Standing there staring at Halone, I kept my Domain active while trying to think. I knew from her level she could just ignore the defensive enchantments around the house, after all Sebastian mentioned anything higher than level 50 can just ignore it. The biggest question was why is she here, attacking me suddenly and without warning.
Halone looks around the Domain before looking back at me. “I suppose you’re on guard all the time for a reason and now you’re cautious. I’ll explain why, for now you should release your Domain, you’ll attract the Royal Guard at this rate.”
Frowning slightly, I slowly withdrew my Domain as I kept an eye on Halone. I knew that if she wanted me dead, I would’ve been killed the moment she initially attacked me. Returning to my room, it was still untouched except for my bed, which was now in pieces. Halone frowns and glances towards the street.
“They’re rather fast tonight. Alisha, it’ll be best to tell them you accidently released your Domain in your sleep.”
Wondering what she meant, I heard the chime of the door. Pursing my lips, I ignored it for now while wondering what to do. Halone spoke at that time.
“I’ll explain everything once they leave. I’m afraid if you don’t answer soon, they’ll come crashing in and it’ll be a rather expensive fix.”
Letting out a tsk, I turned on the spot and moved downstairs. Arriving at the door, I opened it and was met with someone dressed in the same type of armour that Roland wore. Behind him stood four others, all at attention.
“Evening miss. We detected a Domain being opened here, is everything okay?”
Thinking of what Halone said, I gave them a light smile. “Yes, I released it while sleeping by accident.”
“Ah, I see. May I see your identification necklace or card?” Taking my necklace off, he checks it quickly before handing it back and pulling out a small notepad. Flipping through it, he nods. “Right, thank you Alisha. Have a peaceful night.”
Seeing them leave, I closed the door and sighed. Walking down the hall, I see Halone in the kitchen, sitting at the table. Surpassing the annoyance within me, I enter and look at her as she smiles.
“Domains can’t just release themselves like that. The phrase you said allowed the guard to know your teacher or master has unknowingly surprised you, causing you to react as such. Mind if you make me some tea?”
Feeling irritation well up, I suppressed it and a sigh as I boiled some water, infused mana while brewing the tea before serving her a cup, as well as myself.
“Interesting, you infused mana into the tea? And it gives such an interesting effect.” Taking a sip, she nods. “Not bad. Well, you may be wondering why I so rudely interrupted you.”
“Yes, knowing why you broke in, destroyed my bed and showed signs of wanting my life would interest me greatly.” With a bit of irritation in my voice, I look at Halone who nods with a stern expression.
“Understandably you’re a bit upset. So not worry, I’ll pay for your bed being destroyed. I have been following you from the moment you left Flowing River. The purpose is to judge your awareness, strength and how you react to surprising events. I had intended to take action earlier, however you seem to almost always have your guard up, even with others around.”
Sighing out loud, I scratched my head out of frustration at those words. “So you were testing me? Why attack me at such a time?”
“I had thought in the moments before you fell asleep your guard would lessen, but you reacted much quicker than I ha-”
“Your strike blew my bed to pieces, you’d have killed me if that hit me.” Cutting her off while crossing my arms, I felt the anger in me bubbling.
“The strike would’ve done no harm to you. At most it would’ve left a bruise. When you reacted so quickly, I changed the strength slightly to destroy your bed to add in a surprise factor. Everything I did during our skirmish was to see how you’d react, and the fact you only held surprise but didn’t hesitate to fight back is quite promising.”
Leaning back, I take a sip of my own tea. I felt my anger fading slightly now that I was calming down a bit, though I still felt rather irritated.
“Sorry, I was feeling a bit irritated about being suddenly attacked.”
“You have every right to be upset. I am impressed by how you reacted so calmly during our little fight, even if you’re angry now that doesn’t matter, how you kept yourself calm during our fight is what mattered. I had expected you to hesitate, become afraid after trying to check the System and fumble completely. You having your guard up all the time was unexpected.”
“Well of course, I have some religious nuts after my life after all.” Sighing, I leaned forward. “So, what now? I assume this was a part of some test you wanted to do.”
Nodding, Halone poured herself another cup of tea. “For now, go and get yourself ready. We’ll go to Flowing River and along the way we’ll discuss everything.”
Getting up, I go upstairs and change into the Extraordinary clothing while putting another set into a normal bag along with some healing potions and the last of the medicinal drinks. Leaving my gauntlets, I go back downstairs to see Halone standing near the door.
“Ready? Then let's go.” Locking the house behind me, we start walking down the snowy road.
“From what I’ve observed, you require a lot of training. Your awareness is horrible, you rely too heavily on your sense of smell, sight and instincts. Multiple times I had released a wisp of mana however you were completely oblivious to it. If I had to say, you simply have not learnt how to sense your surroundings through the use of magic yet, this is a simple lesson to teach.”
