- 6 months ter -

  The sun beamed down on a small isnd in the middle of the ocean. The air felt humid and smelled of salt, the silence only broken by waves pping up against white sand and the occasional seagull. This tropical nd was home to just one person, a sweaty blond-haired youngster doing one-armed push-ups against a tree.

  “309… 310… Phew…” *THUD* *HUFF* *HUFF* Wiping the sweat off his brow, Ginn sat down against the tree he was using as a support for his push-ups and drank a few gulps of coconut milk.

  Looking at the veins bulging out from his muscur forearms he decided: “It’s time. My body is catching up to my determination. If I only stick to working out, it’ll take me at least 5 years to get off this isnd... I’ll trust you this once, Siegfried.”

  By this point, Ginn knew Siegfried's journal by heart. Other than talking to himself out loud, all he could do between his training sessions and fishing was read the journal.

  ~ GAINING POWER: VASCULAR READJUSTMENT - INTRO ~

  In case you are one of the unfortunate masses that don’t have Ichor running through their veins, fear not, for I, Sir Siegfried, as unbelievable as it might seem, bled regur blood for the majority of my lifetime.

  It was once believed that one had to be born with Ichor, but our nation’s greatest surgeon proved this theory wrong. What I’m about to tell you is the most closely kept secret of the entire Sky Kingdom, you MUST keep this information to yourself.

  Ichor, the golden blood that gives the chosen few their power, is simply a by-product of the heart pumping blood through a special arrangement of arteries. That’s right, one’s veins determine whether the golden blood runs through them. More importantly, the yout also details how one can manifest the power of their Ichor.

  This expins why people usually awaken their Ichor around the age of 16, that is the age when all the major bends, turns and general pcement of a human's arteries have been decided upon. Get a single bend wrong or fail to connect certain arteries, and you will have the power to turn your blood acidic instead of into fire, or worse, you might not develop any Ichor at all…

  In this wooden chest, I included some special readjustment tubes. These metal wires were one of the few things I took with me from my original timeline. They were supposed to help me establish the Sky Kingdom, but as my future is uncertain, they may aid you on your journey instead.

  Before you start your readjustment, you first have to look for the pattern that most closely matches your own. The more deviation from your original vein yout, the more chance for death.

  In this journal I have written down 3 of the 4 patterns our country discovered, the 4th is the pattern for time travel which will not be passed down to you. If none of these patterns fit you, don’t try to force them, there are other roads to strength, some of which I, Sir Siegfried, have written down in my second journal which will hopefully have reached the isnd of Barbaros.

  ~~~

  Siegfried also wrote down the method to map out your vein pattern. It consisted of pressing down on certain parts of your body and constricting blood flow to particur areas. If you focused on your heartbeat while doing so, you could draw a rudimentary map of your body’s veins.

  Ginn sat down in the lotus position and focused on his heartbeat, he spent three hours like that until he mentally mapped out his entire vascur yout.

  “Heh, so none of them fit me… figures…”

  The patterns Siegfried described in his journal were the following:

  ~ GAINING POWER: VASCULAR READJUSTMENT – VEIN PATTERNS ~

  The pattern of impulse: control, accelerate, and power up the electrical impulses produced by the nervous system. This readjustment was only performed twice, the first time, it resulted in the creation of the most brilliant strategist the Sky Kingdom had ever seen. The second time, we unwittingly created a monster, while unmatched in hand-to-hand combat, the person slowly went crazy and started attacking his fellow brethren, it took an entire division to finally put him down…

  The pattern of ice: an external Ichor, this power grants the user the ability to turn the blood outside of his body into ice. This readjustment was only ever performed on the queen of the Sky Kingdom. While gifted in politics before the readjustment, afterward, she rose to strengths few could ever hope to match, truly, the perfect ice queen.

  The pattern of bones: Control, grow, and sharpen the bones inside of the human body. This readjustment was never performed, while the Sky Kingdom’s greatest surgeon mapped out this pattern on his deathbed, not a single person that we tested has gotten a closer pattern match than 50%. One could only theorize about this pattern’s power.

  ~~~

  Thinking about the excerpt describing the pattern of bones again, Ginn couldn’t help but chuckle a little. While he had a fifteen and nine percent match for the pattern of impulse and ice respectively, he actually had a 51 percent match with the pattern of bones. Making the decision quite easy for him.

  “So whether or not the Savate family bloodline continues all depends on a coin flip huh? Well, Dad always liked gambling, maybe it’s genetic…

  Oh, what’s even the point of being sarcastic if no one can hear you.” Ginn sulked.

  After making a quiet promise to stop talking to himself as soon as he got off this isnd, Ginn began studying the long metal wires he kept in the wooden box inside his shelter.

  Siegfried left behind two sets of metal wires, he expined that the second set should be used on a trusted comrade, someone who would make the journey to the isnd of Barbaros easier. But Ginn didn’t have the luxury to gather any trusted comrades, not on this isnd at least.

  Nonetheless, Ginn was relieved Siegfried provided him with two sets, he figured that he would need all the wires he could get since his veins matched the pattern so poorly.

  The wires were retively easy to bend, but somehow still held their shape extremely well. Some of the wires were extremely thin, close to the radius of a hair. While others were as thick as a pencil. The most impressive thing about them, however, was that all of them were hollow.

  Ginn decided to operate on his right leg first as he tightly wrapped some cloth around his upper thigh to minimize the bleeding. He then took the thickest wire, disinfected it above an open fire, bent it into the shape that was drawn in the journal, and poked the sharp edge into the flesh of his inner thigh.

  Siegfried recommended the patient be unconscious during the procedure, lest the patient try to bite off his tongue. However, since the doctor had to be present for this operation, so did Ginn.

  Gritting his teeth, he pushed the wire deeper until he reached his major artery. There he carefully poked the sharp end into his vein before slowly sliding the rest of the wire inside. All while keeping his heartbeat as low as possible, lest he bleed out.

  Once the wire had completely disappeared inside his leg, the bleeding stopped, and only excruciating pain remained.

  *CRUNCH* *CRACK* Ginn bit through the piece of bark he had stuck in his mouth before passing out from the pain.

  - 10 minutes ter –

  “ARGCHH!” Ginn woke up screaming, the pain hadn’t decreased, but his tolerance started to catch up. *HUFF* *HUFF* “Alright, now just the easy ones… the remaining 27 easy ones…”