Skill that could make a dent on them. Those golden bones became the most guarded secret of that family, who were carvers by profession.

And the method they had found became one of the first Gene-based Skills that they passed down from generation to generation. A Gene-based Skill that was almost unknown to all beings within the Milky Way Galaxy.

A Gene-based Skill called… SHINTAI - THE GOD BODY!!!

*

Cr-rack!!!

Aldrich walked out of the small room.

Only he knew which bone of his body had just got broken. Only he knew which muscle got ruptured, and which organ got crushed. The cuff-link on his left sleeve kept giving out tiny Mana fluctuations, but they didn't go out and revolved around him, masking him from the eyes of others.

But despite the cuff-link, his eyes were dull, and his mouth was tight shut. The way he leaned over his cane could make one feel as if he had some ailment. And the damped clicking sound coming out of him felt like the clattering of his teeth.

Aldrich found himself in a corridor, filled with many young and old people walking hastily to his left. They had the same clothes as him, and most of them had at least one small creature on them. Some were tiny bluebirds, some creatures were rat-like, and some looked like two-headed dogs.

Aldrich was gazing at this scene when a roaring sound rang out in his ears.

"Oi, you. Yes, the one with the cane. Tch! Didn't you hear the announcement?!"

Aldrich slowly looked to his right and found a young man coming towards him with large strides. His hair was brown, and his eyes were black. There was no hint of any hair on his face other than his long eyelashes and thick brows.

'A Baron?!'

Aldrich felt a ferocity on his face, and from the Mana fluctuations, he could easily tell his Rank.

The Baron Ranked Dreamer approached him, making all others lose their momentum to watch what was going on. Aldrich noticed that though this man had white clothes, the same as his, the triangle insignia over his left chest pocket had two dots within them. On the right side, there was an insignia of a three-headed lion, adorned with a red scarf, in a majestic, roaring posture.

"What are you gawking at, candidate? You are supposed to…"

The young man was about to reprimand Aldrich when his gaze landed on Aldrich's chest. Aside from the triangle insignia, there was no other thing on Aldrich's white jacket.

A laugh came out of the young man, full of mockery.

"Hahaha! No wonder… One more scum has come to test his luck."