《Shatter the Heavens; Slaughter the Gods》


 Prologue

    ¡®Not much time left.¡¯


    A figure stood at the top of a stone pillar, watching as an army approached him. The conglomeration of over one hundred thousand swordsmen, knights, archers, and magicians was slowly marching toward him, brandishing weapons or wands, ready to fight against their single opponent.


    The figure on the stone pillar raised his own wand, and a portion of the army flinched. Very few of the soldiers were veterans of battles fought against the figure, but only because the figure was so ruthless with his methods.


    ¡®Time to get started,¡¯ the figure thoughtas he cast the first spell of the fight.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    The figure laid at the base of the pillar, silently casting spells into the air while bleeding from his chest. His eyes clouded over, and he resorted to using spells that didn¡¯t need to be aimed. His free hand was placed over the hole in his chest, and his other hand continued to cast spells through his wand.


    ¡°Arminius!¡± a knight in golden armor shouted, approaching the injured figure. The figure launched a spell at the knight, but he wasn¡¯t able to see to aim, and he missed.


    The knight raised his sword directly over the figure¡¯s body and said, ¡°The age of magicians is over; the age of the martial way has begun!¡± He stabbed downward, cutting into the figure¡¯s neck and severing his head.

 Chapter 1 - The Day of Adulthood

    ¡°The way of the martialist is the path to godhood! Only through the way of the martialist can a human become a god!¡±


    The mantra of the martialist was something known to all the citizens of Hochland. From a young age, all children were taught their letters, numbers, and to respect martialists. In the town of Einburg, the strongest martialist was only in the Novice realm, but even the second realm of the martial way was enough to demand respect throughout the kingdom, much less the town!


    In the world, martialists worked their entire lives to progress through the Human, Novice, Apprentice, Adept, Expert, Master, Legendary, Mythical, and Godly realms. Nine realms with nine stages marked the path to becoming a god, and Andric was ready to start his journey!


    ¡°Andric, step forward. I will open your heart-lung meridian,¡± the instructor called, singling out a youth who sat near the back of the classroom.


    ¡°Yes, Instructor Hubert!¡± the youth named Andric stood and said, and he marched to the front of the classroom.


    Instructor Hubert looked at Andric¡¯s chest, seemingly peeking beneath the fabric. The younger students in the classroom were unaware of what Instructor Hubert was doing, but the rest were all aware. Spirit Sight! He was really using Spirit Sight! In the kingdom of Hochland, only a handful of martialists were capable of using Spirit Sight, but one of them called the small town of Einburg his home.


    The instructor viewed the inside of Andric¡¯s body, searching through his flesh and bones for the pathways that channeled spirit energy. There were many ways to open meridians, but the most efficient was to receive a spiritual wound at the meridian location, thereby dislodging the debris that usually blocked the meridian since birth. Having Spirit Sight made the process much easier, because Instructor Hubert didn¡¯t need to take precise measurements or try multiple times!


    Andric stood directly in front of Instructor Hubert. He steeled himself, knowing what would come next. He had seen several youths have their heart-lung meridian opened, and all of them described it as a painful experience.


    The next second, Instructor Hubert stabbed his finger into Andric¡¯s chest. His finger pierced half an inch into Andric¡¯s skin, then released a concentrated pulse of spirit energy. The released spirit energy impacted Andric¡¯s heart-lung meridian, bombarding the filth that clogged the inside. Instructor Hubert pulled his finger away, and Andric stood still for a few moments.


    If an experienced martialist was hit with a spirit energy attack, their meridians would feel it before their nervous system, and their ability to utilize their meridians would be lowered. But, if the person hit by the spirit energy attack wasn¡¯t an experienced martialist, they wouldn¡¯t feel anything from their meridians! In fact, many martialists went through hundreds of spirit energy attacks in order to dislodge the debris inside their meridians. In a real battle, spirit energy attacks were only used to kill opponents. In a controlled environment, they were used for unblocking meridians!


    Andric tried to feel the meridian inside his chest, but he lacked the Spirit Sight and Spirit Sense abilities. Although Spirit Sight was something he would¡¯ve needed to be born with, Spirit Sense was something all martialists could learn, although it would only allow him to see the spirit energy inside his own body. For the time being, Andric could only hope Instructor Hubert¡¯s spirit energy attack had worked.


    ¡°You can sit down. Your heart-lung meridian won¡¯t be fully opened for another few hours. If successful, you will be able to meditate with the first rank of our town¡¯s Standing Tortoise Manual.¡±


    Andric bowed to the instructor, then returned to his seat at the back of the classroom. Although Instructor Hubert was known to open meridians with incredible precision, he wasn¡¯t someone who gave out meditation techniques. Most townspeople of Einburg bought the Standing Tortoise Manual from the town hall, but some had meditation techniques passed down through their family. However, Andric¡¯s family had a special circumstance, and he was able to obtain the Standing Tortoise Manual for free.


    Andric couldn¡¯t pay attention for the rest of the lesson. While Instructor Hubert was teaching about medicinal plants, Andric was focused on his own body, trying his hardest to sense the energy that moved within him. For his entire life, he had tried to sense the spirit energy that supposedly existed within all living creatures, but he never could.


    After the lesson was over, Andric ran to the town hall. He had lived in Einburg for fifteen years, and he knew the town and its surrounding areas like the back of his hand. The town hall was an area he knew particularly well, and it was almost like a second home to him.


    ¡°Hello, Miss Erminhilt!¡± Andric greeted the lady sitting beside the entrance to the town hall. She was a few years older than Andric, and her long blonde hair caught the gazes of many men. Regardless of that, it was known throughout Einburg that Miss Erminhilt had never had a male suitor, and many men thought their chances with her were somewhere between zero and impossible.


    ¡°Hi, Andric. Today isn¡¯t a grain day, is it?¡± However, Miss Erminhilt was very friendly with Andric, and her friends commonly teased that she had a crush on him. Her mother helped Andric¡¯s mother when she was younger, and that interaction started Miss Erminhilt¡¯s fondness for Andric. From his birth until the present, she had watched him grow up.


    ¡°No, not today. I¡¯m actually here for the Standing Tortoise Manual,¡± Andric replied.


    ¡°That? If you here for that, it means today¡¯s your birthday!¡± Miss Erminhilt said. She stood up and hugged Andric. ¡°Why do you try to keep these things secret? Happy birthday!¡±


    Andric hugged her back and said, ¡°I just don¡¯t think it¡¯s a big deal. I¡¯m a year older, so what?¡±


    Miss Erminhilt yet go of Andric and sat back down, turning her head to the side. ¡°Hmpf. Go get your little manual or whatever. I¡¯ll be out here, not celebrating anybody¡¯s birthday or anything.¡±This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    Andric laughed on the inside and strolled past Miss Erminhilt. He knew that most families in the town celebrated birthdays from one to fifteen, but Andric and his family never celebrated a single one. Miss Erminhilt knew the month of Andric¡¯s birthday, but he never told her the exact date. The date had even been scrubbed the town hall¡¯s records.


    The town hall was - as implied by the name - a long hall. The hall had many tables and chairs for townspeople to sit at during meetings, but it was presently empty. Andric walked to the very end of the hall and opened a door, leading into the next room. The next room was the town hall¡¯s storage, where the Standing Tortoise Manuals were kept along with a few other miscellaneous objects. Andric took one of the books, then turned around and left.


    As he passed, Miss Erminhilt, he stopped to say, ¡°There won¡¯t be a party, but if you¡¯d make me a cake, I¡¯d definitely receive it.¡±


    Miss Erminhilt smiled and said nothing, and Andric walked away. He walked to the end of the street, then starting running home. The day still had plenty of time, but Andric wanted to spend as much time as possible perusing the Standing Tortoise Manual. He returned home after a few minutes of running, and he went straight to his room on the second floor of the house.


    Andric sat on his bed and opened the Standing Tortoise Manual. The language of the book was Empyrean Standard, which was what most of the kingdoms in the Western Continent used. It was a relic of an old empire, and it remained in use long after the empire was dissolved. When Andric first encountered the language, he found it slightly familiar, and he learned it quickly.


    Meditation techniques were how martialists gathered spirit energy from the heaven and earth and used it to empower their own body. For every meridian a martialist had open, their rate of gathering spirit energy increased. If a martialist had all twenty-four major meridians and thirty-six minor meridians opened, they would have what was referred to as a Heavenly Channel Body. Many martialists dreamed to one day achieve the Heavenly Channel Body, and they all started with a single meridian open.


    Andric read the Standing Tortoise Manual, then circulated the spirit energy inside his body. Just as the manual said, he could feel energy entering his body from the atmosphere. The energy entered his body, flowed through his heart-lung meridian, and exited his body. Along the way, it tempered the flesh around his heart-lung meridian, giving him a stronger heart and lung.


    ¡°So, this is spirit energy?¡± he asked the empty room. In his entire life, it was his first time feeling the mysterious energy. He could only feel a sliver of the energy inside him, but he definitely felt something.


    For several hours, Andric did nothing but meditate with the Standing Tortoise Manual. A stream of energy gradually formed around him, circulating through his body. Each time the energy passed through him, it made him stronger, and it opened his heart-lung meridian a tiny bit more.


    As the evening drew nearer, Andric was interrupted by someone knocking on his bedroom door.


    ¡°Andric, it¡¯s time for dinner,¡± a young woman softly spoke, and Andric immediately recognized her.


    ¡°Yes, mother!¡± he quickly said, and he put away the Standing Tortoise Manual. He stood up and inspected his clothes, then followed his mother to the kitchen.


    The dinner table was already set, and Andric¡¯s maternal grandparents were helping themselves to the food Andric¡¯s mother had cooked.


    ¡°Alda, sit down, let Andric serve you,¡± Andric¡¯s grandfather said and waved for his daughter to sit. Although they lived together, Andric¡¯s grandfather didn¡¯t have a good opinion of him, and Andric didn¡¯t expect him to change.


    ¡°Right, let me get the food for you,¡± Andric said, and he held out Alda¡¯s chair for her.


    ¡°Okay, thank you,¡± Alda meekly said and said, and Andric pushed her chair in. He took a bowl from the kitchen cabinets and filled it with some grain porridge, then added a few boiled vegetables on top, and he placed the bowl in front of Alda. He made himself a similar bowl, then sat next to Alda.


    Andric¡¯s relationship with his grandparents was less than nominal. They had once tried to sell him to a group of slavers, but Alda had caught them before Andric could be shipped away. Before that, Alda had always been distant with him, but the event had shown him that she truly was his mother. From then on, he disregarded his relationship with his grandparents, and he did his best to help his mother with whatever she needed.


    Andric only learned about what his mother¡¯s past a few years ago. At that time, a few kids from around the town had attempted to bully him into submission, but none of their taunts worked. In the end, they brought up the matter of Andric¡¯s father. Andric had never seen his father, and he always assumed his father had died before he was born. After learning about his father, Andric understood why Gasto and Roza hated his existence, and why Alda was so sheltered.


    After the meal, Andric cleaned the table and the dishes. Once he was finished, he returned to his bedroom, and he resumed practicing the Standing Tortoise Manual. He practiced for a couple more hours, then was interrupted, again.


    Alda stood at his door and said, ¡°Erminhilt is downstairs. She says she has something for you.¡±


    ¡°Thank you. I¡¯ll go meet her,¡± Andric said, and he put down the Standing Tortoise Manual and exited his room. He walked ahead of his mother and descended to the first floor, where he immediately saw Erminhilt in the sitting room, in a chair and talking to Roza.


    Erminhilt had a package wrapped in cloth in her lap, and she turned away from Roza to greet Andric, ¡°I hope I didn¡¯t interrupt you.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± Andric said. He walked to the chair next to Erminhilt, and she stood to give him the cloth-wrapped package. Andric took it and sat, where he untied the cloth wrapping. Under the wrapping was a small wooden box, and the wooden box contained a tiny round cake. It was enough for about ten bites. ¡°Thank you.¡±


    Andric retrieved a spoon from the kitchen, then returned to eat the cake. The four family members and Erminhilt sat in the sitting room, and all of them but Andric lightly chatted. Andric listened to their conversations, but they weren¡¯t anything he wanted to interject his opinion in. Andric¡¯s grandparents asked Erminhilt about her job at the town hall, and Erminhilt asked them about their work in the fields.


    Eventually, the Erminhilt steered the conversation toward Andric¡¯s childhood. The young man himself knew it was a tough subject for his grandparents, but Erminhilt didn¡¯t know the extent to which Andric¡¯s grandparents loathed him.


    He quickly scooped up the last piece of cake onto his spoon and held it out for Erminhilt. She saw the cake and allowed Andric to feed it to her, bringing a smile to her face. While she chewed, Andric stood and said, ¡°It¡¯s getting late. I¡¯ll walk you home.¡±


    ¡°Alright,¡± Erminhilt said after swallowing the cake. She stood and took the box and cloth from Andric, and the two of them walked out of the house.


    They walked a short distance down the road, neither looking at the other for very long.


    ¡°Happy birthday.¡±


    ¡°Thanks.¡±


    Andric walked Erminhilt to her door, then returned home. He went to his bedroom, closed the door, and laid on his bed. He stared up at the ceiling and thought, ¡®Fifteen years after my reincarnation, and I still haven¡¯t met a single magician. I guess the age of magicians truly is over.¡¯

 Chapter 2 - Cultivating the First Rank of the Standing Tortoise Manual

    Meditation techniques were sold throughout the kingdom, but the most efficient ones were kept locked up by powerful clans. In the kingdom of Hochland, the Standing Tortoise Manual was considered a low-tier mediation technique. It was only profound enough to last a martialist from the Human realm to the Apprentice realm. Nonetheless, Andric studied the manual as if it were a sacred text.


    In his previous life, Andric had reached the apex of magical power, but he had still been killed by martialists. In order to surpass the martialists in his second life, he needed to first understand how their energy system worked.


    Andric¡¯s mage worked by utilizing mana and thought energy. Instead of developing meridians, magicians developed an arcane core, which generated mana. That mana would then be imbued with thought energy, which would turn the mana into spells.


    Martialists were entirely different from magicians. Instead of using an artificial organ to store their spirit energy, martialists stored their spirit energy throughout their enter body. When a martialist wanted to use one of their abilities, they only needed to will their body into motion. Conversely, a magician needed to access their mana, imbue the mana with thought energy, and release the spell. When the two activation sequences were analyzed, martialists clearly had a much faster method!


    Andric¡¯s heart-lung meridian was open, and he could sense a faint amount of spirit energy moving through it. According to Instructor Hubert, the rate that someone could absorb spirit energy was set by heritage. If Andric¡¯s parents had reached a high realm of the martial way before they had him, he would be able to absorb spirit energy faster than otherwise. According to Instructor Hubert, there was no way to change the rate of spirit energy absorption after birth.


    Andric, however, took Instructor Hubert¡¯s words with a grain of salt. He knew that there was nothing in the world that was impossible to change, and there was no person more suited for making discoveries about spirit energy and meridians than himself. For the first night, Andric practiced the Standing Tortoise Manual without trying to alter the technique.


    The next day came, and Andric proceeded like he had done for the past few years. He woke up, bathed outside, and went to Instructor Hubert¡¯s class. He no long needed to attend Instructor Hubert¡¯s class after turning fifteen, but most town youths stayed for one additional year. Then, after sixteen, most town youths found work or left for greener pastures.


    Instructor Hubert¡¯s classes mostly taught general knowledge. He seldom talked about the martial way, but all of his insights were useful to Andric. The subjects of numbers and letters were unneeded by Andric, but there was no telling when Instructor Hubert might impart some of his martialist wisdom on the class, and so Andric needed to attend every lesson. This was, in fact, a technique used by Instructor Hubert to make sure more students attended his lessons.


    In the town of Einburg, there were between ten and twenty babies born every year, but half of them died before their fifth birthday. Of the five-to-ten that survived, only one or two would have the capability to practice the Standing Tortoise Manual until its second rank. For many, they would struggle with comprehending the first rank, and their martial stage would remain unchanged inside the Human realm.


    Andric, with the experiences from his previous life, had no issue comprehending the secrets of the Standing Tortoise Manual. He wondered why the meditation technique used obscure wording, but he guessed it was an anti-theft measure so that someone couldn¡¯t copy the text after reading it a single time.


    After Instructor Hubert¡¯s class was over, Andric rushed home and resumed practicing the Standing Tortoise Manual. In less than twenty-four hours, he had deciphered the entire first rank of the meditation technique, and he chanted its mantra while sitting cross legged on his bed.


    All humans started at the first stage of the Human realm. At that stage, their body could only absorb meager amounts of spirit energy, and the use of martial techniques was impossible. If Andric reached Human realm second stage, his strength would increase, but only by a small amount. In the whole Human realm, the strength increase that came from each stage increase was only equivalent to what someone could gain by working out. Only the Novice realm and above had benefits that exceeded the capabilities of normal humans.


    Andric knew the limitations of the Human realm, so he set his sights on the knowledge he could learn from practicing the meditation technique. At his current level, his magical spells were far superior to whatever attacks he could muster with his physical body. Although it would out him as a magician, Andric would sooner use magic to save his life than martial techniques.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    In Andric¡¯s previous life, there were no realms or stages in the martial way. Back then, martialists grew stronger at a steady pace, sometimes transcending the limits of the human body without even knowing it. With the creation of mediation techniques came the realms and stages, which helped martialists keep track of how strong they were.


    Andric pulled in energy from the atmosphere by using the Standing Tortoise Manual, but he couldn¡¯t discern how much stronger his body was getting. His body would suddenly become stronger once he reached the second stage of the Human realm, but he had no way to know how long that would take.


    After meditating for the second day in a row, Andric no longer needed to refer to the Standing Tortoise Manual to ensure he had the correct form and breathing technique. He sat in a peaceful environment, separated his thoughts from the outside world, and focused on the vision of a sturdy tortoise standing against the winds of a vast plain. The winds blew unceasingly, but the tortoise refused to enter its shell and lay on the ground. It stood arrogantly, unwilling to withdraw.


    At first, Andric analysed the scene described in the Standing Tortoise Manual for its probability. If a tortoise was standing in a harsh wind and didn¡¯t have anywhere it go, it was stupid for it to not retreat into its shell. Over several hours, Andric practiced the Standing Tortoise Manual without appreciating with.


    Once Andric looked past the absurdity of the tortoise standing in the wind, he began to understand what the Standing Tortoise Manual was really about. The Standing Tortoise Manual was an ode to all who stood against adversity using nothing but their strength, instead of the defenses they were gifted at birth. It represented humanity¡¯s ability to grow stronger and overcome challenges that were easier to simply avoid.


    Sitting in cross legged, taking deep breaths, chanting the mantra, and imagining the scene were all it took to circulate spirit energy, but it was an entirely different matter to absorb spirit energy! Only when Andric truly understood the Standing Tortoise Manual did his body being to absorb spirit energy! He had thought he was absorbing spirit energy the entire time, but the difference was quite clear.


    Spirit energy rushed into Andric¡¯s body and flowed along his heart-lung meridian. Instead of immediately flowing back out of his body, it then seeped into his flesh. With every second that Andric continued to practice the Standing Tortoise Manual, his body took in more spirit energy, and it flowed further along his heart-lung meridian.


    Without him knowing, two days passed. On the third day, six days after having received the Standing Tortoise Manual from the town hall, Andric opened his eyes. He hopped off his bed, then punched toward his bedroom wall. His fist shot out with great speed, surprising himself.


    ¡°Human realm second stage?¡± he asked himself, not quite believing it. He felt a pulse of energy surged through his body, and he suspected it was his arrival at the second stage of the Human realm, but he couldn¡¯t be sure. However, regardless, his strength had definitely increased! Just standing and punching once, he already felt noticeably stronger! His body felt lighter, and his limbs moved with more fluidity. If there was a similar increase of strength at every stage, it could become intoxicating!


    When properly using the Standing Tortoise Manual, all the flesh in Andric¡¯s body became stronger. Spirit energy could only absorb into his body from his heart-lung meridian, but, after being absorbed into his body, it diffused evenly around his body.


    Andric changed his clothes and went downstairs. He looked outside, and it was already afternoon. His mother sat in the sitting room, snacking on a dried piece of root.


    ¡°Andric, did you make any progress?¡± she asked, feeling hopeful.


    ¡°I think so,¡± Andric nodded and replied.


    ¡°That¡¯s good. You were in your room for three days, so you must be hungry. I¡¯ll cook something for you,¡± Alda said, and she stood up.


    The length of three days surprised Andric. In the past ten years, he hadn¡¯t missed more than a single day in a row of Instructor Hubert¡¯s lessons, but here he had missed three. Not only that, but he hadn¡¯t eaten or drinken anything in that time. As soon as Alda mentioned it, Andric¡¯s stomach felt weak, and his lips were parched.


    ¡°I¡¯m going to get water,¡± he said, and he exited the house. A well wasn¡¯t too far away, and Andric pulled up some water to drink. He swallowed a few mouthfuls, then looked down at the bucket and thought about the past.


    Reaching the second stage of the Human realm had filled Andric with a sense of power. He could see while martialists would think their system of power was better than that of magicians. There was something primal about increasing the increase in strength that also increased his confidence. It felt good to punch with greater force than the day before, and magic couldn¡¯t replicate that internal feeling.


    The water from the bottom of the well was cold, and Andric splashed some of it on his face before returning inside.

 Chapter 3 - The Smallest Faction

    Andric practiced the Standing Tortoise Manual for the rest of the day. In a little under three days of constant meditation, he had reached the second stage of the Human realm; such talent was unheard of in Einburg, but it wasn¡¯t something to be joyous of. Andric¡¯s grandparents would¡¯ve been ecstatic if their grandchild had been born under normal circumstances. In their eyes, Andric¡¯s talent was merely a small redeeming quality of his. At least with his progression through the martial way, he would be able to earn the family more money.


    The next day, Andric attended Instructor Hubert¡¯s class, and he was stopped by the instructor as soon as he entered the classroom.


    ¡°Second stage! I was wondering why you were gone for so long!¡± Instructor Hubert walked up to Andric and said. He could see the spirit energy inside Andric¡¯s body with his Spirit Sight, making Andric¡¯s advancement to Human realm second stage obvious.


    ¡°Thank you,¡± Andric bowed to the instructor and glanced across the room. If he could help it, he would rather have his talent remain unknown to the rest of the townspeople, but there was no helping the instructor¡¯s sudden statement. Several town youths had heard the instructor, and they were sure to spread the news around.


    ¡°Don¡¯t start slacking, now. If having a little bit of martial talent makes you think you don¡¯t need to attend lessons, you¡¯re mistaken!¡± Instructor Hubert laughed and said.


    ¡°I won¡¯t!¡± Andric replied, and he took his seat at the back of the classroom.


    For the past fifteen years, Andric hid most of his capabilities. When he was young, he couldn¡¯t stand crawling on the floor and babbling, so he skipped directly to walking and talking. This action made Andric¡¯s reputation in the town soar, but it also earned the ire of parents who wanted their own children to be superior. When Andric showed a hint of being a genius, the townspeople were eager to bring up his past! Once the town youths around his age learned that he had advanced to the second stage of the Human realm in less than a week, they would surely try to do something to prop up their own egos.


    A few minutes later, a group of six boys entered the classroom and sat at the back, near Andric. Four of them were fourteen, and the other two were fifteen. Of the fifteen year olds, only one of them had reached Human realm second stage, and he had been practicing the Standing Tortoise Manual for several months. A youth from the front of the classroom scurried to the back, whispered something to the group of six bodys, and ran back to his seat. At that moment, the group of six boys stared at Andric with looks of hostility.


    ¡®I was right!¡¯


    Andric had read the thoughts of the six boys like a book, but his options were severely limited. As a reincarnated magician, he obviously held much more power than six children, but there were much larger entities at play than a few town youths. If Andric ever revealed himself to be a magician, he would instantly become an enemy of Hochland! Therefore, using magic was forbidden!


    When Andric¡¯s previous life was ended, magicians and martialists were at war. It was too risky for him to out himself as a magician without knowing how the current political climate faired for magicians. If he used magic to defend himself from the six boys, he could very well face retaliation from a hundred thousand Hochland soldiers, or more!


    Furthermore, in addition to not being able to use magic, Andric couldn¡¯t use violence. His martial progressed made him stronger than five of the six boys, but he was weaker than the sixth. Also, even if Andric could fight equally against the six boys, he still had to worry about their boys¡¯ parents and relatives. Most families in Einburg had between three and ten children. However, Andric was an only-child! While the six boys had older brothers they could receive assistance from, Andric had nobody!


    Andric spent the class period thinking about what the six boys would do after class. If he was lucky, they would get up and walk out without saying anything to him. If he was unlucky, they would want to prove their superiority to his face.


    The class eventually came to an end, and Andric saw the six boys beginning to approach him, but he was saved by Instructor Hubert!


    ¡°Andric, to congratulate you on your stage advancement, I¡¯ll open your lung-diaphragm meridian,¡± the instructor said. He paused for a second, and he spoke before one of the six boys around Andric could angrilly speak up, ¡°If anyone else can advance to Human realm second stage in less than a month, I¡¯ll also open a second meridian for them.¡±


    Instructor Hubert¡¯s words silenced anyone who was about to complain. Although Instructor Hubert could easily open meridians, he never opened a second meridian for free. Although townspeople could pay Instructor Hubert to open one of their meridians, nobody had enough talent to warrant it. In the last ten years, Instructor Hubert had strictly opened one meridian per townsperson!


    Instructor Hubert wasn¡¯t withholding the use of his ability for no reason. Using spirit energy attacks was easy for someone in the Novice realm, and Instructor Hubert was limited in how many he could perform each day. Secondly, he needed to earn money somehow! This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    If Instructor Hubert opened meridians for free, nobody would pay him to do it! Though none of the native townspeople would pay for it, outstanding talents from outside the town would frequently come to Einburg with chests full of silver coins specifically to employ Instructor Hubert¡¯s ability.


    There were a myriad of other reasons why Instructor Hubert didn¡¯t open meridians for free. But, when he considered the circumstances of Andric¡¯s birth and his talent, he allowed Andric to have a second meridian opened for free.


    Andric stood and bowed and said, ¡°Thank you.¡±


    To his sides, the six boys glared menacingly at him, but they couldn¡¯t touch him while they were inside the classroom. As long as no adult was watching the six boys could do whatever they wanted to Andric, but Instructor Hubert stayed in the classroom following his lesson, interrupting the six boys¡¯ plans.


    Andric walked to the front of the classroom, but Instructor Hubert did not immediately begin opening his lung-diaphragm meridian. Instead, he said, ¡°Let¡¯s wait until the classroom is empty.¡±


    They waited a few minutes for the younger students to shuffle out of the classroom, and finally it was just Andric and Instructor Hubert. While Andric was anxious to have his second meridian opened, he knew he would have to face the six boys once he exited the classroom. The longer he took, the further away Andric¡¯s encounter with the six boys would become. Instructor Hubert also knew this, so he took his time.


    ¡°To reach the second stage in less than a week is excellent in a small town like Einburg, but it¡¯s nothing compared to the true talents in Mahtzig. Three years ago, a son in the Blanchard Clan reached Human realm second stage in less than an afternoon!¡±


    Instructor Hubert¡¯s statement shocked Andric. Even though he had knowledge from a previous life, it still took him almost a week to advance to Human realm second stage. If an ordinary child in a powerful clan could achieve the same in a fraction of the time, it just went to show how important it was to have natural talent.


    What Instructor Hubert didn¡¯t tell Andric was that the Blanchard Clan was a clan of renown generals in the history of Hochland, and that particular son had been a once-in-a-century genius! Normally, even a clan of generals would have a difficult time reaching the second stage of the Human realm in less than a week, but Instruct Hubert wasn¡¯t going to tell that to Andric.


    ¡°I¡¯ll continue to work hard,¡± Andric said.


    ¡°Good. Now, I¡¯ll open your lung-diaphragm meridian,¡± Instructor Hubert said, and he turned to face Andric. He looked at Andric¡¯s abdomen with Spirit Sight, then stabbed the location between Andric¡¯s lung, heart, and diaphragm. His finger sank a short distance into Andric flesh, then he activated his spirit energy attack. Ten seconds after it started, it was over.


    Andric winced in pain, but he refused to make a sound. He focused on the inside of his body, but he didn¡¯t learn anything from observing Instructor Hubert¡¯s actions. He thought he might learn something from the way Instructor Hubert cleared his meridians that would allow him to clear his own meridians, but it was futile. Perhaps, if he gained better control over spirit energy and spirit sense, he would be able to work something out.


    Once Andric¡¯s lung-diaphragm meridian was opened, Instructor Hubert sat at his desk. He allowed Andric a few seconds to recuperate from having his body stabbed, then reminded him, ¡°Don¡¯t slack off.¡±


    ¡°I won¡¯t,¡± Andric replied, and he exited the classroom.


    As expected, the six boys from earlier were waiting a short distance away. They stood outside a shop, chewing on thick stalks of sweetgrass. At first glance, they looked like ordinary town youths who spent their allowances on candy, but Andric knew they were waiting for him. Further away, in various locations, other youths from the classroom were sticking around to watch the inevitable confrontation.


    Andric had no reason to fear the six boys, but he did feel aggravation. He wanted to return home to continue practicing the Standing Tortoise Manual, but a few jealous children wanted to start a ruckus.


