Andric had reincarnated with the knowledge of a supremely powerful magician, and he used his knowledge to analyze the system of the martial way and attempt to exploit it. Farvald was an ordinary town youth. In his short life, he had fought hundreds of times with the members of his town. His first meridian was opened by chance, and he continued to practice martial arts long afterward. When other martialists would’ve paused their training to diligently cultivate, Farvald kept mastering his mortal techniques.

The fight between the two of them finished, and they went back inside the tavern. Andric sat at his table and quickly finished the rest of his food, then ordered more. He had noticed how ingested food could be converted to spirit energy much faster than he could absorb spirit energy from the atmosphere, but that converted spirit energy wouldn’t be able to increase his martial stage. While healing back to full, Andric could rely on eating and drinking.

After reaching the Novice realm, Andric noticed a few things about the martial way. He could now sense the realm of martialists who were at the same realm as him or below. When he fought against Farvald, his senses for danger told him that Farvald was only in the early stages of the Human realm. When Andric looked at Farvald’s uncle, though, he could only tell that Farvald’s uncle was somewhere in the Novice realm.

Andric had also noticed that his body had the ability to generate spirit energy. He theorized that he was also capable of generating spirit energy when he was at the Human realm, but the amount must’ve been too small to notice. Now that he was in the Novice realm, his body slowly filled with spirit energy even when he wasn’t meditating. This was beneficial, however, that generated spirit energy couldn’t be used to advance his stage or realm. Andric felt a clear limit on the amount of spirit energy his body could hold, and only by practicing his meditation technique could he work to increase that limit.

Tasty food was tasty food; Andric used the opportunity to refill his spirit energy and to eat more tasty food. No matter how far he transcended humanity, mortal pleasures were still pleasures nonetheless.

After eating, Andric went outside and found a secluded area to practice his mastered Burning Palm. He stood next to a tree while circulating the spirit energy inside his body, then thrust his palm at the trunk. His palm smashed against the tree with great force, cracking the bark where it landed, and he performed a Burning Palm. At the moment of impact, the bark began to turn black, and Andric took his palm away.

Practicing the Burning Palm Technique for several weeks had allowed Andric to use it almost freely, and his insight from earlier in the day had enabled him to use it at full power. He quickly circled around the tree trunk and threw multiple Burning Palms at it, and each Burning Palm left a charred black mark behind.

In a short amount of time, the first rank of the Burning Palm Technique could be considered mastered. After that, Andric needed to master the second rank of the Burning Palm Technique, then to start practicing the Flaming Fist Technique.

The difference between the first rank and the second rank of the Burning Palm Technique was how much spirit energy they used and what form needed to be taken. When being used at its first rank, the Burning Palm Technique was incredibly versatile. It could be activated even when bending down to pick something off the ground. However, the second rank of the Burning Palm Technique could only be used with a straight hand.

As martial techniques grew higher in rank, their use became more rigid. The first rank of the Burning Palm Technique could be used anywhere, and only used muscles in the wrist. The second rank of the Burning Palm Technique could only used used with an open backward-angled palm, and it used muscles in the wrist and hand. The third rank of the Burning Palm Technique was much stronger than the second rank, but it used muscles in the arm, limiting which direction it could be used in. There was no fourth rank of the Burning Palm Technique.

Andric practiced the first rank of the Burning Palm Technique a few more times, then took out the Burning Palm Technique book from his bag of storage and reviewed the second rank. He only needed to master a couple new muscle movements, which he was confident in doing within a few days.

As expected, less than a week later, Andric performed the second rank of the Burning Palm Technique and was capable of lighting bark on fire. He felt much stiffer than he had been while using the first rank of the Burning Palm Technique, but none of his accuracy, speed, or power was affected. The strength of the Burning Palm Technique was in the temperature of the burning effect, which increased with every rank. According to the Burning Palm Technique, the temperature at the second rank was high enough to cause flesh to melt, totally stopping attacks from undefended martialists. It could also catch clothing on fire, distracting opponents during a fight.

The Burning Palm Technique was interesting to Andric because of the way it created heat. When Andric used spells, he couldn’t create even the smallest temperature change without imbuing his mana with thought energy. But, when he used a martial technique, he only needed to flex his muscles and angle his extremity in a particular way.

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Andric read the first rank of the Flaming Fist Technique, and it was expectedly similar to the Burning Palm Technique, but it also had a few differences. The Flaming Fist Technique’s first rank was at the Novice realm. In terms of strength, the Flaming Fist Technique was stronger than the Burning Palm Technique, but it covered the user’s knuckles with fire, which made it less useful for surprising opponents.

