Day 5

Lee Jun repeated exercises to increase his flexibility.

Chung Il sat and watched him do his stretches. “Push yourself harder. You are getting up too quickly! You must bend all the way down and be able to touch your toes! You are so young and flexible!”

Lee Jun bent and bent but he really could not touch his toes.

“Hold that position for a minute and don’t stop trying to touch your toes, then release yourself from that positions and then after 10 seconds go back trying, do 10 sets of those.” Chung Il instructed as continued watching Lee Jun. Before sword training came body training, without a strong body it was pointless. A sword in the hands of a weakling is no different from a butterknife, but any object in the hands of a master is a potential weapon.

As Lee Jun got up again, he noticed the dojang was had been looking quite empty for the last few days.

“Master where is everyone else?” He asked out of curiousity.

“Training…” Chung Il said as he switched on a tablet to watch RREV news feed.

“A special camp?” Lee Jun asked as he bent back to touch his toes.

“No…they are at home…on Royal Road Elementarem Vim…” Chung Il said without looking away from his monitor. He was too engrossed with the news; since the joining of the Geomchi’s three more new cities had been unlocked in Earth Kingdom. It was the only kingdom where players were able to rapidly progress explore. Players in Fire and Air were struggling the most in exploring their kingdoms owing to various external disturbances and local politics. Water Kingdom was the most obscure one since the Hermes guild (the largest and the guild at the forefront) never revealed to the public how much progress had they made.

Lee Jun stared at his master in shock. “Elementarem Vim?” He asked again just to be sure he heard it right.

“Aye, we decided to have a go at it.” Chung Il said as he out away his laptop. “Please don’t take a break! You want to keep those muscles working.”

Lee Jun continued stretching. He would shoot glances at his master, hoping that Chung Il would reveal more. “So the Geomchis have returned?...” Lee Jun asked.

“Aye…” His master said without the slightest interest in explaining further details.

When he noticed that his master wasn’t getting the hint, he asked for the details. “Master, so what kind of training are you doing in Elementarem Vim?”

“Sword training…”

“But I have been reading that swords…and martial artists have no place in Royal Road…”

Chung Il put away his tablet for the second time and looked at Lee Jun. “Who told you that?” He asked taking offense to that statement.

“Umm…I still follow the news for the game.” Lee Jun replied. “A lot of commentators and critics think that martial arts are not needed in this game.”

“Then they are mistaken.” Chung Il said with no change in tone. “It does not matter whether you can control the earth, fire or wind. If you have no sense of martial arts then you are doomed.”

“And what about professional gamers? They are good at martial arts, I am certain they can do more harm.” Lee Jun interjected. It was fun for him to question one of the living legends and see first hand how their great minds work.

“It doesn’t matter, you just need to become the best martial artist there is. If you are strong you are strong no one can defeat you…”

“Yes, but wont they be stronger since they know both martial arts and have elemental powers?” Lee Jun restated his question differently. “How can the way of the sword possibly help in a battle such as that?”

“You are underestimating the sword and the Geomchi’s training too much, young one.” Chung Il replied as he joined Lee Jun in the warm ups. “There are bound to be differences in our strengths but also in our weaknesses. The way of the Geomchis is more special than simply the way of the sword. It is a way of life.”

Lee Jun wasn’t sure what the old man meant here but he went with the flow. “But generations have changed master, I don’t think the Geomchi’s will have much impact if they don’t pick up elemental powers along with sword techniques.”

“Agreed, but we are a dojang, the sword comes before some magical non existent power.” Chung Il said.

Lee Jun was slightly disappointed in the answer he was hoping he would be able to coax his master into trying a different power or something along those lines. Geomchi’s in Royal Road were hardcore martial artists however they were nothing more than mere supporting charcters to Weed’s grand adventures in all the stories that he had read.

“You too are forbidden from practicing magic only the way of the sword..if you can ever log back on to virtual reality.” He added realizing whom he was talking to.

“Yeah…I don’t think there exists any other way for me right now. I am a pure neutral player.” Lee Jun confessed.

“Pure neutral?” Chung Il asked, he had no idea what the technical terms of the game or RREV lingo were since he was still new to RREV.

“Its no different from being human.” Lee Jun explained.