    The first boy to approach Andric was the leader of their group and the oldest, Audovacar. He wore farmer¡¯s clothes, and his body was strong from doing field work for most of his life. In terms of physical strength, he would exceed Andric even if Andric was at Human realm third stage.


    Andric¡¯s only method of fighting Audovacar was through words. Contrary to many types of fights, the upper hand in a battle of words was gained through speaking second. Whatever Audovacar said, Andric needed to twist the meaning and make Audovacar seem like an idiot. Directly insulting him would work, but too much provocation would incite a battle of fists, which Andric did not want.


    ¡°Last night, my father said he would teach me his Ground Plowing Stomp. It¡¯s a Human realm second stage martial technique, so not just anyone can learn it,¡± Audovacar spoke among his group, although loud enough for Andric to hear it. He then said, louder, ¡°Andric, does your father have any martial techniques to teach you?¡± Half a second later, he pretended to catch himself making a mistake, and he appended, ¡°Oh, I forgot that you don¡¯t have a father.¡±


    Audovacar went straight for the classic: bringing up Andric¡¯s father. There wasn¡¯t anyone in Einburg who didn¡¯t know about Andric¡¯s lack of a father, and the issue had plagued him for his entire life. The insult was as basic as it could get, and it meant Audovacar hadn¡¯t thought through what he was going to insult Andric with.


    Andric immediately replied, ¡°Is that a sparring technique? Well, you two have fun plowing each other,¡± and walked away.


    Audovacar and two of his flunkies were shocked. Besides them, nobody knew what Andric¡¯s euphemism meant, and the insult had gone over the heads. In short, it was the perfect comeback.


    If Audovacar were to get overly upset, the others around him would look deeper into what Andric said, and they would eventually discover the homosexual insinuation. If this happened, Audovacar would be faced with untold embarrassment. At least for the moment, Audovacar would pretend nothing had been said, and he could save some face, but he would have to deal with the knowledge that he took Andric¡¯s insult without returning anything.


    Audovacar¡¯s inward perception and outward perception were clashing, and he ended up letting Andric walk away without any further dispute.

 Chapter 4 - Lost Youth

    Andric returned home. He had no business inside the town, and he didn¡¯t work in the fields with his grandparents or mother. Besides practicing the Standing Tortoise Manual, Andric had no other pressing matters. He needed to get strong as quickly as possible, and his lack of obligations made it easy to find time to cultivate.


    But, even though Andric had no reason to seek out the other townspeople, they had reasons to seek out him. That night, nothing happened. The next night, a group of townspeople from the older generation arrived outside Andric¡¯s home. They were mostly farmers with minimal say in the town¡¯s governance, but two were businessmen from the inner town, who happened to be relatives of Audovacar¡¯s friends.


    As soon as Andric saw the small gathering, he knew they were there to make trouble. It wasn¡¯t unknown to him that many of the townspeople thought he had no right to be born, and the handouts Alda and him received made some townspeople jealous. In Einburg, everyone had to work for their meals except Alda. She had the favor of the town¡¯s mayor, and he gave Alda many free benefits. The Standing Tortoise Manual was one benefit, as well as a weekly bag of grain.


    In the past, Alda could defend Andric by saying he was only a child, and the mayor could defend Alda by saying her parents had worked for the town for a long time and deserved a little help in their time of need. Now that Andric had turned fifteen and was technically an adult according to Hochland law, Andric didn¡¯t know what would happen.


    If the townspeople wanted to chase him away and stop the charity Alda received, there wasn¡¯t much of a moral reason to dispute them; after all, it had been fifteen years since Alda¡¯s trama.


    The townspeople of Einburg weren¡¯t stupid, and they wouldn¡¯t allow themselves to be taken advantage of for so many years without complaining. When Einburg was only a village, it wasn¡¯t too difficult for one or two families to receive help from town hall. However, now that the village had turned into a town with several hundred residents, there needed to be regulations placed on who could receive what when.


    The townspeople did not want residents becoming lazy and asking for handouts with Alda as a reference for when it had been done in the past. In the history of Einburg, nobody had gotten free bags of grain for fifteen years, and the townspeople who had to pick up the slack weren¡¯t going to let it happen again.


    ¡°Hey, Alda, I want to talk to that boy of yours,¡± an adult townsperson from Alda¡¯s generation stepped up to the door of Andric¡¯s home and said. The walls were hardly soundproof, and it was easy to hear the man¡¯s voice throughout the house.


    Andric had known the group of townspeople were gathering for a few minutes, but he remained in his bedroom, sitting on his bed and reading the Standing Tortoise Manual. Gasto and Roza were with Alda in the sitting room. They were hesitant to confront the group of townspeople.


    ¡°That boy is nothing but trouble,¡± Gasto said and leaned back in his chair. He had never thought highly of Andric, but he couldn¡¯t be happy about a group of townspeople gathering outside his home. Although he wanted Andric gone, he wanted it to be a farewell Alda was comfortable with.


    ¡°If they want to talk about him, they should talk to him. He¡¯s an adult, he can speak for himself,¡± Roza added, similarly displeased at the mob outside her home.


    ¡°I¡¯ll go see what they want,¡± Alda said and stood, and she walked toward the front door.


    Andric knew that his grandparents didn¡¯t want him around, and he knew that most of the townspeople around him weren¡¯t fond of him, but he didn¡¯t care. To him, the only person whose opinion mattered was his mother. He could put up with ridicule and abuse as long as his mother still wanted him to stay.


    Staying in Einburg was merely a choice of convenience. In Einburg, Andric had a relatively safe place to practice meditation techniques and learn about the world. If he left earlier, there was no telling when he could¡¯ve acquired a treasure like the Standing Tortoise Manual or had someone as generous as Instructor Hubert open two of his meridians. In Einburg, Andric had food, shelter, and information. He originally planned to stay in Einburg for another year, but leaving early wouldn¡¯t cause any harm.


    Andric paused his cultivation, but he stayed in his bedroom, while Alda went to talk to the townspeople outside the house. She opened the door and asked them, ¡°What do you want to talk about?¡±


    ¡°I just want to ask you one question, when are you going to move on?¡± the townsperson asked and backed away, melding with the group of townspeople.


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Alda asked.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    ¡°Listen, I¡¯m gonna tell you that nobody is blaming you for anything. We know that having Andric wasn¡¯t your choice. But, you can¡¯t sit at home and let your parents and the town take care of you forever. At some point, you need to realize that nothing is going to change what happened in the past, and that kid is now an adult who should be spending his days working,¡± a man said, earning some words of agreement from the townspeople behind him.


    Alda, standing flustered in the doorway of her home, was unable to think of a response for several seconds, in which time her parents walked up and stood behind her. Gasto said a word in her ear, then she said, ¡°I know. I know I¡¯ve spent a lot of time trying to get back to where I was at before, but now I¡¯m too old to be that young girl. I think the worst thing is all the time I¡¯ve lost. If I was stronger, I could¡¯ve resumed my life when I was seventeen, but I¡¯m now thirty-two and still in the same place.¡±


    Alda¡¯s words were filled with deep shame. She thought every day about where she might be if she hadn¡¯t encountered Andric¡¯s father, if she had aborted Andric when he was still inside her, or if she had allowed her parents to sell him to slavers. There wasn¡¯t a day that passed without her wondering where her life could¡¯ve gone. She learned to pretend that it didn¡¯t bother her, but she couldn¡¯t forget.


    Many of the townspeople who gathered around Alda¡¯s home knew her when she was a child, and some of them had grown up next to her. They sympathised with her, but even so, they had a limit to what they could excuse. In many of their minds, Alda had wasted the latter half of her life. More than they wanted Andric to stop receiving the charity of the town, they wanted Alda to move on with her life. She had lived thirty-two years, and she could easily have another thirty years afterward. The townspeople of Einburg didn¡¯t want Alda¡¯s entire life to be weighed down by Andric.


    The younger generation of Einburg came to Alda¡¯s home because they hated Andric, but the older generation came because they were worried about Alda. Her refusal to abort Andric as a fetus had made some townspeople annoyed with her, but they could never blame or despise her.


    ¡°Alda, whatever you need, we¡¯re here for you. But, we aren¡¯t here to help that bastard child. You need to decide: either the two of you start working, or he leaves with the next merchant caravan,¡± the man said, giving Alda only two choices. ¡°We didn¡¯t want to do this, but it¡¯s the only way to help you move on.¡±


    Forcing Alda to move on with her life was no simple task. She had stayed at home and worked only occasionally for the past fifteen years, and her routine had changed very little. For the first few years, Alda didn¡¯t leave her house or talk to anyone. When she did go outside, she wouldn¡¯t walk more than ten steps away. Only when Andric had gone missing did she finally leave the area around her house. Andric couldn¡¯t be carried away like he could when he was just an infant, but something similar needed to happen.


    Merchant caravans came to Einburg every few months. They usually had between twenty and one hundred people in them, including merchants, guards, and travelers moving to new cities. Whenever a merchant caravan came to Einburg, the merchants restocked on grain and water, and the townspeople bought the things they could make themselves. The price to tag along with the caravan was zero, but the cost to join one of their wagons was measured in silver coins. The cost couldn¡¯t be bared by Alda and her parents, but it was a small price for the town to have Andric gone.


    Alda¡¯s parents would be happy to send Andric away. If possible, they would like to send him to one of the border regions, where he could join the military and die on a battlefield. Then, they would earn a silver coin for each month he had served. That way, they would get something back from having raised Andric for fifteen years. Anywhere he went, they would at least get him out of Alda¡¯s life.


    For the last sixteen years, Andric had weighed Alda down like a ball and chain. Even with the ball attached to her, she could still move slowly. If she encountered something that made her want to run away, she wouldn¡¯t be able to return to where she started from. Without the ball and chain, she could go much farther, but she could also retreat deeper.


    As long as Andric was with her, Alda¡¯s life was stable. The townspeople knew they needed to interrupt her peacefulness, but they were restricted in their methods. They would never harm Alda, so their only option was to harm Andric. Exiling Andric would undoubtedly change Alda¡¯s routine, so much so that she might find a job on her own accord.


    Alda thought for a while, then meekly asked, ¡°Can you help him get to Mahtzig?¡±


    ¡°He can go wherever the next merchant caravan is headed. If they¡¯re going to the capital, we¡¯ll pay for his trip,¡± the townsperson replied reassuringly. The mood among the crowd lightened after Alda asked her question, because it sounded like she was going to agree to sending Andric away.


    ¡°If you can do that, I won¡¯t have to worry,¡± Alda said, and relief washed over the crowd. Finally, after fifteen years, they had succeeded in convincing Alda to let go of Andric.


    Alda didn¡¯t believe she could force Andric to leave the town, but she knew she didn¡¯t need to. In the past ten years, there hadn¡¯t been a single instance where Andric refused something Alda asked from him. If she asked him to leave, she knew he would do so. Although Andric was quite reserved as a child, he was talented in many aspects, and he had no issue adapting to change.


    Of course, Alda wouldn¡¯t be willing to send Andric away if it meant never seeing him again. Mahtzig was a safe city at the heart of the kingdom, far from any battlefields. For someone like Andric, there would be plenty of work. Many townspeople of Einburg had heard about how marvelous the capital was, and a fair portion of the town¡¯s younger generation moved there when they became adults.


    Alda had a brother in Mahtzig, which she hoped could help Andric if Andric got into trouble. It was a long stretch, seeing how none of Alda¡¯s family treated Andric like a member of the family, but it was better than sending Andric to a random city where she had no connections.

 Chapter 5 - Preparations for Departure

    Andric heard the conversation between his mother and the townspeople, but he never left the second of the house. He stayed in his room, listening intently to whatever Alda said. In the end, only her opinion really mattered, but it was unfortunate that she was so easily swayed. In his heart, Andric wondered if Alda actually wanted him to leave before the townspeople said anything about it, but she hadn''t ever brought up the topic before.


    The townspeople departed, and Alda returned to the sitting room with her parents to discuss a few things. Once they finished their talking, Alda headed upstairs, to Andric¡¯s room. Andric heard her movement, and he sat on his bed, removing all expressions from his face.


    ¡°Did you hear what we were talking about?¡± Alda leaned through the doorway to Andric¡¯s room and asked. She felt ready to speak to Andric when she was at the bottom of the stairs, but, standing in the doorway, she suddenly felt apprehensive. She gave birth to Andric and raised him for fifteen years, and now she was going to ask him to leave his home; it wasn¡¯t something she had ever done before, and it made her uncomfortable.


    ¡°Yes,¡± Andric replied, not looking at his mother. His voice was solemn, precisely because he knew the topic was something that needed to be treated carefully. Although being kicked out of the town wasn¡¯t the end of the world, it was the end of a peaceful stretch of time. Once he left the safety of Einburg, Andric would need to fend for himself in the age of martialists.


    ¡°We think it would be good for you to go to Mahtzig. The capital is large and prosperous, and you¡¯ll be able to quickly find a job and provide for yourself. It¡¯s better than staying in this tiny town, right?¡± Alda said, ending with a half-hearted smile. When she was younger, she had been eager to leave Einburg and explore the world, but there was no doubt that her short journey had ended in a terrible way.


    The more Alda spoke, the more uneasy she appeared. When talking to Andric, the notion of him leaving the town seemed much more real than when she had talked to the townspeople or her parents. She gradually understood that Andric leaving the town would mean him leaving her protecting, and that frightened her. Even after fifteen years, she still viewed Andric as a delicate child.


    Andric looked up at his mother, then down at his hands. His progress in the Standing Tortoise Manual filled him with the strength of a Human realm second stage martialist, but it wasn¡¯t anywhere near enough to survive in the world. If he wanted to completely alleviate Alda¡¯s concerns, he would need to show her his magic. Alas, Andric vowed to not use his magic lightly, and easing Alda¡¯s heart was not something he wanted to risk being exposed as a magician over.


    Alda sat next to Andric on his bed, and he said to her, ¡°If it¡¯s what you want, I won¡¯t mind it.¡± After Andric¡¯s words, Alda reached over and hugged him, and they remained silent for a few minutes. They were both thinking about seperate things, and neither seemed like something they wanted to tell the other person.


    The most important thing to Alda was stability. She needed Andric to be safe, but she also needed to relieve the tension between Andric and the townspeople. Keeping Andric in Einburg would keep him safe from some external factions, but internal factions were growing more hostile by the year. Very few people in Einburg treated Andric with the respect that every human deserved, and that made his future in Einburg uncertain. If he left, he would have a clean slate wherever he went to. Alda knew she was sending Andric away for his own good, but she didn¡¯t know how to say it without sounding like a harsh mother.


    Andric, meanwhile, was thinking of how he would deal with opponents who crossed him. In kingdoms like Hochland, there were typically three dangerous areas: borders, untamed wilderness, and cities. If he was in the wilderness, it would probably be fine to use magic, but, if he was in a place with people living there, it would be unsafe to use magic. In the end, Andric¡¯s restricting factors were which methods he could use to defeat his enemies. It would never occur to Alda that her son was thinking of ways to kill people.


    A journey of a thousand miles started with one step. Without saying anything else, Alda stood up and left the room, and Andric¡¯s fate was sealed.


    For the rest of the week, Alda talked with Andric about the world outside Einburg, and Alda¡¯s parents coordinated with the other townspeople to get enough silver coins to pay for Andric¡¯s trip. Joining a merchant caravan from Einburg to Mahtzig could cost between ten and thirty silver: a sum which could easily be assembled by the number of families who were supportive of Andric leaving the town.


    While Alda¡¯s parents and the townspeople were busy preparing for Andric to leave, the man himself was in his bedroom, practicing and memorizing the Standing Tortoise Manual, which he did not plan to bring with him. The meditation technique had been given to him for free, and its non-consumable nature made it an object he should give back once he was finished with.


    The information inside the Standing Tortoise Manual was needlessly wordy and obfuscated. Andric spent a great deal of time simplifying the manual, especially the second and third ranks, which would become useful if he reached the Novice and Apprentice realms of the martial way.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    With the Standing Tortoise Manual memorized, Andric went to Instructor Hubert and asked him questions about things he didn¡¯t understand. Unfortunately, although Instructor Hubert possessed the rare ability called Spirit Sight, he wasn¡¯t very accomplished in the martial way. Most of Andric¡¯s question had no answer, and the rest only had guesses or estimations.


    At the end of the week, the town receives news of when the next caravan would arrive: twenty-seven days. After being informed of the number of days, Andric felt like his hasty preparation was for nothing. With twenty-seven days remaining until he needed to leave, Andric had plenty of time to continue his cultivation. At the same time, twenty-seven days was enough time for the town youths to give their last efforts in aggravating Andric.


    ¡°If Andric doesn¡¯t know how to fight, how is he going to protect himself?¡± a town youth said to the group of youths who stood outside Instructor Hubert¡¯s classroom after the lesson ended. He was a part of Audovacar¡¯s group, and he was among the few that understood what Andric had insinuated during their last encounter.


    ¡°Hagano is right. We should all try to help him,¡± Audovacar agreed, responding as if he knew what Hagano was going to say before he spoke it.


    Twenty-or-so youths stood around where Audovacar and his gang intercepted Andric outside the classroom. The onlookers were students of varying ages, but all were younger than sixteen. The older youths persuaded the younger youths to stick around and watch. As the youths became younger, they had less strong opinions about Andric, but the influence from fellow townspeople had still affected them. Although none of the youths in the crowd were obscenely hostile toward him, none of them were friendly with him.


    Andric was surrounded, and he needed to respond. ¡°If you want to exchange pointers, do it with your little brothers,¡± he said and walked to the side of Audovacar¡¯s group, but Audovacar¡¯s group moved to block him.


    ¡°But, our little brothers aren¡¯t leaving the town in twenty-seven days!¡± Audovacar refuted.


    Out of the five youths from every age who survived to adulthood, one or two would leave the town. There were opportunities happening all across Hochland, and one only needed to go out and seize them. Of course, one needed the proper background and preparations, but even a farmer from Einburg could seek a fortune in Mahtzig. Alda¡¯s oldest brother had left Einburg with one of his friends, and the rest of her brothers left by following their oldest brother. Of the several of them, they had all been at least eighteen.


    ¡°Who says they need to be leaving the town? If you want to spar, it should with someone at your own level, like Alfbern,¡± Andric said and pointed to a seven-year-old child in the crowd. This made Alfbern step back as Audovacar and his group looked in his direction. Needless to say, Audovacar did not appreciate being compared to a seven-year-old who hadn¡¯t even reached the second stage of the Human realm.


    Out of all the townspeople in Einburg, Andric knew about two hundred names. Those included people he was friendly with, people he was hostile with, and the people he interacted with every day. The seven-year-old child Andric named was actually the son of one of the town guards, and his father had taught him many fighting techniques. Because of Alfbern¡¯s young age, opening meridians in his body would be dangerous, so he couldn¡¯t start practicing a meditation technique or learning martial techniques.


    ¡°Andric, if you can take five moves from me, I¡¯ll concede that you don¡¯t need any exchange of pointers,¡± Audovacar offered, turning back to Andric.


    Five moves sounded short, but it was actually very long! In battles between martialists, a single well-executed martial technique could mean victory. Andric hadn¡¯t been able to learn any martial techniques, but Audovacar knew the Ground Plowing Stomp. Between a Human realm second stage martialist without any martial techniques and a Human realm second stage martialist with a single martial technique, one of them held an obvious advantage.


    ¡°What¡¯s the point of your concession if we¡¯ve already fought?¡± Andric raised his hands to chest-height and asked. He sensed Audovacar getting angry, and he prepared to receive an attack at any moment.


    The townspeople of Einburg were easy to read, especially the youths. If it was Andric from his previous life, he would¡¯ve never allowed someone to talk to him or about him the way the townspeople did. In his new life, he had more important things to worry about than his pride and dignity. Even though he would be leaving Einburg in less than a month, he still couldn¡¯t do whatever he wanted. If possible, Andric wanted to resolve all conflicts peacefully.


    ¡°Hey, what are you all doing here?¡± a female voice asked from outside the crowd, and Andric looked over to see Miss Erminhilt looking angrily over the youths who had gathered around Andric and Audovacar.


    ¡°Ah, Miss Erminhilt, we weren¡¯t doing anything,¡± a youth quickly replied. In the whole of Einburg, none of the boys wanted to be on Miss Erminhilt¡¯s bad side. Not only was Miss Erminhilt a rare beauty, but she was also unspoken for.


    ¡°We were just having fun!¡± a boy from Audovacar¡¯s group said. Even between Audovacar and his followers, if Miss Erminhilt came between them, the majority would go to Miss Erminhilt¡¯s side.


    In Einburg, there wasn¡¯t a single adolescent male who didn¡¯t have infatuated feelings for Miss Erminhilt! In their small town, there weren¡¯t nearly enough ladies for the boys to ogle, but Miss Erminhilt was one of them! In another life, Miss Erminhilt could¡¯ve been a prominent consort, but she happened to be born in Einburg. She had no husband at nineteen-years-old, which was rare for the women in rural towns.


    To the dismay of many youths who yearned for Miss Erminhilt, she had an eye for Andric! Even if the children of Andric¡¯s generation could get over the circumstances of his origin, they could never forgive the way he had stolen Miss Erminhilt from them! More than being born a bastard son, Andric greatest sin in Einburg was befriending Miss Erminhilt!

 Chapter 6 - The Greatest Mistake

    The sins of Andric¡¯s father could be forgiven with time, but the way Andric captured Miss Erminhilt¡¯s attention could never be forgiven! Audovacar and his gang might bow down and turn mild before Miss Erminhilt, but they would resume their ferocity as soon as she went away.


    ¡°What kind of fun is this, getting into a group and surrounding my Andric. Don¡¯t think that because I¡¯m a woman I don¡¯t understand what¡¯s going on!¡± Miss Erminhilt angrilly rebuked. In the current age, it was common for women to be looked down upon as stupid. None of the youths would say so, but some of them thought Miss Erminhilt wasn¡¯t capable of understanding the animosity between themselves and Andric.


    ¡®My Andric?¡¯


    Miss Erminhilt¡¯s words were chosen in haste, and she said something that implied a stronger relationship between her and Andric. It wasn¡¯t until a few seconds after she spoke that she realized what she said, and her face turned red, but it was too late to take the words back. Many of the youths had caught what Miss Erminhilt said, and it only served to bring more fury to the hearts of the youths who pined for Miss Erminhilt.


    ¡°Miss Erminhilt, I heard that you baked a cake for Andric¡¯s birthday. Was that true?¡± a girl on the sidelines asked.


    Along with townspeople disliked Andric because of his origin and his favor with Miss Erminhilt, there were some who wanted to stir trouble between Audovacar and Andric. In a small town like Einburg, watching two people fight was a rare piece of entertainment. For a long time, many youths had hoped Audovacar and Andric would enter a physical brawl.


    ¡°Eh? Why would you bring that up? It doesn¡¯t have anything to do with the current situation,¡± Miss Erminhilt responded, slightly flustered.


    Andric grinned and replied for her, ¡°Yep. It was a pretty good cake, too.¡±


    Since he was already being kicked out of the town, there was no reason not to push Audovacar¡¯s buttons as far as they would go. There wasn¡¯t anything Audovacar could do to Andric while Miss Erminhilt was nearby, giving Andric a grace period to provoke Audovacar and his bunch as much as possible. Andric knew for a long time that he could go to Miss Erminhilt if he wanted the children who antagonized him to be told off, but his pride prevented him from relying on a woman. However, if she came to him, it wasn¡¯t so much of an issue.


    The plan to exile Andric from the town must¡¯ve taken no short amount of time to create, and someone had to think of the idea in the first place. No matter what Andric did to him, Audovacar would have a limited amount of time to respond. Furthermore, because Andric was already leaving the town in a set amount of days, there wouldn¡¯t be any members of older generation helping Audovacar. If he turned to one of his elders to retaliate against Andric, that elder¡¯s response would be something alluding to Andric¡¯s quickly approaching departure.


    ¡°You make him a cake?¡± Audovacar almost couldn¡¯t believe that Miss Erminhilt had made a cake for Andric. He didn¡¯t want to believe that the two of them were so close. If so, it meant his chances with her were infinitely slimer.


    Miss Erminhilt ignored the question. Instead, she strolled through the crowd of people and arrived next to Andric. She looked at him and said, ¡°Come with me.¡±


    ¡°Okay,¡± Andric said, and Miss Erminhilt led him down the street.


    The crowd of people stayed behind, including Audovacar and his group. They wanted to keep Andric inside their circle, but none of the important players dared to go against Miss Erminhilt. The various girls still wanted to stir up trouble, because they had no objectives when it came to Miss Erminhilt.


    Miss Erminhilt talking Andric away as advantageous in the short term, but it wouldn¡¯t help the following day. Miss Erminhilt couldn¡¯t come to Andric¡¯s rescue every day, and Andric¡¯s pride prevented him from making arrangements to make it happen.


    The two of them made a looped around the town, eventually arriving where Miss Erminhilt originally intended to go. ¡°Wait here,¡± she said, and she left Andric outside a metalworking shop. A few minutes later, Miss Erminhilt walked out, carrying a sheet of paper.


    ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± Andric asked, interested in why Miss Erminhilt had left the town hall in the middle of the day.


    ¡°It¡¯s a log of all the weapons sold by the shop. The mayor is sending a report to the capital about all the weapons that have been sold in Einburg, so I¡¯ve got to get sales logs from the merchants who haven¡¯t turned there¡¯s in. Some of those old blacksmiths don¡¯t like complying with the old mayor, so, instead of sending guards, he sends me to get the logs,¡± Miss Erminhilt replied as they walked toward the town hall.


    The town hall rarely had visitors in the middle of the day. Most visitors came in the morning or evening, and they needed to have an appointment to meet with the mayor, except during a town meeting, where the mayor was always present and anyone was allowed to join. Besides Miss Erminhilt and the mayor, most of the mayor¡¯s family also worked at the town hall. As such, there wasn¡¯t much rush for Miss Erminhilt to return.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Andric and Miss Erminhilt walked slowly, leisurely chatting along the way. Not much had happened in the last week except for that one event. Because Miss Erminhilt worked at the town hall, she knew about the townspeople forcing Andric to leave the day after it happened.


    ¡°It¡¯s nothing, really,¡± Andric said to her, downplaying the severity of his exile. He actually didn¡¯t care about leaving the town a few years earlier than expected. His only concern was finding enough time to practice his meditation technique.


    ¡°You don¡¯t know, because you¡¯ve never left Einburg. Let this big sister tell you about the outside world. Our town is surrounded by hamlets. The distance between Einburg and the next town is close to two hundred miles, which is about ten days of travel time. If you¡¯re going all the way to Mahtzig, it¡¯ll take you over fifty days!¡± Miss Erminhilt explained a few things.


    She continued, ¡°A lot can happen over fifty days. You might get attacked by wild animals, or by bandits. The weather could turn to storms. A lot of bandits like to attack during heavy rainstorms, so you¡¯ve always got to be on your guard. But, even if it¡¯s not raining, you could still be attacked. Really, unless you''re inside the borders of a town with a strong guard, you¡¯re open to being attacked by bandits.¡±


    ¡°Wow, Miss Erminhilt, it sounds like you know a lot about the area outside Einburg. Have you ever left the town?¡± Andric asked after fully listening to Miss Erminhilt. She hadn¡¯t told him anything he didn¡¯t already know, but she spoke in earnest, trying to help Andric prepare.


    ¡°I haven¡¯t left Einburg, but my fiance sent me many letters when he was traveling across Hochland,¡± Miss Erminhilt replied.


    It was no secret that Miss Erminhilt once had a fiance, but the man had been away from Einburg for over five years, and he severed his relationship with Miss Erminhilt less than a year after his departure. Nonetheless, there were no ill feelings between the two of them. The mayor¡¯s oldest son had been betrothed to Miss Erminhilt when they were children, but the mayor¡¯s son turned fifteen and discovered he had a talent or the martial way, and he left Einburg shortly after the discovery.


    Andric only knew some of the story between Miss Erminhilt and the mayor¡¯s son, but he was the reason she worked at the town hall, and also the reason she wasn¡¯t married despite being nineteen.


    Andric and Miss Erminhilt returned to the town hall with Miss Erminhilt continuing to talk about the areas around Einburg. Although she hadn¡¯t left the town, her work in the town hall allowed her to interact with many people who had, and she had studied various maps of the surrounding areas.


    ¡°I have a question. If there are martialists in the merchant caravan, would they have to worry about bandits?¡± Andric asked.


    ¡°Of course they would,¡± Miss Erminhilt replied. ¡°The bandits around Mahtzig aren¡¯t very strong; otherwise, the military would be sent out to deal with them. But, even so, they¡¯re still martialists! In most merchant caravans, there is only one guard for every ten merchants. A guard costs money to hire, so the merchant caravans try to get by with as few as possible. On the other hand, bandit troupes are always growing in size. While you¡¯re on the road, you could meet a couple of criminals who decided to work together, or you could meet the remnants of a destroyed sect who¡¯ve resorted to banditry!¡±


    In the kingdom of Hochland, sects made up of martialists controlled about thirty percent of the land. The weaker sects paid tribute to the kingdom, and the stronger sects participated in its defense during times of war. When sects expanded, they would attack other sects and steal their land. When a sect was destroyed, the sect members would either join a new sect, go their own ways, or create bandit troupes. The kingdom of Hochland rarely involved itself in the disputes between sects, which made the martialists from destroyed sects think their kingdom didn¡¯t care about them and that becoming a criminal was justified.


