CHAPTER 75: COMPREHENSION

Zephyr’s breath quickened. ’So, we are now sure there is not much difference at least for this word, right?’ Zephyr sent a thought.

Affirmative, Aegis replied.

Zephyr instantly delved back into the book, glancing through the text in search of anywhere that mentioned how to comprehend words.

...The Quanta, as we have established, is the mana’s foundational voice, a simple declaration— ’No!’ Zephyr skimmed past that section.

...it is among the simpler words to glean from Origin, yet its comprehension is paramount. Like the first— ’Not here!’ Zephyr sped through the explanations, then finally, his gaze settled on a section that seemed to be what he was looking for.

...understanding the Quanta demands thorough study, a rigorous dissection of its every facet and intrinsic nature.

True comprehension, however, transcends mere intellectual grasp. After sufficient understanding has been achieved through rigorous study, the newly awakened must embark upon a profound meditation, visualizing themself in a vast, boundless expanse within their own mind. Here, they must conjure the very concept of the Quanta into corporeal reality.

This is often the great filter. Some stumble here, unable to truly visualize such an incorporeal concept taking form within their mental space. Others, though capable of imagining so vividly, do not have enough of a connection to origin to achieve a quick resonance.

"Mental space!?" Zephyr couldn’t help but yell out loudly, causing the second librarian—the old woman, who was seated not too far from Zephyr, to glance up at him sharply. He covered his mouth with his hand and raised the other in a gesture of apology, returning his attention back to the book immediately without waiting for her reply.

He already had a mana core space that he didn’t know the function of, already thinking his experience was one of a kind, so the mention of something similar in this book threw him off. He continued reading.

A resonance is Origin’s acknowledgement, a granting of permission for a word to deeply embed itself within an awakened’s mana nodes, only to the depth of their understanding.

The Quanta’s resonance trial, being the first, serves as a crucial indicator of one’s innate talent to comprehend words from Origin. While it is not absolute, more often than not, it is a remarkably predictable tell of an awakened’s level of connection to origin.

This comprehension scale is categorized into five distinct grades, with Grade 1 being the best and Grade 5 being the worst:

Grade 1: Comprehension within minutes

Grade 2: Comprehension within hours

Grade 3: A day to three days

Grade 4: Three days to a week

Grade 5: More than a week

Mastery of the Quanta is but—

Zephyr stopped reading. He had gotten the information he needed.

He leaned back in his seat, exhaling softly and priming himself for a try at comprehending the word- Quanta... or in other words... Bit.

He breathed in and out repeatedly, calming his excited nerves. The book stated that one should have a good grasp and full understanding of what the word, Quanta itself entailed by studying in-depth. It listed the consequence of delving into comprehension with lacking understanding as ending up with a subpar result.

Zephyr didn’t need to fear any of that though. He had no need to study the concept in-depth. Just like it was stated in the book, the word itself was not hard to comprehend. It even categorized talent by the time it took to grasp the word, rather than if one could at all. So it was fairly certain that any awakened could comprehend the word and embed it into their mana nodes, making it a inherent process.

All Zephyr needed to do right now was attempt to comprehend. His direct-to-brain communication with Aegis meant that he understood whatever Aegis communicated to him just as the message was intended, without any loss, unless there was no frame of reference for him to relate a part of the information to. And even then, the gap was usually translated to the next closest thing.

Even if not a hundred percent, it was close, and multiple times more than the understanding others gain from studying the same— at least for something this easily understandable. Perhaps if it was a more difficult concept, Zephyr might have needed further explanation from Aegis.

Right now though, he didn’t. He was going to give it a try directly with Aegis’ interpretation of Quanta. He was going to comprehend Bits instead.

He steadied his breath, calming down fully, and did as the book instructed. He tried visualizing a corporeal form of a Bit in a vast open space. He considered going into his mana core space directly to see what happened, but he decided against it. Firstly, he was in a public space, and secondly, he didn’t know what might happen. Instead, he chose to model the vast open space described in the book to be a replica of his mana core space.

In the vast, mental space, Zephyr pulled on the concept of a Bit, rather than the Quanta it was referred to as in the book. He first thought of everything a Bit was and tried to relate it to mana even though it wasn’t mana, but pure information. He conceptualized it into manifesting as a single, infinitesimal point of pure absolute energy, suspended before him. This was how he was going to visualize it.

He didn’t know what qualified as a perfect visualization, so he simply put everything he knew into the form he had decided on. The next thing now was to flip this construct into the ’0’ state of a Bit. To do that, he stripped away every stray thought, every flicker of ambient awareness, any... thing. The point became utterly dormant, a perfect vacuum of activity. Absolute negation. Zephyr wasn’t thinking, yet he was, of the word Bit,and everything it meant.

Then, like the flip of a switch, he shifted to the ’1’ state instantly, imbuing the mental point with the intent of ’on,’ of ’present.’ It had to be precise, unwavering. A perfect state of ’active’ without any flickering or variation. The mental acuity and precision required for the feat was astronomical, and if not for the fact that he wasn’t a normal human any longer, his brain might have never been able to handle the task. The point glowed with a clear and perfect regularity, broadcasting an absolute ’yes.’ There was no room for wavering.