=====Chapter 29=====

“Tah!”

Raising my leg, I do a High Kick in the air, whilst wearing the weighing equipment, which are amplified even more.

Sweat slips off my forehead into the air, as I try to unify my rough breathing.

“Your muscles have wasted movement, repeat it.”

Said a short, old looking wolf-woman.

Her short white hair matches well with her candle-like skin, and wrinkled face that hides unusual vigor in her dark brown eyes.

“Yes, Master Fira.”

I repeat the same set of movements while relaxing my muscles, yet not too much.

Gathering the flow of Ki within me, I move it around as my body dances with green, falling leaves.

With each step and each move, I clear my mind, intensifying the Ki within.

-Woosh!

Repeating the same kick, however, with smoother movement, I could feel my attack cutting the air rather than brute forcing it with the use of STR.

Right now, my Body stat equals 30, due to the effects of the clothes, so I’m currently handicapped, and this attack in of itself would require at least a 100 Body stat.

“Good job, we shall continue later, for now, go and have a rest.”

A faint smile appeared on my face, both from the sense of accomplishment and relief.

“Thank you, Master.”

Walking over to the house, I open the door and get greeted by an exhausted and panting Rain, and a sleeping Bamus.

The Bodies are nowhere to be seen, I guess they are hunting, huh.

Taking out spare clothes from my ‘Pocket Dimension’, I head towards the hot spring in the backyard of the house.

With all the clothes off my body, I slowly dip into the lukewarm water and relax, beginning to drift into my memories.

….

It all started 10 days later once we had reached the beastmen country, Rezal Kingdom, and had encountered the supposed ‘King’.

Obviously, I gave him a chance, after all, not all kings are fools or devilish, albeit not all of them are smart or ‘good’ either.

How did I encounter him?

For one reason or another, it seems that he himself patrols the roads, finding any potential strong people to battle with, just for the sake of battling.

Sadly, Bob was exerting too much power, so the King was all heated up and ready for it.

...Until Bob blatantly refused the fight, which lead to the King trying to attack us.

Of course, no killing intent was emitted from the king, nevertheless, Bob made use of his greataxe and blocked the incoming attack from behind.

This and that happened, and the King’s honor was wiped across the dust-filled road, which also lead to him forcing us to enter another mountain.

However, this mountain was different in both appearance and aura, which felt as if a great monster is living in it.

“Go and train with the granny, take this letter with you.” he said, with a cheerful tone to strangers like us.

Maybe I have trust issues, or he is far too trusting.

Actions speak louder than words, they say, maybe that is why people resort to using their fists to settle fights rather than words?

Who knows, but since we didn’t stay for long at the Capital, we got onto the mountain and climbed to reach an eerie-looking house, yet having the look of being recently maintained.

Suddenly, a shadow passed by us, however, due to my superior hearing and eyesight, I spotted a short person who was circling around us and using the trees as cover.

Releasing a bit of my bloodlust, they flinched, so I used that moment to order the trees to capture the stalking person.

...Which was the ancient master, Fira the Legendary Fox.

Unknowingly, I freed her from the trees, which resulted in me getting hit in my acute points, and falling numb.

It wasn’t soon after that all of us hit the ground with a thud, but that doesn’t mean that I’m unable to use magic.

Using my psychic abilities to make my body float, I also tried to grab hold of the old woman’s legs, but she nimbly escaped from them, as if she could see it.

But not quite, as I had anticipated that, and contracted the air in an instant around her limbs, making her wince as I pulled her up.

Surprisingly, she was able to destroy my Air Chains, and soon ran towards me.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Not so fast, I thought, since I can’t move my mouth, then casted a flashbang, however, her eyes detected the flow of magic and quickly covered her eyes.

Now with them closed, she started moving even more swiftly, avoiding any magic I throw at her, until I decided.

Using the magic, I write on the air ‘I surrender’.

Easily, I could have made her perish into nothingness by a simple fireball, due to my high Mind, however, how could I do so with Rain, Inka and Bamus being there.

Speaking of Inka she was still sleeping the whole time, man, just how irresponsible are you..

Anyhow, I take out the letter from my ‘Pocket Dimension’ while she stares cautiously at me, then hand it over.

Her eyes widened, then she ceased her hostility, and I did so after her.

She moved towards me and poked certain points on my body, and the paralysis was instantaneously dissipated, allowing me to move once again.

Repeating the same action onto the others, she stared at me and said.

“So you came to learn from this old lady?”

….

Which soon lead to this point.

The Bodies didn’t need to learn anything, since my knowledge is transmitted onto them, so all I have to do is learn and have my own army.

Rain finished training a few minutes before me, however, a few minutes was not enough for her to rest.

Looking up at the starry night, I was reminded of my first training with Fira.

..Although I know the Ki series, it differs from manually manipulating Ki into customized moves, not actual abilities.

While that may seem inefficient, it actually is, but after a person learns how to use the Ki as naturally as breathing, a level 1 vs me would probably win, provided they have enough speed  to counter mine.

We’ve been here for 3 days, and we are leaving at the 7th morning, so I’ve been absorbing as much as I could from the old lady.

Incidentally, she is telling me that mastering the flow of Ki would require months, if not years or decades to learn.