Sensing your surroundings with magic? Is that possible? I’ve been able to sense when people use mana around me before, is that what she meant? Asking Halone, she shook her head and told me I’d know more soon.
“Your strength doesn’t fit whatever style you’re using. That style is holding you back terribly. The wind around you doesn’t do much except add force that you should already have. Your posture wastes a lot of power and doesn’t allow you to move correctly at all. We will work on having you completely stop reverting to that style.”
I wanted to complain, Dancing Fox Wind Style was after all the first type of fighting I’d learnt, something that reminded me of Teacher Lee. But I knew she was correct, Xia had said as much before as well and even I had been feeling the limits of this style. Knowing that this was for the best, I prepared myself to stop using Dancing Fox Wind Style.
“As for how you react to the unexpected, well you performed marvellously. I hadn’t expected you to react so decisively. You spread your Domain and I believe you used magic to enhance your body. You did those without question and without hesitation, exactly what one who wants to learn Flowing River martial arts requires.”
As she finished, we soon arrived outside Flowing River. As we enter, the doors slam shut behind me.
“We only accept one student at a time.” Leading me off the path, we stood by the river as she turned and faced me. “The Ministries way of explaining our martial art is rather…well, basic. Flowing River is more than simply dodging and countering. As we told you, the core of our martial arts is calmness during battle, however this does not mean being emotionless.
“A lot of our students head that way. You can be angry, you can be scared, or you can be happy. The most important thing is to remain calm. Keep your anger controlled and swallow your fear, keep your mind and body calm. It may sound simple but it is not.”
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Looking at me, she raises a finger and points it at me. Suddenly, danger welled up, overwhelming me for a moment. The only thing I felt was fear as my body refused to move. Disappearing as quickly as it came, I started panting for breath.
“What you just experienced is killing intent. It’s not magic now is it not some trick by the System. The intent is my intent to kill. Can you keep calm with that directed at you?”
Wiping the sweat from my forehead, I looked at Halone and shook my head. My mind had been chaotic the moment she released that killing intent. I’d never felt that feeling before…no, I have. The red spirit from Crater had a similar feeling, or when I was in the Lily Pond Inn’s kitchen.
“During this first month, we’ll work on training you from scratch. We’ll work on removing your instinct to revert to that style of fighting you’re currently using, controlling your strength as well as raising your awareness of your surroundings. Once we have worked on those, we will begin training you on keeping your mind focused and calm during any type of situation. Put these on.”
Handing me a pair of white gloves, I put them on. As I do, a magic circle appears on both before disappearing. A message from the System comes up.
Your magic has been sealed.
“Please also cut your mana circulation.” Focusing for a moment, I do as she says and stop my mana circulation. “From this point on, you will not be allowed to circulate mana nor attempt to use mana. If either is attempted, the gloves will give you a punishment. The more often the punishment happens the worse it becomes.
“As for why, it’s because you’ve become too reliant on the strength mana gives you. Your body lacks training, it lacks a foundation. The more you grow the worse it’ll become, meaning you’ll eventually hit a wall you can no longer progress. Tell me, Alisha, how often do you train your body?”
“I don’t.”
“You’re relying too much on the System. Don’t trust the strength it gives you, because that will be your downfall. Yes, the System gives your body strength, but if your mind doesn’t know how to use that strength, then what have you gained? If you don’t train your body, then how are you to move it correctly when it gets stronger?”
Thinking over her words, I found she had a point. So far my fighting experience only really came down to moving very straight forward, punching and kicking. I relied on my speed to block attacks and usually did it clumsily. I didn’t know how to control my strength, as shown when I break my fist while punching with my full strength.
“We will spend a week training your body. During this week you will move and use muscles that you never have before, you’ll move them in ways you never have thought possible. Now, follow me.”
Leading me to the little hut, we enter as she leads me to a staircase that went down for quite some time, about ten minutes in total of walking. As we exited the staircase, I found myself shocked. Spread out before me is a landscape, covered in lush grass, flowers and trees scattered around with a large river flowing throughout.
At one end of this river lay a waterfall coming from what I assumed to be the river outside. A cliff ran along the outside, I couldn’t see the top of it from here. A light illuminated the entire area, like it was daytime.
“This is a small recluse we had built. Our training will be done here. Over there will be where you will begin.” Pointing over to an area, I followed the direction and saw a small forest.
“Without touching the ground with your feet, nor standing on branches, you are to travel throughout it for the next ten hours. Once the ten hours are up, we’ll move onto the next training.” Leading me to the start of the forest, the trees were tall with branches sprouting out of them.
Looking at the trees, the nearest branch was about four metres from me. Knowing the only way to do as she said was to jump from branch to branch, I bend my knees and jump, overshooting the branch and falling back towards the ground. Reaching out, I grab a branch and stop myself from falling to the ground.
