The martial way was developed over the course of thousands of years, and its methods were tested by millions of people. To reach the state of mind that was required for the Novice realm, certain experiences needed to be had. Some people were simply incapable of changing their state of mind, and some people were born with the necessary state of mind.

There was only one fact that stayed unequivocally true along the entirety of the martial way: only the strong survived.

Andric, now a Novice realm martialist, emerged from his cave and breathed in the fresh air that was outside it. Winter had came. Andric quickly went back inside the cave and change into a fresh pair of clothes and a coat. He could’ve used magic to maintain his temperature, but wearing a coat in the winter would help him fit in, and his martial realm was enough to protect him from the most damaging chill.

A thin layer of snow covered the ground. The nearby stream flowed normally. There were no birds in the sky. Andric looked down the stream, then started walking. He infused his feet with spirit energy, allowing him to move faster than normally possible through the snow. Wherever he stepped, he left a large footprint behind.

“Silent Gallop.” He took two steps forward, and each one left only a tiny footprint. The steps made with the Silent Gallop Technique were silent to the point that not even the snow under Andric’s foot crunched when he stepped on it.

‘This is pretty good,’ he thought, and he continued to use the martial technique while moving alongside the stream.

Andric traveled through the forest for several days, eventually reaching an area where the trees gave way to a plain. Many tree stumps were on the border of the forest and the plain, and a small house was located a short distance away. The stream passed by the house, flowing beyond sight.

Having a house near the forest wasn’t a strange thing. The forest had an abundance of wealth inside, including wood for building or fires, meat from hunting, and plants for medicine. The stream could provide fish, and the nearby plains were excellent for farming. Andric considered whoever lived in the house by the forest to be lucky to have such a prime spot to make their home.

Andric cautiously approached the house. He could see well-attended farmland beyond the house, but he didn’t see any farmers. There was a possibility that the inhabitants of the house were inside or were away. The best situation would them being at their house, because Andric would be able to ask them for directions to the nearest town. He had, unwittingly, lost his way in the forest, and he didn’t want to fly too high, where he would be able to see the nearby towns, but other people would be able to see him.

Smoke billowed from the house’s chimney, but that wasn’t proof that someone was living there. Under the right conditions, a fireplace could burn for hours, enough for farmers to keep their house warm when they left in the morning until they returned at night.

Andric stood in front of the door to the house and knocked on it, then took one step backward. He waited for a few seconds, and a young man answered the door.

“Hello?” the man said, opening his door a crack and looking outside.

“Hello, I don’t mean to bother you, but I was passing by, and I hoped you could tell me in which direction the nearest town is located,” Andric quickly explained himself while keeping his expression pleasant. He didn’t have any weapon on his body, and he was several years younger than the man inside the house.

“Oh, there’s a town about twenty miles in that direction,” the man said and pointed away from the forest, further across the plains. He then said, “If you need it, I’ve got a place by my fire for you to warm up at.”

“Many thanks, but I’ve business that can’t be delayed,” Andric replied, pleasantly surprised that the man had offered the shelter him for a short while. Andric couldn’t think of benefit the man would’ve gained by allowing a stranger into his home, unless he had a thing for human flesh.

“Alright, safe travels,” the man said and closed his door.

Andric took one last look at the house and began walking in the direction the man pointed to. There was less snow on the ground outside the forest, allowing Andric’s speed to increase slightly. He continued to use Silent Gallop, and he reached a small town just after sundown.

The small town appeared to be around half the size of Einburg, and it was named Radegart. A few Novice realm guards patrolled the outside of the town. Andric asked one for directions to a tavern, and the guard led him the way there.

In the middle of winter, the only a few crops could be grown. During the time that the farmers couldn’t work, they piled into taverns, drinking wine and eating meat. The moment Andric entered the tavern, dozens of eyes were placed on him, and they didn’t look away for several seconds. They quickly sized him up, but figured he was harmless because of his age.

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Andric might’ve reached the Novice realm and grown a little bit, but he was still only fifteen years old and had lived a sheltered life. The eight months spent in the cave had made his skin pale, contrasting significantly with the tanned skin of most of the townspeople.

He ignored the stares and sat at an empty table. Around him, the conversations were either about farming or the martial way. Andric had never been to any of Einburg’s taverns, so it was a new experience for him.

After a couple minutes of waiting, a generously endowed woman approached Andric to take his order.