    There were no sects near Einburg, but Andric had seen wandering groups of martialists in the past. They traveled thousands of miles to search for rumors, and all of them were in at least the Novice realm. Martialists who didn¡¯t have an ability like Spirit Sight couldn¡¯t tell what realm or stage a martialist was just by looking at them, so Andric had to be told what realm the traveling martialists were at. For the traveling martialists that didn¡¯t advertise their realm, Andric healthily assumed they were even higher than Novice realm.


    ¡°Oh, and don¡¯t forget about spirit beasts! They won¡¯t go near the towns and hamlets, but they¡¯re all over the wilderness. You¡¯ve got to watch out for waldbars, waldschwein, steinbar, windspinne, and many others!¡± Miss Erminhilt said, listing a few creatures that Andric had only learned a tiny bit about.


    ¡°I¡¯ve got it,¡± Andric tried to calm her and waved his hands.


    ¡°Overconfidence! Nothing is certain when you¡¯re on the road. What would you do if all your food spoiled and all the people around you turned out to be cannibals? No matter what you do, there¡¯s no way to account for the actions of the people who will be traveling with you. If just one of them is careless, you could have an avoidable disaster thrust on you,¡± Miss Erminhilt argued, angrily looking at Andric. He sighed and looked away from her, and they kept walking.


    Andric and Miss Erminhilt arrived at the town hall a short time later. They paused beside Miss Erminhilt¡¯s chair outside the town hall building, and, just as Andric was about to turn around and walk away, Miss Erminhilt muttered something and grabbed the back of Andric¡¯s head.


    ¡°I¡¯m going to regret this,¡± she said, so softly that Andric couldn¡¯t hear, and she turned Andric¡¯s head toward hers and kissed him.


    Miss Erminhilt released Andric¡¯s head, and he stumbled backward. Her attack came as a surprise, and it moved Andric¡¯s frozen heart. For a brief second, he couldn¡¯t analyze the moment with his intelligent brain. Millions of possibilities ran through his consciousness, but they were snuffed out a second later. He reminded himself of his status, and he knew he couldn¡¯t allow himself to be involved with Miss Erminhilt in that way.


    Andric turned around and walked away, slightly hasty in his steps. Miss Erminhilt watched him for a few dozen feet, then sat in her chair. Unknown to either of them, a young boy was watching from a far distance.

 Chapter 7 - The Honor of a Man

    In small towns like Einburg, rumors spread faster than wildfire. Before nightfall, half of the younger generation in Einburg knew about Andric and Miss Erminhilt¡¯s kiss. At some point, the rumor morphed into being Andric who kissed Miss Erminhilt. At a few hours after sunset, Audovacar and his group of friends approached the outside of Andric¡¯s house and banged on the door.


    ¡°We want to talk to Andric right now!¡± Audovacar shouted at the house. His minions stood beside him, filling him with courage.


    Gasto answered the door. He was taller than Audovacar and the others, and he asked them while looking down at them, ¡°What is it?¡±


    ¡°Sir, we¡¯re here to speak to Andric,¡± Audovacar replied, meeting Gasto¡¯s eyes.


    ¡°Fine,¡± Gasto said and closed the door. He wasn¡¯t in the mood to protect Andric from Audovacar and the others, so he turned his head to the stairs that led to the second floor of the house and yelled up, ¡°They want to talk to Andric,¡± and then returned to the sitting room.


    Andric reluctantly stopped practicing the Standing Tortoise Manual and stood up. He checked his clothes, then went downstairs and opened the door. His eyes widened when he saw Audovacar and his gang, and he wondered why they came to find him at night.


    Audovacar said nothing and grabbed Andric¡¯s shirt, he pulled Andric toward him and threw him to the ground beside the door. Anger exploded on Audovacar¡¯s face, and Andric withheld a yawn as he stood up.


    ¡°What was that?¡± Andric asked, dusting off his clothes.


    ¡°We heard about what you did to Miss Erminhilt!¡± Audovacar announced.


    He was loud enough to alert everyone inside Andric¡¯s home, but Gasto and Roza held Alda back. They explained to her that it was normal for children to quarrel, and they said it would be healthy for Andric. Alda anxiously stayed seated, but her hands were shaky. She was ready to stand up at any second.


    Andric hadn¡¯t prepared himself for a fight when he came to the door, but Audovacar wasn¡¯t polite enough to refrain from starting fights outside Andric¡¯s house. After standing, Andric tested his spirit energy and put his eyes on Audovacar¡¯s hands, waiting for the next attack. Audovacar brought four friends with him, including a young boy who Andric didn¡¯t know.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about,¡± Andric said. He remained still, in case Audovacar tried something against him.


    ¡°Otmar, tell him what you saw,¡± Audovacar opened his palm to the small child and said.


    ¡°I saw you kissing Miss Erminhilt!¡± the boy excitedly said. He pointed at Andric as if he was accusing him of some horrible act.


    Andric sighed, but he didn¡¯t let his guard down. It hadn¡¯t been his choice for Miss Erminhild to kiss him, but now he was being blamed for it. It would be a lie if he said he didn¡¯t enjoy it, but he wished she hadn¡¯t reached for him back then. Audovacar would¡¯ve never come after him, and his heart wouldn¡¯t be worrying about matters that had nothing to do with increasing his power.


    ¡°Well, you saw wrong,¡± Andric said and looked down at the child. His eyes flashed with anger, and the young child backed up and hide behind a member of Audovacar¡¯s gang.


    ¡°Don¡¯t give us that! Otmar knows exactly what he saw,¡± Audovacar protested. He shook his fist in the air, almost coming within Andric¡¯s reach.


    Andric analyzed the situation immediately after he was thrown to the ground. Besides Audovacar, there were three other potential fighters - the young boy wouldn¡¯t be a match to any of them, and his presence in a fight wouldn¡¯t help. To increase his odds of winning, Andric decided to wait until someone lunged within his reach for a quick punch or kick.


    ¡°Did anyone else see it? How do you know he¡¯s not making it up?¡± Andric questioned, and a slightly confused look came to Audovacar¡¯s face. He hadn¡¯t considered that Otmar was lying about seeing Andric kiss Miss Erminhilt. A seed of doubt spread inside him.


    Audovacar¡¯s friends glanced at Otmar, but Audovacar kept his gaze on Andric. Otmar eventually broke out of his fear of Andric and said, ¡°I didn¡¯t lie! I really saw it!¡±


    Audovacar groaned, then said, ¡°I believe Otmar.¡±


    Andric frowned. His relationship with Audovacar was worth than the relationship between Audovacar and Otmar, so it wasn¡¯t a surprise that Audovacar would choose to believe Otmar over him. What concerned Andric was what Audovacar would do now that his mind was set on Andric having kissed Miss Erminhilt. Furthermore, Andric also worried that if Audovacar knew what happened earlier that day, there were bound to be many more townspeople who knew.


    ¡°Berard, Ingulf, grab him and take him to our hideout,¡± Audovacar commanded, and two of his friends stepped forward.


    Andric¡¯s eyes circled the group, looking for an opening, but he didn¡¯t see anything he could exploit. The boys named Berard and Ingulf approached him slowly, cautiously. They were only Human realm first stage, but Andric was Human realm second stage, and all of them knew it. Although the strength difference between first and second stage wasn¡¯t large, the uncertainty had the two boys worried.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.


    As the two boys entered within Andric¡¯s range, he kicked one of them in the knee, making him stumble backward. He helped up his leg in pain, and Andric switched targets to the next boy, who stepped out of Andric¡¯s range soon after the kick.


    ¡°You asked for it!¡± Audovacar shouted and lunged, winding up his fist.


    Andric entered a fighting stance and prepared to receive Audovacar¡¯s punch. He gathered his spirit energy into his hands, then moved his hands into the path of Audovacar¡¯s fist. The punch came down as Andric backed away, and most of the damage was negated against Andric¡¯s hands.


    Andric¡¯s retreat only lasted a second before he was surrounded by Audovacar¡¯s friends. The unnamed friend stood behind Andric, Audovacar stood in front, and Berard and Ingulf stood on Andric¡¯s sides.


    The unnamed boy stepped forward to punch Andric, and Andric¡¯s head swiveled around just in time to see the boy¡¯s fist hitting the back of his shoulder. The boy wasn¡¯t accomplished in the martial way, but he worked as a farmer for the town, and his muscles were naturally strong. His punch turned Andric around and made his shoulder ache.


    Soon after the unnamed boy attacked, the rest of Audovacar¡¯s gang attacked. They punched and kicked toward Andric, and Andric did his best to dodge or block as many shots as he could.


    Andric¡¯s fighting style had never been one of physical confrontation, and he was totally out of his depth. His mana surged within him, desperately wanting to come out and slaughter the four boys. He held back his killing intent as he received the punches and kicks of the four boys, and he even made a few counterattacks.


    After a few seconds of being attacked, Andric saw one opening. The boy named Ingulf tried kicking him, but he was too far away, and Ingulf¡¯s leg was a little high. Andric jumped toward him and grabbed onto his leg, pulling it up. Ingulf lost balance and fell, and Andric stomped on his lower torso while stepping over his body.


    Andric¡¯s limbs hurt, but Ingulf was momentarily out of the fight. Ingulf moaned on the ground, weakly holding his stomach with his hands. Audovacar shouted at him, ¡°Get up!¡± and the rest of them chased after Andric.


    Andric didn¡¯t stick around and instead choose to flee. He ran a short distance away from his home, into a field, and away from any prying eyes. Audovacar, Berard, and the unnamed boy followed closely behind Andric, and the young boy followed a bit behind. When they reached a deserted field, Andric turned around and raised his guard.


    Audovacar and his two friends surrounded Andric before attacking him. They inched closer toward Andric before trying to punch him, but Andric deflected their hits. When the unnamed body punched a little further than he should¡¯ve, Andric grabbed his arm and closed the distance between them. He punched the boy in the nose, cause blood to pour out from it. Andric quickly switched his attention to Audovacar and Berard, who wasted no time in coming up behind him.


    But, while Andric looked at Audovacar and Berard, the unnamed boy recovered slightly and pulled on Andric¡¯s leg, making him fall. Andric kicked the unnamed boy, and Audovacar and Berard kicked him back. They were both above him, and Andric couldn¡¯t block the kicks while laying on the ground. He covered his face with his hands, protecting what little area he could.


    ¡®I¡¯ll slaughter you! I¡¯ll kill your whole families!¡¯ he shouted in his mind, but he refrained from actually doing anything. Even as he laid on the ground and received countless kicks from the three boys, he was aware that greater risks came from using magic than a few cuts and bruises. Unless Audovacar or one of the others used a lethal move against him, he wouldn¡¯t use his magic.


    A few minutes later, Ingulf caught up with Audovacar and the others, and he joined them with kicking Andric while he was down. Besides a few initial kicks, they didn¡¯t use any spirit energy, and they were only kicking Andric to let out their frustration. After ten-or-so minutes passed, the four of them departed, shouting curses at Andric as they walked away.


    Andric laid in the grass for a while longer. He resisted the urge to cast a spell on himself to heal his wounds, and he slowly stood up. He was bleeding on his arms and legs, but nothing felt broken. Because he was in the open, he couldn¡¯t risk using magic. He decided to trudge home while injured, then heal himself after heading behind closed doors.


    Andric walked slowly, limping along the way. As he walked further, his learned a less painful rhythm for his steps. There were no mirrors available to him, but he could guess how unsightly his appearance was. His hands were covered in blood, and blotches came through his shirt and pants. After walking a few dozen feet, Andric stood straight and activated the spirit energy throughout his body. He could sense the spirit energy nurturing his wounds, but there weren¡¯t any visible effects.


    He walked home, and we went past Alda and his grandparents without saying a word.


    ¡°What happened?¡± Alda asked him and jumped from her chair. She saw him covered in blood and rushed toward him. Even Gasto and Roza had worried looks.


    ¡°I¡¯m fine,¡± Andric replied without turning around, and he entered his bedroom.


    Once he was alone, Andric sat on the floor and waited. He didn¡¯t want anyone to enter his room while he was using magic, so he waiting until Gasto, Roza, and Alda went to sleep. A few hours later, they turned in for the night, and Andric knew he could being.


    Andric started by visualizing his body in perfect condition. His brain flared, releasing thought energy. Then, Andric moved mana out of his arcane core and toward his brain. The mana picked up the thought energy and combined with it. After the mana was imbued with thought energy, Andric moved the mana to his right palm. The mana made a stream, going from his arcane core, around his brain, and to his palm. After a few seconds of letting the spell build, Andric casually tossed the spell into the air.


    The spell fell back down onto Andric¡¯s palm and burst open. Mana imbued with thought energy dispersed across his hand, then absorbed into his body. The mana quickly moved throughout Andric¡¯s entire body, checking for differences between the ideal body in the thought energy and the body that actually existed. When the mana found tissue that didn¡¯t match the ideal, it destroyed the tissue, then created ideal tissue in its place.


    After a few minutes, Andric¡¯s body was back to perfect condition. He cast another spell to clean himself and his clothes, then went to bed. He estimated that he would need to spend at least three days in bed to prevent anyone becoming suspicious of his healing ability.

 Chapter 8 - A System of Pathways

    After four days of sitting in bed and meditating with the Standing Tortoise Manual, Andric felt a surge of energy pulse through his body. In a split second, the spirit energy inside him became more powerful, and it flowed quicker. He knew he had reached the third stage of the Human realm.


    For ordinary townspeople of Einburg, the first stage of the Human realm required between two and six months to reach. Then, the second stage of the Human realm required between four and twelve months to reach. After that, the third stage of the Human realm would require between eight and twenty-four months to reach. In the history of Einburg, none of the natives had reached the third stage of the Human realm in under a year, but Andric had done so in less than a month.


    Andric thought for a long time about the fight between him and the four boys. If he was stronger, he could¡¯ve protected himself, but then Audovacar would just need to bring stronger reinforcements. One of Audovacar¡¯s older brothers was at the fifth stage of the Human realm, and he had strength equal to what Andric might have at the seventh stage of the Human realm.


    Clearly, Andric needed to get stronger, faster. At his current speed, he might only advance one more stage before leaving Einburg. If he couldn¡¯t even protect himself from four youths, there was no way he would be able to protect himself from the dangers of the outside world. For a long while, Andric thought about how to make himself stronger, quicker.


    The next day, Andric laid in his bed, using Spirit Sense to envision the meridians inside his body. At the moment, he could only ¡®see¡¯ his heart-lung meridian and his lung-diaphragm meridian. The pathways continued past the meridian points, but they were clogged with debris, and Andric couldn¡¯t see the meridians that were supposedly at the ends.


    Meridians were something Andric hadn¡¯t seen in his previous life. Although Andric had destroyed and rebuild his body in his previous life several times, he had never discovered meridians or spirit energy. As a test, Andric cut off his left arm and disintegrated it, then grew himself a new one. When the new arm grew back, Andric couldn¡¯t sense any meridians inside.


    Andric thought back to when Instructor Hubert opened his meridians. Each time, Instructor Hubert stabbed Andric¡¯s body with his finger, then sent out a pulse of spirit energy. The spirit energy invaded Andric¡¯s body, disrupted the clogged meridians, and dissipated. A few hours afterwards, Andric¡¯s meridians were clear. The process was similar to unclogging a pipe using a stick, except Instructor Hubert never retracted the stick.


    Andric tried stabbing himself above one of his clogged meridian pathways, but he couldn¡¯t release any spirit energy. He tried surging the spirit energy inside his body toward the clogged meridian, but nothing resulted from his efforts. After those failures, he tried combining the procedures. He pressed down on his meridian pathway while flooding that area of his body with spirit energy. Again, nothing beneficial happened.


    After a while, Andric began to think that he couldn¡¯t unblock his own meridians because the debris inside his meridians wouldn¡¯t react to his own spirit energy. He theorized that a separate party needed to use their spirit energy to unlock his meridians. If so, it would support the explanation that martialist needed to fight to open their meridians. If it was possible to open their own meridians, martialists would constantly be engaging in self-harm.


    Andric¡¯s magic regrew his limb to the exact state it was in before he disintegrated it. Even his spirit energy existed inside it, thoroughly puzzling Andric. He tried moving his spirit energy with a separate spell, but no effect was realized when the spell hit his arm. When using spells, an effect could fail to realize if there wasn¡¯t enough mana or thought energy, and Andric knew this, so he tried again while overloading the spell with mana and thought energy. The results were identical.


    For a few more days, Andric did nothing except test the properties of his spirit energy. He learned several things. Firstly, his spirit energy didn¡¯t regrow with his lost limbs. Actually, his spirit energy was entering the new limb at a rate that Andric almost couldn¡¯t see. When he purposefully concentrated his spirit energy in his right hand, he could see a deficit in his newly created left arm.


    At the same time, Andric also learned that he couldn¡¯t move all the spirit energy inside his body. Although he could move the majority of it, a tiny amount stayed behind. This tiny amount became more apparent when Andric compared the spirit energy contents of his shoulder and his arm when he regrew his arm. After his arm was regrown, spirit energy flowed into it, and Andric lost a tiny amount that was gathered inside his right hand. Over time, Andric lost more and more spirit energy, and he needed to enter a state of meditation to replenish it.


    Secondly, Andric learned how to sense the locations of his meridians and the pathways between them. When he regrew his limbs, his spirit energy would flood into them, but the spirit energy couldn¡¯t enter the areas where his meridians were clogged. Andric took a huge risk and cut out his flesh around his lung-diaphragm meridian, then regrew the area, and the new lung-diaphragm meridian was as clear as the old one.


    Andric repeatedly cut away his flesh and grew it back, and he eventually learned the locations of his meridians. The system of meridians inside the human body consisted of twenty-four major meridians and thirty-six minor meridians. The thirty-six minor meridians were spread throughout his body, and they were only notable as being larger than meridian pathways but smaller than major meridians.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.


    The twenty-four major meridians included the heart-lung meridian, the lung-heart meridian, the lung-diaphragm meridian, the diaphragm-lung meridian, the heart-diaphragm meridian, the lung-lung meridian, the heart-brain meridian, the lung-brain meridian, the diaphragm-liver meridian, the diaphragm-stomach meridian, the liver-stomach meridian, the liver-gallbladder meridian, the liver-kidney meridian, the stomach-pancreas meridian, the stomach-kidney meridian, the gallbladder-kidney meridian, the pancreas-kidney meridian, the kidney-kidney meridian, the liver-intestine meridian, the stomach-intestine meridian, the gallbladder-intestine meridian, the pancreas-intestine meridian, the kidney-intestine meridian, and the intestine-intestine meridian.


    A few more days passed while Andric repeatedly destroyed and regrew his body. His magic prevented him from feeling any pain, and he had already removed any emotional attachment toward his body since long ago.


    If any martialist saw the lengths Andric went to during his experiments, they would go pale. In the history of the martial way, no martialist had ever destroyed and rebuilt their body so many times. Although it wasn¡¯t impossible to regrow entire bodies with certain martial techniques, it wasn¡¯t easy, and it certainly wasn¡¯t pleasant. Andric went to great lengths for small discoveries, because the chance of finding a large discovery was non-zero. As long as there was a chance, Andric was willing to pay the price.


    Andric¡¯s spirit energy reached the third stage of the Human realm long ago, and it wouldn¡¯t drop to the second stage of the Human realm outside of unusual circumstances. Unfortunately for him, repeatedly disintegrating his limbs and regrowing them was a very strange circumstance, and his stage did drop by one. Nonetheless, in a few days time, he increased it back to Human realm third stage. From then on, he always replenished his spirit energy to full before cutting something off.


    The gap between Human realm second stage and Human realm third stage wasn¡¯t large, but Andric could feel a huge change whenever his stage switched between the two. Losing a stage was like coming down with a cold, and gaining a stage was like dropping a weight. In some ways, the power gain was addicting. Andric could see why some martialist would sell everything they owned to have just a chance at increasing their stage.


    A little over two weeks passed, and Andric made an enormous discovery. He found, when he disintegrated his unclogged lung-diaphragm meridian and the connecting diaphragm-lung meridian and then regrew them, the pathway toward the diaphragm-lung meridian would become slightly unclogged. The unclogging effect wasn¡¯t anywhere near the level that Instructor Hubert¡¯s spirit energy attacks could invoke, but it was noticeable after half a dozen repetitions. Andric estimated that it would only take him a few thousand repetitions to fully unclog the diaphragm-lung meridian.


    Only a few days remained until the next merchant caravan arrived in Einburg, but Andric was on the cusp of a great martial way discovery. He hypothesised that his spirit energy filling his unclogged lung-diaphragm meridian and rushing through the meridian pathway toward the clogged diaphragm-lung meridian was causing the slight amounts of debris to dislodge, and he devoted his last few days in Einburg to confirming the hypothesis.


    The first step was to gather his spirit energy above his right lung. He placed it near his shoulder, where only a minimal amount would be affected by the next step.


    The second step was to disintegrate his flesh under his heart, against his diaphragm, and between his left and right lungs. He used a spell to temporarily supplement his need for those organs, so it wouldn¡¯t matter even if he removed them entirely. His body stopped breathing, but the mana inside his spell converted into oxygen, which then spread throughout his body. He completely suppressed his urge to breathe, and he continued with the next step.


    The third step and fourth step needed to happen in quick succession, allowing as little time between them as possible. For the third step, Andric regrew the flesh he had previously disintegrated. Pieces of his lungs and diaphragm grew back, along with the meridians that covered them. The next instant, for the fourth step, Andric released the spirit energy he had gathered near his right shoulder.


    The released spirit energy rushed to fill the void that was his lung-diaphragm meridian. It entered the open cavity, then continued to flow until it hit a barrier. The meridians and meridian pathways were like lakes and rivers. As water flowed from the raging river into the empty lake, it couldn¡¯t help but pick up sediment along the way. When the spirit energy hit the clogged diaphragm-lung meridian, the spirit energy rammed into the debris that clogged it. Once the debris were moved, they dissipated, and the meridian pathway toward the diaphragm-lung meridian from the lung-diaphragm meridian became slightly unclogged.


    The process of unclogging a meridian pathway by a thousandth of a percent required for the entire meridian pathway to become unclogged took under a minute. By spending every minute of the day working on unclogging his meridians, Andric theorized that he could unclog one or two major meridians per day.


    Andric tested his theory for two days straight. During that time, he refused meals from Alda and stayed laying in his bed, continuously. In the end, he found that the debris closer to the meridian were more compact than the debris further away from it, and the amount of debris removed with each destruction-regrowth cycle lowered each time. In a full fifty hours, Andric only managed to reach four-fifths of the way toward his diaphragm-lung meridian, and he estimated that one day more day would be all he needed.


    But, right as his third open meridian seemed in reach, Andric stopped. He considered his actions, and he reminded himself of where he was. If Instructor Hubert used his Spirit Sight on Andric, he could potentially see Andric¡¯s newly opened meridian, and Andric didn¡¯t want him to ask any questions.


    With only two days until the merchant caravan arrived, Andric put an end to his experiments.

 Chapter 9 - The Last

    From his tiny room on the second floor of his grandparents¡¯ house, Andric emerged. Nobody had seen him over two weeks, but he spoke with Alda every day. As soon as he descended to the first floor of the house, Alda rushed toward him and checked his body, which had been deeply injured the last time she saw him.


    ¡°Are you okay? We should¡¯ve gotten a doctor to check you,¡± Alda said while lifting Andric¡¯s clothes and checking his skin. After a few minutes of looking wherever she could reach, she found nothing wrong.


    ¡°I told you, I was fine,¡± Andric said, and the two of them sat in the sitting room. Andric looked out the window. Judging by the time of day,  he guessed that Gasto and Roza were both working in the fields that surrounded Einburg. He clenched his fists, then said, ¡°I reached Human realm third stage a little while ago.¡±


    ¡°Ah? That¡¯s good!¡± Alda was confused at first, but she then happily embraced Andric.


    After Alda left home, she rarely meditated, and she didn¡¯t have a meditation technique to use even if she did. After she had Andric, she didn¡¯t meditate for many years, until Andric asked her about it. Then, after several years of on-and-off meditation, she hadn¡¯t made any noticable gains. From the little contact she had with her brothers, she learned that her oldest brother was at the seventh stage of the Human realm.


    According to the laws of the martial way, a child¡¯s rate of progress in the martial way was predetermined by how much potential their parents had and the realm-at-conception of their parents. When Alda thought about her own family¡¯s poor martial talent, it made her wonder what kind of martial talent Andric¡¯s father had. After sixteen years had passed, she could finally think about those kinds of things without hurting.


    ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry about me. When I leave, I¡¯m going to keep practicing my meditation technique and grow even stronger.¡± Andric and Alda sat back down, and Alda began filling Andric in on everything that had happened in Einburg while Andric was in shut inside his room.


    What she took three hours to explain could¡¯ve been summarized in one word: nothing. At least, according to Andric¡¯s interests, nothing happened in Einburg. The merchant caravan still hadn¡¯t arrived, nobody had died, nobody had given birth, nobody had married, and nobody switched factions. A few youths who were indifferent toward Andric came to check on him, but Alda had turned all of them away. None of Audovacar¡¯s group came, and neither did Miss Erminhilt.


    Andric was surprised that townspeople he didn¡¯t know would check on his well being. If anyone, he expected Miss Erminhilt to come, but she didn¡¯t. If it wasn¡¯t her, he would¡¯ve expected Miss Erminhilt¡¯s mother or father, who were doctors.


    The most important information that Andric learned from listening to Alda was about something that was going to happen in the future: the arrival of the merchant caravan. The previous day, a townsperson came by to tell Alda that the merchant caravan would be arriving in two days. The merchant caravan would arrive one day and leave the next, or they might stay a little longer depending on what troubles they encountered before arriving at Einburg.


    Alas, Andric could do nothing except wait for the merchant caravan to arrive. He didn¡¯t feel like saying goodbye to anyone. He wasn¡¯t sure what kind of relationship he had with Miss Erminhilt, but he knew it was one he couldn¡¯t afford to have. He decided to ignore it and hope the problem disappeared on its own.


    Unknowingly, Andric had fallen into the mentality of a martialist. His worldly desires, such as those for companionship, had faded into nothing. The longer he paused meditating, the more he wanted to resume. Over the course of the last two weeks, he had developed a thirst for power. He remembered some of his younger centuries from his previous life, when he experimented with thought energy and mana to create perfect spells. The sense of discovery was exhilarating.


    ¡°Are you sure you want to go? If you want to stay, I¡¯ll work something out so that you don¡¯t have to leave,¡± Alda asked near the end of their conversation.


    No matter how much she told herself that Andric would be fine, she couldn¡¯t help but worry. She knew that, in the town of Einburg, having Human realm third stage at fifteen years old was considered excellent, but it couldn¡¯t compare to what some people had obtained after dozens of years. Talent to reach the Novice realm could never defeat someone who had actually reached the Novice realm.


    The world outside Einburg was dangerous. Alda had traveled for a short while with an older brother of hers, but she didn¡¯t even go more than three hundred miles away from Einburg. Mahtzig was much more than three hundred miles away from Einburg. Along the way, there was no telling what kind of dangers Andric could encounter.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    Towns like Einburg were actually pretty safe when compared to the rest of the kingdom. The town wasn¡¯t on the border, it wasn¡¯t surrounded by huge forests or mountains, it wasn¡¯t along a major trade route, and there were no sects nearby. If a powerful martialist ever came close to Einburg, it was only to travel past it. A few martialist came to have their meridians opened by Instructor Hubert, but they were usually in the Human, Novice, or Apprentice realm, and they left quickly.


    The person most scared over Andric¡¯s departure was Alda. She couldn¡¯t easily let her baby leave.


    ¡°I want to see the capital. This little town is too boring for me. There¡¯s nothing interesting going on. Every day, it¡¯s just more farming. There¡¯s got to be better things out there!¡± Andric confidently said. Alda gently smiled, remembering similar reasons for why she left Einburg in her youth.


    Alda stood up and walked to the fireplace. A painting of her family hung over the mantle, painted when she was a small child. It had all of her brothers and sisters in it. Gasto and Roza were standing behind their children, a quarter of a century younger than they were in the present. Alda looked at the painting for a few seconds, then picked up a letter. She returned to her seat with the letter, then gave it to Andric.


    ¡°This was sent from your Uncle Raban, shortly before your tenth birthday. It¡¯s the last letter we have from him, but the address should still be good. Memorize it, go to his house, and explain why you¡¯re there. He¡¯s always been a good brother to me. I¡¯m sure he¡¯ll take you in,¡± Alda explained while looking at the letter.


    Andric looked over the address on the letter a few times, thoroughly memorizing it. The city of Mahtzig was spread into numbered districts, and each house had the name of the family living at it posted outside. In Einburg, nobody had a second name. In Mahtzig, Uncle Raban¡¯s second name was Einheim, By convention, Andric¡¯s second name would also become Einheim.


    After memorizing the address, Andric gave the letter back to Alda, and she returned it to the mantle. She then sat back down, and they were both silent for a few minutes. When it became awkward, Alda stood up and said, ¡°You must be hungry, right? I¡¯ll make you something to eat,¡± and walked into the kitchen.


    Andric stood up. He looked into the kitchen, then faced forward. He still had the rest of the day to spend time in Einburg, and the amount of time during the following day would depend on exactly when the merchant caravan arrived. If he worked hard, he could open his diaphragm-lung meridian, but he already decided he wouldn¡¯t do that. He could find Miss Erminhilt, but he had also decided not to bother her. He could get his revenge on Audovacar and the others, but various problems would arise after doing so.


