Cracking sounds echo around the cave as I walk amidst the remains of the bookshelf. It feels nice. Like stepping on fallen leaves during autumn.


    I am only missing the setting sun on the horizon and everything would be all most perfect.


    Where did this dumb book land anyway? I have been looking around for the past ten minutes but I still haven''t found him. Well, I admit I was kinda distracted by the cracking sounds for the first few minutes. The fact that I can''t see color also doesn''t help.


    Ah, there it is. Wow, how the hell it ended up on the other side of the chamber. Next to the blue mattress. Wait a minute, I thought I was unable to see color.


    How am I able to see the color of the mattress? Everything I can see is in various shades of gray. How is the mattress able to have color when there is no light source?


    I am not a doctor or a scientist but I know that to be able to see color there needs to be a light source. The colors are just the reflection of light.


    For example, let''s take a blue pen. Sunlight, which is white because it contains all spectrum of colors, hits the blue pen. The blue pen will absorb all the other colors in the spectrum except blue, which will be reflected. This reflected light from the blue pen enters our eyes. Since only the color blue was reflected by the pen we see the pen as blue.


    At this point, I think it''s safe to assume that my eyesight is not dependent on light. Man, who knew that golems could be so complicated?


    Ignoring the blue mattress for now I approach to grab the book. Guess what else I discovered. I can''t open the thing. F*ck the teddy bear hands. Why my master, may he never taste coffee, didn''t give me fingers?


    Like he was able to give me a self-healing mechanism, but not fingers. By any chance are fingers harder to make? I don''t think so but what do I know about golems or fingers anyway.


    Taking a deep mental breath because golems don''t have lungs I calm myself down a little bit.


    Ok, I can do this. I have done things harder than this. Besides how hard can it be to open a book with teddy bear hands?


    ======


    After attempt number... Two hundred? I learned a couple of new things I didn''t know. One the book is a lot more sturdy than it looks. This black book has suffered so much abuse from me in the past few minutes.


    I don''t know what type of material was used to produce this book but whatever was used is sturdy. In my attempts to open the book, I have punched it, thrown it into the air a couple of times. At one point I even jumped on it just to test it. The book is completely fine. There isn''t even a wrinkled corner or anything.


    The second thing I learned is that opening a book with teddy bear hands is frustrating. Imagine you have boxing gloves. Now try to open a book with it.


    No, I need a new strategy. Then an idea hits me. There are splinters everywhere around me.


    I carefully grab one of the bigger splinters by wrapping the inside of my arm around it.


    After a few tries, one of the splinters is safely tucked between my arm and forearm with my other hand on top of it for good measure.


    Carefully not to drop the splitter I approach the book. As I slowly drop to my knees a tragedy occurs. I drop my splinter. F*CK.


    This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.


    =======


    With another splinter in my care, I make my way to the cursed book. This time I make sure that the splitter doesn''t drop or break. Yeah, that happened a few times.


    Finally on my knees next to the book with the splinter in my hand I poke the book. A few pokes later I see some success as the cover of the book rises. I managed to put the splinter between one of the pages and the cover.


    Slowly I lift the cover by pushing it with the splinter until it is half opened. From there gravity takes over.


    As the cover touches the ground I finally see what is on the first page. Oh, hey I got lucky and it opened on the first page.


    I didn''t skip anything. Looking at the page I notice that the pages are thick. All most as thick as the cover of the book.


    Definitely not made of paper. The first page is mostly an illustration. A guy sitting in the weird yoga pose that I was in when I first woke up. His legs crossed, eyes closed while his hands are in a prayer posture in front of his chest.


    Is he doing yoga? Who needs a book to learn yoga? I thought all you need is a hot instructor. I never knew that there were books about yoga.


    At the sides of the illustration are words written in there. Well, I presume that they are words but honestly, they look more like a toddler with a pen decided to display his art on his mom''s yoga book.


    Seriously, I don''t know who came up with this writing system but he must have been drunk. Even Chinese hieroglyphs aren''t this complicated.


    So imagine my surprise when I started to read them. I don''t understand how and it doesn''t exactly feel like I am actually reading. It''s more like the meaning of those hieroglyphs is being shoved in my brain as my eyes pass over them.


    Ignoring the way how things are being shoved into my brain I ''read'' the first section of the page. It talks about a type of energy called qi and how to assimilate this type of energy into your body. Apparently, qi is found everywhere in the environment.


    Every living organism has some measure of this energy in their bodies. Some plants too. The second half of the page talks about a technique that can be used to gather qi in your body.


    The technique is a simple one. All you have to do is to sit down in the yoga pose demonstrated in the illustration. This pose even has a name. It''s called the meditation stance.


    After that, you have to clear your thoughts and concentrate on your inner self. You have to use your inner strength to draw the qi in the air towards you. In the end, you store the qi in your core.


    This sounds crazy. Let''s try it.


    As I move to the blue mattress I keep having this feeling that something isn''t right. I have had this feeling for a while now.


    You know the feeling that you have forgotten something but you can''t remember what. That''s the feeling that I have been having for a while now. What did I forget?


    I came back to the room because there was a giant boulder blocking the exit. I came to see if maybe there was another way out. I approached the bookshelf to.... To grab the book?


    No. I approached the bookshelf intending to see what was behind it and because there was nothing else. Maybe a secret exit or something was behind the bookshelf.


    Then why did I try to grab the book? Because I had nothing better to do? That is not right I have plenty of staff to do.


    I have to leave this cave before my master, may a demon punish him, comes back. If he finds me here I am going to end up as a slave for the rest of my existence.


    I don''t have time to do yoga in a cave. At least not without the hot yoga instructor. So why did I spent so much time trying to grab and open the book?


    Because I wanted to? No, what I want is to leave this place and commit suicide after I am free from the commands.


    The commands. F*ck. They have been messing with my mind. I thought that golems have to obey their masters because otherwise, they will experience pain or their body moves on its own to obey the command.


    What is really happening is that the commands imprint upon you this desire. They deceive you by making the golem to believe that he wants to do what the commands are saying.


    Earlier when I tried to punch myself in the face it''s not that some mysterious force took over my arm. I simply lacked the desire to go through with the act.


    My brain''s interpretation of this sudden lack of desire was that I somehow was unable to do so. Now this could be me making


    conspiracy theories on little to no evidence but the impactions are insane.


    That also explains why I wanted to read that book so badly. I wasted an insane amount of time just to open the thing.


    The commands have been etched in my mind as a form of a desire, a need, a necessity. Something that I simply have to do no matter what.


    And what better way to make sure I follow the commands than to make my own mind the guard with the whiplash. The guard that makes sure the slaves are following the orders is me.


    My worst enemy, the one that prevents me from disobeying is myself. How can I win against myself in this game?


    I don''t know. What I know is this though. I will accomplish my goal no matter who I have to destroy, myself included.