episode_0072

Muyeon, who promised to make him strong and teach him lessons.

But Arthur was skeptical because no matter how much he thought about it, there was almost no way to become stronger.

“Teach me martial arts.”

It was the same when I heard the word martial arts.

It was the first time I had heard that word in my life, and to be honest, it didn’t seem like it would be very helpful.

Since it was impossible to show it, Arthur listened with an indifferent expression.

“Before we begin, let me ask you. Is it true that there are no blessings and that the mana seems to be almost untrained?”

The presence or absence of blessings and the training of mana.

It was a question that seemed like a stinging scale to Arthur, but now that he had put it down, he wasn’t particularly embarrassed.

Because I decided not to have any more regrets about the past.

“Yes, that’s right.”

“You’re lucky.”

Shudder.

Arthur’s eyebrows twitched.

A word that means good luck.

Even though I had the mindset to accept everything, it was hard to ignore.

Being lucky means that you should have received some benefit because of it, but that wasn’t the case. If anything, it would have been difficult because of it.

“From your reaction, it seems you misunderstood what I meant. I meant to say that your body is suitable for learning martial arts.”

“Ah… ”

Arthur thought he hadn’t shown any signs of it, but seeing Muyeon knowing everything, he began to think about how rude he must have seemed. At the same time, he felt embarrassed and blushed, lowering his head.

“Don’t worry about it. I know it wasn’t on purpose.”

“Yes..”

Arthur, who had been forgiven by Muyeon and thought that he could not be taught in this state, shook off his shame and acted as if nothing had happened.

And Muyeon, who saw this, continued talking without saying anything.

“First, let me tell you what martial arts are.”

If it had been the original martial arts world, it would not have gone straight into teaching like it is now.

However, unlike other martial artists, Muyeon did not have a teacher, and he did not prefer to perform useless rites such as the Nine-Year-Old Man’s Respect.

Such boring things were something that only the old men of the sect liked, but what Muyeon valued was talent, so he started right away without any useless battle of wits.

“In the beginning, there was no martial arts. There was only martial arts. And no one was dissatisfied with that.”

Survival of the fittest or the strong prey on the strong.

That is, a time when the weak obeyed and the strong ruled.

“All those who were dissatisfied were the weak. But even in such a barbaric age, there were bound to be people who did not accept their fate.”

Muyeon was talking about the beginning of martial arts.

“And they found another way to break the absurdity that the strong and the weak are divided by the difference in innate energy from birth. That is the ‘To-nap method’, the beginning of all breathing.”

Vomiting method.

Filtering out impure energy and gathering pure energy through breathing.

This was equivalent to saying that one makes external energy one’s own.

“That, that can’t be possible..”

Arthur looked incredulous at the further explanation of the taxation law.

If my understanding of the context in which Muyeon spoke of Giga Mana was correct, then there was no way I could believe it.

Since mana that exists in its natural state cannot be bound, magicians and knights only grow and use the mana inherent in their hearts.

In reality, it was known that the only way to use externally existing mana was through the elemental magic used by elves.

“I understand that you don’t believe it. Unlike the martial arts world where I lived, the imperial people have no reason to be obsessed with external energy.”

Just hearing about it, it sounds like a divine technique. And a place I’ve never heard of called Murim.

Arthur felt as if Muyeon was from another world.

“Weren’t you born in the empire, Master?”

That’s why I asked.

As far as Arthur knows, everyone is born in the Empire, except for the elves of the Southern Great Forest and a few small kingdoms.

“I was born in Xinjiang. Of course, it is not the place you know. To be precise, I am from another continent.”

“Other continents..?”

I’ve heard it before.

There may be other continents across the sea besides the one where the empire is located.

Of course, since the west is the territory of the demons, they said they set sail for the east…? But the results were all failures…

“Those things aren’t important right now. What’s important is that you have a physical condition similar to that of a Murim person, unlike ordinary imperial people.”

“Similar physical condition?”

“Yes. Unlike us, you have blessings, so even the weak can become somewhat strong with enough time and effort. However, for us, who do not have such a thing, we had to accumulate qi to become strong. In that sense, you, who do not have much blessings and innate qi, are very suitable for learning martial arts. When you accumulate external qi in your body, there will be almost no repulsion.”

This is what the word luck meant exactly.

Since people like wizards and knights who have already accumulated a large amount of mana in their bodies cannot accumulate chi due to the repulsion, Arthur, who is not one of those people despite being an imperial citizen, can only be said to be lucky.

“Ah.. Then me too..!”

Arthur, who was one step closer to the fact that he could become stronger, looked at Muyeon with an expression of great anticipation.

“But strength is not something that can be obtained so easily. It takes a long time to build up energy. That is why it is called martial arts.”

Because merit meant sincerity and effort. However, Arthur did not think deeply about the meaning of merit.

I don’t know exactly how long a long time is, but I thought it was roughly a few years, so I asked with an innocent face.

“It usually depends on one’s martial skills, but…it takes about several decades.”

“… I see..”

Arthur had a sullen expression on his face during the training period that was longer than expected.

Muyeon approached Arthur with an expressionless face.

“Then, let me tell you about the inner power method.”

Arthur swallowed hard and sat cross-legged in a nervous manner, following Muyeon’s words.