Chung Il smiled, “Then you have no option but to master the sword. Do not worry even Lee Hyun played as a normal human in Royal Road.”

“Master, why do I not see master Lee Hyun here?” Lee Jun asked.

“Eh??” Chung Il gave Lee Jun a surprised look at the mention of Lee Hyun’s name.

“Where did you hear he was a master here?” Chung Il asked just to be sure Lee Jun remembered nothing from his past. Ever since Chung Il read that Lee Jun grew up in an orphanage owned by a trust of Lee Hyun, he had been slightly edgy. He did not know why but he felt like he knew this child from before…

“Umm…I saw it on the old trophy in the cabinet.” Lee Jun said as he pointed to a cabinet.

“Oh that!” Chung Il said slightly relieved. “Yes, he is master here however for a long long time he stopped coming since he has been slightly busy with work and other stuff happened.”

Before Lee Jun could ask more Chung Il passed him a katana.

“Master?” Lee Jun asked suspiciously as he received the katana with both his hands. Although katanas are supposed to light, it was still surprisingly heavy for Lee Jun. If he had not been practicing with a real sword before he probably would have never agreed to what Chung Il said next.

“Interested in a joust?” Chung Il asked as he unsheathed his katana.

“Yes!” Lee Jun said excitedly as he went to get some protective gear.

“Where are you going?” Chung Il asked.

“To get the protect gear?” Lee Jun said with his voice going faint. He had a bad feeling about this.

“Oh, you don’t need that, have a little faith in your master. I maybe old but I am indeed a master, I wouldn’t possibly hurt you.” Chung Il said slowly. It wasn’t a very convincing statement but Lee Jun could do nothing but accept it.

The two bowed to each other and took three steps back.

Thanks to his match with Hwa, Lee Jun had a fair graps on how capable his masters were. Hwa’s match was also a good lesson on attack reach. Lee Jun knew that from this distance (about 9 feet), he was probably in his masters attack range but not vice versa.

Lee Jun continued retreating. Although the match had not begun, he could feel his masters killer aura emanating.

“This is just practice right?” Lee Jun asked jokingly. However he was greeted with nothing but silence.

*Gulp*

‘Maybe I shouldn’t have asked him about master Lee Hyun…”

Chung Il held his position and only focused on Lee Jun. He could not hear anything that Lee Jun spoke, in fact he was concentrating so much he could perfectly hear everything as if it were happening in slow motion hence he could not make sense of what Lee Jun just said.

Lee Jun wasn’t sure what to do at this point. So far his master stood still like a statue emanating a killer aura but other than that he didn’t do anything else.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Lee Jun took a step forward, he was back in his master’s attack range. Although he had practiced sword strikes before, he had never had the opportunity to actual engage in sword play before. He had seen plenty of matches and was very fairly confident he could do what the other seniors did. That is why he instantly agreed to Chung Il’s proposal. He wanted to guage how far had he come through training.

Lee Jun took another step, he was still too far too attack his master. With each step he took closer to his master, the more suffocating the air around him became. He began finding it difficult to breath. Was it his master’s aura or his own cowardice? He did not know.

Had it been wooden swords, Lee Jun would have felt more comfortable to strike or receive strikes but with the real thing in hand and no protective, somehow the entire setting changed. It felt like the stakes had been raised a million fold. Many gamblers experience this kind of feeling. Imagine playing a game of black jack, if the stakes were as low as $1 then everyone would have a go, but imagine if the stakes were increased to $ 1 million? It brings about an air of tension that becomes most difficult to handle. Right now on Lee Jun’s mind was not the sword but thoughts of how dangerous this was. One mistake on his part could injure his master or he could hurt himself.

Lee Jun took his third step closer to Chung Il. He was now in range to attack his master. He knew this was going to be risky. He realized soon he needed to have some faith in his master’s skills being superior than his to make the first strike. ‘If it is master, he should be able to defend it.’

Lee Jun lept forward and slashed his sword as he had been taught by his instructors.

Chung Il stood motionless.

‘No!!’ Lee Jun thought as he raced down with his sword. ‘MOVE MASTER!’ Lee Jun closed his eyes in horror. However, when he realized he hit nothing, Lee Jun looked up and noticed, even though he did such a wide strike down his master stood unscathed …he did not so much even flinch. ‘Of by a millimeter?’

