Chapter: 3 Hidden in plain sight

Time flows on in the blink of an eye almost half an year has gone by since the encounter with chakra using swordsman. During this period of time daemon continued his monotonous life style but with a few changes.

Getting more familiar with the boss of the inn and knowing that the boss was hard on the outside but soft on the inside kind of gal daemon was able to get some time off in the morning and the afternoon of course during the period when there aren’t many customers. He used this time to train in the way of chakra.

Daemon had no idea as to where to even begin so he gathered as much information about the combat professions as he could. From what he find out the weakest among them would be rookie or average Joes who didn’t know how to fight daemon as he was right now came under this category then above them were people who had some experience or those who have trained in martial arts without a doubt a well-trained person could easily wipe the floor against any rookies given that the conditions they were fighting in were fair of course above them came the masters of their arts people who have reached a very high level in using the sword, bow or the spear most of this guys are blood bred veterans who have their share of kill counts on multiple battle fields.

For the classification of the chakra users there were those who had chakra but did not know how to use them these people were no different than ordinary people who do not know how to fight then came the chakra users who knew how to use their chakra they could augment and enhance their strength way beyond what is physically possible. That’s not to say that they are invincible from what daemon could find out there have been multiple cases where a master swordsman has come on top going against a chakra user but the result of combat mostly depends on the individual participating in it. If the chakra users have recently acquired chakra know the basics but not the mastery then a non-chakra user could dispatch him based on skill alone. Of course if you comparing between a veteran chakra user with a veteran without chakra then without the doubt the chakra user has a huge advantage and nine times out of ten the chakra user will win.

These classes of people made the average or in other words the cannon fodders now master with chakra those were the real elite to lead various organizations and were counted in a tangible form towards the overall country’s power.

That is to say normally a person would train in a chosen martial arts by the time he has gained some experience and learned how to fight they would then be exposed to chakra and if they are lucky they will awaken it and then would continue their training in martial arts and how to use chakra simultaneously. Of course if the one in question could not awaken chakra then he would have no other choice but to keep on refining their skills in martial arts. The real danger came from people who were both the masters of their respective martial art and could also augment their strength further with the use of chakra having just one such person was equal to owning an army.

But all of these had nothing to do with daemon with all the information he had gathered he had started noticing thing. things hidden in plain sight why he didn’t notice before like a huge number of gambling dens the red light districts where the ladies may not be there of their own will and most importantly he noticed that the boss pays a certain amount of money to these thugs which he had seen rooming about every month.

All of these things just made daemon realize that the world is not as peaceful as it appears on the surface and that how dangerous how harsh how cold and unforgiving it could be he remembered the night when his clan was eradicated at that point he made an oath to himself that he will never be a sheep waiting to be slaughtered, he won’t let someone else decide his fate that he would the master of his own destiny.

Everyday early in the morning daemon would put himself through strenuous training since he didn’t had a teacher or any idea how to train in martial arts he chose to improve upon what he can for now. He would run early in the morning with the distance of his sprint increasing by the day. He would use rocks as weight everyday increasing the amount of weight to lift little by little in these six months daemon transformed his frail looking pale skinned young master from a rich clan image changed he still had a skinny build but now it had a layer of muscles on it his skin no longer as pale it was still white but couple shade darker his demeanor also changed from a rich boy to a healthy and handsome countryside boy.

As the day progressed daemons strength increased he also made couple of breakthrough when it comes to chakra. At first no matter what daemon did he could not interact with the chakra at all but little by little as child learning to walk stumbling here and there daemon was able to manipulate the chakra but not much his progress in the chakra manipulation was very slow. But during these six months little by little through persistence he was successful. At first he could only interact with the chakra just nudge it a bit but as time progressed and with it daemons skill he could make chakra move throughout his body in these six months from not being able to move chakra at all he progressed to being able to move chakra in various parts of his body of course with a bit of effort.

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Daemon did not know if his progress was fast or slow but he knew the next step in his training being able to move chakra outside of his body. Daemon picked some egg sized stones concentrated his chakra in his hand used to hold the stones then carefully tried to transfer it to the stone.