That doesn’t apply to me, due to my class’ unique abilities, but that doesn’t dilute the feeling of accomplishment at all.

Suddenly, the back door suddenly opens, revealing a completely naked Rain.

“Ha ha..”

I laughed dryly, and looked away into the water, but then she jumped at me, pushing both of us into the water.

“Bwahh!”

Finally getting out from the water, I glared at Rain who was giggling mischievously.

I sighed while she sat next to me, and leaned her head on my shoulder left shoulder.

Leaning my head on hers, I closed my eyes and reminisce in the feeling of safety and trust, unknowingly sleep in the middle of the hot spring, naked.

….

Two days later, I’ve finally mastered the art of manipulating Ki, and was able to be on par with Master Fira.

“Hahaha, never seen a great talent just like yours. Say, would you like to listen to a story?”

“Sure.”

“This is the story of how I discovered the manipulation of Ki, at that time I was 23 years old..”

She begins narrating about how at that time, while the whole world was in peace, it was unstable, with many grudges not fulfilled.

Being in the army, she was one of the most genius soldiers, even much so that the instructors would let her do the teaching for the others.

But one day on the battleground, she got a terrible bleeding on her head, making her unable to see the enemies, which made her to try and sense her surroundings.

Out of the blue, she was able to sense Ki, and was able to come out of the battle with no more injuries except the one on her head, while defeating over 30 enemies alone.

Ever since that time, she trained on detecting and manipulating Ki, which lead to her seclusion in the mountains sooner or later, at which she mastered it.

After she went back to her country, she found out that one of her old acquaintances were able to raise to the position of the king, which then he offered her to become a military instructor, but she refused, telling him that she does not wish to involve herself in war any more.

While yes, she would like an apprentice, all masters would do, but her reasoning is incredibly justified, not everyone likes bloodshed, and if she trained super soldiers, then war would surely erupt, recreating the chaos once again.

He promised that afterwards, if he found someone suitable, he would send them to her, and have the letter as a proof.

It has been 6 years since that promise, and it seems that he is one that keeps his promises.

And the story ends with her meeting us, and all that took 2 hours to tell, which made the rest of the party come and listen.

Finally, it seems that her wish has been fulfilled, however, she would have liked to have us stay longer with her.

Sadly, we are on a tight schedule, otherwise, we would have stayed for a month or two, but we haven’t even explored the capital yet, which is what we will do after tomorrow.

Just after she finished the story, three knocks came from the door, and a Bob appeared holding a large wyvern.

“Guess we better get dinner ready, huh?”

She asked, with a soothing voice.

Albeit her petite appearance, she took the wyvern from the tail and dragged him towards the shed to butcher and skin it.

Rain stood up and walker after her, closing the door and leaving Bamus, Bob, Inka and me alone.

Come to think of it, the other Bodies haven’t been appearing lately, but their senses don’t send any sort of danger, so I’ll leave them to whatever they do.

Glancing at the now as big as my arm Inka, which is unable to sleep on my head, and now resorts to becoming my scarf, and that also warms me, so I don’t mind.

But it is summer, you might retort.

The mountain is somehow able to have multiple different weathers each day, for example, yesterday it was snowing, today it is windy, yet the day before yesterday was summer-like.

Feeling bored, I got outside the house into a flat part where we used to train and spar.

“Bamus, get ready.”

I said, as I motioned him to the other side.

Letting go of Inka, she stood and got into her battle stance, and so did Bamus while using his great axe, which was smaller than Bob’s, obviously.

Inka’s tail started to divide to become 5, then the colour changed from reddish brown into white, with the tips of the tails, which was light brown to become black.

The body started to grow twice it’s size, with long canines appearing from the mouth and stretching downwards.

Truly ferocious, was my first thought when I saw its appearance.

Bob was standing behind Bamus, as if he was his master, in another aspect, and I stood behind Inka in the same way.

With a nod that signaled the start, both sides got on guard and started charging their attacks.

Taking the initiative, Bamus charged up a fireball, which was countered by a water ball by Inka, then she started creating ‘Body Doubles’, but Bamus didn’t fret.

In a second, he chanted a wall of fire that revolved around him, but he doesn’t realize the mistake he had done.

While the Wall of Fire could protect the caster, it doesn’t allow them to see behind it, so they are unable to identify the location of their opponents.

Even more so, when their opponent comes from above, just like Inka did.

Casting an ‘Ice Block’, it was hurled towards Bamus from above, but he simply slashed through it, to be attacked directly by Inka.

The ‘Wall of Fire’ dissipated, and then both of them backed off.

Or so thought Inka, until Bamus disappeared and reappeared behind her, then subduing it quickly.

Although Inka is strong in ‘STR’, once animals are caught from a specific position, they cannot escape, and that is what Bamus had did right now.

I raised my hand, signaling surrender, and the match ended with Bamus’ win.

Hahaha, they will become too strong, sooner or later..

With wishful eyes, the women finally appeared from the shed, and started preparing a grill.

Holding back our drool, we sat, waiting for the food to be made.

...Unfortunately, this was the last meal I was going to have with Master Fira.

….

=====Chapter 29 end=====