Lee Jun begun a series of strikes at his master however, no matter how much he tried it never touched Chung Il. Finally, Lee Jun noticed that all though it was sublte, Chung Il would move back just enough to miss the edge of the sword by the width of a hair.

It was nothing short of spectacular.

Lee Jun smiled. ‘I can go all out.’

He began with pierce moves and slashes. He was finally able to get Chung Il to defend. However even the defending done by Chung Il was on level Lee Jun could never imagine. When Lee Jun thrusted his sword forward, Chung Il simply moved his sword forward and deflected the attack completely without reeling under the impact. In fact it was Lee Jun who fell of balance. ‘What the heck? How is he doing that?’ Lee Jun wondered.

Lee Jun began losing confidence, using his first match against Hwa as a benchmark of a master’s abilitiy was serious mistake. If Hwa could be rated in terms of power as 100 then Chung Il was well over 10,000. The difference could only be stated as ridiculous.

After thirty minutes, Lee Jun found himself breathless. Moving around holding a katana was exhausting. His master on the otherhand stood just as he did before the start of the match. Chung Il wasn’t breathing hard nor was he sweating.

Lee Jun closed his eyes and focused for a moment. ‘A reckless charge will accomplish nothing. This is a serious duel; I have yet to answer him seriously.’ Lee Jun quickly recalled all his lessons and sword matches he had witnessed. For Lee Jun recalling something was the same as reliving it or being taught vicariously (like the Matrix?).

Lee Jun built up his concentration and then opened his eyes. If Chung Il was an audience member he would have been able to tell that Lee Jun had accomplished nearly the same state of mind which he was presently in; a feat that usually takes decades of practice to achieve. It must be noted that Lee Jun didn’t copy Chung Il’s power of focus this was his natural state when he put his mind to something.

Lee Jun began weaving a complex set of strikes, hacks, slashes anything that he could throw at his master. It wasn’t a simple lopsided battle anymore. Chung Il began answering Lee Jun’s seriously as well. There were moments where he would use evasive techniques to dodge and had to counter attack just to slow down Lee Jun’s pace of attacks. Lee Jun’s attacks could be likened to those of angry hornets whose nest has been disturbed. Their attack maybe small weak individually but when they come one after another it becomes a potentially lethal weapon.

The two exchanged blow after blow. Chung Il was slightly surprised with Lee Jun’s attacks. He did not expect Lee Jun to be able to do much however his disciple surpassed his expectations. This joust proved without doubt the imitation of the half step that he witnessed during the trials was the real thing. ‘Monster’ Chung Il thought to himself as tried to define the child’s talent. He knew that Lee Jun was special and his talent was over flowing but this was ridiculous. It was likea wild beast which had been in slumber had been awoken.

However, Lee Jun’s sudden burst of attacks came to a grinding halt. He completely wore himself out.

“huff puff…” Lee Jun was breathing hard as he struggled to hold the sword up.

This match reminded him of Shadow versus Theodore. Shadow kept playing on and on with Theodore and in the end Theodore was reduced to nothing but dust.

As Lee Jun got hold of his breath, he gathered the remaining energy he had for a final attack before calling it quits. ‘Let’s try merging steps…’ Lee Jun thought as he recalled the various advance trainings he was forced to watch the beginning few days he was at the Dojang.

Lee Jun ran forward and slashed horizontal at Chung Il. Chung Il was forced to jump back, however that was what Lee Jun had been waiting for. ‘Dodge this in midair..’ Lee Jun jumped forward, with his body tilted slightly angular and then thrust the sword forward. It was only for a second, but Lee Jun managed to slightly graze Chung Il’s attire. In that split second, Chung Il responded to the danger with his strongest offense…

Lee Jun couldn’t even see what his master did since it was so fast.

However, after that he felt very lighted headed as if blood was being drained from his body. He could see his master shouting something and looking at him with a frown. The world became dark and he soon lost consciousness.

Lee Jun fell to the ground and a small pool of blood began forming around his chest.

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Authors Note:

1. Made this into a new chapter, since that one wasn't letting me put everything in one post.

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Connect to Royal Road – Elementarem Vim next Chapter?YesNo

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