Crunch

The stone shattered daemon still had trouble controlling is strength as he could now augment it with chakra. But he didn’t give up he tried it again and again it took him the entire weak but finally he was able to transfer chakra to the stones. Daemon also noticed that by transferring chakra into the stone the stones durability and hardness had clearly gone up. Time went on and daemons monotonous life style continued with the difference being he no longer only meditated and moved chakra throughout his body but he would also try to fuse it into the stones and then throw the stone to a designated target. His proficiency in chakra manipulation little by little went up so did his proficiency in manipulating chakra outside of his body fusing it with stones of all shape and sizes.

At first he couldn’t hit anything his throws were pretty bad but little by little his accuracy increased. He also obtained a general grasp on how much strength required what amount of chakra. And also that there is a limit to how much chakra could be fused in different objects before the object could no longer handle the amount of chakra and would crumble into dust. The general rule of thumb was that greater the mass or density of an object the higher amount of chakra it could handle. Daemon learned that when he tried to infuse as much chakra as he could into a kitchen knife the knife crumbled after it hit his limit with the wooden handle crumbling first then the rest of the metallic blade. Of course the amount of chakra needed to shatter a metallic object was still a bit out his league with him getting completely exhausted only after one attempt.

Daemon also noticed a relation between chakra and his body if he used chakra on his sour spots the pain will decrease and he will recover faster at the same time if he over used his chakra he would feel weakness all over his body this made nothing but assured him that his time in physical training was not wasted.

Time went on daemon continued his training with his skill set being very limited he mastered the skill he had to the best of his ability. Daemon could now use chakra in his daily activities with him fusing the chakra into the kitchen knife every time he would use it he would finely control the amount of chakra and even control at which side or the flow of chakra so that he could cut veggies and meat and not the coping board or the bones. His accuracy also increased quite a bit now he would throw a stone and then throw another faster than the first the second stone would hit the first stone in midair and hitting the target from an angle out of daemons sight.

But there was still one big thing daemon knew that he lacked and that is he does not know how to fight as a person who has grown up sheltered his whole life he has never been in a fight and he knew that being able to perform just as he had done under pressure and the threat of enemy is not the same. If he could perform this feats during combat than they will be his skills but if he could not they will be nothing more than parlor tricks.

Thankfully he knew how to fix this issue of his and that was to just fight and fight until he gets better at it. Just like the stone throwing or fusing and manipulating chakra at first he couldn’t do it at all but through persistence and hard work eventually he got better and better at it.

This little relay town had its own little underworld with different gang’s collecting protection money from different areas daemon figured that one of the gangs is in charge of the area where the inn is and the money he had seen the boss paying the gang of ruffins was exactly the protection money in question.

Daemon was no saint and during these months he had learned that everything every town, village or even the nation has its order of things in which they existed. Daemon knew that he is not the only one with intelligence in this world that there ought to be other people who noticed the same thing and chose to do nothing there must be a reason as to why.

But all of that had nothing to do with daemon he just needed a justifiable reason at the same time excuse to get out of any situation. In this case the reason being that a brave young man could not see the poor inn keeper be extorted so he stood up and the excuse to get out was that he just that a reckless child putting on a brave front.

Daemon had already decided that he will use extortion as an excuse to get into fights with the gang and keep at it until he gets better at fighting his image as a reckless young man should be enough to prevent the higher ups from getting involved.

Daemon scouted out the various gangs and the fodders in this gangs their pattern and their behaviors and carefully picked his targets. He had to remember that the goal was to learn and gain experience in a fight street brawls were a good option at for the time. He picked the group which would be easily pissed as to pick a fight with but at the same time had enough control as not to go too far after all the injuyies were inevitable but daemon didn’t want to be crippled or have too many injuries which may prevent his training. He also carefully picked the group with more browns and brains so that they do not think too much about him picking fights with the gang. Lastly he scouted out and picked locations in which he could fight which creating a commotion and also escape routes in case things go south.

It was night daemon had been freed after closing down shop he went to one of the scouted routes and waited for the opportunity he had already prepared everything he could think of he was as ready as he could be. As daemon waited his anticipation started building up his heart pounding in his chest he was curious intrigued to know how things will go then at the corner of his eye he caught sight of his targets.

Chapter end