Way of the Knights

Chapter 338: Trap Room

He decided to remember and learn two things from these Ancient Arts. They are the ‘Breath of Flowing Water’ and the ‘Bounties of the Sea’.

Breath of the Flowing Water is an Ancient Art that focuses in attunement. The book is filled with primitive knowledge and profound ways to keep someone grounded. In other words, this book teaches one the art of being in a Deep Meditative State and remain there perpetually.

Meditation causes one to remained focused and attentive. Not only does it relaxes one’s body, it raises their senses to another level and allow them to clear their minds off of unnecessary thoughts, sharpening their focus thus reducing he time they needed to perceive things they wanted to. 

Being in the meditative state is beneficial for Knights. In fact, Raven actually added a Meditation Course on the curriculum of the academy since he knew about its effect. This course also teaches one how to enter and stay this state for long periods of time. 

Deep Meditative state on the other hand is something that is very difficult to achieve. This state is basically just a step away from the state of Enlightenment. 

Not to mention staying in this state for long periods of time, the methods that Raven knew about are sparse. Additionally, the techniques he had are either properties of Ancient Sects or properties of Buddhists Sects of the Divine Realm. Not only were they unsuitable for him at this current moment, they were also the core teachings/inheritances of those sects, meaning that they are extremely protected and they aren’t taught to the outsiders. 

‘Breath of the Flowing Water’ is the property of the Boundless Azure Sect, but it is obvious that they don’t pay too much attention to it since a copy is readily available here. This also means that it is safe for him to learn it so long as he doesn’t steal it away. 

“They should know that value of these books, but for some reason they left it here.” Raven murmured, “Oh well, it’s their loss.”

The ‘Breath of the Flowing Water’ is complicated to learn. It contains very strict instructions such as posture, breath counts, mental exercises, and so on. Yet Raven remembered everything and decided to try it out once he’s out of here. 

The other technique that he remembered is the ‘Bounties of the Sea’. It’s not as complicated as the previous technique, and its effects are simple enough. 

‘Bounties of the Sea’ expands one’s energy capacity. Depending on the mastery, the expansion could reach up to five times the original amount. Aside from that, it also teaches one a method that allows them to store up any unused energy, something that’s incredibly useful specially for emergency purposes. 

If it weren’t for the fact that his cultivation base is sealed right now, he might’ve already practiced this technique. But since that’s not the case, then he could only wait until he got out of here. 

He sighed and stood up, he gave the bookshelves on last look before walking he away and exiting the room. 

“Now then…” Raven murmured upon exiting the room, “Which room should I head into next?” 

He gazed at the multiple paths that he could take, leading onto different rooms that contain god knows what. Raven could still feel the rooms switching positions. 

He didn’t enter any rooms yet, instead he decided to re-organize himself and check where he is currently. There was a staircase behind him, he walked towards it and looked down. 

“I’m in the third floor.” Raven murmured, he then looked around him and got a general idea of the interior according to the map that he saw earlier. He shrugged and said: “The rooms constantly switch positions, I will end up at different locations anyway, but knowing the general landscape is nice.”

“Hmm…”

He hummed as he turned around. He looked at every path and decided to trust his instincts on where to go next. His eyes then locked on to a room, he didn’t think much and started walking towards it. 

***

*Woosh!*

“Woah, there…”

He said as he leaned backwards and dodged a projectile heading his way. He grabbed it mid-air and inspected it. It was an arrow with a steel head and a wooden body. He raised his brow and looked at the room he entered, a wry smile then formed on his lips. 

“Maybe trusting my instincts was a bad idea.”

He could here the sharp sounds of gears. There were arrows flying without any specific targets. There are circular saw blades on the floor, on the ceiling and the walls. There’s also some razor sharp implements periodically coming out of them. He could also see a massive blade swinging left and right across the room like a pendulum. There are hardly any gaps on the traps that he could use to evade them. He could also smell some kind of substance in the air. It only took him one whiff to know what’s in there. 

“Some kind of drug.” Raven murmured, “A hallucinogenic. Not particularly dangerous on it’s own, but extremely lethal for someone that’s about to take on the traps, the doors are also sealed tight behind me so I can’t escape this room even if I wanted to. A vicious tactic, sadly it doesn’t work on me.”

He could safely take in air without worrying that the drug will take effect since Raven’s immune from low level drugs like this.

His focus is on the traps around him. After observing their cycle for a bit, Raven smirked and said: “Looks intimidating but it isn’t really much. I’ve experienced worse.”

Unlike the one’s he uses at the spatial abode to train his perception, these traps had a specific flaw and that flaw is ‘pattern’.

Traps that has a specific pattern is doom to fail against him, solely because of his budding pre-cognitive abilities. Adding the fact that he’s immune to the hallucinogenic in the air makes this room less lethal that it originally was. 

A smirk blossomed on his face. He crouched down for a bit and waited for the perfect timing to go through the traps. Once the perfect timing arrived, his eyes widened and he fiercely kicked the ground, launching himself several meters up in the air.

His jump was measured, just high enough so that the sharp implements and arrows won’t reach him, at the same time just high enough so that the saw blades at the ceiling won’t injure him. 

His body graciously arched. Due to his timing, he managed to grab onto the chains connected to the swinging blade pendulum, preventing himself from the hazards below him. He then waited once more for the perfect timing. 

Once the other blade pendulum swung near him, he jumped and grabbed onto the chains of the next one. He kept doing this until he reached halfway into the room. 

There are no blade pendulums from this point forward so he could no longer use the same tactic. What’s left are some metal spikes popping out of the ground, poison puddles, volleys of arrows and saw blades. 

But instead of jumping down, Raven did something different. He slowly lowered himself from the chains and kicked the blade pendulum to change it’s trajectory. Before it was swinging left to right, not it was swinging back and forth. 

He balanced himself on the blunt side of the blade and waited until the swing reached it’s peak. As soon as it reached that point, he kicked the blade hard to receive a boost and launched himself from the blade, crossing the remaining distance of the room, precisely landing on the other side. 

He turned around and saw that the blade pendulum he recently used, crashed onto other one causing a loud sound to occur. The crash caused the blades to destroy each other and fall onto the ground. Metallic sparks flew everywhere and the destruction of the swinging blades caused some traps to be deactivated. 

Raven raised a brow and said: “Huh. Didn’t mean for that to happen. I might’ve kicked that blade a little too strong.”

He had to admit that he didn’t pay attention to how much force he exerted on his kick because his focus is on getting to the other side of the room unscathed. It turns out that he did kick the blade too strong which caused the collision. When the blades fell, it also damaged the other traps on the floor. The metal shards flew across the room, while some of the traps became permanently disabled. 

Looking at this scene, Raven shrugged and said: “At least this room isn’t going to be a problem anymore should I ever return here.”

He no longer paid attention to it and headed towards the door. But before he could do that, he felt some movements near him. He frowned and faced the direction where the movement was happening. 

It turned out that a compartment opened on the ground nearby. It then revealed a staircase leading down, it was well lit as well and for some reason this piqued Raven’s curiosity. He looked back and forth between the door and that staircase, somewhat undecided. 

“Ah, whatever.” Raven groaned. “What could go wrong?” He said before going down the staircase.