Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 4037: Discipline! III

“Oh?” Noah’s interest was immediate, his attention splitting between the ongoing transformation of his people and Yoshinami’s words.

Yoshinami blinked slowly, her crimson eyes unfocusing as she reached back through memory to times that most had forgotten existed.

“Back then, in the Early Veiled Shore of the Architect of Sanctuaries, she had been tending to Herbs, Plots, and observing Marine and Land Lifeforms. One day, I asked her why she was doing all of this every day…the same tasks, the same routines, with such dedication that it seemed almost obsessive.”

The spider-form being shifted slightly, her mandibles clicking in a pattern that suggested deep thought.

“The Architect of Sanctuaries had smiled and said that for a whole year, she had actually been allowed to follow and learn from THE Living Quantum inside an Early Veiled Shore.”

Noah’s eyebrows rose. THE Living Quantum…one of the original Living Existences, a being whose very nature challenged the concept of fixed position or state.

Yoshinami continued, her voice taking on the cadence of one reciting sacred text.

“THE Living Quantum had posed a question to the Architect: ‘What is the most successful tool or weapon in existence? What is the biggest predictor of success?'”

“The Architect, eager to impress, had guessed many things. ‘One’s purpose?’ she suggested. THE Living Quantum shook what served as its head. ‘One’s origin?’ Another denial. ‘Power? Intelligence? Connections? The quality of one’s Shore?'”

Yoshinami’s eyes gleamed with the memory of her former master’s recounting.

“All wrong, THE Living Quantum had said. Then it revealed the truth: The biggest predictor of complexity and power is actually…discipline.”

HUUM!

The word hung in the air with weight that transcended its simplicity.

“THE Living Quantum explained it thus: ‘Discipline is the ability to get up every day and do something one may not necessarily want to do, but does regardless because they see the future results. It is not motivation, which comes and goes like weather. It is not inspiration, which strikes randomly if at all. Discipline is simply doing something regardless of whether one wants to do it or not.'”

Yoshinami’s voice grew more animated as she continued the tale:

“‘Consider,’ THE Living Quantum had said, ‘how many Early Creatures have Early Veiled Shores but don’t utilize them to their full extent? They don’t tend to their plants and lifeforms every day. They don’t perform the daily tasks that would continue to elevate them. They plant a seed and expect it to grow without water. They capture a Marine Lifeform and expect it to thrive without care.'”

“‘Some have no discipline. They have power but no routine. They have potential but no practice. They have tools but no consistency in using them. And because they lack discipline, they have no future…only an eternal present where they remain exactly as they are.'”

…!

The weight of the lesson pressed against consciousness itself as Yoshinami continued.

“‘If you put an Early Creature against a weak Fold Dweller that has not even sensed mana, but that Fold Dweller has tremendous discipline…gets up every day, practices, learns, grows incrementally but consistently, then inevitably, that Fold Dweller has a bigger predictor of success. Given enough time, they will become more complex than that lazy Early Creature.'”

“‘Why? Because discipline compounds. Each day’s small effort adds to the previous day’s. Each routine completed makes the next easier. Each task finished builds the foundation for greater tasks. The disciplined being doesn’t need to feel like practicing…they practice. They don’t need to want to grow…they grow. They don’t need motivation to continue, they continue.'”

“‘Discipline,’ THE Living Quantum had concluded, ‘is everything in existence.'”

BOOM!

Yoshinami’s mandibles clicked in a pattern that suggested deep satisfaction with the memory.

“The Architect of Sanctuaries had smiled when she told me this story. She said, ‘That is why I try to build my discipline and do everything I can daily, regardless if I’m injured, regardless if I’m tired, regardless if I would rather be doing literally anything else. I wish to have… discipline. And through discipline, I will have everything else.'”

Yoshinami turned her crimson gaze fully on Noah, studying him with ancient perception.

“I have not been with you long, Master, but all the actions you have done so far express tremendous discipline. You tend your Shore constantly. You nurture your people consistently. You seek advancement not in bursts of inspiration but through methodical progress. Your potential… will exceed even Early Creatures, because you have what many of them lack…the discipline to use what you have, every day, without fail.”

Noah smiled at this, reaching out to stroke Yoshinami’s hairy leg with genuine affection.

The gesture should have been strange…a human petting an existential spider, but in the context of the Shore, it was simply master acknowledging servant, friend acknowledging friend.

“Yes,” he agreed, his voice carrying certainty that needed neither fear nor doubt to be absolute. “Discipline is everything. It is the difference between having power and becoming powerful. Between owning tools and mastering them. Between existing and transcending.”

His vision flickered as his consciousness shifted, focusing on another body in an entirely different location.

—

In the Doorway to the Loom, where twisted passages of paradox created paths between possibilities, Noah moved with Sigrid and Titano through corridors that challenged perception itself.

Behind them, Thessaly and Altheon traveled with notably different demeanors. Altheon still bore the red marks from his disciplining with the Goad…welts that seemed to exist outside normal healing, reminders written into his existence itself.

He looked toward Noah with immense fear that transcended the physical, the kind of terror that came from understanding one had been fundamentally corrected.

Thessaly felt stifled, her fairy form trembling with the weight of a dilemma that threatened to tear her loyalty in half. Should she report all of this to Duke Gwendolyn? The beating of Altheon? The casual transcendence Noah displayed? The impossible things she had witnessed?

But she felt…knew with certainty that made her wings quiver that the moment she did, he would find out. Whether from Duke Gwendolyn asking him about it directly or through some other means, Noah would know she had reported on him!

And when such a thing happened… would she not get disciplined by that stick?!

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