    That evening, Andric ate dinner with his family. They were unusually quiet during the meal, and they finished quickly. With, perhaps, only a single day separating them from Andric¡¯s departure, Gasto and Roza were thinking about how things would really be once Andric left. They worried that Alda wouldn¡¯t be able to get her life together even after he was gone. The last few weeks, when Andric retreated into his bedroom and didn¡¯t come out, had shown that Alda couldn¡¯t leave her child¡¯s side. In those two weeks, she never left the house for longer than an hour. Gasto and Roza worried what would happen to her once she was separated from Andric by hundreds of miles.


    What Alda felt for Andric could be classified as an unhealthy obsession. She wasted her adulthood by taking care of Andric, and she was hesitant to let him go. At the same time, she knew she eventually had to let him leave. In short, Andric was Alda¡¯s life. Other women of her age were married, raising their family, and occasionally working. Alda only had Andric, and that had been true for fifteen years.


    The next day, Andric and Alda spent the morning in the sitting room, stitching clothes together. In the last decade, Alda had gotten very proficient with a needle, and some townspeople wanted her to join the textile workers in making clothes. Einburg had many women who worked in the field with their husband or stayed home to take care of their children, but not many were able to work long hours and craft textile that could be sold in Mahtzig for high profits, and even less had the same level of skill as Alda.


    Andric looked over at his mother and saw the great amount of skill she had in the art of threadcraft. She had spent a long time making Andric¡¯s clothes from scratch and scraps, and she did all the repairs on Gasto¡¯s, Roza¡¯s, Andric¡¯s, and her own clothes. Although she didn¡¯t come from a family that had worked with cloth for generations, she had the same level of skill.


    Shortly after the sun reached its zenith, the merchant caravan arrived outside Einburg. Fifty-to-sixty wagons gathered in a grass field, and hundreds of merchants set their camps. The merchant caravan was like a small army when it moved, but it transitioned into a bustling marketplace when it stopped. Shops opened on the wagons, displaying goods that could be bought at that time or could be ordered from the capital. Smaller pedalers carried their wares around Einburg, trying to sell small gadgets or find out what else could be sold.


    Normally, Andric avoided the merchants from the caravan. He had no money, so he had no reason to interact with them. This time, he was going to leave with them.


    A townsman came to Andric¡¯s house and led him and Alda to the merchant caravan. He spoke to the owner of a wagon that took passengers, then him paid fifteen silver coins. The merchant caravan would leave at dawn, meaning Andric needed to leave home before sunrise.

 Chapter 10 - The Merchant Caravan

    Andric woke up long before the sun rose above the horizon. He cast a spell on his body, filling him with energy, and gently sighed. Now that the moment of his departure was eminent, he couldn¡¯t help but feel a little hesitant. After his reincarnation, he hadn¡¯t left Einburg a single time. Over the years, he had grown attached to the place.


    Andric collected himself, then gathered the items he wanted to take with him to Mahtzig. He took two extra sets of clothes, an extra pair of shoes, and a winter coat. He wore a large straw hat, which was usually worn by field workers to protect them from the sun. Even through Andric never worked in the field, he had one of the hats. He hoped it would make him a little more inconspicuous on his journey.


    Alda hadn¡¯t slept at all. When Andric went to the first floor of the house, she was in the sitting room, drinking tea.


    ¡°I¡¯m leaving,¡± Andric said to her, pausing before the door.


    ¡°Be safe,¡± Alda said, barely keeping herself from crying. Over the course of the night, her thoughts bounced around inside her head, making her increasingly worried.


    Andric looked at his mother, then punched the air a few times while activating the spirit energy inside his arms. The punches looked forceful, and Andric displayed an air of toughness. ¡°I¡¯ll be fine!¡± he confidently spoke, and he exited the house.


    The town was quiet. Only a few farmers started their day so early, and most of them were experienced ones who wanted to finish their daily work before the sun fully rose. A few guards surrounded the town, but all of them were tired. The merchant caravan was somewhat active, with many guards protecting the wares from thieves who might come in the night.


    Andric walked slowly toward the merchant caravan. His left hand held a rope that went over his shoulder and bound his roll of clothes. Along the way, nobody stopped him. He arrived at the merchant caravan without anything more than intimidating looks from the guards.


    The merchants of the caravan weren¡¯t ready to leave, and only a few people were preparing for departure. Andric didn¡¯t know it, but many merchants were sleeping in Einburg, passed out after a night of drinking the local wine. Andric quietly found the wagon he was going to travel in, then sat a short distance away.


    There were people sleeping on the ground near the wagon. Some of them had blankets to sleep on or under, and it made Andric remember that he didn¡¯t have a blanket. He wondered how well he would sleep without a bed. If he didn¡¯t sleep well, he couldn¡¯t use magic to fill his body with energy, like he did that morning. He frowned, thinking about it.


    An hour later, the sun peeked over the horizon. The crowing of roosters awoke many townspeople and merchants, and the merchants started preparing to leave. In less than an hour, hundreds of people and horses were moving around at the outskirt of Einburg. The horses were gradually attached to their owners¡¯ wagons, and goods were loaded into the backs of the wagons. Meanwhile, Andric watched from beside it all.


    At dawn, a loud horn blew over the merchant caravan. The preparations became even more rushed, and the people who were traveling in the same wagon as Andric woke up. They moved lazily, rolling up their blankets and putting their gear on the wagon. After the first one stepped up to sit inside the wagon, Andric followed them inside. When everyone sat down, there was only enough room for a couple more people, and only if they didn¡¯t have excessive luggage.


    Andric sat with his bundle of clothes on his lap and his straw hat on his head. The wagon cover didn¡¯t go all the way down to the side of the wagon, giving Andric¡¯s hat space to expand behind him. The lower part of the wagon cover was pinned up, where it could be unpinned to shield the inside of the wagon during rain. Andric considered traveling by wagon to be primitive, but he had no other option. If it was the old days, he would¡¯ve flown across the sky, reaching his destination in a matter of hours. Then again, if it was the old days, he wouldn¡¯t be in his current predicament.


    Before the wagons started moving, a man climbed into the wagon driver¡¯s seat, turned his head back, and asked, ¡°Everybody here?¡± He scanned his eyes over the people sitting in the back of his wagon, making sure there wasn¡¯t anyone extra. He recognized Andric from the previous evening.


    ¡°Yeah,¡± a traveler replied, and the wagon driver faced forward.


    Andric silently looked at the other people in the back of the wagon. There were two families, and the rest were lone travelers. The parents helped their sleepy children stay upright, even though most of them were similarly tired. The merchant caravan arrived and departed at different times than normal when they stopped at a settlement, making it difficult to get used to. The merchants who had been on the road for decades could easily wake up exactly when they needed to, but the travelers who had only been with them for a month or a few had a harder time. Needless to say, the children were the worse.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.


    The merchant caravan set off a few minutes later. Sunlight showered the eastern side of the wagons, and Andric tilted his straw hat to keep it out of his eyes. Over one hundred horses trodden across the grassland, filling the air with noise. Gradually, Andric adjusted to the new atmosphere.


    Miss Erminhilt¡¯s estimations for Andric¡¯s travel time were mostly correct. Every town was spaced about ten days apart, with the merchant caravan going about twenty miles per day. Hochland was in its rainy season, making the merchant caravan slow down whenever a storm came through. When it rained, the wagon cover was pinned down, and Andric had to take off his hat.


    The rainy days and the days around them were the worst. Humidity built up in the air, and movement was restricted in the wagon. At home, Andric could dry out his clothes inside his home, but he couldn¡¯t do that while in the wagon. When a gust of wind splashed his clothes with rain water, he couldn¡¯t change out of them. Sleeping on the wet ground was also terrible. To make due, Andric had to search for sticks to make bedding from. He dried them by a fire, then barely had something suitable to sleep on.


    The most annoying part of the journey was all the horses. When he interacted with horses in Einburg, it was usually only one at a time. The merchant caravan had over one hundred horses. Their defecation stank terribly on hot days, and their loud neighs were constant. Guards circled the merchant caravan at all times, and their horses were the loudest of all.


    Martialists at the Novice realm obtained superhuman abilities, but all martialists valued a good mount. If a martialist could run faster than a horse, they simply needed a better horse! Besides using ordinary horses for mounts, martialists could also use spirit beasts that evolved from horses. Human realm martialists typically had normal horses to ride, but Novice realm martialists rode Novice realm horses. The Novice realm horses were arrogant, tough, and prideful. Wherever they walked, they made themselves known.


    Along the way to Mahtzig, Andric learned the frightening difference between a Human realm martialists and a Novice realm martialist.


    About thirteen days after leaving Einburg, the merchant caravan was slowed down along a wooded section of road. With the wagons in the front slowing down without warning, the rest of the wagons became closer together, and many people were angry about the closeness. All of a sudden, the merchant caravan guards rode their horses into formation and circled the merchant caravan with more vigor than any of the previous days.


    At the front of the merchant caravan, the captain stood at the top of his wagon and scanned the forest around him. In front of him, all across the road, was a line of bodies. Horses naturally wouldn¡¯t step over dead bodies, and many of the horses inside the merchant caravan weren¡¯t trained to overcome their innate fear. While two Novice realm martialists went to clear the road, the rest of the guards prepared for an ambush from the forest.


    Sure enough, a few seconds later, a massive horde of bandits jumped out from behind the trees. They wielded swords, axes, and crossbows, and they numbered in the hundreds. Unlike the guards of the merchant caravan, the bandits didn¡¯t ride horses, but they weren¡¯t limited with their mobility. Many of the bandits were late-stage Human realm martialists, and they easily ran throughout the stalled wagons.


    When the bandits attacked, Andric kept his head down. He couldn¡¯t use magic without his identity as a magician being exposed, so he had no way to help the guards or the merchants. If he were to use a spell, he would first need to build the spell in his hand, where anyone would be able to see it. Of course, if his life was in danger, he would immediately lash out against whatever he perceived as a threat.


    Most of the merchants and travelers in the merchant caravan were low-stage Human realm martialists or non-martialists. In Andric¡¯s particular wagon, the families were completely helpless, and the lone travelers were uninterested in assisting where they weren¡¯t paid to assist. One of them, who identified himself as a mid-stage Novice realm martialist, complained about the wagon being slowed.


    A bandit ran to the opening of the wagon and brandished a sword at the riders, shouting at them, ¡°Hand over your valuables, or I come in swinging!¡±


    The Novice realm martialist looked at the bandit, then weakly thrust his palm toward him. A ray of white light exited the martialist¡¯s palm and hit the bandit¡¯s chest. With one movie, the bandit was sent flying, spewing blood from his mouth. He quickly turned and ran, and the martialist humphed once before turning his head back to the opposite side of the wagon.


    The merchant caravan¡¯s guards were outnumbered, but they had a stronger overall martial realm and better weapons. Their mounts were useful for killing the bandits who were on the outside of the group of wagons, but they became a hindrance when the bandits ran inside the cluster of wagons. The Novice realm martialists jumped across the wagons, slashing their weapons through bandits they passed over.


    After a few minutes of fighting, the bandits retreated. They covered their retreat with their crossbows, and their Novice realm martialists held off the merchant caravan guards until all the surviving bandits escaped into the forest.


    The merchant caravan guards were very experienced. Instead of chasing after the bandits, where their mounts would have a difficult time moving through the forest, they stayed near the wagons and circled around them. They were ready for bandits to attack from another direction, and they remained on high alert until the captain led the merchant caravan out of the forest.


    That night, a casualty report was taken by the captain. None of the Novice realm guards died, none of the merchants or travelers died, and only a few Human realm guards died. Some cargo was stolen, and some passengers were robbed, but the losses were manageable.


    The bandit attack made Andric worry, but he ended up getting through it without exposing himself. He was grateful for the Novice realm martialist who shared the wagon with him, and he along with several others thanked him for protecting them. The martialist remained indifferent, casually watching the scenery around the merchant caravan.

 Chapter 11 - Becoming the Wanderer

    Andric traveled with the merchant caravan for thirty-two days and saw three towns. When the merchant caravan stopped at the third town, Andric was invited by one of the travelers in his wagon to drink wine at a local tavern. At that time, Andric realised he didn¡¯t have any money. The lack of funds was an oversight on his part, and it needed to be dealt with.


    Staring up into the night sky, Andric contemplated leaving the merchant caravan. If he stayed with the merchant caravan, he could only follow along as it slowly made its way to Mahtzig. Then, he would need to navigate the city to find Uncle Raban and hope he would support him. On the other hand, if Andric separated from the merchant caravan, he would be able to seclude himself in a nearby forest and continue the slow process of opening his meridians. Without anyone nearby to see him using magic, he could provide for himself much better than he could inside a crowded city.


    Andric¡¯s options were to either take his destiny into his own hands, or to allow his family members to control where he went and what he did. He had never received a letter directly from one of his relatives, and he could safely assume that they shared a similar viewpoint of him as his grandparents. They kept their attitudes pleasant in the letters they address to Alda, but Andric could only truly know when he met them face to face.


    Andric had other reasons for going on his own, but some of them would be difficult to realize. After he thought of a few good reasons and excuses, he abruptly stood up and walked over to where the wagon driver was resting.


    ¡°Hello, I think, instead of going all the way to Mahtzig, I¡¯m going to stop here,¡± Andric said, and the wagon driver raised his head. ¡°I paid fifteen silver coins to travel to Mahtzig, and we¡¯re around two-thirds of the way through. I reckon I¡¯ll take back the last one-thirds worth and stay here.¡±


    The wagon driver thought for a moment, then replied, ¡°Nope. You paid for a full trip to Mahtzig, so you¡¯re gonna get a full trip to Mahtzig.¡±


    ¡°But, I don¡¯t want to go to Mahtzig,¡± Andric said, feeling that the wagon driver was being troublesome.


    ¡°Well, have fun. You paid for a full trip to Mahtzig, and I¡¯m obligated to give you one. If you don¡¯t want to go, that¡¯s on you,¡± the wagon driver said, completely unabashed.


    Andric¡¯s face tightened. To him, five silver coins was a lot of money. With it, he could buy food for several weeks, lodging in a town, and various traveling supplies he might need. Because he wouldn¡¯t be taking up anymore space on the wagon driver¡¯s wagon or eating anymore of his food, Andric thought he was entitled to having some of his fair refunded. Unfortunately, there wasn¡¯t anything he could do about the wagon driver who didn¡¯t want to refund him.


    Andric turned his head to his roll of clothes, then back to the wagon driver. He thought for a few seconds and decided to leave peacefully. He retrieved his baggage and walked away, toward the small maintained forest that was next to the particular town the merchant caravan had stopped at for that night.


    The town of Handmund was closer to Mahtzig than Einburg, and it had a population of around three thousand residents. The maintained forest for such a large town needed to be quite large, and it was easy to get lost inside it. Coupled with the fact that it was nighttime, Andric easily hid among the sparse trees and minimal undergrowth. He walked several miles out, then sat against the trunk of a large tree.


    Andric¡¯s planned to leave the area around Handmund, but only before leaving a little gift for the wagon driver. But, first, he needed to wait until everyone in the merchant caravan fell asleep. He sat in the forest for a few minutes, then crafted a spell in his hand. For the effect he wanted, he needed to imbue it with a large amount of mana. After charging it for nearly twenty seconds, he tossed it into the air, and it automatically zoomed toward where Andric¡¯s thought energy indicated it should activate at.


    The spell flew back to the merchant caravan, rose a few dozen feet above the wagons, and then detonated. Nearly-invisible specs of mana fell onto the wagons, the passengers, and the horses, and the spell¡¯s effects appeared a few seconds later. Rapidly, over the course of less than ten seconds, all the people inside the area of the merchant caravan fell asleep.


    Martialists were unable to defend against magicians, and magicians were unable to defend against martialists. Only a magician could use Mana Sense to detect a spell being used near them, and only a magician could use a blast of pure mana to counteract a spell. Without any magicians in the merchant caravan, they could do nothing to stop Andric¡¯s spell from activating above their heads. Whether they were inside a closed tent or in the open air, everyone in the vicinity of the merchant caravan was forced to sleep by Andric¡¯s spell.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    Next, Andric launched a second spell. He wasn¡¯t sure how much a wagon cost, but he estimated it to be worth quite a lot. His second spell was targeted at the wagon driver¡¯s wagon, and it burst into the side of the wooden frame without showing any effect. Of course, this way by design. Andric intended for the spell to wait twenty-one days, then to quickly decompose the wood that the wagon was made from. If it was timed correctly, it would activate when the merchant caravan was only a day or two away from reaching Mahtzig. With that, Andric considered his business with the wagon driver to be finished.


    The maintained forest outside Handmund was large, but it wasn¡¯t large enough to hide inside during the day, and it was maintained, meaning people would regularly come in to harvest plants. For Andric to have peace and solitude while meditating and opening his meridians, he needed an untamed forest at the border of the kingdom.


    Andric cast a spell on himself to help him stay awake, then cast a second spell on himself to make him fly. In order to fly, Andric cast a continuous-type spell, which would constantly be supplied mana and thought energy. The only downside to a continuous-type spell was that he needed to have his thoughts concentrated on it and have one hand open at all times. He held his roll of clothes with one hand, wore his straw hat on his head, and held his right hand forward. Using his left hand, he cast a spell to block wind resistance, then ascended. He kept low to the ground and quickly flew away.


    Using magic to fly was one of the main methods that magicians used to travel. Similarly, martialists also using flying for their main method of transportation, but they used highly advanced martial techniques to do it. Once a martialist reached the Adept realm, the martial techniques they could use became much more diverse, including ones that allowed their users to fly. Andric heard about such martial techniques in Einburg, but nobody in Einburg had ever reached the Apprentice realm, not to mention the next higher realm. Even among the travelers who came to Einburg for one reason or another, none of them were in the Adept realm or higher.


    Several minutes of flying later, Andric emerged from the forest. He only flew about five feet up from the ground when he was in the forest, and he moved even closer to the ground when he exited it. The plains around Handmund were extensive, but there was always the possibility of some farmer watching their fields at night, or even a random traveler being nearby. The entire way toward his destination, Andric was constantly vigilant.


    Andric¡¯s biggest worry was encountering a martialist who could fly. In his current state, Andric could flee from low-realm martialists who couldn¡¯t keep up with his flying speed. Andric had never seen a flying martialist, so he didn¡¯t know how fast they would be. He had didn¡¯t know the power level of an Adept realm martialist, so he couldn¡¯t know how his spells compared to their martial techniques. At the present, the safest thing to do was to simply stay hidden.


    Andric had something he needed to to before going into seclusion. He flew parallel to the road the merchant caravan used, but he went back the way they came. His target was the area where the bandits attacked. He hoped that the bandits would be nearby, and he would be able to steal whatever valuable items they had.


    Standard trinkets like jewelry were of no interest to Andric. He didn¡¯t have time to find a buyer for jewels or metals, even if they were worth a high price. If anything, he would trade them for the goods he needed. Andric wanted the coins that citizens in Hochland traded with, which he was unable to replicate with magic. Although he could transmute any mass into any other kind of mass, he couldn¡¯t create spirit energy with magic. Coins used in Hochland had spirit energy inside them, making counterfeits impossible to create.


    In addition to wanting to find money, Andric wanted spirit weapons, spirit armor, and spirit plants. He had heard about many of these things from Instructor Hubert, but he had only seen a few examples of each. Because they were imbued with spirit energy - like the kingdom¡¯s coins - they were much more durable than normal metal. Spirit plants were valuable in another fashion, and he could be used to create pills that increased the spirit energy inside a martialist¡¯s body.


    There were many things Andric wanted to explore, but his resources were too limited. He had no martial techniques or pill recipes, and he didn¡¯t know how spirit tools were made or how spirit plants were grown. He didn¡¯t have a single coin to his name, and he had no backers who could fund his research.


    Andric had many ways to earn money, but most of them would earn him the attention of martialists. He could use his magic to create gold, but someone would eventually investigate him. His only safe method was to earn money through legitimate means where nobody would see him use magic - or survive long enough to tell anyone about it. Massacring a bandit troupe and stealing their loot was the best option Andric could think of.


    At daybreak, Andric touched down and stopped flying. He couldn¡¯t risk being seen, and the chances of being seen were much higher during the day. He walked against the side of the road, hoping someone would see him and try to rob him. He wouldn¡¯t break his morals by robbing innocent civilians, but he had no problem against killing and stealing from someone who wanted to rob him.


    To sweeten the bait, Andric used magic to create a shiny golden ring for his finger. He hoped the ring would catch the attention of bandits hiding in the forest, and they would be more likely to attack him despite his overall poor appearance.


    After a short period of time, Andric subconsciously grinned, looking forward to the moment when he would bring bloodshed to the world once again.

 Chapter 12 - Line of Sight

    Andric walked slowly throughout the day. As he walked, he became hungry, and he headed into the forest to find an area where nobody would interrupt him. First, he cast a spell to detect eyesight being placed on him or around him. The spell cost a large amount of mana, so it was impractical to use as a continuous-type spell. Luckily, nobody was looking in Andric¡¯s direction, and the spell disappeared without flashing a bright red light.


    Next, Andric cast a spell on himself. His spell floated in front of his chest, then burst onto him. The mana inside it entered his body and converted the waste inside him into nutrients, which then recirculated through his body. A few seconds later, as his bloodstream received the nutrients, his hunger went away.


    After that, Andric cast another eyesight detection spell. Again, there was nobody looking at him. He confirmed that he was still safe, then picked up a stick. He cast a spell at the stick, causing it to explode into millions of fragments. The fragments collected into a ball, and the mass changed composition. Transmuting mass required a huge amount of mana, but Andric didn¡¯t have any shortage of mana. The fragments of wood transformed into droplets of water, which floated in the air in front of Andric. After the stick fully transformed, Andric cast a continuous-type spell to allow him to slowly drink the sphere of water.


    Replacing a human¡¯s need to eat and drink with magic was only slightly difficult. If Andric wanted to completely shift his body away from mortal nutrition, he could do so with only a few spells. However, to change back was much more difficult. For the sake of his growth and keeping up appearances in Einburg, Andric hadn¡¯t changed his body to rely solely on mana for sustenance. Once his body required only mana to keep alive, ingesting normal food would become a hindrance.


    A magician could engrave their arcane core with one spell that would be continuously activated. Some chose detection-type spells, but truly wise magicians engraved their arcane core with a spell to provide their body with all the necessities it required. The spell Andric knew would recycle his sweat, blood, and waste, and allow him to live for hundreds of years without breathing, eating, or sleeping. If he ate food when that spell was engraved in his arcane core, he would permanently gain weight. After a period of time, he would eventually need to cut out his flesh to maintain a proper weight.


    Andric cast one more eyesight detection spell, and the results came up clean. He sat on a fallen tree trunk for a few minutes and finished drinking. In his growth period, he knew it was important to take in extra mass, so that was the only reason he continued to drink water after leaving Einburg. He estimated that he could stop in a few more years.


    Andric returned to the road after about fifteen minutes of rest. He had walked for hours, and he was surprisingly tired. He silently cursed at the inefficiency of traveling without flying, then continued on his way, occasionally taking breaks to rest his legs.


    The road through the forest was wide enough for three wagons to travel abreast. Over the years, the road had morphed from only a single-wagon width to three-wagons width. Although the road itself was nothing more than trampled dirt where no grass grew, it was a major road of Hochland.


    And, along major roads, bandits were always patrolling. An hour after Andric stopped to satiate his hunger, he saw a man further up the road, walking toward him. The man was dressed similarly to Andric, with simple clothes and a straw hat, but he also had a sword on his waist. Andric glanced at the forest around him, but he didn¡¯t see any bandits hiding in the shadows. He kept walking, getting closer to the man in the straw hat.


    Andric wasn¡¯t certain of how much time had passed between his original death and his reincarnation, but bandit techniques never changed. Andric and the man slowly approached each other, then passed each other. A second later, something sharp pressed against Andric¡¯s back, and the man said, ¡°Don¡¯t make any moves.¡±


    Andric didn¡¯t listen to the man and ran forward. He quickly escaped the reach of the man¡¯s weapon, and he turned around while raising his hands. The man nimbly approached Andric, slowing down when Andric turned around. The man didn¡¯t see any weapon on Andric¡¯s body, so he switched his knife to his left hand and drew his sword.


    The man raised his sword in the air, as if he was about to chop it down onto Andric¡¯s head. Andric backed up and created a spell in his hand, then tossed the spell out. The spell picked up speed on its own and crashed into the man, who panicked upon seeing the gaseous ball emerge from Andric¡¯s hand.


    The spell was too fast for the man to react to. He swung his sword in the spell¡¯s path, but the spell had already hit his body. He paused, waiting to see what would happen. Andric only grinned and waited with him.


    The next second, the man¡¯s hands popped off at the wrists. They split off like chicken pulled from the bone, and two streams of blood erupted from the man¡¯s arms.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    ¡°Ah!¡± he screamed and fell backward. When he initially spotted Andric, he saw his age and figured him to be an easy target. However, he never expected that he would lose his hands by some mysterious martial technique. To the man without hands, it never occurred to him that a young man like Andric could be an accomplished martialist, and he didn¡¯t even know what a magician was, so it was impossible for him to make that connection.


    Andric looked around and cast an eyesight detection spell. If there was someone watching him, the spell would send a ray of red light toward the person, making them easy to find. After Andric cast the spell, a single ray of light shone onto the man who lost his hands.


    ¡°You work alone?¡± Andric asked. The ray of red light disappeared after a second, but the man without hands continued to hall a slight red glow about him. Andric sent out a pulse of mana, making the red glow disappear as well.


    ¡°Yes!¡± the man painfully shouted. His arms were still bleeding, and he squirmed in pain. If given a few more seconds, he would die of blood loss.


    ¡°That¡¯s too bad,¡± Andric frowned and said. Andric had hopped the man would have some reinforcements in the forest. Then, he would be able to kill them and loot all their bodies.


    Andric waited for the man to pass out, then walked over to where the man¡¯s hands fell. He picked up the hand that held the man¡¯s sword, and he pried it from the man¡¯s dead hand. The sword was made from cheap steel, but it would work as a weapon. Andric swung it a few times, but he didn¡¯t feel comfortable with it. After all, even in his previous life, he had never used a sword.


    He walked back to the man¡¯s body and stabbed him in the neck, ensuring he was dead. Then, he used the sword to tap the man¡¯s clothes. Coins were made from metal, so they were easy to find underneath clothing. Sure enough, the man had a pocket sewn on the inside of his jacket, and the pocket contained a few silver and copper coins.


    The man had no luggage, making Andric think he wasn¡¯t a simple traveler like himself. The man had no reinforcements waiting in the forest, but that wasn¡¯t enough to rule out him being a bandit. It could be that he was going on his own for a little, or that he was a scout who was supposed to return somewhere if a merchant caravan was spotted. Because the man was dead, Andric couldn¡¯t ask him any questions, so he had no way to know for sure. The man really could¡¯ve been a traveler without any luggage who thought he could rob a stranger.


    Andric took the sword and the coins and continued walking. He left the body where it was, allowing animals in the forest to clean up the mess. He briefly considered the possibility of some authority finding the body and tracing it back to him, but he remembered that he hadn¡¯t seen a single authority during his thirty-some days of traveling with the merchant caravan.


    For the first time in his new life, Andric had killed someone. He thought it would feel good, but, as he was walking away, he began to feel worse about it. The man deserved to die for the actions he took against Andric, but Andric¡¯s mentality had unknowingly changed over the last fifteen years. His previous life had ended among scores of slaughter, but his new life was marked with a period of peace that lasted for fifteen years. After experiencing death, rebirth, and the unconditional love of a mother, it was impossible for Andric to remain unchanged.


    Andric held the sword with one hand and loosely slashed the air in front of him. He didn¡¯t know any sword techniques, but he had learned a few things about swords from Instructor Hubert¡¯s lessons. In the martial world, swords were the prefered weapon for martialists. Although there were also spears, axes, hammers, crossbows, whips, and daggers, all of them added together could not compare with the number of sword users.


    In the past, spears were the most famous weapon because of their ability to be used in army formations. Crossbows were also once famous, because they could be used to kill targets from a distance. Then, with the advent of martial techniques that allowed single martialists to contend with armies, army formations became less useful, and crossbows with a set limit to their power became too weak. Eventually, swords rose to become the dominant weapon across the world.


    There were many martialists who used swords or other weapons, but there were also many who didn¡¯t use weapons. Unarmed martial techniques were some of the ones with the longest histories, and they were sometimes the most powerful. But, they were difficult to master, and their use would result in heavy strain being applied to the body. If a sword technique was used in conjunction with a weak sword, the sword would break. If a fist technique was used in conjunction with a weak fist, the fist would break. Obviously, one of these things was more detrimental to the martialist practicing the technique.


    Andric casually played with the sword. He didn¡¯t expect to use it in actual combat. First of all, he was only at the third stage of the Human realm, placing him far below the strength of any Novice realm martialists. If there were two Human realm martialists trying to take his life, he had no confidence in being able to protect himself with his meager cultivation. He would need to rely on his magic, and he couldn¡¯t use magic with a sword in his hand.


    He walked for a long time, until he saw something glisten inside the forest. He immediately thought of light reflecting against armor or weapons, and he dashed to hide behind a tree. He waited a few seconds, but he didn¡¯t hear anything, so he cast one of his eyesight detecting spells to figure out what was going on. After the spell activated, it detected nobody looking in his direction, and he confusedly walked out from behind the tree.


