Standing in front of the boulder, I relax myself before building tension throughout my body. I wasn’t used to striking out while tensed up, though thanks to practising within the dungeon with Xia I found it easier this time. Stepping forward, I threw my fist as hard as I could at the boulder, slamming it with everything I could.
As I felt my hand break, a giant crater forms on the boulder with a loud bang. Small cracks ran up around the entire side of the boulder. Looking down at my hand, it had broken once again. Hearing a whistling coming from the man, I turn and see him nodding.
“Very good. Your raw strength is miles ahead of those I’ve seen, it even bests some who are level 50 or above. Though…” He glances at my hand. “It appears you have yet to fully learn to control it. I take it your usual method of fighting reduces your strength?” Nodding at his words as I downed a healing potion he wrote something else down. “Right. That’s fine, your injury is mild compared to others we’ve had. We had one guy whose entire arm burst because of the strength he put into it.
“Surprisingly it’s not due to your Toughness, but rather because of how trained your body is. Once you’ve trained your body more, it will get used to the strength you can produce.” Understanding what he meant, I knew I had lacked when it came to training my body. Looking at my hand, it was already healing as the man continued.
“The next test will revolve around your reflexes. For this test, you’ll need to rely on your senses to dodge attacks. You can also deflect attacks, though avoid injury if possible. The most you’ll get is some light bruising. With your natural healing I would imagine that won’t be a problem.” Chuckingly lightly, he led us to another location.
It was a small, cubic room built from glass. A single door allowed one to enter. “Alright, enter and get ready.” As I entered, the door disappeared. “Missy, the record is 18 levels. If you beat that, you’ll earn yourself a thumbs up.” Chuckling to himself, he tapped the ground as a soft voice rang out.
“Level one, beginning.”
As soon as the voice faded, something shot towards me as I quickly dodged. Very soon, two more round objects flew towards me as I dodged once again. Four objects this time. They weren’t fast, and they were about the size of my palm, so dodging them wasn’t difficult. They came flying out at different intervals as well.
“Level one finished. Level two beginning.”
This time, two balls shot out at different intervals from each side, totaling eight. Moving quickly, I dodged them, but just when I thought it was over, they bounced and shot back again. Dodging once again, more started shooting out. After minutes of this, I heard that soft chime once again.
“Level two finished. Level three beginning.”
As the levels progressed, more balls came flying from the walls. At the same time, from above and below, ones hidden behind other balls. I had to switch from purely dodging to deflecting, but around level 12 I started getting hit. It was once every now and then, but by level 15 I was barely able to dodge anymore.
“Level 15 failed.”
My entire body ached with bruises. How anyone could dodge that made my head spin. Exiting the room when the door had reappeared, the man wrote something down again before nodding.
“Level 14 is good. Level 15 is where it steps up the difficulty, good effort. The next test will be for your movement. This will be a rather simple test, where similar to testing your reflexes it will depend on you moving around an obstacle course. It’ll involve moving through tight spaces, jumping to reach certain edges and seeing how flexible you are.” Speaking as he leads us to another area, this time it was the entrance to a tunnel that leads underground.
“We’ll be able to monitor you here. It will get harder the further you travel. While it might be strange to test movement like this for martial arts, this will allow a more accurate reading on how flexible you are, in addition to seeing how you move.”
Looking at the entrance I enter. It was exactly as he said, it involved going through tight spaces, crawling through very narrow tunnels, scaling a wall with barely anything to grab onto and jumping as high as I could to reach the edge of a platform. The further I went in, the harder it became until I finally met my match, an extremely tiny crack in a wall that I couldn’t fit through.
Looking at the crack in the wall, I wonder how anyone could possibly fit through there. It was as wide as my arm. Shaking my head, I head back out to meet with the man and Xia once again.
Writing something down once again, he gave me a smile. “Level 12 on movement. You’ll come to find out how to move through something like that with training. Now, lastly, the endurance test. For this, you’ll need to cut off your mana circulation.” As we follow him, I do as I say and stop the mana flow through my body.
This time, the spot he brought us to was a simple field shaped in a circle. “Running around this circle. It will become harder to run, like you’re running against the wind, the longer you go.”
Stepping onto the outside of the circle, I start running along the edge. For the first lap it was easy, but then I felt a slight pressure as I started the circle. By the fifth one, it indeed felt like I was pushing against a wind, but it also felt like my body was getting slightly heavier.
As I stepped over the mark for my forty fourth lap, the pressure became too much as my body felt way too heavy. Collapsing, the pressure quickly disappeared as I got to my knees, panting heavily while wiping the sweat off my forehead.
“Very good, your endurance is quite remarkable. Alright, take a moment to recover then we’ll head back to give you your assessment, go through a few last minute questions and find the very best that can teach you.”
After resting for a moment, I get up and follow the man. We returned to the room where he had taken my information as we sat down.