Dangling, I looked down as I thought of that jump. I hadn’t jumped much, but to think I could jump that high that quickly. “Keep yourself moving, spend too long on a branch and you’ll be punished, same with landing on the ground or standing on a branch.”
Feeling a shock came from the gloves, it spread through my body, delivering a light pain throughout it, causing me to nearly let go of the branch. As it fades, I look towards the nearest branch and wonder how to get there quickly. Swinging my body slightly, I swung off while aiming towards the branch. Flying off with too much speed, I slam into the branch and fall onto the ground.
Getting up to my feet, I felt the shock from the gloves again. Slightly more painful this time, I felt a bit annoyed as I tried to find another branch to jump onto. Jumping once again with less strength, I missed and fell to the ground again. Feeling pain from the pain all over my body, which was weakened due to a lack of mana circulation, I once again felt the shock from the gloves, even worse this time.
Sigh, all I wanted to do was rest tonight!
***
“Alright, come back.” Hearing Halone, I change direction and swing myself back towards Halone carefully. For the first four hours, I had fallen, missed branches, slammed myself against many trees and been shocked so many times. I had slowly gotten used to being able to control myself while swinging branch to branch but it was far from perfect. My arms were sore, muscles I had never used had been strained. Landing next to Halone with a bit of a stumble, she nods.
“For your first attempt you did well. Now, follow me.”
Following once again, we arrived at the mouth of the river that led from the waterfall.
“Take your shoes off.” While I’m doing so she pointed at the river. “Without falling into the river, you are to jump from stone to stone, from here to the lake and back. Do this three times. If you fall in, come back here and start again.”
Looking at the river, I saw small, wet stones that went up the river. Some of them were so small that there was no way I could fit a foot on it. I knew I would have to use only one foot. Looking at the first stone, I jumped softly and landed on it with one foot. Continuing, I landed on the next one but slipped and fell into the water as the gloves shocked me. Rising out of the water, I swam back to the shore and tried again.
Managing to make the second jump, I saw the next one was about the size of my palm. Knowing that if I took too long on a stone I’d get shocked, I quickly jumped, landing unsteadily before I slipped once more. Letting the shock hit me once more as I surfaced, I wanted to be angry but I could only resign myself to this so-called training.
***
Slipping once again into the water, I surfaced with a bit of pain before the shock hit me. I had been doing this for so long that I’d lost count. I was so tired that my mind could only think of jumping from stone to stone. Rising out of the river, the best I had done so far was being about ten metres from the lake. My legs and feet were in terrible pain, mostly from how much I had been using them while not strengthened by mana but also from hitting the damn stones.
As I arrived back at the starting spot, I found Halone sitting there drinking tea. I had no idea where she’d had the time to make tea since she’d been here from the start, but as I’m about to approach the starting stone she stopped me.
“Let's leave it there and move onto the last exercise.” Standing, she leads me towards a cliff face, Craning my neck up, I couldn’t see the top from here. I wondered how it was possible for such a large cliff to be underground like this.
“Climb up the cliff and reach the top. The higher you climb, the harder it’ll get. If you remain in the same spot for too long or fall, you’ll be punished. Start now.”
Looking for spots to grab onto, I start slowly climbing up, making sure to have secure footholds as I move up. After getting about three metres up, I noticed a small pressure building as I climbed as it became harder to find places to grab onto. As I reach five metres, I grab onto the nearest spot that I could find, go to lift myself up but my hand slips. Feeling my stomach drop as my body does the same, I fall and hit the ground hard. Hissing in pain as my regeneration kicks in, I slowly stand and start again, trying to outlast the tiredness.
***
Hitting the ground once again with a cry, I slowly get back to my feet. I had managed to reach at least about fifteen metres, just under halfway to the top. It had been at least six hours and before I could move to do it again, Halone spoke.
“Good work. Rest now. Take this time to sleep. The gloves will take you up. From now on, you’re to repeat everything here for six hours each before resting. I will come for you once a week has passed.”
Hearing her words, I collapsed on the ground and without much of a thought I fell asleep.
Waking up to a slight shock, I grit my teeth and get up. Every muscle in my body was sore, tired and fatigued was biting into my bones. Moving to the trees, I began by jumping to another branch before looking for another one as I noticed something wrong.
“Did the branches fucking change?!”
As I mutter, a System message came up.
Alice has finished evolving. Her level has been reset to 1.
Feeling a bit of panic, I slipped and fell as I tried to call her Status.
You can not view the Status of Alice at this time due to being too far apart.
As the initial panic, and shock from the gloves, wore off, I calmed down as I jumped and grabbed a branch. I knew from the messages that Alice was fine and alive. As to what happened I'd find out later. I knew I could trust Aubrey and Xia with Alice, so I turned my focus towards continuing with this training.