    He slowly approached the location where he saw the flash of light. As he drew closer, he raised his guard. Once he arrived, a shiver ran down his spine. On the ground, under a thin cover of leaves, half a dozen mangled bodies were dumped into a pile. Their blood had long since washed away, and their flesh was rotting. Two of the bodies wore metal armor, which was what reflected the light that Andric saw.


    They appeared to be a family of four and their two guards, who had been slaughtered and abandoned in the forest.

 Chapter 13 - Gravity Bomb

    Andric continued down the road, but he presumptively cast a defensive spell on his body. The spell would break after being hit with one projectile, but Andric was confident in it being able to stop a crossbow bolt or a powerful arrow. With his defense spell, he wouldn¡¯t be instantly killed by a bandit shooting him from inside the forest.


    The pile of dead bodies scared Andric. At the same time, he couldn¡¯t believe what he was getting frightened over. It was only six bodies; he had seen - and caused - much worse in the previous life. Still, every time he remembered the partially decomposed bodies, he shivered.


    ¡®Fifteen years of peace has made me weak,¡¯ he thought. His time in Einburg had made him value human life, and he wanted to change that.


    He still wore his plain clothes and golden ring. As evening grew closer, Andric slid his straw hat onto his back and continued walking. After a few hours, he stopped at the side of the road to replenish his energy, then kept going.


    At night, Andric used a spell to supplement his need for sleep, then used another spell to fly into the forest. A continuous-type spell kept him flying, another spell raised a barrier around him to prevent air resistance from affecting him, a third spell eliminated noise around him, and his last spell detected nearby lines of sight. The third spell made it so Andric couldn¡¯t hear anything, but he didn¡¯t need his hearing when he had the fourth spell.


    Andric operated under the cover of darkness. He moved very quickly, and he cast his detection spell every few seconds. If nobody was looking at him, he could also rely on himself seeing those who were around him. There were other detection spells Andric could use to quickly find someone, but he had no way to know if the person he found was a real bandit or an innocent traveler, or if they were five miles away or five hundred miles away. Instead, he opted to travel at night and troll during the day.


    Andric didn¡¯t need to fly for long. Only a few hours after he began flying inside the forest, his eyesight detection spell shot out four rays of light. Andric quickly followed the rays of light, and they led him to a small clearing deeper within the forest. At the clearing, ten-or-so bandits were standing around a smoking fire pit. The fire pit was dug so that the flame¡¯s light wouldn¡¯t get out, and Andric could only see it when he was much closer. He landed a few dozen feet away from the bandits and canceled his spells.


    ¡°What is this red light?¡± a bandit asked, patting his clothes. Andric¡¯s eyesight detection spell surrounded several of the bandits with red glows, but there were several others who didn¡¯t have red glows around them.


    ¡°You must¡¯ve been marked by whatever you saw. What I don¡¯t understand is why it marked your four but nobody else,¡± one of the bandits without a red glow said. He was under the impression that his fellow bandits had seen a beast in the forest, and that beast had somehow targeted them.


    Several of the bandits raised their weapons and looked into the forest, but none of them could see Andric. The red rays of light had temporarily blinded the bandits who were looking in Andric¡¯s direction, and he was able to use that moment to hide. While leaning against a thick tree, he cast a spell on himself, making his body invisible. The spell cost a lot of mana, and it would deactivate for minor reasons, but it would work fine as long as he stayed still.


    Andric couldn¡¯t personally determine what martial realm the bandits around the tree from him were at, but he had heard in the merchant caravan that most bandits were at the Human realm or Novice realm. If there was an Apprentice realm bandit, they were likely the leader of a large group and wouldn¡¯t be in the middle of the forest with only a few underlings.


    ¡°I told you we should¡¯ve gone back to the fort. If we have to fight some territorial spirit beast, I¡¯m making you go first,¡± one of the bandits said while angrily staring at a fellow bandit.


    ¡°This red light is probably some kind of killing intent. If a spirit beast is able to mark its prey with killing intent, we¡¯ll all need to fight it, together,¡± the leader of the bandits said, looking in the direction that Andric was originally spotted. Just by the sound of his voice, Andric could tell that he was much older than the bandits who had already spoken.


    Andric ran through a few simulations in his mind, then decided on a plan of attack. He formed a spell in his hand, then tossed it aside. It flew toward the gaggle of bandits and burst while in their midst, sending mana out for several yards.


    When the spell burst, a strong suction force appeared at the center of the group of bandits. The suction forced pulled up the fire, the stones around it, and most of the dirt on the ground. It pulled heavier and further objects, including sticks, stones, and a fallen log. Finally, it pulled in the bandits who were watching the strange scene. None of them had ever seen magic in their life, but they knew about martial techniques. However, they had never seen something with the effect of Andric¡¯s spell, and they were too slow to react to it. Of the ten-or-so bandits that were standing around the fire, nine of them were taken in by the suction force.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    The suction force continued to pull the bandits toward its center, regardless of how much mass had already been pulled in. The bandits tried pushing away from the force, but they were unable to overcome the power of Andric¡¯s spell. The weaker ones were the first to fall, as their flesh and bones were broken and molded around the suction force. Andric didn¡¯t know exactly how strong his spell was, compared to martialists, but it had enough power to kill an ordinary human, and all Human realm martialists were unable to escape it.


    After ten agonizing seconds, the suction force died down, and a bolder made from foliage, dirt, and crushed human bodies fell to the ground. Now that the suction force was gone, the blood from the human bodies could flow out, and a thick stench of it filled the nearby air.


    ¡°What?¡± the bandit leader shouted and backed up. He survived thanks to his cultivation, and he looked over the other survivors. Besides him, there were only two others left. One was at the Novice realm, like himself, and the other was at the Human realm but was standing outside the spell¡¯s range.


    Andric walked out of the cover of the tree he was hiding behind, and his invisibility spell broke. He looked at the surviving bandits, then at the ball of gore between them. He raised his hands and flung casual spell from them, which zoomed toward their targets. He made a third spell and targeted the last bandit.


    The two Novice realm bandits saw Andric¡¯s spells and attempted to dodge them, but Andric¡¯s spells turned mid-flight and still hit them. The Human realm bandit was too slow, and he was hit outright. All three of them suffered their head popping off, followed by a torrential outflow of blood.


    ¡®Damn, I need to do this a little cleaner,¡¯ Andric thought as he watched the three spouts of blood shooting into the air. The bodies fell over a second later, and the forest was quiet except for a gentle sound of flowing liquid.


    Andric cast an eyesight detecting spell, determined the coast was clear, and started to loot the bodies. Ordinarily, Andric would¡¯ve felt around the bandits¡¯ clothes for anything valuable, but he didn¡¯t have the stomach to do so with the bandits who were integrated with the sphere of rubble. Instead, he cast a spell into the air.


    The spell activated in the area around Andric, and it disintegrated everything around him that was below a certain density. Dirt, wood, plants, clothes, and flesh were all disintegrated. They blew away like smoke, leaving only rock and metal behind. Various weapons, armor pieces, and valuables dropped from where corpses used to be. Once they were separated from their owner, Andric cast a light spell above him and collected the spoils.


    Andric picked up a hefty amount of silver, copper, and jewelry. From killing nearly a dozen bandits, he had more than he could fit in his pockets, so he had to unroll his roll of clothes and put the coins and jewelry inside his extra pair of shoes. He didn¡¯t like any of the armor the bandits had worn, but he did find the sword the leader of the bandits used to be attractive, so he switched out his old sword for the bandit leader¡¯s.


    Andric didn¡¯t know very much about swords, but he didn¡¯t need to choose his sword based on its killing ability. He looked for one with a better appearance, and those with fancier appearances tended to be better swords. Unless the sword was a spirit weapon, Andric could create a better one with his magic. Andric analyzed the sword in his hand for a few seconds, but he didn¡¯t have any way to determine if a sword was actually a spirit sword. In the end, he took it solely because of its looks.


    Andric couldn¡¯t guess how many coins the jewelry he acquired would be worth, but he could count the number of coins be picked up from the bandit corpses. In total, he had more than fifty silver coins and a few hundred copper coins. The copper coins were a bit heavy, but he placed them in a shoe in his roll of clothes, making them easier to carry.


    Only about twenty-five hours had passed since Andric left the merchant caravan, and he already had more than triple the amount of coins that were paid for his fare. Now, the few coins he could¡¯ve gotten from the wagon driver seemed like nothing. For a second, he felt bad about destroying the wagon driver¡¯s wagon in a few weeks, but he didn¡¯t allow himself to get too beat up about it. After all, the wagon driver still deserved it, no matter what kind of fortune Andric encountered afterward.


    Andric checked around for any loot that he might¡¯ve missed, then deactivated his light spell and walked away. From the tiny amount of conversation he had heard, the bandits were close enough to their main base to make an argument for traveling there before the night fully set in. If so, the base couldn¡¯t be too far, especially if Andric was using the superior traveling method of flight. To the bandits, the base might¡¯ve been a couple hours away, but it would only be a few minutes away for Andric.


    He paced back and forth a few times, then cast a spell to detect nearby humans. He was prepared for ambiguous results, but the reaction from the spell indicated that a large group of people were in one direction, and there was nobody in the other directions. Either the spell had found a settlement, or had it found the base of the bandits.


    Andric began to fly, then headed toward where his spell said a large amount of people were at. He stayed low, flew quickly, and nullified all the sound his fight created. His invisibility spell couldn¡¯t be used due to its high level of volatility, but he could use a different spell to cover his body with a shadow.


    He flew like a hawk, silent in the night, zeroing in on its prey.

 Chapter 14 - Bandit Den

    Andric flew through the forest until he saw light coming from ahead of him. He quickly stopped and landed on the ground, then cast an invisibility spell on himself. He watched the area around the light for a few minutes, and he constantly noticed more things about the area in front of him.


    The light came from many tiny fires placed throughout a wide area. Some were on the forest floor, but some were in the trees. Eventually, Andric also noticed the humans standing in the trees, and the complex array of branches they used to move around on. From what Andric could see without making any movements himself, there were roughly fifty bandits patrolling the outer rim of their fortress.


    Past the scouts who were in the trees, there were several buildings and tents. The tents were large and draped over long branches, while the buildings were thin and tall. Lights inside the tents cast shadows on the cloth, but Andric couldn¡¯t make out how many people were inside the tents. He guessed that anywhere from an equal amount to four times the amount of the people who were in the trees were inside the fortress.


    Actually, fortress wasn¡¯t a good name for it. A campsite would be more accurate. There were no sturdy walls. There were no mounted weapons. Due to the density of the trees around the area, there wasn¡¯t enough space for a wagon to make it all the way into the campsite area. If someone attacked the campsite, they would have a difficult time arriving on a horse, negating the benefits of a cavalry charge.


    The bandits had an array of branches giving them increased mobility in the trees, making them far more maneuverable than anyone who didn¡¯t know the area. Andric frowned while thinking of how to attack the campsite. He could try bombarding them with powerful magic, but he couldn¡¯t be sure that there were no powerful martialists who would be immune to his spells. In that was the case, he would need to kill them before they noticed his presence and brought up their defenses.


    The more Andric thought about his plan of attack, the less certain of it he became. If it was the past, when there were no martialists, he could simply throw out a few spell and pick off the survivors. However, in the new age, a single powerful martialist could kill him with only a few moves. If he didn¡¯t kill the power martialist with the first strike, he would only have a few seconds to escape.


    The problem with using excessively powerful spells was that Andric didn¡¯t want to damage the loot that the bandits might be carrying or have stored away. In the campsite he was at previously, all the loot that wasn¡¯t made of metal was disintegrated. Even before that, most of the non-metal loot was torn apart and deformed. The swords of the bandits who were trapped in the Gravity Bomb were all twisted into unusable shapes by the attraction force.


    Andric thought for a while longer, then settled on one idea: poison. Through time immemorial, poison had taken the lives of thousands of ¡®untouchable¡¯ opponents. Whether it was placed in food or water, coated on a blade, or applied to a surface, poison was the method that weak people used to kill strong people. Andric¡¯s only question was how to affect everyone in the campsite with the poison.


    The first and most obvious thought would be to poison the air. Indeed, Andric knew dozens of colorless and odorless airborne poisons that could incapacitate a man in three seconds flat. However, Andric didn¡¯t know how those poisons would fare against a martialists. Also, if the martialists was inside a closed building, the poison wouldn¡¯t be able to reach him.


    The next though was to poison the water. Andric only knew that Novice realm martialsts still needed to eat and drink, but he didn¡¯t know about Apprentice realm martialists or higher. If they didn¡¯t drink water, they wouldn¡¯t encounter Andric¡¯s poison. Although Andric knew a few waterborne poisons that were much stronger than the airborne poisons he knew, they weren¡¯t anything if they weren¡¯t ingested by their targets.


    Andric resisted pacing while he continued to think. Even if he couldn¡¯t poison their bodies, he could still poison their minds. He decided upon his plan, then slowly backed away from the campsite and disappeared into the forest.


    A few hours later, a heavy rainstorm rolled in above the campsite. Rain poured down relentlessly, putting out many of the fires that illuminated the campsite. The bandits patrolling from the trees were the most effected, but the bandits inside the tents and buildings were only minorly inconvenienced.


    Time passed, and morning came. The storm showed no signs of relenting. Eventually, a few bandits asked, ¡°What¡¯s going on with this rain?¡± but nobody had an answer.


    At noon, the rain was still as heavy as it was during the night. The dark clouds went on for miles, but none of the bandits scouted far enough to know that the rain suddenly stopped only about five hundred feet from their campsite.


    That evening, before the sun had fully set, a group of ten bandits left the campsite. They wore thick cloaks to protect themselves from the rain, and they carried crossbows along with their swords. Andric watched the group leaving and grinned.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    At last, less than a day after he began his assault on the bandit campsite, his first group of prey were leaving the safety of the nest.


    Andric followed the small group of bandits for a short while, then cast ten spells from behind them. The ten spells morphed into giant icicles, which then accelerated to ludicrous speeds. The icicles pierced the back of each bandits¡¯ head, killing them instantly. In the blink of an eye, ten bandits were killed.


    After killing the bandits, Andric jumped to their position and checked their clothes. None of their weapons or armor interested him, but they did have a few coins and pieces of jewelry. He didn¡¯t understand why the bandits were carrying jewelry with them when they were supposedly going to rob someone of their jewelry, but he didn¡¯t look into it.


    The loot from this group of bandits was the same as the loot from the previous group of bandits. They increased Andric¡¯s coin total to nearly one hundred silver coins, and the amount of copper coins he had was enough to make it the rest of the way. One hundred copper coins were worth one silver coin, and one hundred silver coins were worth one gold coin. With all of Andric¡¯s funds added together, he had one gold coin.


    Andric reinforced the rain spell that hovered above the bandit campsite, then returned to his position of vigilance, waiting for more bandits to leave the campsite. He watched continuously, for over ten hours, just to catch ten bandits coming from the campsite. But, he knew that the frequency of bandits leaving the campsite would only increase. Eventually, more and more would want to resume their banditry, or their leader might want to mount an expedition. If Andric was lucky, the leader of the bandits would come out commanding his subordinates, making him easily identifiable.


    Over the course of the next few hours, several groups of bandits left the campsite. Some of the groups only had two members, and the largest ones had ten. At midnight, the last group had gone out, and nearly eighty bandits had been killed by Andric. Like the groups before them, they were instantly killed by Andric¡¯s icicles, and their bodies were disposed of a short distance away.


    By the time morning broke and none of the groups of bandits who left the campsite had come back, some of the bandits inside the campside were growing nervous. This didn¡¯t both Andric, because there was a large gap between bandits mysteriously going missing and a powerful magician killing them. At the moment, none of the bandits in the campsite knew that their opponent was merely a single magician.


    At dusk of that day, almost the entire campsite was in uproar. The missing bandit groups were essentially confirmed deceased at that point, since it would be ridiculous for not even a single one to return after a full day. The groups that had left, which were supposed to be hunting for food, should¡¯ve come back before morning.


    As more uneasiness spread through the bandit troupe, an apparent figurehead needed to calm the outfit. The old man walked out of a stone building and jumped cleaning onto the roof, showing off his high-stage Novice realm martialist abilities. The moment he stepped out of the building, the noise around the campsite lessened, and the campsite went entirely silent when he jumped onto the roof.


    ¡°Men of Erfdag, what is this notion of missing patrols? Do any of you need to be told what has happened to the fellows who¡¯ve left and not returned?¡±


    The old man¡¯s aged voice spread clearly across the campsite, even through the loud rain. Andric could hear him from a distance away, and he began to wonder if the old man was the leader of the bandits. If he was, his age was outside Andric¡¯s expectations.


    The old man continued, ¡°We don¡¯t choose this life because it¡¯s an easy one. We all know what could happen when we leave the fortress. There¡¯s always a chance of never returning. But, more importantly, there¡¯s a chance to show those alboche who the real men are!¡±


    The old man¡¯s words were met with cheers. Among the bandits who called the campsite - the fortress - their home, none of them were upstanding citizens. They were the downtrodden, the abandoned, the oppressed. Few of them were born into their way of life.


    ¡°They didn¡¯t want us their cities! They didn¡¯t want us in their sects! They didn¡¯t want us, then, so now they¡¯ve got us, now! Are we going to let him getting away with this, or are we going to go out and slaughter them?¡± the old man asked, questioning all the men around him. Again, his words were met with thunderous praise.


    Then, after the old man finished speaking, a younger man appeared at the entrance to the building. The younger man had a chiseled face and thick arms, and each of his eyes showed a disinterested gaze. His looked over the crowd of bandits that had assembled in front of his building, but his expression didn¡¯t change in the least.


    ¡°Veremund¡­¡±


    ¡°Veremund.¡±


    ¡°Veremund!¡±


    A chant echoed throughout the campsite, combining the voices of nearly two hundred bandits into one. They repeated the name of their leader. Andric trained his eyes on the man who most recently walked out of the building, but he couldn¡¯t see very much from where he stood. In order to make sure nobody patrolling the campsite saw him, he was quite a distance away.


    Andric memorized a few features of the man supposedly named Veremund, then cast a spell on the ground. The spell traveled through the dirt, making its way toward the campsite. When it reached its destination, it exploded while still underground. The explosion of mana had no effect on the campsite or the people inside it, but it did affect a spell that Andric had setup a while ago.


    The secondary spell activated, and a massive crater opened up beneath the campsite. All of the buildings and tents were sucked side, and only a few capable martialists were able to escape. Hundreds of martialists fell into the muddy hole and were unable to pull themselves out of the sludge.

 Chapter 15 - The Erfdag Bandits

    A massive sinkhole opened up below the bandit den. All low-stage Novice realm and below martialists were caught in the collapsed. Whoever fell into the hole was crushed or suffocated to death. The Human realm martialists were completely unable to resist the pull of the mud, and they died without the least bit of resistance. The Novice realm martialists were able to resist for a few seconds, but they were either swallowed up by the ground or able to flee to solid ground.


    Only about twenty bandits remained after Andric¡¯s sinkhole attack. He spent quite some time removing dirt from underneath the bandits¡¯ campsite, and he was rather satisfied with the results. At a later time, he could go search through the rubble in the sinkhole for any valuables the bandits who were swept inside it might¡¯ve had.


    One of the survivors was Veremund, who leaped over fifty feet in one go and jumped onto a tree branch. Many of the surviving bandits had done the same, but they didn¡¯t jump nearly as high. The remaining survivors backed away from the sinkhole. They hurriedly scanned their surroundings, searching for a clue as to what just happened.


    Andric silently sneered and watched the actions of the bandits. The sinkhole had killed many of the bandits, and it couldn¡¯t be tied to an entity trying to exterminate them. If Andric had killed the bandits using long-range magic attacks, the bandits would¡¯ve instantly known that someone was attacking them. To keep his presence a secret, Andric could only operate in ways that couldn¡¯t be tied to a person¡¯s actions. The bandits never would¡¯ve thought that someone would create a sinkhole underneath their fortress!


    ¡°What is this? Outrageous!¡± Veremund shouted as he looked over the area of destruction that used to be his fortress. The veins on his forehead were bulging, and all of his muscles were ready to be used at any moment. Strangely, Andric could actually feel Veremund¡¯s anger.


    ¡®Is this killing intent?¡¯ he wondered, resisting the urge to shake in fear. Only a few hundred feet away from him, an undeniable source of danger loomed. If Andric was a normal Human realm martialists - and not a reincarnated magician - he would¡¯ve fallen to the ground the moment Veremund¡¯s killing intent washed over him.


    ¡°Lord Veremund, we should check the mine,¡± the old man said with an anxious look. His head turned to an area behind where the buildings used to stand, directly at a dimly lit tunnel that led underground.


    ¡°Right, I¡¯ll check it. You see if there are any survivors in this hole,¡± Veremund said, and he jumped to the cave in one leap.


    Andric hadn¡¯t seen the cave when he was monitoring the campsite, and it wasn¡¯t caught in the radius of the sinkhole. Veremund quickly disappeared inside the cave, and the other bandits began to search through the debris in the sinkhole. A few martialists were still alive, but many were crushed to death, and few could hold their breath for long enough to be rescued.


    Andric waited a few seconds, then made a quick decision. The leader of the bandits had left the rest of the behind, giving Andric a good opportunity to kill all of them. If Andric could kill all of the lesser bandits before the leader came back, he would be able to fight the bandit leader one-on-one. Unfortunately, Andric couldn¡¯t know when exactly the leader would come back, or if he would be able to kill all the lesser bandits in time. A better opportunity might¡¯ve come along, or the opportunity might never come again.


    He revealed himself from his hiding spot and flew into the air. When in the sky, Andric was visible from a far distance, but he didn¡¯t plan on staying airborne for long. He threw a few spells downward, and they caused the trees surrounding the campsite to grow uncontrollably. Their branches grew hundreds of feet over the course of a few seconds, enveloping the campsite. A giant fence was erected, one hundred feet tall and three feet thick. The trees closed off the campsite from the outside world, trapping the bandits inside.


    ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡± a bandit yelled in shock over the massive growth of the trees, and the bandits around him reacted in similar ways. They turned away from the sinkhole to look at the wall of branches around them.


    Andric had to move quickly. Next, he launched a few spells which would convert the air inside the campsite into poison gas. Novice realm martialists were unable to resist breathing, and Andric¡¯s poison was highly potent. Within a few seconds, all of the martialists who were in the campsite were dead.


    Once the exposed bandits were dead, Andric¡¯s flew down and landed behind the entrance to the mine. Now, he only needed to wait until Veremund walked out of the mine, or for the poison gas to kill Veremund.


    Andric had watched Veremund jump fifty feet into the air when ten or fifteen feet would¡¯ve done the trick. After that, Andric guessed that Veremund¡¯s maximum jump height was around fifty feet, and that it wouldn¡¯t exceed one hundred feet. As long as Veremund wasn¡¯t allowed to jump twice, he would be stuck inside Andric¡¯s tree barrier. While Veremund was stuck at the base of the campsite, Andric could comfortably fire off spells from above.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    The Human realm and Novice realm bandits were killed almost too easily. Human realm martialists were no different from ordinary human beings, and Novice realm martialists were only on the cusp of transcending the limits of humanity. If spoken in numerical terms, Novice realm martialists were equal to two Human realm martialists. A Novice realm martialists could absorb twice as much poison gas before dying, but Andric created many times that amount. Also, because of Andric¡¯s wall of branches, the poison gas didn¡¯t dissipate over time. The poison gas sank into the campsite and slowly mixed with the air inside the mine.


    A few minutes later, Veremund exited the mine, still flaring killing intent. The second his head emerged from the cave, Andric shot a spell at him. The spell would erupt once it hit Veremund¡¯s head and explode his skull into millions of pieces. One sneak attack would be all it took to kill the leader of the Erfdag bandits.


    But, at the last fraction of a second before the spell hit Veremund, the Apprentice realm martialists jumped out of the way. He drew his sword from his waist and threw it at the spell, causing it to explode. The spell burst into the sword, but the sword wasn¡¯t a human head, creating a conflict with the thought energy that existed inside the spell. The sword fell to the ground, unaffected by the spell in the slightest.


    Veremund¡¯s head instantly shifted toward the source of the spell: Andric. It didn¡¯t even take him a second to recognize Andric as a threat, and he immediately jumped up. The strength of an Apprentice realm martialist was more than Andric had expected, and Veremund jumped seventy feet at once.


    Andric quickly reacted by throwing a few Explosion spells at the trees Veremund was closest to landing on. His spells were much faster than Veremund¡¯s jump, allowing him to successfully blast apart wherever Veremund intended to use as an intermediary for jumping at Andric.


    With the tree branch he intended to jump on destroyed, Veremund could only fall to the ground. He noticed that he wouldn¡¯t be able to make it all the way to Andric in short time, so he stuck out his fist and released a bolt of lightning from his knuckles.


    The bolt of lightning caught Andric off guard, and it traveled much too quickly for him to react. Luckily, it was poorly aimed and shot from a distance, and it arced away from Andric before hitting a tree. However, the resulting explosion of wood blasted Andric off his perch and pelted him with fragments of wood and shocked him with tiny sparks.


    ¡°Ah!¡± he shouted, feeling pain worse than anything he had felt in his life. He tightly closed one eye and continued to watch Veremund with his other eye. Andric quickly righted himself and flew to another tree branch, but Veremund had reached the ground and retrieved his sword.


    Andric tossed another few spells, destroying several more trees. Veremund agilely dodged Andric¡¯s spells and punched the base of the tree that Andric was standing on. The tree shook profusely, then cracked where Veremund punched it.


    With one punch, Veremund felled a one-hundred-year-old tree that stood over one hundred fifty feet tall. Andric used a spell to propel himself to another tree while simultaneously throwing Explosion spells at Veremund. Still, Veremund dodged them.


    Veremund threw his sword at Andric, and Andric cast a spell to disintegrate it. The sword disappeared in smoke, but Veremund had used the second that Andric¡¯s attention was on the sword to hide behind a tree. Of course, Veremund had no idea that Andric had a spell that could locate his presence, and Andric accurately shot another Explosion spell at Veremund.


    Veremund seemed to have an ability that allowed him to sense danger. When Andric¡¯s spell entered within ten feet of Veremund, Veremund jumped out of the way and kicked a piece of wood toward Andric¡¯s spell. The wood hit the spell, causing it to detonate. With that kind of tactic, Veremund managed to evade several more spells from Andric.


    The two of them fought at a stalemate for several minutes. Then, when Andric had grown comfortable with launching spells from above, Veremund used his second martial technique of the fight. He pranced strangely for several steps, then stomped on the ground. With his final step, a massive amount of dirt surged from the muddy ground. The dirt and rocks erupted like a volcano, blasting high enough to hit Andric, if he didn¡¯t flee.


    Andric saw the incoming dirt and flew higher. He couldn¡¯t go to a different tree. Veremund¡¯s martial technique covered the entire area with mud, making it impossible for Andric to shoot any more spells at Veremund.


    Only a few seconds after Andric flew into the sky, Veremund emerged from the canopy. He used the blindness caused by the wave of dirt, rocks, and mud to jump up, and his movement put him only a few dozen feet away from Andric.


    But, in the air, only Andric could freely maneuver his body. Andric used a continuous-type spell to control his flight, so he could only shoot one spell at a time at Veremund. At the same time, Veremund¡¯s martial techniques activated almost instantly, and he didn¡¯t have a constant drain on his mental capacities. Veremund used his Thunder Fist martial technique to shoot a bolt of lightning at Andric, missing him by only a hair.


    Andric threw his first spell at Veremund, and Veremund threw a tiny piece of metal at the spell. As it was every time before, the spell detonated before reaching its true target, but, this time, Andric added a cloud of black gas into the spell.


    The cloud of black gas blocked Veremund¡¯s vision, but it also blocked Andric¡¯s vision. Andric moved himself away from Veremund, and Veremund used another Thunder Fist, again missing. The black gas would dissipate quickly, so Andric acted fast. He deactivated his flight spell and used both of his hands to simultaneous shoot spells at Veremund.


    As Andric fell, to Flesh Eruption spells zigzagged toward Veremund. The flightpath of zigzagging was a complicated one, and Andric could only do it if he didn¡¯t instruct the spell to hone in on his target. But, when Veremund was in the air and could only fall downward, Andric could manually calculate where Veremund would be after half a second from sending out his spells.


    Andric fell twenty feet, then recast his flight spell and stabilized himself. He turned to watch Veremund exploding into bits, but the two Flesh Eruption spells had already hit and done their damage.

 Chapter 16 - The Loot

    A bloody shower fell from the heavens, and Andric descended. Veremund¡¯s body had split into fragments, marking the end of the battle between him and Andric. Now that he was dead, all of the Erfdag bandits were dead, and Andric only needed to collect the loot they left behind.


    The campsite used by the Erfdag bandits was thoroughly destroyed. When Andric descended, he was hard pressed to find a suitable location to land. In the end, he stood on a fallen tree and overlooked the destruction. Hundreds of dead bodies were beneath him, but there was no blood coming from any of them; they were either killed by suffocation, poison gas, or by being crushed.


    Andric allowed the storm clouds above him to dissipate. The water they produced had washed away a great deal of mud, but Andric still had a lot of work for himself. The process of looting the bandits¡¯ corpses couldn¡¯t be completed with only one spell.