“The Naegongsimbeop is a breathing method based on the Tonapbeop, and has been improved over a long period of time, and there are countless variations. Among them, the name of the mind method I will teach is Honcheonsingong.”

Honcheon Shingong (mixed heaven and heavenly power).

The name alone didn’t give me a good feeling.

Arthur, who was curious about the meaning of the name of the method, tried to ask about it,

“..!”

“Don’t speak. And breathe as I tell you, and send your energy in the path I lead you.”

Arthur, who had suddenly started training, closed his mouth as if nothing had happened. He forgot his curiosity and fell into a state of trance.

* * *

How many hours have passed?

Arthur continued to gather the scattered energy and succeeded in concentrating it in a place called the dantian.

Even though it was so small it was almost insignificant, I felt a surge of joy at having achieved something for the first time.

“As expected, bloodlines don’t go anywhere.”

Arthur realized that his internal energy training was over when he heard a voice in his ear and opened his closed eyelids.

“Huh..?”

Then what you see is a blue window.

Forgetting to wipe the cold sweat from his head, Arthur’s eyes were completely focused on the window that appeared before his eyes.

[Special ability has been unlocked.]

[You have acquired the skill .]

The blue window I saw for the first time after waking up didn’t give me a moment to be surprised and immediately showed me the following content.

─────────

Name: Arthur

[Ability]

Stamina-19

Strength-16

Agility-17

Horsepower-5

Internal energy-1

[Unique characteristics]

-SSS (Sir)

-Master of Mana (SSS)

-Warrior (SSS)

-Broken Soul Bond (S-)

-Status Window (S)

[Skill]

-Thunder Dragon Nine Style

-Honcheon Shingong (mixed heaven and earth)

[Goddess’s Blessing]

-doesn’t exist

[???]

-Not available for viewing

─────────

“Ah..?”

Arthur couldn’t hide his surprise after reading the content that came to mind.

In particular, the part that shows ability values seemed to quantify physical abilities, which was the most interesting part.

“Looking at it. It doesn’t seem like you’re looking into space, but rather at a status window.”

“Status window..? Do you know what this is?”

When Muyeon spoke as if she knew what she was seeing, Arthur asked, just in case.

“Yeah. I’ve seen your dad use it.”

“!!”

After this, it was a series of questions.

Arthur learned that he could appraise objects, know his own status, and receive missions in certain situations through the status window.

“So when I came here, I saw things like that..”

With all his questions resolved, Arthur briefly asked for Muyeon’s understanding and slowly manipulated the status windows to obtain information.

The first thing I looked at was [Unique Characteristics]. I pressed on them one by one with my finger and a friendly explanation came out. The unique characteristics that I could easily guess just by looking at the names were explained without any twists.

The only unique thing about it is that it has the trait of being the ruler of mana.. Arthur thought that, contrary to the explanation, he had no experience in perfectly controlling mana. Although he had recently begun to feel mana.. there were many parts that were suspicious.

The next thing I looked at was the warrior. Considering that my father was a warrior, it wouldn’t be strange for me to have one. And the content was full of things like additional damage to the demons, and combat adjustment effects.

‘I’m not going to fight the demons, so I don’t really need it.’

Arthur’s impression was not good.

Because despite its grand name, it didn’t help in revenge at all.

‘The status window is… just like what the teacher told me.’

There was no reversal in the status window either. It just had the same content as the explanation I had heard from Muyeon.

‘Soul Bond? What is this..?’

The last thing we looked at was ‘The Bond of the Broken Soul’. Arthur’s expression was not good as he looked at the contents.

[Broken Soul Bond (S-)]

User: Aris (100%)

Target: Arthur (0%)

– The effect of the trait has become weak because the favorability towards the user is too low.

*No longer provides additional stats to the user.

*Unique characteristics that users copy and take will not be lost.

*Users will no longer be able to know the status and location of the target.

This is horrible stuff.

It was a soul bond in name only, but in reality it was no different from shackles.

Arthur was appalled by the fact that it was like a slave contract, with no benefit to the target at all, and the users receiving huge benefits.

In particular, I was really scared that users would no longer be able to know the target’s location.

Since I was little, I thought it was amazing that he would come back to me like a ghost no matter how much I hid, but I never thought he would have such an ability.

‘I’m not a stalker… uh…’

Looking at other content, it seemed like they stole my abilities and characteristics… To be honest, I was seething inside.

Always showing off, acting like he’s talented. Saying things like he’s like a parasite, but in fact, the parasite wasn’t him, but Aris.

In the end, it became useless, so you threw it away. That’s typical of Aris.

You act like it’s fun to play with my body and emotions.

In fact, I waited until the water completely drained.

Arthur, frowning, changed Alice’s evaluation from a piece of trash that could not be recycled to a piece of trash that should never be born again. He then closed the status window and told Muyeon that he was done checking the status window.

Of course, despite these words, I was concerned about the “unavailable” written at the end of the status window and the percentage written next to Alice’s name.

‘It’s probably nothing. At least it won’t be positive for me, so don’t worry about it.’

I forgot about it right away. I had a lot to do.

Of course, even if Arthur had tried to find out, he would never have found out.

Because he would never have imagined that Alice’s affection for him would be 100%.