“Having something to eat or something to drink?” she asked, standing at the opposite end of his table.

“Roast meat and wine. Also, how much is a room, here?” Andric asked and looked up.

“It’s five copper coins per night, meals not included. It’ll be twenty copper coins for the roast meat and wine,” the woman replied, smiling politely.

Andric reached into his bag of storage and took out a silver coin without hesitation. He had thousands of silver coins, so he could afford to spend money to sleep in a warm building. He handed the silver coin to the woman and said, “I’ll use the change to rent a room.”

“Thank you very much,” the woman said, taking the silver coin, and walked to the kitchen.

A short time later, a plate of roast meat and a large cup of wine was brought out to Andric. At the same time, a man came to give Andric the key to a room on the second floor. Eighty copper coins paid for the room for sixteen nights.

In those sixteen days, Andric intended to study his meditation techniques and martial techniques further. At the moment, he had only skimmed over a few meditation techniques, and he only knew three martial techniques to the point of being able to use them outside of combat, but he was far from mastering them.

Using the Silent Gallop Technique for several continuous days had lotted Andric a small amount of mastery over the martial technique, but he could only manage up to four steps before his chain of spirit energy broke, and the technique failed. Andric’s Burning Palm Technique and Bolder Crushing Sword Technique were only usable when he concentrated on the particular spirit energy movements that they required. In combat, they were useless to him.

The roast meat from the tavern was warm and flavorful. Back in Einburg, his family rarely had meat. When traveling with the merchant caravan, the travelers had soup for meals. Until now, he had never had a large slab of meat on a plate for his meal. The wine was fragrant, but in an ordinary way. Andric hadn’t drank wine in Einburg, so he couldn’t compare the two towns based on their wines.

Andric finished eating and went up to his room. When he entered, he found that the room was little more than enough space to fit a bed. The room had a small table with a lamp on it next to the bed, and that was all. Andric checked his bag of storage and sighed. The accommodations were minimal, but they were enough for him. He was only upset that there wasn't enough space in his room to practice his martial techniques.

Andric laid on the bed, waiting to sleep. Below him, the townspeople inside the tavern were still very active, and much of their noise made it up to Andric’s room. He contemplated for a few seconds, then cast a spell on the floor. The burst across the entire room and coated all of the walls, the floor, and the ceiling. After it fully activated, Andric’s couldn’t hear a sound from downstairs, precisely the effect of the spell.

The next day, Andric went out to a snowy field and furiously practiced the Burning Palm Technique. He was already at the first stage of the Novice realm, but he only practiced the first rank of the Burning Palm Technique. As such, he only used a miniscule amount of his total spirit energy, allowing him to practice the martial technique many times without needed to replenish his spirit energy reserves.

The effects of the Burning Palm Technique were easily spotted when Andric held a ball of snow in his hand. When he did so, the ball of snow quickly melted into water and dripped out of his hand. At the first rank of the martial technique, he couldn’t increase the temperature of his palm more than fifty percent of his body temperature, but it was enough to make snow melt. Furthermore, he hands didn’t get cold from picking up snow.

He practiced the martial technique all morning and well into the evening. He stepped forward and struck out with his palm, devoting muscle memory to the task. He thrust hundreds of times, and he only used spirit energy when he felt like the movement was correct.

The most important part to using the Burning Palm Technique was having a correctly strained wrist. If the wrist was too lose, the martial technique wouldn’t activate, but if the wrist was too tight, the martial technique would overload with spirit energy before its effects could manifest.

Andric studied the Burning Palm Technique and the Flaming Fist Technique, and he noticed that the two of them were similar in certain ways. Their visualization chants were only different by a few syllables, and their utilization of spirit energy was almost identical. They only significantly differed when the spirit energy was activated.

After comparing the two martial techniques, Andric wanted to begin practicing the Flaming Fist Technique, but he held off. He decided to continue to practice the Burning Palm Technique until he mastered it, then to move onto other martial techniques.

At noon, Andric went back to the tavern and ate lunch. The tavern didn’t have a variety of options beyond one type of meat and a few vegetables, but it had to be expected for during the winter. During the afternoon and throughout the evening, Andric continued to practice his martial techniques.

From dawn until dusk, Andric practiced the Burning Palm Technique. The snow on the ground melted, but he could feel the heat of his palm increasing without needing something to test it on. Soon, he would reach completion with the first rank of the Burning Palm Technique.