    But, before that, Andric wanted to check out the mine. He hadn¡¯t seen the mine when he was initially observing the campsite, but he revealed it when he opened up the sinkhole below the campsite. Veremund had checked inside the mine, but he never got the chance to say anything about it. Andric guessed that there were no bandits inside the mine, or else they would¡¯ve come out to help their leader.


    Andric flew to the mine entrance with one spell, then cast a spell to create a ball of floating the light. The ball of light hovered above his head, throwing its light deep into the mine but not into Andric¡¯s eyes. With the mine illuminated, Andric proceeded forward.


    The mine declined sharply at the entrance. Due to the construction of the entrance, none of the rainwater from outside had entered the mine, but it was still humid. In addition to using his ball of light to see, Andric also cast an occasional ball of light deep into the mine, illuminating a long distance.


    Many dozens of feet later, the mine opened to a large cavern. The cavern ceiling wasn¡¯t much higher than the ceiling of the earlier tunnel, but it was much wider. Thick wooden beams supported the ceiling, and mining equipment was placed haphazardly against the walls. Andric didn¡¯t know very much about mines, so he couldn¡¯t guess what kind of mine it was, or what used to be dug out of it. Either way, it wouldn¡¯t be something valuable enough to garner his attention.


    Instead, Andric¡¯s attention was placed on the several metal crates that were piled up at the rear of the cavern. Giant locks were placed on the crates, and some of the crates had more than one lock. The metal crates were impenetrable by Human or Novice realm martialists, and could only be opened by a stronger martialist or with the key. However, Andric¡¯s magic could ignore the defenses of the metal crates. He cast a few spells, and the lid of the first metal crate was broken off.


    Andric looked inside the metal crate and saw a sea of silver shining coins. He put his hands inside the mass of silver, feeling the metal press back against him, telling him it wasn¡¯t an illusion.


    Then, an explosion burst from inside the metal crate. Silver coins flew across the cavern, and Andric was pushed back several yards. He felt immense pain, and he looked at where his hands used to be.


    ¡®They trapped the crates,¡¯ he thought as he painfully looked at his stubs.


    Casting spells required the use of one''s hands, but it wasn¡¯t the first time Andric had found himself handless. If a magician lost their hands, they could still cast spells from the bloody stumps, but it would use more than twice the normal amount of mana. Andric made a heavy grimace and cast the necessary spell to numb his pain. Once he couldn¡¯t feel anything in his arms, he cast spells to regrow his hands.


    Although the process was simple, it took a long time. Spells were naturally difficult to create when made anywhere besides the hands, and they were prone to unraveling. Only a truly experienced magician could cast spells from any piece of exposed skin, and even then it took a huge level of mental fortitude.


    After Andric regrew his hands, he turned his attention back to the metal crates. If they were all boobytrapped, it would be immensely difficult to search them. Of course, that was only if he didn¡¯t have access to his myriad of spells. Learning from the first crate, Andric destroyed each one¡¯s top side, then used a spell to pick the crate up and dump the contents in a pile.


    Andric dropped two metal crates of coins before finding a boobytrap. Inside the crate, among the coins, was a slip of paper. The slip of paper had several ancient characters written on it, which Andric only vaguely recognized from Instructor Hubert¡¯s lessons.


    The boobytrap was a talisman, created by writing formations onto a slip of paper. The formation needed to have the right words, and the ink and paper needed to be specific spirit materials, but they were highly efficient at certain tasks. In the case of the exploding talisman, it obliterated any greedy hands that entered its metal crate of coins.


    Once the talisman was dropped from the metal crate, Andric used a spell to send it to another section of the cavern. At the moment, he didn¡¯t have the ability to defuse formations, so he decided to ignore it and any others for the time being.


    Andric made his way through the rest of the metal crates, and he found eight more talismans. All of them were identical, and they were mostly in the crates that were easiest to access.


    Besides the metal crates that contained coins, Andric found crates that contained weapons, armor, books, and miscellaneous items. The weapons and armor were uninteresting to Andric, but he took a long time looking at the books and miscellaneous items. After a while, he had to discard the miscellaneous items because he simply didn¡¯t know what they were. Many of them were likely spirit ingredients used in alchemy or forging, but he had no way to know, and they were too heavy and bulky to carry with him.


    The books contained in the metal creates were Andric¡¯s biggest gain. He already had enough coins to last him a while, and he knew he could survive a while without any coins, but the books were things he didn¡¯t even know how to get, normally. They were meditation techniques and martial techniques, and they numbered in the hundreds. The Standing Tortoise Manual was also inside a crate of meditation techniques, making Andric wonder how it landed there.


    Andric looked through the meditation techniques, and four of them caught his eye. They were the Resting Lion Manual, the Dancing Eagle Manual, the Charging Rhino Manual, and the Heaven Shattering Record. The first three meditation techniques were similar to the Standing Tortoise Manual, where they tried to emphasize a way of life. The last one, though, was too profound for Andric to understand. The words were deliberately cryptic, and if it wasn¡¯t in a crate with other meditation techniques, Andric would¡¯ve thought it was a martial technique.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    Andric took the four meditation techniques so that he could study them. His Standing Tortoise Manual didn¡¯t have a fourth rank, which would¡¯ve allowed him to eventually reach the Adept realm. Unfortunately, none of the meditation techniques in front of Andric had a fourth rank, including the mysteriously profound Heaven Shattering Record. Hopefully, studying multiple meditation techniques would allow Andric to advance his cultivation faster and reach the Adept realm without a rank four meditation technique.


    The martial techniques taken by the Erfdag bandits were much more numerous than the meditation techniques. The instantaneous activation of martial techniques was highly attractive to Andric, and he knew that he needed to learn many martial techniques to become a strong martialist. After looking over the selection for quite some time, he settled on taking the Burning Palm Technique, the Flaming Fist Technique, the Silent Gallop Technique, the Thundering Strike Technique, the Boulder Crushing Sword Technique, and the Bone Splitting Sword Technique.


    Andric chose the first two martial techniques because they were both fire-related. The first one made the palm very hot, supposedly burning enemies without releasing actual flames. The second martial technique created flames surrounding the fist, and it allowed the flames to extend short distances.


    The third martial technique was a movement technique. It supposedly allowed its user to move quickly and silently, but only for a distance of a few steps. There were no other movement techniques, or else Andric would¡¯ve taken more.


    The fourth martial technique utilized sound. More than anything, Andric was interested to see what it would do. The fifth and sixth martial techniques were for use with a sword. Andric picked them only because they sounded the strongest, and he wanted to learn how to use a sword at least someone proficiently.


    The meditation techniques and martial techniques were decided upon. In addition to those, Andric also took a book that detailed how to use Spirit Sense inside his body, a book that explained a few formations, and a book of alchemy recipes. He had no idea how many hundreds of coins the rest of the meditation techniques, martial techniques, or miscellaneous items were worth, but he firmly decided to leave them in the cavern.


    As for the coins, counted them before making any decisions. He used magic to count them quickly, and they reached a sum of over one thousand gold coins. One thousand coins would¡¯ve been a manageable size for Andric to carry, but the coins were not all gold. Many of the coins were silver, and most of them were copper. Andric thought about weight, then discarded his copper and silver coins. The number of gold coins was only in the few hundreds, but it was an amount that Andric could carry on his person.


    Andric could tell that the Erfdag bandits had been robbing people for a long time. They had much more treasure than could be gotten in a year, and it made him wonder exactly how long they had been operating. In Einburg, he had learned that bandits were periodically cleaned up by the kingdom of Hochland, but now he didn¡¯t know what to think. The number of gold coins was also not a simple thing. The campsite was well hidden and several hours away from the road, but it wasn¡¯t invisible. There was no way Veremund and the other bandits hadn¡¯t been attacked by soldiers at least once.


    Andric took the items and coins he wanted from the cavern, then walked up to the exit. After he reached the outside, he turned back to the mine and thought of how to hide what was inside. He cast a spell on the mine¡¯s entrance, shifting rock until the tunnel was completely hidden. He then used a spell to engrave a simple map onto the rock surface. If he were lucky, and if nobody knew there was supposed to be a mine there, the loot inside the mine would remain untouched until Andric came back for it.


    Outside the mine, Andric looked across the destruction he had caused. No matter how much he looked at it, something about it was deviously satisfying. At the same time, he felt a sense of loss. He couldn''t help but think of what kind of life the bandits he killed would¡¯ve had if they were normal townspeople in places like Einburg. If they were never bandits, they wouldn¡¯t have died at their young ages. Besides the old man, all the bandits were below fifty. Some of them could¡¯ve lived another fifty years if they hadn¡¯t met Andric.


    Andric used his spells to check through the corpses of the bandits for their valuables. He found numerous weapons, pieces of armor, jewelry, and coins, and he piled them all up next to the hidden entrance to the mine. The weapons and armor meant nothing to him, and the jewelry and coins only slightly caught his attention after he saw what was inside the mine.


    Only one object interested Andric from the moment he saw it. Andric noticed that some of Veremund¡¯s armor wasn¡¯t destroyed by his spells, but there was also a cloth bag that hadn¡¯t been destroyed. Andric hadn¡¯t thought much about it at the time, but it peaked his interest when it survived his low-density matter destruction spell. The bag was a little bigger than Andric¡¯s head, and, from the outside, it appeared to be empty.


    However, when Andric checked inside the bag, he was amazed at the contents.


    ¡°It¡¯s a bag of storage!¡± he exclaimed, almost unable to contain himself.


    Bags of storage were objects used by martialists to store other objects. The object didn¡¯t necessarily need to be a bag, but it was a convenient, portable, and local object to use. Andric had learned about them from Instructor Hubert, but he had never seen one. According to Instructor Hubert, but they were worth thousands of gold coins, and they could even be things like rings or tattoos.


    Andric put his spirit energy into the bag of storage and felt all the items it contained. He couldn¡¯t really feel the items inside it, but the formation applied to the bag of storage activated with his spirit energy, sending a list of the contents to Andric¡¯s brain. He then used his thoughts to pick certain items, and said item would appear in his hand inside the bag of storage.


    The bag of storage was a low-grade space formation. Because it was low-grade, it could only hold items that could fit through its entrance. With medium-grade and high-grade storage devices, objects only needed to be placed against the storage device for them to be absorbed inside.


    Veremund¡¯s bag of storage contained an assortment of weapons, armors, clothes, plants, books, coins, and valuables. He even had a set of luxurious violet cushions and sheets. Andric recognized a uniform used by the town guards of Einburg. Although Andric didn¡¯t have a great relationship with the people of Einburg, he still didn¡¯t like the thought of the townspeople being killed by bandits.


    Andric put the bag of storage over his shoulder and put all the loot he had obtained from the corpses around him into the bag. He also went and took the remains of Veremund¡¯s sword. If Veremund had a large supply of swords in his bag of storage, there had to be a reason he kept using the sword he had on his waist. To investigate, Andric took the shattered pieces of metal.


    After Andric took everything that was outside the mine, he opened the entrance and went inside. Since he had the bag of storage, he might as well take everything. He dumped everything into his new bag of storage, and the list of items it transmitted to his brain grew increasingly large. The mine was completely cleared out after a few minutes, and Andric went back to the surface. Finally, the bandit den was completely looted.


    Andric put his roll of clothes into the bag of storage, as well as the sword he picked up along the way to the bandit den, and he quickly flew away. After he left, the wall of branches that surrounded the campsite dissipated. Eventually, natural rain fell, and plants grew. Over time, the den of the notorious Erfdag bandits was overgrown by nature.

 Chapter 17 - The Cave

    The forest was large, having more than enough room for someone to hide out for a few days or weeks. Andric, who planned to stay hidden for much longer, searched for several hours before finding a place suitable for his needs. He landed at the base of a rock wall, near a small stream. He could hear birds chirping nearby, as well as the churning of water over rocks.


    Andric quickly created a cave in the rock wall and walked inside. Then, he closed the majority of the entrance, only leaving two spaces for air to enter and exit the cave, as well as some light. The cave wasn¡¯t made very deep, and only extended inward for about twenty feet. With that short of a distance, Andric had enough room for his purposes.


    Andric¡¯s next objective was to open his meridians, so he used magic to craft a bed for himself and took off his shirt. All of the major meridians were inside the center and upper body, and there wasn¡¯t a single one Andric couldn¡¯t reach. His only concern was with the heart-brain meridian and the lung-brain meridian. Both of them went from his chest to his skull, but Andric couldn¡¯t pinpoint exactly where they were located. He estimated their locations to be at the base of his skull, but he wasn¡¯t willing to perform the meridian-discovery process so close to his brain and arcane core. However, with the Spirit Sense technique he picked up from the Erfdag bandits, he would be able to sense his meridians quite easily.


    Several days passed. In that time, Andric studied the Spirit Sense technique and worked on opening his meridians. On the first day, he opened his diaphragm-lung meridian. Using three days each, he then opened his lung-lung meridian, his lung-diaphragm meridian, and his lung-heart meridian. With those additional four meridians opened, Andric achieved a state of Five Pointed Chest Circulation.


    He didn¡¯t know it, but the state of Five Pointed Chest Circulation was highly beneficial to endurance. After the meridians were open, Andric felt his heart beating stronger, his lungs breathing better, and a general increase in energy throughout his body. He spent a few hours practicing the Standing Tortoise Manual, and he was shocked to see his cultivation speed become more than triple of what it was in Einburg.


    After Andric obtained the state of Five Pointed Chest Circulation, his rate of opening other meridians increased. Next, he went after the meridians that were connected to and below his diaphragm.


    Weeks passed, and Andric¡¯s progress along the martial way increased by leaps and bounds. With five meridians open, his cultivation speed was already unbelievable to the people of Einburg. After he opened twelve meridians, his cultivation speed increased another fold, further increasing the speed at which he could open new meridians.


    After two months of living in the cave, Andric successfully opened twenty-two of his twenty-four major meridians. All that remained was the two meridians that connected to his brain, and then the thirty-six minor meridians that were located throughout his body.


    Spirit Sight was an ability that only Instructor Hubert had, and it allowed him to view the spirit energy inside other people. A martialist could only hope to be born with Spirit Sight, but all of them could learn Spirit Sense. With Spirit Sense, they would be able to sense the spirit energy inside their own body. Andric had the technique manual for it, and he only needed to devote himself to learning it.


    The Spirit Sense technique required the user to alter the spirit energy inside their body into a form that could be detected much more easily than normal spirit energy. This used a large amount of spirit energy, but it helped martialists to visualize the movement of spirit energy through their body when they used martial techniques. Andric wanted to use Spirit Sense to locate his meridians, which was inline with others¡¯ uses of Spirit Sense, meaning it was definitely possible.


    Andric had studied the Spirit Sense technique while he was opening the twenty-two major meridians, but it took him another week of practice to actually use the technique. When he activated his Spirit Sense, he could feel the spirit energy inside his body much more clearly. Now, instead of a vague feeling that would only be noticed when moving from zero spirit energy to full spirit energy, Andric could feel all the locations in his body that had spirit energy in them.


    The heart-brain meridian and the lung-brain meridian were both located inside the head, near the spinal cord, at the base of the skull. Once they entered the skull, they continued toward the brain, but Andric was confident that his technique for opening meridians would be able to clear away the debris located inside his brain without him needing to disintegrate and regrow his brain. Most importantly, neither meridian overlapped with his arcane core.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    The meridians of the body were pathways used to absorb spirit energy from the atmosphere. Where in a state of meditation, martialists drew spirit energy toward their body, and their meridians absorbed the latent spirit energy before circulating it to other parts of the body. If a human didn¡¯t have any meridians open, they wouldn¡¯t be able to consciously collect spirit energy, but it could still happen incidentally. With one or more meridians open, humans could become martialists.


    When the five chest-located meridians were open, it gave a large boost to endurance. When the seventeen torso-located meridians were open, it gave a large boost to power. When the two head-located meridians were open, it gave a large boost to reaction speed. When all twenty-four meridians were open, the body would obtain a state of Perfect Circulation. Under the effects of Perfect Circulation, cultivation speed increased tremendously, and many abilities were boosted.


    Andric meticulously worked on opening the meridians in his head, and he succeeded after five days. Immediately after doing so, he felt an intense power throughout his body, but he also felt slightly hopeless. At the ends of his heart-brain meridians and lung-brain meridian, there were several minor meridians reaching into his brain. Unfortunately, they weren¡¯t opened with the opening of the major meridians, and Andric didn¡¯t know how he would open them in the future.


    But, even so, Andric wasn¡¯t deeply worried. The minor meridians were somewhat useful for increasing cultivation speed, but they weren¡¯t as important as the major meridians. Meridians were used for - in addition to gathering spirit energy from the atmosphere - transferring spirit energy throughout the body. With all twenty-four major meridians open, Andric¡¯s speed of moving spirit energy was much faster than before. Once he opened his minor meridians, his speed would increase by another level.


    At his current realm, the speed of his spirit energy activation wasn¡¯t very important. Once martialists reached the Adept realm or higher, a fraction of a second was all it took to end a battle, and every microsecond was valuable.


    Andric finished opening his major meridians, then took a break. He wanted to observe the changes inside his body before he opened his minor meridians. He decided to train with his martial techniques while his minor meridians were closed, then to open them once he had mastered the techniques. That way, he would increase his level of mastery without any extra work, and he would be able to appreciate what having his minor meridians open meant.


    The silent cave was lonely, but Andric continued to diligently study the six martial techniques he had picked out from the loot he obtained from the Erfdag bandits. In addition to those, he also studied the Thunder Fist Technique, which he found in Veremund¡¯s bag of storage.


    Martial techniques had ranks, similarly to meditation techniques. Rank one martial techniques were good for Human realm martialists, and rank three martial techniques were good for Apprentice realm martialists. If the martial technique didn¡¯t have a Novice realm first rank, it meant it used too much spirit energy for a Human realm martialist to handle. Of the martial techniques that Andric selected, only the Burning Palm Technique, the Silent Gallop Technique, and the Boulder Crushing Sword Technique were possible to be practiced at the Human realm.


    Andric spent half of his days meditating, and he spent the other half studying the martial techniques he could activate with Human realm cultivation. The effects of Perfect Circulation was immense, and it lowered the time he needed to reach the next stage to one-ninth of what it used to be. He had previously used almost two weeks to reach the third stage of the Human realm, but he only needed a few days to reach the fourth stage of the Human realm.


    The fifth stage came a week later.


    The sixth stage came two weeks later.


    The seventh stage came a four weeks later.


    The eighth stage came eight weeks later.


    The ninth stage came sixteen weeks later.


    Almost eight months quickly passed while Andric meditated. He nourished his body with magically-obtained nutrients, and he added mass by drinking water. After he reached the ninth stage of the Human realm, he noticed his body was much larger than it used to be. He was still proportionally the same, but his frame grew larger. His muscles were sleek, but each of them held the power of a strict bodybuilder. But, after everything was over, it was still within the bounds of humanity.


    To truly step on the path of the martial way, Andric needed to reach the Novice realm. While he was only at the Human realm, he couldn¡¯t learn many of the martial techniques that seemed actually powerful and deadly. Furthermore, Human realm martialists were simply too weak. At the moment, Andric could effortlessly kill hundreds of Human realm martialists with only a spell or two. His highest priority was his own safety, so he understood the need for greater power.


    The cave he was presently inside was safe for reaching the ninth stage of the Human realm, but it wouldn¡¯t help him reach the next realm. According to the Standing Tortoise Manual and the other meditation techniques Andric looked over, reaching the Novice realm required a martialist to temper their spirit with the flames of battle and experience hardship; Andric only needed to look through his memories to experience countless hardships.


    One week later, Andric reached the correct state of mind, and the strength of his body explosively rose upward.

 Chapter 18 - Martial Techniques

    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.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    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.

 Chapter 19 - Power

    ¡®This isn¡¯t really formidable, is it?¡¯ Andric wanted to ask while he practiced the Burning Palm Technique. A full sixteen nights passed since he entered Radegart, but he still hadn¡¯t gotten around to working on his other martial techniques. Of course, he was only practicing the first rank of the Burning Palm Technique, but the power he displayed didn¡¯t match up with what the book described the martial technique to be capable of. At the very least, he should¡¯ve been able to char pieces of dry firewood. At the moment, he could only make the firewood heat up by a few degrees.


    When Andric left the cave, he had already learned the Burning Palm Technique, the Silent Gallop Technique, and the Boulder Crushing Sword Technique to a level that allowed him to use them casually, but he was far from bringing out their full power. Even at the present, after weeks of practicing the Burning Palm Technique and almost a week of practicing the Silent Gallop Technique, he hadn¡¯t mastered either one.


    In the system used by magicians, there were no techniques that needed to be mastered before they could be used. A magician only needed to learn how to use their arcane core and brain to mix mana and thought energy. Once they did that, they could use any spell they wanted.


    At this time, Andric understood how the martial way differed from the path of magic. To magicians, there was only mastery. There was no way for a magician to use a partially complete spell. Martialists, though, could use martial techniques while only barely understanding the underlying principles. The ability to comprehend magic came in less than one percent of the population, but martial techniques could be partially mastered by ninety-nine percent of the population.


    The martial way existed for quantity, not quality. Out of the millions of martialists who tread on the path, very few might reach the end.


    Andric didn¡¯t let his failure to master the Burning Palm Technique lower his spirits. He paid for twenty more nights at the tavern, at a large meal, and decided to move onto practicing the second rank of the Burning Palm Technique.


    Inside the tavern, while Andric was eating, he listened to the conversations going on around him. It had been a long time since he leisurely talked to someone, but he didn¡¯t mind that so much. In actuality, he wanted to hear news. In Einburg, Andric always heard about the state of the kingdom from Gasto and Roza, who heard it from the other townspeople. In towns like Einburg and Radegart, news was slow to arrive, and only the most precious pieces were delivered the thousand-plus miles from the capital.


    A few years ago, Hochland had entered a minor war with the kingdom of Baugland, but that war ended before Andric¡¯s day of adulthood. The results of the war were mixed, but most reports stated that Hochland retreated after taking a minor piece of land from Baugland. In the history of Hochland, Baugland was one of the kingdoms they regularly bullied, and small conflicts broke out between them every few decades.


    Recently, there were talks of Hochland invading Hilzland. Allegedly, Hochland ships had already bombarded Hilzland ports while the Hilzland ships were frozen in. A ground campaign couldn¡¯t be done in the winter, and Hochland had supposedly reached water superiority before the war was even officially declared. Without their ships, Hilzland would have a harder time importing food, which would make them weaker in the spring, when Hochland would likely send its armies of martialists to attack.


    The reception of the war by the townspeople of Radegart was poor. Whenever the kingdom waged war, grain taxes soared for several months afterward. During winter, towns like Radegart survived by eating grains they stored from their fall harvest and slaughtered animals that could be salted and frozen to last for months. If the Hochland army attacked Hilzland, they would need to bring an immense amount of food with them, which they would have to take from towns like Radegart.


    ¡°The war won¡¯t be so bad, this time. By eliminating Hilzland¡¯s ability to import food, they¡¯ve crippled them. Once spring rolls around, the Hilzland army will be starving, or their citizens will be revolting. If they want to survive, their only hope would be for an expert to use a storage object to smuggle in food from the south. But, how many storage objects are there in Hilzland? Ten? Twenty? Even if they have fifty, they¡¯re putting all their hopes on fifty people making a journey across thousands of miles, buying an astronomical amount of food, and trekking all the way back,¡± a townsperson calmly analyzed about the situation.


    Indeed, as he said, storage objects were incredibly rare. In Hochland, only the most powerful martialists or the highest members of the government could have one. Andric had no idea how Veremund managed to obtain one, since the previous owner had to be either incredibly powerful or backed by an incredibly powerful organization.


    The hard truth of the matter was that Hilzland didn¡¯t have enough food to last through the winter. To import food from a neutral kingdom, they would need to send merchants at least three thousand miles. Such a long journey would take months to complete, which meant only Adept realm martialists - with their ability to fly - could travel it in a timely manner. To support their soldiers, Hilzland could only entrust their Adept realm martialists with an immensely difficult task or ration their remaining food by stealing it from their citizens.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    ¡°It sounds like this war is a good chance to make a name for myself. I¡¯ll sign up in spring and obtain a good rank by summer!¡± a youth optimistically spoke.


    Andric looked over the youth, and he vaguely sensed the youth¡¯s martial realm. He wasn¡¯t aware of the ability at first, but it appeared that high-realm martialist could detect low-realm martialists. Every human naturally had a seventh sense that allowed them to sense dangers, and that sense only became more powerful as they progressed along the martial way. While Apprentice realm martialists and higher were impossible for Andric to see through, he could identify Novice realm and below martialists.


    In the tavern with Andric, there were many Human realm martialists and only a few Novice realm martialists. There were no Apprentice realm martialists, but that was also true in the significantly larger town of Einburg.


    ¡°A boy who hasn¡¯t even been waned off his mother¡¯s teat doesn¡¯t have any place at the battlefield!¡± a middle-aged man loudly said while leaning back in his chair. ¡°A shitty Human realm brat is only destined to die in a fight between kingdoms!¡±


    ¡°I will survive! I will temper my spirit with the flames of battle!¡± the youth announced. Around the tavern, several patrons laughed at his enthusiasm.


    Andric raised his head and spoke, ¡°If you think you¡¯re tough, you wouldn¡¯t mind sparing with me, right?¡±


    Several heads turned to Andric and watched him, but he didn¡¯t say anything else. Since he arrived in Radegart, he hadn¡¯t spoken to anyone except the employees of the tavern. Although many people had seen him, nobody ever tried talking to him. He usually ate quickly, then went to his room and slept.


    ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll fight anybody,¡± the youth agreed, raising a fist.


    A Novice realm martialist grabbed the youth¡¯s arm and said, while looking at Andric, ¡°Hold on, he¡¯s at the Novice realm.¡±


    In the martial world, it wasn¡¯t uncommon for martialists to kill weaker martialists. The martial way was fraught with peril, and death could be had at any moment. The older man worried for the safety of the young man when Andric offered to fight him.


    ¡°I only want to practice with a new martial technique of mine. Nobody should get hurt too badly,¡± Andric said. He really had no intention other than to practice the Burning Palm Technique in combat.


    The young man had lived in Radegart for all his life and worked in the fields with his friends and relatives. In addition to practicing his meditation technique, he also practiced martial arts, which were only slightly inferior to martial techniques. Martial arts couldn¡¯t make flames erupt from one¡¯s hand, but they could allow a martialist to fight without using spirit energy on costly martial techniques. They were difficult to train in, and very few people practiced them.


    ¡°I¡¯ll fight him! I¡¯ll fight anybody who wants to!¡± the young man exclaimed and walked closer to Andric. ¡°My name is Farvald, and I challenge you to a martial battle!¡±


    ¡°Sit down!¡± the older man bellowed, shocking many patrons in the tavern.


    Only the old man and a few others were truly knowledgeable about the martial way, and they knew there was something strange about Andric. It had to be said that Andric was a few months away from turning sixteen, and for him to be at the Novice realm at his age was utterly outstanding. Nobody in the tavern could think of a single person who had entered the Novice realm within a year of turning sixteen except for the descendents of sects or powerful clans. Those descendents were rarely humble people, and they never held back. If Andric permanently injured the young man or killed him, there wouldn¡¯t be anything a small town like Radegart could do to retaliate, unless they wanted their town to be obliterated by Andric¡¯s senior.


    Andric thought there was nothing wrong with having a friendly spar. He hadn¡¯t lived long enough to see wealthy young masters using the backing of their clan to take whatever they wanted from villages. Allowing Farvald to spar with Andric might incur personal injuries, and having someone else spar with Andric might incur wrath from a powerful entity.


    ¡°War is no place for a man without the courage to fight a stronger opponent. Here, if you want to flee, you know the terrain well enough to find a place to hide, and you¡¯re surrounded by friends. If you¡¯re on a battlefield and meet a Novice realm soldier, do you think he¡¯s going to allow you to leave just because you¡¯re weaker than him? We should spar, so you can learn the difference between a Human realm martialist and a Novice realm martialist,¡± Andric calmly explained to Farvald. His words also reached the older man, making him less resolute on not allowing Farvald to fight.


    ¡°Uncle, let me fight him. I¡¯ll show you that not even a Novice realm martialist can take me down,¡± the young man said to the older man, but he was less enthusiastic than he was at the start of the conversation.


    The older man looked at his nephew, then at Andric. He finally sighed and said, ¡°Alright, but don¡¯t let yourself get too hurt.¡±


    ¡°Haha, you¡¯ll surely be impressed,¡± Farvald said, then walked toward the exit of the tavern. Andric drank a gulp from his glass of wine and then followed him.


    The two of them went into the street in front of the tavern and faced off against each other. They stood about thirty feet apart, which was the standard distance for martial duels. Farvald was energetic, ready to have his first duel to prove himself, and he didn¡¯t even try to go over the rules of the duel with Andric. He hurriedly asked, ¡°When do we start?¡±


    ¡°Whenever you¡¯re ready,¡± Andric replied, and the spirit energy inside his body began to circulate.

 Chapter 20 - The Fight

    Andric¡¯s spirit energy coursed through his body at an insane rate. With all of his major meridians being open, he was able to move spirit energy throughout the core of his body in an instant. The movement of his spirit energy only became a little slower when it entered his limbs, where he hadn¡¯t opened his minor meridians.


    Having Perfect Circulation helped Andric¡¯s spirit energy activation, but it couldn¡¯t be forgotten that he had reached the Novice realm, which transcended the limits of humanity. Just from going from the Human realm to the Novice realm, his spirit energy circulation speed had doubled on a base value. Compared to himself in Einburg, his spirit energy was presently circulating almost one hundred times faster.