“Right, with everything done, we’ll go over everything. Firstly, your Stats are high for your level. They match a level 50s pre-evolution, and ignoring evolution completely you’d be about ten levels ahead in terms of Stats. The only downside is your Toughness. I’m honestly a bit gobsmacked you’ve survived fighting for this long, a good blow would likely severely injure or kill you, but that has been offset by your Agility, allowing you to dodge easily.
“Your Agility and Strength are easily the best Stats you have, while Intelligence is also very good. From what we’ve talked about, your magic is versatile thanks to your experience with Wind magic and you gain a good boost from Lunar Blessing. For martial arts however, you want to forget about magic altogether. I’ll go through why shortly.
“Your Toughness is absolutely your downfall. You have to rely on deflecting, dodging or someone taking the blow for you. You’re one of the most extreme cases I’ve come across, but not the worst. In terms of raw strength, you’ve got quite the punch, but it’s something you’re not used to controlling. As for reflexes, it’s wild and messy. You seem to rely on senses like smell, sight and sound, two of which were not present and one that became very difficult.
“Your movement is good, however there is room for improvement. A lot of unnecessary movements and there were some parts of the course you struggled with. Lastly your endurance is excellent, though you seem to buckle a lot more under the pressure. Overall, the physical training tells me your body is very undertrained. You’ve relied very heavily on magic in the past and because of that you don’t know how to control your strength, move your body or dodge on reflex.
“However, considering your Race, Class and age, you have massive potential, especially at night. Your Race being S+ means you have a lot of room for growth. I would highly recommend focusing on getting your Race unrestricted before Level 50. I don’t know what will happen, as people usually don’t share information on their Race with us more than once, but I would imagine it would only benefit you.”
Setting aside all of the paperwork, he next digs through his bag before bringing out a stack of more papers. He quickly flicks through them, removing pages. After removing nearly all the papers, he nods and looks back at me.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Based on everything you’ve told me, there are six that are suitable for you. If we take into account gender, age, height and body structure since you’re half monster, and with that it comes down to three. Now, as I mentioned before, you want to forget about magic. Martial arts is about your physical body, magic is very rare when it comes to martial arts and isn’t recommended.
“Now, the three I have here are the most suitable to you. The first one is called Nightstalker. It heavily relies on moving through the darkness, using stealth to heavily injure or kill your enemies.” Shaking my head, I told him that wouldn’t suit my style of fighting. Putting a sheet of paper to the side he told me of the next one.
“Style of the Heavy Hitter. As the name implies, it relies on slow, heavy hits. This one doesn’t utilise your Agility to its fullest potential, however it does take into account your Strength and Toughness, as this focuses on mitigating and deflecting blows.” Shaking my head once again, he nods before telling me of the last one.
“I’ve saved the best for last. Flowing River. This martial arts utilises both Strength and Agility. It relies heavily on dodging, deflecting and mitigating attacks while also counter attacking. The practitioners of this style can counter attack any attack, even spells. They are masters of reading their opponents moves.
“If I had to describe this style, it would be with that term since the name of the martial art does well explaining it. It’s an elegant style where you flow like water through battle, moving past any and all attacks while countering with your own. This is ‘Flowing River’. It’s a very, very ancient and complex martial art, the dojo does not easily accept disciples.
“This honestly is the one I’d highly recommend to you. It is very compatible with your current fighting style and their main weapon of choice revolves around stabbing, so if you’re planning to use a rapier they can assist in that.”
After listening to what he described about Flowing River, I felt rather excited. It sounded like exactly what I needed. As much as I hated to admit it, the style Teacher Lee had taught me was already showing its limits, especially since it was as Xia said, it was holding back my Strength. Telling the man I wanted to try it, he smiled and handed me the piece of paper.
On it showed the name of the dojo, simply “Flowing River”, a map from the Ministry of Martial Arts to the dojo as well as the information he had just explained to me.
Handing me the stack of papers he had been filling out during the assessment, he says “Take these with you. It will greatly assist the dojo masters. They too will swear an oath, and after memorising the information they will destroy the papers. Do not lose it Miss, if someone were to find it they would know everything about you. You don’t want a prepared enemy coming after you.”
Nodding seriously, I store the stack of papers in my bag. He hands me the letter back that Alexander had given me.
“Take this as well. There is an additional letter within that gives Alexander’s recommendation. Normally you would not need this, but as insurance it’s best to hand this over as well. I wish you luck.”
Leading us out of the room then the building he bids us farewell as we start strolling through the snowy roads once again.
“Alisha, did you want to head to the dojo now?”
“Mm, not now. It’s just past midnight and after that physical testing I want to rest first. Plus I’m feeling hungry, so let's head home first, eat and rest then we’ll head there when the sun comes up.”
As we continued our stroll, I raised a question to Xia. “Xia, could you teach me how to use a rapier?”
A few seconds of silence followed before Xia responded. “I can not. My style of using a rapier would not fit you. I utilise my magic through my rapier, I don’t use it as one would. I only use a rapier because it’s light and fast.”
