“It’s a cultivation technique invented by the Metal Bear Tribe in the world of Novious. It uses core cultivation as the foundation, and the advance techniques has a combination of wrestling and striking arts. In the cultivation worlds, this technique is only considered a mid-tier martial art, but it is easy to learn and suits your previous fighting style down to a T. It is perfect for you.”

Victor listened to the explanation by Reunion and found something he didn’t understand. “Mid-tier? Does this mean it’s a middle of the road martial art? Why not give me a good one? You must have something better.”

“Yes, but most high-end cultivation arts require resources your world don’t have. You won’t be able to practice the techniques even if I give them to you.”

“What kind of resources?” Victor found this excuse strange. To him, martial arts required talent, a willingness to train, and a good diet. He had never heard of special resources needed for martial arts.

“Resources like special herbs and plants. Sometimes, alchemic potions and pills. It depends of the technique. Your world doesn’t have any of these, that’s why I choose Iron Bear Sambo.”

Victor didn’t understand most of it. He never heard of this world called Novious, but assumed it was a world in another dimension. He’s not sure what was this ‘cultivation’ is, but from what he understood, cultivation is a power. So if he read this book, he could gain power. That was enough for him.

It wasn’t unheard of. Everyone had heard of magic-users gaining great and powerful spells from books and tomes, so Victor knew it wasn’t totally impossible. His heart beating with excitement, Victor opened the book.

The book was strange, written in a language that was from another world, but Victor found that he understood it. Victor flipped through the book and found that Iron Bear Sambo had ten different moves. They had fancy names like ‘The Bear’s Charge’, and ‘The Vise of Hell’, but Victor recognized them as a form of a running tackle and a bear hug. There was even one that was a vicious roar which could paralysed his opponent.

Each move also had advanced steps, and for some of them Victor would need to shout out the name of the move to activate it. It sounded a little strange to Victor and he didn’t really mind. Shouting out the fancy names might even give him a little panache with the villain community. Everyone loved a good show.

However, all the moves required something called qi. It seems qi was an energy that could strengthened the body and allow Victor to do things he wouldn’t normally be able to. So, the first step was to form something called a core.

That was where the second book came into play. Victor closed the Iron Bear Sambo and began reading the second book. The book was titled ‘Ways to the Foundation Stage’.

The book begins with an explanation on the concept of qi. Qi was a spiritual power that exists in all living things. Humans, animals, even the plants and trees; all have this power called qi. It was the life force of the living, and the book explained that there were methods that could help him harness this force. The method explained in this book was spilt into three simple steps; knowledge, perception, and focus.

The first step required Victor to understand the concept of qi. That sounded easy enough, but the first step required more than just knowledge. Victor need to understand how qi runs in his body and feel the spiritual power. That led to the second step; perception.

After understanding that qi that runs through his body, Victor could then proceed to perceive it in others. Victor need to see the qi not just in himself, but in others as well. Victor was not alone in this world and qi does not just belongs to one person. It belongs to all living things, and Victor need to understand that. Only then, could he focus on it.

That was the third step. After understanding and perceiving qi, Victor could begin to focus it. At this step, Victor would need to focus the qi in this body, and in his surroundings into a point within his body. Focus the qi into his body and condensed that life force. If he was successful, this condensed life force will be the core of his new powers.

A battery of sort for Victor, the core was a source of power that Victor could called up at any time. With this extra power, his body will be stronger, his punch harder, and he could even use the core to power special martial arts techniques. Techniques that were mentioned in Iron Bear Sambo. The Ways to the Foundation Stage was something like a beginner guide. It helped you form the core, and the Iron Bear Sambo teaches you what to do with it. However, the core had a drawback.

Energy was finite, and the core was no exception. Once the energy in your core was used up, it would break and once broken, you would not be able to reform the core again. For this reason, it was important that you never break your core after forming it. The book warned that you must always have something in reserve to supervise and maintain the core.

Victor was not worried about this. Any good villain knows that you must have a backup plan. The idea of throwing everything away in an all-or-nothing battle had never occurred to him. He turned the page and read further.

Outside explaining qi, the book gave several methods of how to form a core. Victor looked through them all, and quickly made his decision. There was an example of a man sitting cross-legged in a lotus position, and another showed a man laying down, looking up into the sky, but neither appealed to Victor. He chose the third method.