Where the Burning Palm Technique was best for defensive actions, the Flaming Fist Technique was best for offensive actions. If used in conjunction, their might would rise by a level.

After having mastered the second rank of the Burning Palm Technique, Andric diligently practiced the first rank of the Flaming Fist Technique. He punched the air while circulating his spirit energy, and he only activated spirit energy inside his arm when he was ready to use the martial technique. A few days later, he had the first rank of the Flaming Fist Technique mastered.

Mastering a martial technique required a martialist to memorize a chant, a muscle formation, and a spirit energy movement. With a fast mind, the chant could be performed internally in an instant. The muscle formation required hours of practice to get right, and the spirit energy movement required a sufficient martial realm. It was possible to move spirit energy throughout the body without having any meridians open, but open meridians made the process faster, and it allowed the martialist to practice more often.

During the time it took Andric to master the first rank of the Flaming Fist Technique, he also managed to reach the second stage of the Novice realm. Most of his energy had gone toward mastering the Burning Palm Technique and the Flaming Fist Technique, so the sudden increase in his martial stage had come as a surprise. Still, the increase in the strength of his spirit energy was very welcome, even if it wasn’t anywhere close to the increase that came with advancing from the Human realm to the Novice realm.

Two of Andric’s martial techniques had been mastered, but he wanted more. The Silent Gallop Technique was Andric’s most used martial technique, so he took that for the third martial technique he would master.

At its first rank, the Silent Gallop Technique allowed its user to make several short silent steps. Although it was considered a movement-type martial technique, Andric believed that the greatest use of it would be to move silently, regardless of how much distance was crossed. There were other movement-type martial techniques Andric had gotten from the Erfdag bandits, but none of them offered the same level of subterfuge that the Silent Gallop Technique offered.

Andric practiced the first rank of the Silent Gallop Technique while making use of the insight he had gained while fighting with Farvald. After ten large steps, he was pleased to see that none of his landings had made a sound. He stepped on grass, which should’ve been easily heard, but no noise came from it. Each time he landed, his spirit energy gushed out, preventing noise while simultaneously helping Andric take another step.

The second rank of the Silent Gallop Technique was similar to the first, but it facilitated further movement. Instead of only being able to step three feet of distance with the first rank, the second rank was capable of moving Andric close to six feet with every step. Now, he looked more like he was leaping from place to place. The horizontal movement was excellent, but the vertical movement was poor. With each ‘gallop’ Andric took, his height remained relatively the same. Clearly, the Silent Gallop Technique wasn’t meant for reaching elevated locations.

So, to make up for this weakness, Andric looked through his collection of martial techniques to find one that would help him with jumped to high places. But, he still remembered that Adept realm martialists developed the natural ability to fly, so he knew there would be a limited number of movement-type martial techniques. Plus, at the Novice realm, Andric could already jump close to ten feet high. There weren’t many situations where one needed to jump the height of a single-story building.

Luckily, there was one available to him, but it had limited use in combat. The Heaven Charging Spring Technique sounded powerful, but it was actually only capable of increasing Andric’s jump height by about five feet. After mastering the first rank of the Heaven Charging Spring Technique, Andric was able to jump about fifteen feet into the air. The Heaving Charging Spring Technique had three ranks, and Andric decided to spend the next few days mastering the second rank.

At the second rank of the Heaven Charging Spring Technique, Andric’s movements became much more stiffer, and he began to understand why Veremund had been unable to jump an entire one hundred feet to escape his enclosement. The Heaven Charging Spring Technique required at least a second of charging before jumping, making it mostly useless in combat. In a situation where his only option was to flee, a single second of wasted time could be devastating.

The second rank of the Heaven Charging Spring Technique allowed Andric to jump an additional ten feet into the air, increasing his total height to nearly twenty feet. This amount of distance enabled him to leap clear over some small buildings, as well as jump into trees. The only universe downside to the Heaving Charging Spring Technique was its high spirit energy usage, which made repeated jumps tiresome. Of course, by reverting back to the first rank of the Heaven Charging Spring Technique, Andric could jump many more times.

After mastering the Silent Gallop Technique and the Heaven Charging Spring Technique, and began to practice using two martial techniques at the same time. The process was no different from using two spells at the same time, and Andric had been doing that for hundreds of years.

In his legs, he used the Silent Gallop Technique. In his arms, he used the Flaming Fist Technique. To see the fruit of his efforts, he dashed through a barren field, throwing punches and watching remnant flames tear off his knuckles.