    Farvald circulated the spirit energy inside his body, but his speed was much slower than Andric¡¯s. He cultivated a meditation technique that was slightly superior to Andric¡¯s, and he had opened his first meridian by sparring with the members of his town, but is martial realm was much lower than Andric¡¯s. The gap between a Human realm martialist and a Novice realm martialist was much too large for a town youth without any backing to bridge. Only supreme martial techniques or experience could enable a Human realm martialists to beat a Novice realm martialist in a fight, but Farvald didn¡¯t have either of those things.


    Andric allowed Farvald to have the first move. A second after Andric began to circulate his spirit energy, Farvald charged toward him. Farvald¡¯s instantaneous speed was within the realm of human capabilities, and he didn¡¯t approach Andric very fast. In the time it took him to close the distance between them, Andric activated the Burning Palm Technique in both hands and raised them to meet the charge.


    Farvald ended his charge with a flying kick, putting all of his momentum behind his leg. He aimed his foot at Andric¡¯s face, and he jumped high enough to angle his leg horizontally. For a second, his first attack seemed perfect, as if he really would kick Andric in the face, but, at the last fraction of a second, Andric slapped Farvald¡¯s foot and stepped out of the way of the kick.


    A Novice realm martialist had twice the strength of a Human realm martialist, and their reaction speed was twice as fast. When Andric had fought against Veremund, he kept a long distance from him so that nothing could be done in a short period of time. Now, if he was faced with Veremund for a second time, he felt somewhat confident in being able to take Veremund in close-combat with spells before Veremund could reach him.


    When against Farvald, the Human realm kid was simply too slow.


    Andric backed away from Farvald, and Farvald jumped toward him with a flurry of punches. The first rank of the Burning Palm Technique used a small amount of spirit energy, so Andric could keep it up for a while, but it wasn¡¯t something he could use for an extended period of time. Even when he was using the Silent Gallop Technique in the forest, he had to periodically stop and refill his spirit energy reserves.


    Farvald¡¯s punches were fast and randomly placed, but Andric was able to block almost all of them. Only a few punches slipped past Andric¡¯s defences, but he got better over the course of the fight. In the beginning, he could only block three out of four punches. After Farvald¡¯s barrage continued for thirty seconds, Andric managed to block seven out of eight punches.


    ¡°Three Horned Ram!¡± Farvald shouted, and he punched Andric with both fists directly in front of him. Andric rose his palms to meet Farvald¡¯s fists, but he was utterly surprised when something hit his chest, in the center of Farvald¡¯s fists.


    Andric was pushed back, and Farvald didn¡¯t give him a second to think about what had just happened before resuming his onslaught.


    ¡®The Three Horned Ram attack was able to create a third point of pressure. I was able to block two of them with my hands, but the last one hit me,¡¯ Andric analyzed while retreating from Farvald. He continued to block Farvald with his Burning Palm Technique, hoping Farvald would use Three Horned Ram so that he could analyze it a second time.


    A few seconds later, Farvald backed up and swung a wide kick at Andric, who leaned back and used his palms to deflect the kick. Immediately after, Farvald followed up with a kick from his other leg. Andric allowed his spirit energy to surge, and he deflected Farvald¡¯s second kick with the same move his used against the first kick.


    However, this time, Farvald¡¯s pant leg came away smoking. This development pleased Andric, who finally saw some improvement with his Burning Palm after several days of practicing. Farvald was only slightly stunned at his pant leg releasing light-colored smoke, and he continued attacking a second later.


    Andric blocked Farvald¡¯s next punch, but he didn¡¯t feel like it has as much burning power as the palms he used against Farvald¡¯s kick. Farvald wound up for a heavy punch, and Andric decided to flair his spirit energy at the instant when Farvald¡¯s fist impacted his palm.


    ¡°Ah!¡± Farvald yelped and retreated. He held his knuckles with his other hand, soothing the pain. Andric grinned, knowing his Burning Palm had been successful.


    The first rank of the Burning Palm Technique was capable of boiling water and charing wood. Only the second rank of the Burning Palm Technique was able to create actual flames, similarly to the Flaming Fist Technique, which had its first rank only practicable at the Novice realm.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!


    Andric didn¡¯t advance on Farvald while he was nursing his burn. Instead, Andric thought about why his Burning Palms were more potent at the moment of spirit energy activation. Even if he had the same amount of spirit energy in his palm, the true burning would only activate if he had just circulated the spirit energy into his palm. When he supplied the spirit energy beforehand, the Burning Palm was much weaker.


    ¡®Perhaps it has something to do with the micro-orientation of spirit energy in motion?¡¯ he wondered, trying to think of a reason. If the theory was correct, it would mean he needed to constantly spend his spirit energy to have a martial technique primed for use. At that point, it was no different from continuously using the martial technique.


    ¡°Ha, ha, that was a pretty good attack,¡± Farvald said while clutching his hand. His face dripped sweat. Meanwhile, Andric was completely clean and hadn¡¯t even begun to breath heavily.


    ¡°Your Three Horned Ram was also pretty impressive. I was caught off guard by that third impact,¡± Andric said, honestly evaluating the fight. Farvald¡¯s enthusiasm was praiseworthy, but Andric¡¯s true admiration was for the martial technique Farvald had used.


    ¡°Thanks, it was given to me by my parents,¡± Farvald said and changed his tone. The pressure he expended on his knuckles lessened, and he stared off into the distance for a second or two.


    Andric had seen thousands of orphans in his previous life, and he had no sympathy for someone like Farvald who could live with his other relatives in a small town. When Farvald¡¯s tone changed as he mentioned his parents, Andric instantly knew he was parentless. The truly unfortunate ones were those who were turned into slaves.


    Andric didn¡¯t have any reason to care about the people living in Radegart. Whether Farvald survived or not along his way to Hilzland was of zero consequence to Andric. The reason Andric offered to spar with Farvald was solely to practice his Burning Palm Technique, and his results were magnificent. After only a few minutes of fighting, Andric had discovered a way to bring out the full potential of the first rank of the Burning Palm Technique.


    Farvald laughed lightly, then said, ¡°It¡¯s tough to find martial techniques. I¡¯ve got my heirloom martial technique, but our town doesn¡¯t have any others!¡±


    Andric laughed with him, knowing how only a few martialists in Einburg practice martial techniques, and that most of them were heirlooms in their family. Also, he thought about the myriad of martial techniques in his bag of storage, making the laugh somewhat ironic.


    Andric had meditation techniques, martial techniques, and coins. He only lacked experience and knowledge about the martial way. If he had a mentor, that mentor could¡¯ve helped him use the Burning Palm Technique much earlier. But, if Andric did have a mentor, he wouldn¡¯t be able to keep so many secrets. Andric had lived for far too long to believe that any wise senior would want to teach him the martial way for no benefit in return.


    What were the chances of picking up a ring and finding a trapped Legendary realm martialist inside it? What were the chances of his mother¡¯s necklace containing a god-tier inheritance? What were the chances of his bloodline awakening an ancient and powerful method of cultivating? Zero. The chances were zero.


    Andric would never ask someone for help. If he needed the assistance of a second person, he would only try to put himself in a position where the other person asked him for help. When he first came to Radegart, he didn¡¯t try to spar with anyone. Only when Farvald was acting tough in the tavern did Andric see an opportunity to take advantage of. If he had asked someone for a friendly spar, his opponent might¡¯ve asked for some kind of compensation for their time. Andric had specifically made his offer sound like he was helping Farvald understand his limits. Farvald¡¯s uncle had almost gotten in the way, but the sparring match still happened, and Andric owed nothing for it.


    Farvald¡¯s uncle had watched the fight from the side of the road. He said, ¡°Did you learn anything from this? A Novice realm martialist is only one realm higher than a Human realm martialist, but they¡¯re not something you can contend with. If you meet a Novice realm martialist in the war, they¡¯re not going to only defend. Oh, and before you get any thoughts, he wasn¡¯t defending because you were too good. Actually, I think it was the opposite.¡±


    Before the fight began, Farvald¡¯s uncle was worried that Andric would hurt Farvald beyond a reasonable level. It wouldn¡¯t be strange for a young master from a sect or clan to visit the countryside to pick on weaker martialists who don¡¯t have any backing. In demonic sects, there were sometimes requirements of having killed a certain number of people before being able to advance to a higher ranking disciple.


    In the fight between Andric and Farvald, Farvald¡¯s uncle had noticed that Andric specifically tried to block all of Farvald¡¯s attacks and not mix in any of his own attacks. Farvald¡¯s uncle was still under the impression that Andric had a powerful backer, and he didn¡¯t think that Andric only knew one martial technique. He also thought that Andric had held back the power of his Burning Palm during the start of the fight and he only purposefully used it at full power twice.


    Besides Farvald¡¯s uncle, there were a few others townspeople who had exited the tavern to watch the fight. In short: they weren¡¯t impressed. In towns like Radegart, there weren¡¯t many options for entertainment, so people would occasionally get into fights. A fight wasn¡¯t a true fight unless it ended with one of the participants bleeding, and Farvald had given up the fight after only burning his fist.


    ¡°Watching kids fight isn¡¯t very entertaining.¡±


    ¡°What did you expect? Farvald only knows that one move. His parents might¡¯ve trained him in martial arts, but what good is that stuff against an opponent who¡¯s one realm higher?¡±


    ¡°At least the traveler could¡¯ve used a few different martial techniques. He ended up only using that one.¡±


    ¡°And that¡¯s all he needed. Farvald was too out of his league. So what about his day of adulthood? Still a brat.¡±


    ¡°Right, a brat.¡±


    The consensus of the crowd was that Farvald lacked the skill required to defeat an opponent who had a higher realm than his own. Their conjection was correct, but none of them factored in Andric¡¯s Perfect Circulation, which made his body much tougher than normal bodies. In the entirety of Hochland, there wasn¡¯t anyone in the Novice realm who could compete with him in terms of spirit energy circulation speed or body toughness.

 Chapter 21 - Training Several Martial Techniques

    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.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    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.

 Chapter 22 - News from the North

    Like most evenings, Andric was sitting in the tavern and eating a meal while eavesdropping on the conversations around him. A few weeks had passed since he first heard about the planned war between Hochland and Hilzland, and the first bit of news since then was finally arriving in Radegart.


    ¡°Recruitment notices are in! Five silver sign-up bonus with one silver for each month served! Better yet, they¡¯re teaching all recruits the Severing Slash Technique!¡± A man from the town announced the news to the tavern patrons, instantly gaining the attention of nearly everyone inside.


    ¡°This is for the war against Hilzland?¡± and aged patron asked.


    ¡°That¡¯s right. The army has already destroyed all of Hilzland¡¯s ports, and now they¡¯re assembling troops for a full invasion! Hilzland is starving without their food imports, so it¡¯s only a matter of time before they invade us or seek help from a stronger kingdom. We need to sign up quickly and win this war before anyone else gets involved,¡± the man replied. He took a cup of wine from a server and drank the whole thing, then paid for that one and a second.


    In many opinions, the war between Hochland and Hilzland looked favorable for Hochland. Without food, Hilzland¡¯s opportunities for growth were limited. The army would need tons of food to keep their soldiers energized, but there already wasn¡¯t very much food in winter. Meanwhile, the winter in Hochland was much less severe, and importing food was much easier. Logistically speaking, Hochland had already won.


    The only thing that Andric didn¡¯t understand was why Hochland had stopped their invasion of Baugland after several years, then switched targets to the economically inferior Hilzland. According to Andric¡¯s knowledge, there weren¡¯t any great resources that could be obtained from Hilzland that weren¡¯t more plentiful in Baugland. It had to be known that Hochland had the advantage in the war against Baugland, so pulling out was like abandoning three years of progress.


    ¡°Uncle, did you hear that?¡± Farvald was sitting at a table with his uncle when he heard the news.


    Farvald¡¯s uncle slapped his head and replied, ¡°Of course I did! I¡¯m right here!¡±


    ¡°I have to sign up. We could do so much with five silver, and they¡¯re even teaching a martial technique!¡± Farvald said. Besides the martial technique his parents had taught him, he knew no others. His martial realm wasn¡¯t high, but he knew that a second martial technique would help him bridge the gap between himself and stronger opponents.


    Andric thought the name ¡®Severing Slash Technique¡¯ sounded familiar, so he put one hand in his bag of storage and looked through the contents. Sure enough, there were several copies of the Severing Slash Technique in there. The reason Andric hadn¡¯t selected it to train in was because the Boulder Crushing Sword Technique and the Bone Splitting Sword Technique were both more powerful and had better secondary effects.


    Martial techniques could be designed in many different ways. One way was to have an all-encompassing martial technique that could accommodate the use of any weapon. Another way was to have only a certain weapon usable with the martial technique. The Severing Slash Technique could be used with any bladed weapon, but the Boulder Crushing Sword Technique and the Bone Splitting Sword Technique could only be used with a sword. As such, the spirit energy distribution in each one was more defined, allowing for harder-hitting strikes. The Bone Splitting Sword Technique was very similar to the Severing Slash Technique, except it applied much more force to the opponent''s bones, which were typically the hardest thing to cut through.


    Thinking about those martial techniques, Andric remembered that he hadn¡¯t learned either of them beyond briefly looking over their books, and he decided to spend the next few weeks mastering them.


    ¡°Definitely not. Not until you reach the Novice realm,¡± Farvald¡¯s uncle declined. After all, he was Farvald¡¯s closest relative and the job of keeping Farvald alive fell to him. If Farvald died in battle, there was no way Farvald¡¯s uncle would be able to face his brother in the afterlife.


    The man who came to deliver news still had more to say, and he waited for everyone to calm down before saying, ¡°This war needs to be over before summer. If recruitment targets aren¡¯t met by spring, conscription will begin!¡±


    The tavern turned quieter, but whispers were still had all around. Even Farvald¡¯s uncle started to mutter something that Andric couldn¡¯t hear.


    The topic of conscription was heavily debated. In the war against Baugland, no conscription had been used. This was because the kingdom of Hochland could offer various gains from the war to be used to reward the martialists who signed up with the army. However, the war against Hilzland wouldn¡¯t have any great benefits, so there was nothing new to offer potential recruits. The Severing Slash Technique could garner the interest of a few youngsters, but it wouldn¡¯t be enough to pull in the experienced martialists who had already found their own martial techniques.


    Andric knew a little about conscription, but it didn¡¯t bother him. He wasn¡¯t living in Einburg or Mahtzig, and there were no records of him in Radegart. If he left the small town that night, nobody would ever know anything more about him than he spent several weeks at the tavern and liked to eat expensive meat and drink expensive wine. If he hid in the wilderness for a while, it was unlikely that a recruiter for the kingdom would find him.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    There wasn¡¯t anybody Andric didn¡¯t particularly want to be conscripted. If it were the youths from Einburg, Andric was happy to let it come down to fate. Currently, Andric had met no humans who deserved to be spared from the horrors of war. In his opinion, every man should experience it at least once in their life. He even supported Farvald going to voluntarily join the war, even if he wanted Farvald to be a little more practical about it.


    ¡°Why are we invading Hilzland?¡± someone asked the question that everyone wanted to know. Few would admit it, but even fewer knew that Hochland had to gain by invading the Frozen North.


    ¡°This¡­¡± The messenger seemed unwilling to explain. Instead, he drank the rest of his cup of wine.


    ¡°We wanna know!¡± a second person shouted.


    Then, a woman from across the tavern whispered to her tablemate in a slightly loud voice, ¡°I heard that an enchanted castle was found in Hilzland.¡±


    ¡°What?!¡±


    The reactions from everyone inside the tavern were similar. The messenger¡¯s face slightly paled as someone asked the woman, ¡°Where did you hear that from? Why haven¡¯t you told anyone else?¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t think it was true. I heard it from one of the caravans that came near the beginning of winter, but I thought it was just a guard trying to impress me,¡± the woman defended herself and moved her seat closer to the tavern wall.


    ¡®What¡¯s an enchanted castle?¡¯ Andric wanted to ask, but he stayed silent.


    ¡°If it really is an enchanted castle, won¡¯t the Chaotic East get involved? The martialists from those high-realm places are always the first ones to explore ancient ruins.¡±


    ¡°Leifgard won¡¯t stand by and let a southern kingdom attack their neighbor when it has an enchanted castle inside it. No, then entire Frozen North might make a move!¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s no wonder Hochland pulled out of Baugland. The difference between a few gem mines and an enchanted castle is like the difference between the lowliest slave and the mightiest emperor!¡±


    A consensus was had between all the patrons of the tavern: if there really was an enchanted castle in Hilzland, the sudden war with them was completely justified. In fact, many people wanted the war to speed up, to take control of the enchanted castle before any other kingdoms could claim it. If they were slow, a high-realm martialist from the Chaotic East would be attracted to the enchanted castle and all the good loot would be taken.


    ¡°Uncle, what is an enchanted castle?¡± Farvald asked his uncle.


    ¡°It¡¯s normal for you to not know this kind of thing. In fact, some people say that enchanted castles are pure myths. I know I¡¯ve never seen one, and you¡¯re parents weren¡¯t so lucky, either. Apparently, enchanted castles are where mysterious items that transcend the martial way can be found. According to my grandfather, the royal family in Mahtzig owns a bowl-shaped mysterious item that is always filled with water. He said that even if you turned it upside down, it would continuously pour out water until you flipped it back upright, and it would still be full,¡± Farvald¡¯s uncle explained with a strange look on his face. He wasn¡¯t sure if he believed the tales his father and grandfather used to tell him, but it was impossible to not see the change in the messenger¡¯s expression when the woman brought up the enchanted castle rumor.


    If enchanted castles were real, whatever could be taken from them would undoubtedly be worth several times what the entire kingdom of Hochland could produce in a year.


    ¡®A bottomless bowl? Sounds like an enchantment. Indeed, the names are a match,¡¯ Andric thought. In the age of magicians, the most prestigious magicians were those who had the ability to enchant objects. There were very few magicians who had the ability, but all of them were famous. Unfortunately, Andric wasn¡¯t able to learn the art of enchanting in his previous lifetime, even after hundreds of years of practice and countless wasted resources.


    Enchantments could be considered powerful when they were used against ordinary humans or low-realm martialists, but they were useless against high-realm martialists. Most enchantments had complicated activation sequences, or they could only be used a certain amount of times before the mana inside them ran out. Enchantments could gather mana from the atmosphere, but it was a slow process. In terms of efficiency, enchanted objects were far below magicians for the same amount of power.


    Andric would¡¯ve been completely uninterested in the enchanted castle if it only had enchanted objects, but there was a piece of loot he could do quite a lot with: a wand.


    Magicians needed to have open hands to use spells, and the only exception was using a wand. With a wand, a magician could fire off spells much faster, but the material of the wand needed to be able to endure the intense pressure from the spells running through it. If a magician¡¯s skill was too high for their wand, the wand would break. In the heat of battle, it was easy to forget the limits of a wand and end up wandless.


    In Andric¡¯s previous life, his wand came from a powerful magician he had killed in his youth. Part of his success as a magician was owed to the superior wand he had owned throughout his lifetime, and it wasn¡¯t an exaggeration to say that he would¡¯ve died multiple times without it. But, in the present, he was wandless. He could make himself a wand if he had the right materials, but he currently had no idea where to find materials that could build a wand that would increase his spell casting speed. If he picked up a random piece of wood and crafted a wand from it, it would make his spell casting speed much slower than if he forgoed the use of such an inferior wand.


    A strong wand could be used by a weak magician, but a weak wand could not be used by a strong magician. The chances of finding a superior wand in the rumored enchanted castle were low, if the enchanted castle even existed, but a chance was still a chance. Unless a better opportunity presented itself, Andric needed to see what he could gain.

 Chapter 23 - The Radegart Riders

    ¡°Hey, how about we make our own band of raiders? We¡¯ll go up to Hilzland, raid a few villages, and make it back home before the invasion starts,¡± a townsperson suggested to a few of the people around them. They were met with mixed replied, ranging from overwhelming support to flat opposition.


    ¡°That¡¯s a great idea!¡± Farvald was in support of the creation of the band of raiders. Although Farvald¡¯s uncle didn¡¯t want him leaving the town to fight, it would be much easier to keep track of Farvald if he went along with a group of people that would always have his best interests in mind.


    If Farvald joined the army, he would have to worry about soldiers backstabbing him for greater loot or merits. But, if he joined a few townspeople and headed to Hilzland with them, it was unlikely that any of his comrades would plot against him or let him needlessly get hurt.


    ¡°I agree,¡± Andric voiced his opinion, coming in as the only non-native townsperson in the tavern. Farvald¡¯s uncle looked over at him, but he did say anything. Of course, Andric only carried about finding information about the enchanted castle and any wand it might contain, and Farvald¡¯s uncle couldn¡¯t rely on him to keep Farvald safe.


    ¡°Who¡¯s gonna join our band of raiders, if we make one?¡± the townsperson who originally suggested the idea asked. Several hands went up, including Farvald¡¯s and Andric¡¯s. Many people also voiced their approval.


    ¡°Wait a minute. I¡¯m for the idea, but can¡¯t we call it something else? Calling ourselves raiders makes us seem like the bad guys,¡± a concerned townsperson said.


    ¡°He¡¯s got a point,¡± another townsperson agreed.


    The opposition against the name of the group had many people thinking for a better name, and one person worked up the courage to voice their own suggestion, ¡°What about the Radegart Riders?¡±


    ¡°Hm, yeah, that¡¯ll work.¡±


    ¡°I like it.¡±


    ¡°Hey, that¡¯s pretty good.¡±


    The reception toward the new name was positive, and the discussion was settled. All that needed to be determined was how many people would be joining the Radegart Riders, which currently included Farvald and two other townspeople, as well as Andric, if they would accept him.


    The next day, Andric met with Farvald and a few other townspeople at the edge of the town. Over the course of morning, more arrived, until there were eight of them standing around and waiting. As the hours trickled by, nobody else stuck around for very long, and the members of the group were finalized.


    ¡°What is the traveler going to do about a horse?¡± a young man named Carlman asked. He was older than Andric, but he was still in his youth.


    ¡°He better carry his own food, too. I won¡¯t be luggin anything extra around,¡± a man named Theudobald said. He disliked people who weren¡¯t born in Radegart, and he thought that Andric didn¡¯t have any right to join the Radegart Riders.


    Andric took a silver coin from his bag of storage and tossed it to Theudobald, then asked, ¡°You won¡¯t carry my provisions for me?¡±


    ¡°Nope,¡± Theudobald promptly replied and tossed the coin back to Andric, who returned it to his bag of storage.


    ¡°It should be fine. We¡¯re not leaving today, right?¡± a man named Hagano asked. He was older than Carlman but younger than Theudobald, and he laid on the ground without caring whether it was wet or not.


    ¡°I don¡¯t like having someone who¡¯s not part of our town being in the raider group,¡± a young man named Isbrand said. He was the youngest out of everyone, besides Andric and Farvald.


    Standing next to each other, two brothers were silent in their opinions about Andric. They were Filibert and Gerbold, who were around Carlman¡¯s age.


    Andric was silent throughout most of the conversation, except for his occasional half-joke proposition. He learned that he needed to keep his possession of a storage object a secret, so he couldn¡¯t explain it to anyone or offer to carry their supplies. The Radegart Riders were not leaving that day, so Andric figured he could take out his roll of clothes from his bag of storage and carry that around.


    As for a horse, Andric didn¡¯t know what he was going to do. If he could buy a horse, he would rather do that, but he didn¡¯t have any experience riding a horse. His Silent Gallop Technique at the second rank was enough to make him as fast as a slow horse, but he hadn¡¯t tested it over long distances.


    None of the martialists who had gathered were above the Novice realm. In fact, only Theudobald and the two brothers were in the Novice realm, and they were in the lower-third stages. Carlman and Hagano were at the ninth stage of the Human realm, and Isbrand was at the sixth stage of the Human realm. Farvald was the weakest of everyone gathered, at only the fourth stage of the Human realm.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.


    Still, despite their low martial realms and stages, the group was confident in coming away from Hilzland with several benefits. They only needed to ransack a few villages for their valuables, then return to Hochland. With three Novice realm martialists in the Radegart Riders, it was unlikely that a village of less than fifty inhabitants would have a martialist who could fight all of them at the same time.


    Everyone in the Radegart Riders knew each other, except for Andric. Farvald took it upon himself to introduce Andric to everyone, but none of them were particularly happy about having him join. If it wasn¡¯t for Andric being at the Novice realm, Theudobald would¡¯ve forced him away.


    At the end of the day, Theudobald declared himself the leader of the group and headed to the town hall to make the Radegart Riders an official group. After he left, the rest of the members also departed, going their own ways inside the town. Andric returned to the tavern, where he prepared a few items from his bag of storage.


    He needed to take food, water, and a weapon. He would be living in the wilderness for a while, so it wasn¡¯t important to have a change of clothes. He found a carrying sack in his bag of storage, and he pulled it out to use with carrying his provisions. Luckily, his bag of storage contained many pounds of preserved food and bottles of water. The opening of the bag of storage wasn¡¯t large enough to fit a standard barrel through, but it was large enough for ceramic bottles and bottles made from hard plants.


    Andric filled his carrying sack with eighty pounds of provisions, then wore it on his back. He expected the carrying sack to be a heavy burden, but the strength that came with the Novice realm of the martial way was significant. Andric had no problem hauling eighty pounds on his back.


    A Novice realm martialist had the strength of two men, but Andric had another bonus to his strength: his Perfect Circulation. When spirit energy circulated throughout the body, it strengthened the flesh, bones, and organs. Because Andric had all of his major meridians open, his body was being tempered by spirit energy at a much faster rate than normal. That was a maximum limit to how strong he could become due to circulating his spirit energy, but he had no yet reached that limit. Even if he stopped cultivating, he would still get stronger over time.


    Andric looked at the armor inside his bag of storage, but none of it was appealing. Most of it was thin metal or thick leather, and Andric had always disliked wearing armor. As he thought about what armor to wear, he realized that adding so much weight to his person would make his running speed heavily decrease. If he wanted to carry a large amount of provisions and wear armor, he needed a horse.


    Andric put his carrying sack in his bag of storage, then went down to the first floor of the tavern. He scanned the tavern with his eyes, then turned to the waitress and said, ¡°Waitress, a cup of wine for everyone,¡± and flipped her a silver coin.


    Food and drinks were commonly bought with copper coins. A high-quality slab of preserved meat could be worth fifteen copper coins, and a cup of wine was worth five copper coins. In one go, Andric bought twenty cups of wine for the tavern patrons, equaling almost a whole barrel of wine.


    ¡°Aye!¡± the townspeople in the tavern gave a cheer for Andric, then continued whatever they were doing.


    Andric quickly asked, before the momentum from buying the round of wine was lost, ¡°Does anyone have a horse for sale? I have a martial technique manual for the Severing Slash to trade for it.¡±


    Andric had lived in Einburg for fifteen years, so he wasn¡¯t entirely mindless of the price of a horse, especially in the winter. If he was at a horse farm, it would be simple to buy a horse for silver coins, but that couldn¡¯t be done in a small town like Radegart, where every horse had a job. If one horse died or was taken by an outsider, it would mean less spring plowing and less good transportations. The only way to buy a horse from someone who didn¡¯t want to sell their horse was to offer them something so desirable that they had no choice but to accept. A notorious martial technique was one such object.


    Owning a martial technique book not only allowed that person to practice the martial technique but also to make copies of the book and sell them. Trading a horse for five silver coins would eventually result in the five silver coins being used up, but trading a horse for a martial technique book would result in a new line of business. A martial technique was worth much more than a horse.


    ¡°I¡¯ll sell you my horse!¡±


    ¡°No, take mine, it¡¯s young and strong!¡±


    ¡°Buy a good breed from me!¡±


    As soon as Andric offered the martial technique, he had many townspeople trying to sell their horse to him. Young horses, old horses, and various breeds were stated to him, and he quickly found himself out of his element. He knew a few things about horses, but he didn¡¯t know what made one horse better than another.


    ¡°These slimy fellas, trying to sell you something without even letting you see it,¡± and older man said from amidst the crowd of townspeople who were trying to sell their horse to Andric. It was Farvald¡¯s uncle, and he said, ¡°If anyone wants to sell their horse for that martial technique, they should bring their horse here at sunrise. That way, the young master can look through them and decide which one he wants.¡±


    Farvald¡¯s uncle was still under the impression that Andric had a powerful backer, and his ability to trade a martial technique for a simple horse only cemented that thought.


    ¡°Ah, thank you, Uncle. That would be helpful,¡± Andric said.


    The comotion inside the tavern slowly died down, and most conversations switched to what horse people were going to take to the tavern the next morning. A few people wondered what kind of backing Andric had, as well as why he didn¡¯t already have a horse when he traveled to Radegart.


    Andric felt a little anxious about riding a horse for the first time, but he didn¡¯t think too much about it. With his current strength, he could strangle a horse with one arm, so he didn¡¯t doubt that he would be able to keep a random horse under control.

 Chapter 24 - The Horse

    Andric woke up early the next morning to wait outside the tavern for townspeople to bring their horses to him. However, when he stepped outside, there were already a few horses and their owners standing by. The horses ranged across many sizes, and Andric wasn¡¯t certain of how to evaluate them.


    Luckily, Farvald and Isbrand were also in the crowd, and they approached Andric after having inspected the horses that were brought to the tavern.