Understanding what she meant, I felt a bit disappointed but knew she wouldn’t say no unless she meant it. After a few hours of walking, we made our way back. I hadn’t intended to take my time while strolling like this, however it was the first time I’ve really just felt at peace, with nearly no worries or fears on my mind.
After we arrived back home, I cooked something quickly before bathing and falling asleep. After waking up, I head downstairs to find Xia still waiting. After a quick breakfast, we head out towards the dojo called “Flowing River”.
It took about an hour to walk there, however when we arrived, I had originally thought we weren’t in the right area. Greeting us was a walled off area, with closed doors. I could hear and smell water that was running, but past that the walls blocked our vision completely. Standing before the doors, I tilted my head wondering what to do.
“Should we knock, Xia?”
“I believe so.”
As I’m about to knock on the doors, they suddenly started opening. Looking past the door, no one was behind them. After thinking about it, I decided to go in to see if we could find anyone. With Xia following behind me, we entered while I took in the sight.
The surroundings were quite gorgeous. Lush grass ran along the path, with trees spotted around and a river running through the area. As we approached a small bridge that led to a small hut, I saw a woman exit the hut and look over to us. Seeing her eyebrows crease, she made her way towards us. She had a few wrinkles around her mouth and forehead, blonde-white curly hair and light blue eyes.
Xia and I stop before crossing the bridge as she crosses over it. Her eyes flicker from me, to the bracelets then to Xia before returning to me.
“Welcome to Flowing River. Are you perhaps lost?” She gives me a slight smile as I return it.
“I’m here to learn Flowing River.”
“Oh?” Looking a bit surprised, the lady straightens up slightly. “I apologise, it’s very rare that someone would enter to seek our tutelage. Please, come in for a chat.”
Following her in, we entered the small hut. It had a homely feel to it, in the middle of the room we entered was a table with no chairs. The table was low to the ground, and a man sat on his knees drinking what I knew was tea from the smell. The lady sat next to him while gesturing to the other side, where I mimicked their sitting posture while Xia did the same next to me.
“This is my husband, Tael. My name is Halone. Tael, this young fox wishes to learn Flowing River.”
Taking a sip of his tea, he places the cup down and looks at me. His eyes darted around, looking at various parts of my body before smiling slightly.
“Where are my manners? Welcome to Flowing River. As my wife said, my name is Tael.”
“I’m Alisha.” Seeing him smile slightly, I heard Xia introduce herself as well as Tael gave her a short nod.
“May I know how you came to hear about us, Alisha?” Explaining the tests and everything to Tael, he smiled lightly. “So it’s the Ministry. What you heard from them is a rather crude explanation. While what they say is correct, our martial art isn’t just about moving in a fancy way or throwing your fists in a sort of pattern. The essence of what we teach is about your inner calm.
“You can not learn Flowing River if you allow your emotions to get the best of you during combat. I can tell by looking at your eyes, Alisha. There is a fire that burns in them, it burns with anger, hatred and vengeance. But it also burns with care for those dear to you, passion for fighting and a faint calmness.
“If you are to learn our martial art, you can not let those emotions control you during combat, you must always be calm. The moment you are not calm you will fall apart, becoming no less than a drunken brawler in a tavern somewhere. This means you can not be angered, surprised, bloodthirsty, annoyed and so on. If you do not believe you can do this, I can only ask you to leave now.”
Taking a breath, I thought over my recent fights and had to admit a few of them had been driven by anger. However some of them I had been calm while fighting, such as against The Blade. While not entirely calm, I hadn’t been in a rage or angered, but I certainly had been surprised. Thinking about it, I had usually fought while keeping my calm, and while my emotions fluctuate, I felt that I could indeed remain calm during fights.
“I’ll be able to keep calm.” Smiling at my statement, Tael takes a sip from his drink once again.
“Do you have those annoying papers from the Ministry?” Nodding to his question, I reach in and hand them over. Without so much as glancing at them, a surge of mana comes from him as the papers ignite.
“While the information they gather is helpful for them, for Flowing River what you’re strong or weak at doesn’t matter. With a glance I can also tell your Toughness is terrible because of your scarless skin, your Strength is high, your Agility is the highest while your Intelligence is slightly lower than your Strength. You will learn what matters soon.
“We’ll accept you as a student of our dojo. In fact, we had already accepted you the moment you walked in the doors. Now, return here in three days. You will be living here for the next month. You will learn to remain calm in all situations first before we teach any techniques or skills. However, if you fail to remain calm during the situations we put you through, you’ll be expelled.”
Pursing my lips, I nod as he smiles. Halone this time spoke.
“It’ll be good to settle any duties you have left. Once you return, you’ll be under my tutelage. It will be best to prepare yourself mentally.”
Thanking them, Xia and I left as we walked down the street. While I was thinking over what we just went through, a new System message came up.
Alice has levelled to 10!
Alice has begun evolution.