Unaware of, or possibly just ignoring, the fact that Manadet was staring at her, Aurelie was getting a lesson from Farn.
"Today, we're going to show you Martial Techniques. They're techniques that incorporate Spiritual Energy into your attacks. They, along with Cultivation Techniques, are divided into five levels based on efficiency and the power they display. The levels are, from bottom to top, Common, Uncommon, Rare, Legendary, and Ancient. These stages are then further divided into three tiers, low, mid, and high tier. The Cultivation Technique that we're using right now is a high-tier Uncommon level technique. Oh, and a tip for you for when you fight. If you imbue your Spiritual Energy into your weapon, the weapon is upgraded in terms of strength and durability, and your attacks become fiercer. Of course, there is a limit. If you imbue too much Spiritual Energy into a weapon and the material the weapon is made of is unable to take it, then the weapon will immediately break. That's why high quality weapons cost so much, because they can take in much more energy before breaking. In fact, weapons are divided into the same categories as Cultivation Technique Manuals and Martial Techniques."
Aurelie nodded, looking serious as she absorbed the new information. Every day, she realized more and more how little she truly knew about this new world she was now a member of. This information was necessary to have in order to blend in. The things that were common sense to them were unlikely to be common sense to her, and vice versa.
'Well, then again', she thought with a sardonic inward grin, 'some of the things that are common sense to me would probably fit in here better than they fit in there, namely my inability to leave the house without being armed to the teeth with knives and guns.' The biggest reason she hated airports wasn't because she got air sick, but because she couldn't find a way to keep a weapon on her as she boarded, meaning she had to be unarmed until she reached her weapons cache in her destination city. Uncle Chase had called her paranoid on multiple occasions, and she had always countered by saying that it wasn't paranoia if they really were out to get you, and that she, as an assassin, wasn't exactly without any enemies.
Aurelie was snapped out of her memories of the past by the fact that everybody else had stopped in front of a bookshelf. Farn pulled out a book and handed it to Aurelie. It really couldn't be described as a book, though, as it was slim and seemed to hold less than twenty pages of writing. On the cover, the words The Suction Palm were written.
"This is one of the easiest Martial Techniques in the village to learn. Try this first, then we'll try more complex ones."
Aurelie opened the pages of the book, and studied the first five pages of the sheepskin bound volume. They had diagrams of the step to step process of how the Spiritual Energy had to be manipulated in order to use the move. The remaining nine pages were filled with the position one must take in order to have the optimum suction force. It really was as the title said, a method to make the surrounding objects move towards your palm.
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"Whoever wrote this had the same naming sense as historians and Shakespeare. In other words, none at all." Aurelie muttered to herself.
"What did you say?" Manadet asked her, furrowing her brows. It had sounded like a whole other language, but the words were to low and Aurelie's accent too harsh for her to be certain about whether or not her ears were playing tricks on her.
"No, nothing. I was just wondering if anyone has learnt this technique and if they would give me a demonstration." Aurelie replied with a smile, quickly changing the topic.
"Sure, I'll show you." Farn said, quickly stepping up before Mellana's mother could follow up on her questioning. He extended his hand and the loosely held book in Aurelie's hands flew out of her grip and towards him. He caught it and smiled at her, but she frowned.
"But the book said it was supposed to be like..."
Aurelie's face showed an intense concentration as she turned back towards the bookcase and made the gestures that she had read about, her mind providing her with the images and explanations while her body obligingly slid into every position, not even a millimeter off. Farn, Mellana, and Manadet watched her with a slight smile. Actually, the Suction Palm was a very useful technique once mastered. The fact was, however that it was almost impossible to master.
The reason was because the pose was too specific to get into in a reasonable amount of time, which was why Farn hadn't gotten into the correct position, and the general census was that it wasn't worth it to get into it as most people believed that the suction force wouldn't increase by a significant amount, so most didn't bother to master it, to the point that not even a single person in the village had ever attempted to get into the correct position. Rather than tell Aurelie that it was nigh impossible to execute the attack perfectly, they decided to let Aurelie find out for herself. It not only saved them time by avoiding an argument, but it also provided them with a way to measure her potential. Well, Farn and Mellana didn't need to do this, as they already witnessed her cultivating speed, but Manadet wanted to know.
But they were all amazed several seconds later as a suction force several thousands of times larger than Farn's burst out of her. Immediately, all the books on the bookcase in front of her moved towards her palm, followed by the top of the bookshelf. Watching the hundreds of books rushing towards her and the heavy bookshelf about to fall onto her, Aurelie let out a weak "Oops."