    ¡°You¡¯re getting a horse so that you can join the Radegart Riders, right? If you¡¯re coming back to Radegart with us, you don''t need a young horse. Instead, you should get one that¡¯s at its peak and strong enough to carry plenty of supplies and loot that we capture,¡± Farvald said while standing beside Andric.


    ¡°I heard that you¡¯re trading a martial technique for one of these horses. You¡¯re really wasteful, you know?¡± Isbrand said in a hostile tone.


    Andric looked at the horses, then said to Farvald, ¡°Can you help me pick out the best one?¡±


    ¡°Sure,¡± Farvald agreed and pointed forward. ¡°That one; It¡¯s a nine-year-old speed breed. Breeds made for speed are pretty rare around here, and it¡¯s really going to be helpful when we start raiding villages. Don¡¯t worry about not being a distance breed, not everyone in the Radegart Riders has a horse that¡¯s good for traveling, so we¡¯ll have to match their pace. You won¡¯t be the slowest.¡±


    Andric thought about what Farvald said as he looked at the horse he pointed out. He knew that the lifespan of a horse was around thirty years, but he didn¡¯t know when a horse¡¯s physicality started going downhill. He didn¡¯t plan on using the horse for long, though, so just a year or two of top-condition would be enough.


    ¡°Hey, you¡¯re not even going to look at our horses?¡± a townsperson complained outwardly, inwardly complaining that Andric had made friends with Farvald.


    ¡°No, I¡¯m not,¡± Andric confidently spoke and strode forward. He pressed his hand against the side of the head of the horse Farvald had pointed to, and he tried to feel for some sort of connection with the creature. He felt no connection and eventually looked at the owner and said, ¡°I¡¯ll take this one.¡±


    Andric paid the Severing Slash Technique for the horse, and the other owners slow dispersed while the seller explained a few things to Andric, such as what kind of vegetables the horse liked. After feeling that Andric knew all he needed to know, the original owner also left, leaving his horse with Andric, Farvald, and Isbrand.


    The horse was quite large, but that wasn¡¯t unexpected. It needed to eat and drink much more than a human did, but it could survive by eating grass and drinking from rivers, so Andric wouldn¡¯t need to bring too many extra supplies along. Having a few days worth of stored water would be enough to get between barren areas.


    ¡°That¡¯s a fine horse, but it¡¯s not as valuable as a martial technique. Even if you come raid with us, you¡¯ll be lucky to break even after this trade,¡± Isbrand said, standing at Andric¡¯s previous location.


    ¡°I¡¯m not worried about it,¡± Andric said. He suddenly jumped onto the horse¡¯s back, easily clearing the height required to do so. To Farvald and Isbrand, who were in the Human realm, a jump like that would¡¯ve been impossible.


    Andric¡¯s body had grown when he reached the Novice realm, but he was mostly compact and streamline. If someone at the Human realm looked at him, they would think he was an ordinary person who didn¡¯t even try to strengthen his body. Because of this, Andric¡¯s personal weight didn¡¯t exceed two hundred pounds, even though he could easily lift twice or thrice as much as that.


    Andric¡¯s motives were unknown to either Farvald or Isbrand. At first, Farvald had guessed that Andric was journeying to get stronger, but it was known that Andric had come to Radegart without a horse, which would¡¯ve severely limited his traveling capabilities. Furthermore, although Andric had been seen practicing many martial techniques, he never used a weapon. It was common knowledge that sword martial techniques were stronger than unarmed martial techniques. Plus, joining a band of raiders wasn¡¯t a good way to get stronger. If anything, it was only a method to gain funds for using other methods, but Andric had showed no lacking of funds when ordering food and drinks in the tavern.


    Isbrand had known Andric for even less time than Farvald. He thought that Andric was a rich young master who was dropped off at Radegart and told to gather experience. But, if that was true, how would Andric not know how to select a horse? Selling an ordinary martial technique like the Severing Slash Technique wouldn¡¯t be much to a rich family or sect, but Isbrand guessed that Andric wasn¡¯t from either of the two. If so, where did he acquire such wealth?


    Isbrand¡¯s questions were destined to remain unanswered. Andric held onto the reins on his new horse and said, ¡°Forward,¡± while expecting the horse to listen to his command. Of course, nothing happened.


    ¡°Go!¡± Andric shouted in a low voice and kicked the sides of the horse, and it began to move slowly. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    ¡®What kind of idiot¡­¡¯ Isbrand thought while watching Andric. He then ran forward and asked, ¡°Do you not know how to ride a horse?¡±


    ¡°Unfortunately,¡± Andric replied, tugging on the reins. Isbrand quickly caught up to him and stopped the horse.


    ¡°Get off and follow me. Farvald, you get your horse, too. We¡¯re gonna have some riding lessons,¡± Isbrand said with a clear look of disdain.


    ¡°Alright, senior brother,¡± Farvald bowed to Isbrand and quickly ran toward his home.


    Andric jumped off the back of his horse and allowed Isbrand to walk it, heading to his home. Along the way, Andric was silent, while Isbrand muttered things like, ¡°What kind of young master¡­¡±


    Like most townspeople in Radegart, Isbrand lived on a farm. Due to winter, the fields were being tended, so the area looked empty. There was a barn near Isbrand¡¯s home, and it was filled with pigs and horses. He left Andric outside with his horse, and he went inside the barn to fetch his own, which he came out riding on.


    Isbrand¡¯s horse was similar to Andric¡¯s, but a few years younger and of a different breed. If anyone who knew a lot about horses saw them, they would say they were totally different. But, Andric didn¡¯t know, so he thought they were the same.


    ¡°First, we¡¯re going to wait for Farvald. We¡¯ll begin once he gets here,¡± Isbrand said and stopped his horse in front of Andric. ¡°You can get on your horse; to get a feel for sitting on it. As you spend more time with your horse, moving it around will become more natural.¡±


    Andric jumped onto his horse and imitated what Isbrand was doing. He had seen many people riding horses in the past, but it was surprisingly difficult to get the horse to move exactly how he wanted it.


    Several minutes passed, and Farvald arrived on his horse. He rode quickly toward Andric and Isbrand, then slowed abruptly as he reached them. Andric could only look at him with jealousy.


    ¡°Okay, the first lesson of Senior Brother Isbrand¡¯s Horse Riding Class now begins. We¡¯ll be leaving Radegart in a few days, so we don¡¯t have a lot of time. Within these few days, I¡¯m going to teach you how to accelerate and decelerate your horse. Understand?¡± Isbrand said to Andric


    He nodded and replied, ¡°Yes, senior brother.¡±


    The first lesson on horse riding began. With Isbrand on one side and Farvald on the other, Andric was slowly taught how to pilot his horse.


    The most difficult part of riding a horse was making it move according to the rider¡¯s will. With Andric¡¯s strength, there was no chance he would fall off, but he couldn¡¯t simply slap the horse until it moved like he wanted it to. If he slapped, kicked, or pulled on the horse too hard, he could even risk damaging the horse. Isbrand and Farvald were still in the Human realm, so they couldn¡¯t do very much damage, but Andric had to be careful about circulating his spirit energy while on the horse.


    A martialist could stop their spirit energy from circulating, and that would make their strength go back to the peak of the Human realm. But, when Andric was in risk of being thrown off the horse, he subconsciously activated his spirit energy to get a better grip. It took him a long time to learn to move with the horse, rather than against it.


    At night, Isbrand offered to take care of the horse for one silver coin, and Andric paid him. The next day, Andric walked to Isbrand¡¯s farm and participated in the second lesson. He rode slightly faster than the day before, and his body became more accustomed to being on the horse¡¯s saddle.


    That evening, Farvald delivered news of when the Radegart Riders would be leaving: the next morning. With so little time remaining until departure, Isbrand hastened his lesson, immediately teaching Andric the most important things about riding a horse. By nightfall, Andric could make his horse speed up and slow down, but that was about all. As long as he traveled with a group, his horse would naturally follow along, but Andric wouldn¡¯t be able to take the horse anywhere by himself.


    The next morning, Andric took his carrying sack out of his bag of storage and wore it on his back, equipped a set of metal armor, then walked to Isbrand¡¯s farm. Along the way, he used the Silent Gallop Technique, allowing him to reach the farm very quickly.


    Isbrand had already brought his horse and Andric¡¯s horse outside and was giving them water. He brought water up from a well a dumped it into a trough for the horses to drink from. Andric realized that he didn¡¯t have anything for his horse to drink water from.


    ¡°Time to leave,¡± Isbrand said and mounted his horse.


    ¡°Yep,¡± Andric acknowledge him and jumped onto his own horse.


    Their methods of getting on their horses were different, but they both accomplished the same thing. Isbrand rode to his house to fetch his saddlebags, then led the way toward the meeting place of the Radegart Riders. Of course, along the way, Andric tried his hardest to keep up with Isbrand¡¯s pace.


    At the meeting point, Farvald and the others were sitting on their horses and looking north. The sun had been up for a short while, and everyone had their back to it. For many of them, it was their first time heading out to raid. For Theudobald and the two brothers, it wasn¡¯t their first time leaving Radegart, and only Theudobald had ever killed someone.


    Carlman and Hagano had lived in Radegart for their entire lives. Their only experience with the outside world came from the traders who occasionally came to sell goods and buy food. Isbrand and Farvald were young, but both of them had ambitions for greater things. Farvald¡¯s parents were traveling martialists, so it understandable where his dreams came from, but Andric couldn¡¯t pinpoint why Isbrand yearned for the martial way.


    Everyone had their own equipment. Besides Andric everyone else had their provisions stored in saddlebags. Only him and Theudobald wore metal armor. The two brothers, Carlman, and Hagano wore leather armor. The five oldest members of the Radegart Riders had swords, while Isbrand, Andric, and Farvald were unarmed.


    ¡°Are we all ready?¡± Theudobald asked. He still didn¡¯t like Andric, but he didn¡¯t say anything about him.


    ¡°Ready!¡± their group exclaimed, and set off shortly after.

 Chapter 25 - Journey to the Border

    From Radegart to the northern border, more than five hundred miles needed to be crossed. If the horses in the group were quick, that distance could be traveled in a little over half a month. At that time, the winter would still be cold, and it would continue to be so for a few more months. The army wouldn¡¯t leave until they knew it was close to spring, so the Radegart Riders had plenty of time to raid the countryside of Hilzland.


    In the kingdom of Hochland - and even the entire Desolate West - raiding was a way of life. Bandits raided, sects raided, merchants raided, and the kingdom raided. It was only fair that towns would assemble their own group of raiders. In a kingdom that was about to go to war, raiding the enemy kingdom was practically encouraged. In times of war, even bandits came out of the wilderness to help their kingdom. Sanctioned banditry was a dream come true for many bandits, and that was exactly what was happening between Hochland and Hilzland.


    Andric personally despised stealing from the weak, but he wasn¡¯t so virtuous as to push his values onto other people. Whether or not he came with them, the Radegart Riders were still going to raid the villages of Hilzland. As long as he was there, he would do his best to prevent unnecessary injuries. His gains from the Erfdag bandits were immense, and he wouldn¡¯t need to earn more money any time soon.


    The townspeople of Radegart were not the same. In their town, it was taught that raiding foreign kingdoms was honorable, and that everyone should fight for the glory of Hochland. Only a few people thought it was a mean thing to do, but they were in no place to stop a group like the Radegart Riders from forming. In many minds, the Radegart Riders were patriots.


    The eight of them rode north, averaging a few miles per hour. Although their horses¡¯ top speeds were close to thirty miles per hour, they couldn¡¯t maintain that speed for long distances. Instead, they rode slowly, yet still faster than the merchant caravan Andric had traveled with during the summer. At the end of the day, they had gone about thirty miles from Radegart.


    At night, the horses were tied to trees, and a fire was built in the center of a campsite. The Human realm martialists among the Radegart Riders needed to sleep every night, but Novice realm martialists could go without sleep for a while. At the very least, they only needed a couple hours per night. Farvald, Isbrand, Carlman, and Hagano were all at the Human realm, and they had a tough time staying warm, so they were closest to the fire.


    Andric, Theudobald, and the two brothers were at the Novice realm, so a simple jacket was enough to keep them warm in the middle of the winter¡¯s night. Andric had his armor sitting beside him, as he laid on the ground and chewed a stick of preserved meat. For the first time in a while, he didn¡¯t use a spell to maintain his nutrient levels, and he ate meat that wasn¡¯t freshly cooked. He had wine in his carry sack, but he decided to save that for later.


    Traveling on horse was painful. Andric¡¯s butt wasn¡¯t accustomed to spending long hours on a saddle, but circulating his spirit energy could solve that. Andric¡¯s true issue was with boredom. When he was with the merchant caravan, Andric could sit back and enjoy the ride. Now that he had to drive his horse, he couldn¡¯t let his attention wander. Most of Andric¡¯s frustration came from him knowing that he could use magic to fly and arrive in Hilzland in less than a day. Only an Adept realm martialist could match him with that kind of speed.


    In the middle of the night, the horses began neighing uncontrollably, waking up everyone in the campsite. Theudobald was the first to grab his weapon and look around, but he didn¡¯t seem to find anything. Andric also quickly scanned the area around the campsite. They were camped in a thin forest, where the trees are sparse. If a hostile force was nearby, there wouldn¡¯t be anywhere for them to hide.


    ¡°It¡¯s over there,¡± Theudobald said, looking at a particular spot in the distance. Andric looked over, but he couldn¡¯t see anything notable.


    Farvald and Isbrand left their tents and stood alert, and the two brothers had picked up their swords and also looked in the direction Theudobald was looking. Carlman couldn¡¯t see anything, like Andric, and Hagano never left his tent.


    There was no way for Farvald to not be scared. For the first time in his life, there was something unknown in the darkness, and he didn¡¯t have the protection of his uncle or parents nearby. Sure, there were other townspeople with him, but they weren¡¯t relatives that had built up an imagine of invincibility over many years. Farvald couldn¡¯t feel safe with only the seven other Radegart Riders around him.


    Isbrand circulated his spirit energy and readied his fists for battle. He had waited for so long to prove himself, and now he was waiting for whatever was in the darkness to reveal itself. Carlman was similar, and he had his sword half-drawn from its scabbard.


    Andric stood up and slowly took off his jacket and put on his armor. Theudobald had been sleeping in some of his armor, and he didn¡¯t put on any additional pieces, but Andric put on all of his armor, then circulated his spirit energy. He prepared to use Heaven Charging Spring and evade anything coming into the campsite.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    The wilderness of Hochland was full of wild animals, but most of the hibernated during the winter. Only a few hunted all year round.


    Instead of wild animals, what Andric and the rest of the Radegart Riders needed to worry about was spirit beasts, which hunted all year round and were known for fearlessly attacking groups of humans. The reason towns like Einburg and Radegart had dedicated guards patrolling all day and night was to deal with spirit beasts, which might emerge from the forest, kill an animal or human, and run away.


    Many spirit beasts had been killed by the guards of the merchant caravan Andric had traveled with, but he was usually on the inside of the caravan, so he rarely saw any of the battles.


    ¡°Yulll!¡±


    A strange sound came from beyond the campsite, where the light of the fire couldn¡¯t reach. Shivers ran up everyone¡¯s spine, and they knew it wasn¡¯t a sound that an ordinary creature could produce. It sounded like a large creature being butchered while still living. Isbrand and Carlman, who had come from livestock-raising farms, could feel the flesh being ripped from the bone.


    A bloody scent enveloped the campsite. The horses panicked further, and the fire dimmed slightly. Isbrand went to put some twigs on the flame, but Theudobald quickly shouted, ¡°No!¡± and stopped him. ¡°Don¡¯t touch the fire!¡±


    Theudobald¡¯s reaction had come faster than anyone else, and it might¡¯ve saved their lives. If Isbrand really did put a handful of sticks on the fire, it would¡¯ve caused the flame to dim even more, possibly allowing the creature in the darkness a better opportunity to attack. Andric only thought of this a few seconds later, and his outlook of Theudobald changed slightly.


    ¡°I have a fire element martial technique,¡± Andric said and walked closer to the side of the campsite where the hidden creature was supposedly at.


    ¡°Use it,¡± Theudobald said, emotionlessly, and Andric didn¡¯t delay. He immediately used the Flaming Fist Technique to create a ball of flames on his knuckles, showering the forest with additional light.


    The creature was revealed for less than a second before it retreated into the darkness. It stood more than eight feet tall and had the body of a human, but its back was horribly hunched over. Besides its silhouette, Andric could only see the creature¡¯s enormous eyes that reflected the light from his Flaming Fist. It retreated backward, never facing away from Andric or the rest of the Radegart Riders.


    The appearance of the creature shocked everyone, including Theudobald.


    ¡°So big,¡± he muttered, following the creature with his eyes.


    Andric had the same thought. Although he from his previous life had been around the world and seen all the wildlife it had to offer, he had never seen anything like that creature. Certain bears could reach that size, but the creature wasn¡¯t hairy, and it stood more like a bipedal animal than a quadrupedal one.


    ¡°What was that?¡± Carlman asked and moved closer to Theudobald. He kept a calm appearance, but he was anything but on the inside. It had been Carlman¡¯s first time to see something so horrifying.


    ¡°Yulll!¡±


    Just then, another sound of tearing flesh resounded throughout the campsite. Theudobald held back his reply, and Andric threw his Flaming Fist forward and immediately made another.


    ¡°Watch the horses!¡± Theudobald commanded. He turned around, locking onto the location the of creature, which was slightly close to the area where the horses were tied to trees. Another wave of bloody air came from that direction.


    Andric activated Silent Gallop and took several large steps, while Filibert and Gerbold also ran in the direction of the horses. When he was only a few feet away, and used the Heaven Charging Spring Technique to launch himself into the air, then shot out several Flaming Fists into the darkness beyond the campsite.


    The creature saw Andric¡¯s Flaming Fists, turned around, and ran away. From high up, Andric reevaluated the appearance of the creature. He had earlier thought it was hairless, but he saw what looked like greasy matted hair covering the creature¡¯s body. Judging from the scent of blood that came from the creature, Andric guessed that it was covered in blood, which broke whenever it moved too quickly.


    Theudobald leaped toward the creature, and the two brothers chased it into the forest. Andric read the situation, then followed along. Carlman tried to follow, but his martial realm was too low to keep up with four Novice realm martialists.


    Gerbold was the first to reach the creature, and he punched it in the middle of its body before Filibert caught up. As Gerbold pulled his fist away, Filibert slashed the creature with his sword, cutting off several bloody hairs and filling the air with an even thicker stench of blood.


    The wound revealed some of the creatures skin, causing Andric to slow his advance. He couldn¡¯t see much, but it appeared as if the creature tore hairy skin off other animals and stuck it to its own body. The flesh from other animals acted as armor, protecting the creature from Filibert¡¯s sword slash.


    The creature continued to run away, fleeing from Andric¡¯s light. Andric attempted to follow the creature while staying in the trees, but the trees were too far apart and too small. He dropped the ground and activated the Silent Gallop Technique, quickly chasing after the creature.


    The two brothers followed closely behind him, and Theudobald was in the rear. Carlman, Hagano, Isbrand, and Farvald stayed at the campsite, slowly adding wood to the fire.


    ¡®If I could use my magic, I could kill this thing right here,¡¯ Andric thought while using two martial techniques at the same time. He maintained his Silent Gallop in his legs and his Flaming Fist in his hands, continuing to chase the creature.


    The creature abruptly stopped and turned to face Andric, and Andric thrust out one of his Flaming Fists. He punched at the creature, and the creature attacked him with its head. Andric dodged the head, but his Flaming Fist didn¡¯t hit the creature. Again, the creature quickly ran away.

 Chapter 26 - Taunting from the Darkness

    It was like a beak, chomping down on a juicy worm, but it was made from two rows of black teeth. Blood sprayed out from the creature¡¯s neck, which rained down after the creature retreated into the darkness. After narrowly escaping death, Andric was hesitant to chase it any further, and he lost sight of the creature.


    Theudobald and the two brothers caught up to Andric, and they looked with him into the dark forest.


    ¡°What happened?¡± Theudobald asked, angry that the creature had gotten away.


    ¡°I attacked it, and it tried to bite me,¡± Andric replied, still looking at where he last saw the creature.


    ¡°And you let it get away? Whatever, let¡¯s just go back to the fire,¡± Theudobald said, angrier, and the four of them returned to the campsite. They weren¡¯t very far away, and it didn¡¯t take them more than a minute to make it back. Andric kept his knuckles covered with fire until he arrived at the campsite.


    At the campsite, Carlman, Farvald, and Isbrand were on guard, and Hagano was lazily standing outside his tent.


    ¡°What happened?¡± Carlman asked without leaving the perimeter of the fire.


    Theudobald took a few more steps and answered, ¡°The outsider let it get away.¡±


    Andric frowned but said nothing. Theudobald had been hostile since the moment he met him, and the only redeeming quality of Theudobald was the way he could decisively take action. Isbrand had also been rude to Andric on several occasions, but he took it upon himself to teach Andric how to ride a horse, so Andric had somewhat forgiven him.


    ¡°What was it?¡± Farvald asked.


    Andric wasn¡¯t sure what it was. He had heard about many spirit beasts from Instructor Hubert and his family, but none had been described as a monster that stuck the skin of its prey onto its own body. Blending into the darkness was a trait of many spirit beasts, so that wasn¡¯t enough to narrow down what it was.


    The horses had calmed slightly, but they were still restless. The fire had only grown by a small amount since Andric and the others left, but it was enough to completely cover the area around the horses with light. Andric checked on them while Theudobald explained what happened when they chased the creature.


    Out of all the Novice realm martialists in the Radegart Riders, Andric had the least amount of experience along the martial way. His perception was the worse, even though his martial state was only second to Theudobald. Reading from books couldn¡¯t train someone to notice seemingly insignificant details, or forge a stance of hyperawareness. Only by facing death tens or hundreds of times could someone begin to see the signs of hostility where there was clearly emptiness.


    Martialists typically trained in two abilities that were different from martial techniques: killing intent and danger sense. Killing intent was naturally developed through slaughter, and danger sense was developed through tough situations that would likely result in injury or death. An experienced martialist like Theudobald had both of them, but Andric only had an inferior danger sense.


    The Apprentice realm martialist Veremund had such a strong killing intent that he could cause physical reactions in low-realm martialists. Although Theudobald wasn¡¯t that strong, he could paralyse tiny animals with fear.


    Andric might¡¯ve had killing intent at one point in his previous life, but centuries of time had molded him into a person that didn¡¯t fear or respect death. Few magicians had the will to live beyond a millenia, but those who did tended to have a special kind of mind. Now, whenever Andric saw an opponent he knew he needed to kill, he only felt as if he was performing a simple chore, such as cleaning dishes or dusting curtains.


    Andric put his hand on his horse¡¯s head and said, ¡°Hey, stop it,¡± but his attempt to calm the horse was obviously unsuccessful. He was about to turn away when he saw something moving in the darkness, but he couldn¡¯t be sure of what it was. He quickly glanced at Theudobald, but Theudobald didn¡¯t seem to have noticed anything. He stared into the forest for a few more seconds, then returned to everyone by the fire.


    ¡°So, what are we going to do?¡± Carlman asked, seemingly having been caught up on the situation with the creature.


    ¡°The creature is extremely afraid of fire, which makes the outsider¡¯s martial technique incredibly useful against it. As long as he stays awake and keeps the fire going, the rest of us should be fine to sleep,¡± Theudobald explained, slowly looking toward Andric. When they were still in Radegart, Theudobald had met Andric for the first time and been rude to him. Even after Andric had chased after the creature, Theudobald remained unpleasant. The job of watching the fire could¡¯ve gone to anyone, but Theudobald wanted Andric to have a hard time, so he mentioned him and his martial technique.


    ¡°Ah, Andric, we¡¯re lucky to have you here. Without your martial technique, we wouldn¡¯t feel safe to sleep with that thing around,¡± Farvald said, trying to sound tougher and less scared of the creature than he really was. Actually, he was scared that he would wake up with the need to piss, and the creature would snatch him while he was away from the campsite.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    Filibert and Gerbold walked to their tents and went inside, ignoring the rest of the conversations outside. They had chased the creature and dealt blows to it, and they suspected that the creature was much stronger than it appeared. They thought it was strange when the creature didn¡¯t first try to kill a horse before attacking the humans. If the creature was smart enough to know that it needed to kill the strong humans before it could enjoy its meal, it would be quite difficult to deal with.


    Carlman thought he could be the leader of the Radegart Riders when they were still in Radegart, but Theudobald had ended up taking the helm. Against the creature in the darkness, he was useless, and he couldn¡¯t even be trusted to keep watch. He went back to his tent without complaining, but he kept his sword on his chest, ready to be used.


    Hagano and Theudobald slept outside, near the fire. Hagano was doing so because he needed to keep warm, but Theudobald was doing so because he couldn¡¯t fully trust Andric. Theudobald was at the Novice martial realm and only needed a couple hours of sleep per night. Although he didn¡¯t say it, he was keeping his danger sense spread through the forest, searching for the location of the creature.


    Farvald and Isbrand calmed the horses, successfully, and then returned to their tents. They had the weakest martial stage out of everyone and were unqualified to help fight against the creature in the darkness. They were both angry over their lack of strength, but there were no short-term solutions for him. They could only continue to meditate with their meditation techniques and practice the martial techniques they knew.


    Time slowly passed. Andric activated his Burning Palm Technique on small sticks, then threw them into the campfire. He managed to keep the fire at a steady size for more than an hour. Only after everyone else had fallen asleep did the creature return.


    The creature had a height of about eight feet, a width of slightly over two feet, black rows of teeth in the shape of a beak, skin covered with stolen fur from other animals, and four legs. Andric hadn¡¯t confirmed any arms on the creature, but the creature¡¯s width meant it needed something like arms or wings on its shoulders. It moved quickly, only entering Andric¡¯s sight for a fraction of a second before fleeing.


    The creature backed away from Andric and circulated its spirit energy. It looked at him with deep black eyes, thinking, ¡®I want to add his pelt to my skin.¡¯ The circulation of the creature¡¯s spirit energy caused its body to blend into the darkness, making it impossible to be seen. Stealth-type martial techniques were incredibly rare, but they weren¡¯t omnipotent. Andric¡¯s Silent Gallop Technique was a stealth/movement-type martial technique, but it only hid his sound. The creature¡¯s inborn martial technique hid its body but nothing else.


    A minute passed, and the creature briefly appeared at the other side of the campsite. Andric only noticed it when it rapidly moved away, and he had no idea how long it had been looking at him.


    Thirty seconds later, Andric tossed a blazing stick into the forest and saw the creature standing between two distant trees, and it quickly fled. The fire on the stick was quickly extinguished in the cold air, and darkness returned to where Andric had spotted the creature.


    Twenty seconds later, the creature revealed itself behind Andric, using its shadow to creep up on him. Luckily for Andric, the creature stepped on a twig, revealing its location. By the time Andric turned around, he could only catch a glimpse of the back of the creature.


    Ten seconds later, the horses began acting up, and Andric quickly jumped toward them to spot the creature only a dozen feet away. Against, the creature fled as soon as Andric put his eyes on it.


    The creature was invading the outskirts of the campsite more frequently, and Andric was beginning to feel as if he couldn¡¯t keep up. He used Silent Gallop to arrive at Theudobald¡¯s side and pushed him awake, saying, ¡°Get up.¡±


    ¡°What is it?¡± Theudobald asked, half asleep, but he quickly became alert. He sensed the creature nearby, far closer than it had been when he previously encountered it.


    ¡°Dawn is coming, so it must be getting anxious. If it doesn¡¯t act soon, it won¡¯t get its meal,¡± Andric explained his thoughts and he looked around for where the creature had gone.


    Theudobald sensed the creature¡¯s killing intent and locked eyes with it, but the creature then disappeared. Now that Theudobald was awake and giving off his own killing intent, the creature was hesitant to approach so close to the campsite.


    Andric had no way to tell the exact time, but he guessed it would be about two hours until the first rays of sun for the day came shining through the forest. If the season was summer, the leaves in the trees might¡¯ve blocked the sun long enough for the creature to gain another hour or so, but there weren¡¯t any leaves in the winter. As soon as dawn hit, the creature would be bathed in light no matter where it went.


    ¡°Are we gonna kill it?¡± Theudobald asked, losing track of the creature.


    ¡°I will,¡± Andric replied, and he dashed off.


    In the time that he had been awake, Andric had more than just stare blankly into the fire and forest. He thought up a detailed method of attack for use against the creature, and he was only slightly uncertain of when to carry it out. Now that the creature had gotten more brave and encroached on the campsite¡¯s territory more often, Andric had an excuse to wake Theudobald up and make him watch the fire. With Theudobald watching the campsite, Andric could run into the forest and blindly chase the creature.


    The Flaming Fist Technique was the bane of the creature, and Andric could use it very several times without running out of spirit energy. If he ever did get low on spirit energy, he only needed to return to the campsite to meditate for a few minutes. Andric¡¯s Perfect Circulation allowed him to gather spirit energy faster and infuse his body with spirit energy more effectively, but it didn¡¯t do much to help with how much spirit energy his body could store.


    Besides his Flaming Fist Technique, Andric also had the Silent Gallop Technique, the Heaven Charging Spring Technique, and all the spells that he would be able to use once he was out of sight of Theudobald and the others.


    As soon as Andric made up his mind to kill it, that creature was as good as dead.